1st Grow - Kovenant's story

[Guest]

Correct the chiller is set at 60 and when checking hte water it is also at 60. The benaficial bacteria i got was oem in a white bottle about 3fl oz that said Bacillus s****** somthing i think, will check later, said it killed pm in foiler spary and root rot in rez. Having less water in the buckets allows the roots not in the water to have access to more oxegen.

I know you are using AN, i think they have 3 products that help with this but am noe expert on AN.

Tarantula Beneficial Bacteria
Piranha Beneficial Fungi
SensiZym Enzyme Concentrate

 

[kovenant]

slips -> just got back from the local hydro. he told me its good im worried about my setup and the girls but he hesitated against me over reacting to the situation. he believes that the brownish sludge i saw may only be damaged roots by the root aphids i had prior and to trim it away, lower my water level a bit (agreed that lowering the temps of the water would be good) and suggested a continue using the solution ive been using and just keep a watchful eye.

the reason being, he said, is that since my plants are growing and seem healthy - and since the roots on the other plants dont really seem affected - that perhaps it will clear up with moderate care instead of using sm-90 (or Zone which he recommended) and flushing.

he said with the Pirhna, Multi-zyme (which is essentially the same as Sensizym), and Root Excellerator (which is essentially Tarantula) in conjunction with everything i stated above (lower water level & temps, and trimming roots) that everything should clear up. and if not, then get more aggressive.

plus i picked up the nematodes - want to make sure the root aphids are completely wiped out... and whatever else might be lurking lol

going to head up and check on the girls in about 15 minutes when lights kick on. will get some pics this evening too, and will update.

 

[MID TOWN]

Just quit adding so much shit and constantly changing solution. run your base nutes with h2o2 and hygrozyme if you want. keep your temps at a steady 68 and you should be fine.

 

[kovenant]

Mid Town -> i will raise my temps back to 68 this evening. when i went in this morning at 4:30am (my usual check-in time on work days) i noticed condensation on all the buckets, lines, controller, and the tubes into the chiller. i can do without that too, which didnt happen in the higher 60s. my water registered at 64F.

 

[kovenant]

here are the pics i took from yesterday. day 20 of flower








here are the root pics. notice - they are not greyish and falling apart (what im told root rot looks like) but there is a some somewhat brown and slimey look to them. also there really wasnt mold on the bottom of the netpotting - it was dried foam from one of the products ive started including in the res... probably the BigBud powder. i noticed alot of foam last night, and had just done my add-ins the night before.






air in my buckets




after adding the tomato cages so i could make my canopy even...

 

[MID TOWN]

You've got plenty of air just quit adding so much SHIT to your res. All nutes are readily aviailable in DWC and there's no need for all that other crap.Use base nutes without any addatives. the more shit you put in there the more your FEEDING the rot.

And root rot is brown slimey shit not grey.

 

[kovenant]

Mid Town-> lets classify 'shit'. the way i believe you mean it... is anything other than the base nutes. which would mean... only be adding:

Connoisseur A&B
Sensi Cal Mg


however... what ive been told by multiple people (locally as well as online) is that the Root Excellerator is packed full of beneficial bacteria to help combat root rot, and that Multi-zyme (Sensizym, or anything similar) is great for roots and preventing root rot. the AN Pirahna is a beneficial fungi. /shrugs

i can definately cut out the molasses (since its an organic product that is going to be feeding rot for sure) and i have no idea if Fulvic & Humic Acid would be beneficial or harmful at this time... but i can use the basics for sure and see how things react.

i just did an add in 2 days ago... going to see how things are tonight and tomorrow and will probably flush soon. then mix up the basics

thnx mate - and please clarify based on the above info.

 

[MID TOWN]

Yes just your base nutes, calmag since your using ro water and your enzyme product. I would suggest hygrozyme over any of the others because with sensizyme for example, has got like 30 different enzymes in it but only 1 of them are proven to actually do anything whereas all the enxymes in hygrozyme are proven to be benneficial. don't use the pirahana or the roots excelurater and also run your nutes light like arround 700ppms so that you don't feed the rot.

 

[guest5703]

**** bro looks like you've got one killer setup, its gonna be a sweeet harvest!!!

 

[kovenant]

Mid Town -> ill probably pick up the hygrozyme today. after adding the cal mag to the current solution and im about 800ppm. ill probably flush tomorrow or the next day and make the new solution out of the Connoisseur A&B, Cal Mg, and the Hygrozyme.

i raised my water temps up from 62F to 66F.



caligreen -> thnx bro, hope you stick around for the show!

