first time grow need help

[mics7277]

Yes this is my first grow and im starting with a gh power grower with a 400 watt switchable mh/hps.Im running my light at 18/6 and im also running the feeding pump with the same timing as the light.My temps stay between 72 to 82 during the day and low 67 at night,humdity jumps up and down from 30 to 60 percent.I have this setup in a huge walk in closet with a small fan blowing inside for circulation.And i have a large fan outside of the closet constantly blowing air to the closet.My nute temps stay from 70 to about 74.Im keep the light about a foot and half from the tops.My plant is on her 18th day today and she is a white rhino fem from green house.I started from seed.IM using 3 part gh nutes with florlicious grow and bloom and diamond nectar.I also have a air stone in the res to ariate.RIght now her nutes are at 643 ppm and about 5.7 ph.Ok my first problem my first week was my ph was jumping all over the place.I could wake up and test her ph in the morning and it could go from 5.5 to 6.1 in like 3 hours.So after reading on this forum for a few hours.alot of you people talked about if you are under feeding it could cause the ph to keep going up.I had my plant on 245 ppm on the second week.So i flushed and slowly adjusting the ppm up to about 643 and the ph has seem to stable some.But now my lower leaves seem to be turning light green and brown at the tips.Her stems also have some red or purple tint going threw them.There also seems to be some type of white stuff on the top leaves.I did some reading on the sticky about plant problems.It kinda looks and sounds like step 5 Phosphorous (P) deficiency but i have no experience at just looking like some of you guys so im scared to do anything.It would be nice if someone could help.I did a ton of reading before i came to bum some help lol.I dont know how good these pics turned out be if i need to post more or better ones please let meknow.And if you guys know what the problem is what do i need to do about it?I also read on here some people say no nutes for 3 or 4 weeks just straight ph water.Well the hydroponic store said if you dont give them nutes how can they eat?I also spoke with gh customer suppore they said the same thing.And if you get on greenhouse seed company website they have a video showing the growing cycle of some of there plants.And they have a particular video show my white rhino that im growing and they are giving it 1.4 ec in the second week.Someone told me in another post this isnt a defiency of any sort it might be from me giving it nutes to early.

 

[FA$TCA$H]

hang in there, man. a hydro dude/dudett will b along. $$

 

[mics7277]

hey thanks alot for the help fast

 

[FA$TCA$H]

have ya been reading the grow journals? was there a grower that u could send a PM? a hydro grower ya could ask for help? click on their name and a window will open, go from there. $$

 

[mics7277]

thanks mindz.Well i read a couple of other places on here once the foliage is damaged it will stay like that.When i first turned on the drip ring some nutes did splash on the leaves.So now im very careful to make sure nothing splashes anymore.So you dont think its a dificiency of any then?

 

[mics7277]

the stems are getting some red tint or purple tint to them im not sure if thats a trait of this particular strain or is it a sympton from a dificiency.

 

[zem]

hey there mics it does seem like a deficiency to me could be that it needs to take some more nutes already. soil growing is different since soil contains nutes already so it shouldnt be fed if in soil. now in hydro you need to increase ppm slowly. i'm not 100% sure it could be nute lockout which resembles deficiency but i have a way you could know how to deal with it. was you ppm level decreasing when you were increasing your ppm? if ppm is decreasing then the plants are taking more than theyr given then you should raise ppm ratio, if ppm stays the same you should stop adding ferts and measure ppms regularly, it will go down slowly normally since plant is still sucking on nutes, and your PH down solution should be something reliable, so what i suggest you can do is stop giving them any ferts for today and measure the ppm, wait till tomorrow and measure again if it remains the same then you might wana decrease the ppm if it's decreased significantly then raise your ppm to a higher level, hope this helps

 

[FA$TCA$H]

7277, not as bad as ya thought? sometimes we lovem to death. take a step back and do a check in the am. $$

 

[mics7277]

well i dont know if my digital ppm is messed up or what.But i had to calibrate it right now and it wouldnt calibrate.After messing with it i got it to work.So i tested my nutes that i put in on the 16th and it read 695ppm.Well after i calibrated my pen i tested the nutes my plant is using now that the nutes read 875.Then i tested a half gallon of nutes i had left over from when i mixed and used my nutes from two days ago.It read pretty close 855.I also tested some spring water then my faucet water just to check the numbers to make sure my pen was working right and the numbers match up.So she is drinking 875ppm right now not 643 like i originally thought.NOw im stressing if my pen is working right.all this stuff is some stress lol

