Skeuerle's Nooby Hydro Grow

[Skeuerle]

After reading many guides and journals, I'm ready to grow some bud

I actually started already. My good friend gave me three clones to start with. Two girls went right into bubble buckets and the third went into soil to be mama.

Here's a better breakdown

Growing two sativa dominate clones
Growing a third in soil for comparison
Using GH nutes at 600-700 ppm. I have a tds pen type meter
Two weeks into veg 18-6 lighting schedule
PH is between 6.0 and 5.5... hard to tell because aquarium kit color chart only goes to 6.0
All this is under a 400w HPS
One small osculating fan
My temps are between 90f and 75f
Humidity 25-30%

My space is in my garage and I'm concerned about The hot and humid summer we are about to have here.

I have photos but they don't seem to load.

 

[Skeuerle]

AAAArghhhh.......

Rename me Torture King, lol After inspection and research I've com to the conclusion that I have a semi-black thumb.

First I'm having trouble keeping a stable PH. Have new meter on the way, so hopefully that help. I Burnt one of my ladies but not too bad. I am sure this is a ph related problem. I flushed with clean water and I gonna lay off feeding for a day or so. She is 13'' tall.

Secondly, it seems my roots are getting a little slimy. Algae?? Don't know yet, more research is needed on how to fix.

Lastly and more maddening SPIDER MITES. I know it's them, little white spots on the leaves and little black buggers underneath. Spent part of last night and this mourning squishing them. Somewhat satisfying but ultimately futile. Seems to me it's a small infestation as only a few leaves are affected. I'm making time to go to the store today. Did some research last night and decided to go with Diatomaceous earth. I want them to suffer a horrible death.

 

[Skeuerle]

Here is some pictures from the week I got my clones and put them in the buckets.

 

[Budders Keeper]

Hello Skeuerle, never heard of using DE for mites on plant, let us know if it works. IME slimy roots=algae...or at least some king of bad fungas. H202 will cure that. About the mites, IME the only way to get RID of them is to alternate with different kill methods and keep on it for a few weeks as they can quickly become immune to different methods(not DE I dont believe cause it just shreds them...but how are your going to get it under the leaves?

 

[Skeuerle]

I was wondering bout that too. Gonna try and dust with small paint brush, or maybe use a turkey baster to blow the dust around. I'll update when I get home from the store. I want to use DE because it doesn't use harsh chems and also sounds like a nasty way to die. I picture a hailstorm of ninja stars sheredding them as they call out to their mite god but receive no answer, only more shuriken.

 

[occg.hydro]

try pyrethrum & neem oil. Best bet is to fog the room before the plants go in & then spray with pyrethrum & neem oil once a week throughout the vegging stage. I don't like to spray anything after the first week of flowering but I still spray the table (without getting anything on the buds). Both neem and pyrethrum are organic & all natural. Fox farm makes a good pyrethrum spray that's just pyrethrum & a spreading agent. Costs about $20/ bottle. Similar price for the neem oil but between the two of them you should have fewer problems. Spray your plants at night, about 1/2 an hour before the light comes on or you may burn the leaves. As for the pH, go out and get a digital meter (if you haven't already), some calibration solutions (don't skimp on that, get the 4, the 7 and the PPM solution if those are the ones your meter takes). Everything in your reservoir is like a chain. Algae is caused by low oxygen levels & high heat. The algae grows (using up oxygen in the water in the process) and raises your pH & slimes your roots which inhibits oxygen uptake to your plants even more. Try to cool down the water in your reservoir (below 75 ideally) and get an air pump & air stones. Hydrogen peroxide also works well if your not using any kind of microbial bacteria or fungi or anything like that. Google "hydrogen peroxide hydroponics" and you'll find plenty of info on all that. 5.5 - 6.0 is a BIG jump, you want to make sure you know what your pH REALLY is. I keep my pH between 5.55 & 5.8 during vegging. Check it and adjust as often as you have to to keep it within that range. As you up the nutrient levels in your res. the pH will start to stabilize & wont change as much because the nutes buffer the pH of the water. When you adjust the pH make sure to give a few minutes between adding pH Down or Up and taking your next reading. The water needs to have a chance to mix and let the chemical reactions occur before it'll settle down. If you take a reading right after you add chemicals you'll end up over adjusting and having to go back the other way. Sorry to throw so much bull**** your way but I figured all this out the last grow I did (first try with hydro) and now I've got it waaaaaayyyyyy more dialed in for my second grow. Hope it helps!

 

[Skeuerle]

Ok I'm back, Guess what? After a week of fighting mites they are gone!!
Have not seen one or new leaf damage for a week. Also had a algae problem, My net pot was not full enough and was letting light into the bucket. All roots are nice and clean looking and growing like wildfire. My plants have doubled in size since going 12/12 on 3-01-09. and now I'm pretty sure i'm seeing first signs of flowers. now it's picture time.........

 

[Skeuerle]

Everything seems to be going good. besides some high temps 90-95 the highest, and humidity as high as 55%. Texas spring what you gonna do?

Here's the pictures

 

[TURKEYNECK]

They look good. You better get a plan quick on your room temps though, it's ganna get hot soon Goodluck.

 

[Skeuerle]

Ahh all the little flowers. The are more than I can count. They have grown more than a foot since I last posted. I have a couple of questions?

Should I leave all the flowers on or should I prune the lower ones so the tops will get bigger?

how important is it to change the water in the buckets? I did it like three weeks ago, and I have been adding water almost daily to keep water 1 to 2 inches below net cup.

No pics this week cause i am lazy........
probably this crap shwag...least it's somting to smoke

 

[Skeuerle]

Well here I am week 6 since flipping to 12/12 and everything is looking good. I have a guardian lizard that comes around now and then. All the zillion flowers are getting bigger and fluffier. Tomorrow I'm gonna do water change and sneak in some samples my friend at the local hydro store gave me. He gave me like an ounce of fox farm Open Sesame, Beastie Bloom and Cha Ching.

Oh, Ive got pictures too. lemme see opening photoshop.............