 

[zem]

try topping it off with some water decrease ppm to 700 and measure again tomorrow, if you notice ppm decreasing slightly then they started feeding, if your res is very big though you wouldnt be able to see the ppm fluctuations clearly in one day, level your ph around 5.8-6, im lookin again at your pics seems the plants are okay looking theyr only slightly stressed from these pics it seems the ferts on the leaves are makin it look worse, when light goes off mist them for once give em a thorough mist to clean the leaves, but theyr not showing chlorosis or yellowing as it seems it's only the lowest little leaves that are dying and this IMO is normal, most importantly make sure ppm tester is working you'll have to crack this one yourself all we can gladly provide is ideas opinions experiences i hope you'll figure out very soon whats happening, keep us posted, good luck

 

[mics7277]

hey thanks everyone for the help.I surely will keep posted.So i guess it will take a few days but you think she will recover and be fine?I will start lowering the ppm tomorrow.

 

[surreptitious]

i think that your plants look good. i agree that the discoloration on the leaf was from nutes just splashing on them. the lower leaves are dying off, but your new growth looks pretty good. when doing hydro i find that once you change the nutes you see the results of what you have done sooner than soil. so, if something goes bad, you know that this just started. and when something goes good, i'm doing a good job. the new growth is where you should look. it will tell you how the plants are doing. IMHO.

you have been using the GH products. are you following their instructions on their website? i assume your hydro setup is recirculating? they have both recircuilating and drain to waste instructions...both simple and "expert" or something. i do the simple and it's been workin for me.

what i do is each day top off my rez with fresh water. then i adjust the pH to 5.8. right now i'm almost one week into my first bloom cycle with my clones. they are 3 to 4 feet monsters. lol. i'm now working on making sure that they dont outgrow my tent! i'm looking forward to doing some better training on my new batch of clones so that they will fit into my bloom tent much better.

 

[mics7277]

yea im using the expert program minus the nectar and blend.IM just using the 3 part flora and floralicious grow with some diamond nectar.Yea i know for a fact that i did get some nutes splashed on the lower leaves.I guess it took a while but thats how the lower leaves ended up.And im sure some of the other leaves got splashed also.When im done with this grow if i make it threw it lol i read and seen other members posting how they cut maybe a inch or two of the drip ring pipe so they can lower the ring even more and even bury it to completely prevent nutes from splashing.Yes im using the power grower from gh so im sure is recirculating.I mixed my nutes exactly how the website said to mix them for 2.5 gallons.

 

[cmd420]

Is it me, or do your plants look fine?

I think they look good..

yep, just scrolled up and looked again..

sorry, but they look okay to me..

 

[legalize_freedom]

Yeah I think the plants look fine...I did notice that you said you had your 400W 18 inches awy from your plants...I think that is a little far even if your hood is not air cooled. I would try it at about 12", although your plants don't look to be stretching too badly, but they may start. If it were 1000w then I could see 18" maybe....just a thought bud.

 

[mics7277]

so should i back down the nutes?zem suggested i should wait till the light goes off then give her a good spray with plain ph water of course to wash off the nutes that got splashed on her.He also suggested i should bring the ppm down to 700.So last night when the light wen off i gave her a good spray.But i havent messed with the ppms yet.Its been about days since i started her on the nutes she is on now.If she was going to burn she would have burned by now?

 

[surreptitious]

i wouldnt back down the nutes. follow GH's schedule. do what they suggest. i wouldnt start messing with how much nutes to feed them until you've had a few grows under your belt. it's their product, use their directions!

spraying the plant with water is fine. it's just to remove the salts/minerals on the leaves. no big deal.

but your plants look good. i wouldnt change anything about the nutes.

 

[mics7277]

kk thanks alot surreptitious I kinda figured if she hasnt got burnt by those nutes then i should just leave them alone.

 

[surreptitious]

ur welcome mics. put up some more pictures!