 

[Guest]

Your roots look good, i agree sometimes less is better, but some of those products do have there uses.

Here are my roots with just this in my res
Pureblend Pro Bloom
AN baricade
SM-90

 

[J-Roc]

kov. for a first grow. you dont **** around.

i didnt read teh hole thread cuz im fried and its damn long..
i looked at all the pics though

and the ones as of late really are super impressive.
you have succeeded my friend

 

[kovenant]

J Rock -> thanks, its always good to hear. i feel good about it. had some minor ups and downs but for the most part the girls look healthy and the flowers are beautiful.


Mid Town & slips ->

got some advice from my local hydro (and he - the owner - usually talks me out of buying more stuff... so i feel his advice isnt margin driven.) i have a new plan for the next week or two. let me outline what we went over and why i chose to do what im going to do for the next week or two.


first off - i didnt get any comments on here about the foam that was in my buckets and res. he said this is a definate indicator of a reaction going on when i added the molasses. he recommends the use of molasses - but when there are bacteria it can definately boost their colonization, etc.


tonight im going to drain the system. going to flush with RO water (pH'ed at 5.8) and Final Flush for 24 hrs. also going to top-feed RO & Final Flush to soak through the rockwool cubes.

tomorrow night, going to drain. going to run a base nute solution (like you suggested too Mid Town) of Connoisseur A&B, Sensi Cal Mg, and Zone (my hydro guy recommended this over sm-90.) going to run that for 3 days or so... check for new root growth and whitening roots. if i have any real slimey areas, going to clean them off and discard.

after that 3 days - going to drain. wipe down buckets and res. refill with same solution (conn a&b, cal mg, and zone) and run another 3 days.

depending on how they look at each stage i could continue it up to a week and half. reason being: i leave for a 8-10 day trip in about 2 weeks. (burningman in nevada) and while i'll have someone house sitting - i want the problems cleared up and running smoother before i leave. so instead of trying to battle this thing with beneficial bacteria and such, i'd rather clear it up. which hopefully happens.


by the way Mid Town - my local hydro owner, who is also a grower and very knowledgeable in all the different lines. said that hygrozym is not actually an enzyme and that they should really call it hygro.... something else. he recommends it and says it is great for growth, but it does not contain actual enzymes like Sensizym or Multi-zyme. he said the company that makes it is a medical company though and that it is pharmaceutical grade. im not arguing with you about what you said, or even discounting it. just passing along someone else's opinion about it. he said its great to use it in conjunction with Sensizym or any like enzyme products, but not as a substitute.

 

[MID TOWN]

Well I have to say that your hydro guy is completely wrong. The foam is from the tarantula. hygrozyme IS an enzyme, and it does the same thing as sensizyme only better. The more you keep changing out solution the more your gonna stress your plants. there's no need to flush for 24 hours just drain and refill with solution. sm90 will not take care of root rot. it is a good preventative but if zone is like sm90 then it probably isn't helping much. you really want to use h2o2 and hygrozyme.

 

[kovenant]

Mid Town -> zone is like Hx0x in that it has peroxide in it. also some chlorine i believe - in a very light dose.

i flushed the system with RO & Final Phase for a day - plants responded as they have each time i've flushed showing a spurt in growth.

running Zone along with conn A&B, and Cal Mg for a few days to see how they look.

recalibrated my ppm & ph probes - they were close, but had drifted


also - going to start germination today (i feel a bit behind, but need to get it done.) i will be germ'ing

White Rhino - 5 seeds
Pure Power Plant - 5 seeds
Durban Poison X Skunk#1 - 5 seeds
and Mandala's Kalichakra - 5 seeds

 

[MajLeeStoned]

1st Grow ?
Ever?

 

[kovenant]

MajLeeStoned -> yeah, why? did i do something wrong?

 

[MID TOWN]

Alright then, that ZONE probably is helping. I don't know why your getting growth spurts when you flush but hey whatevr works. normally doing flushes and res changes every 3-4 days will cause stress on you plants.

Are your ppms dropping or rising?

do you have a top off valve hooked to a fresh water res? If not how often do you top off and do you top off to the same level everytime?

Also does your res smell bad?


And this is right off hygrozymes website. just so you KNOW.

"HYGROZYME may well be "the greatest breakthrough in Horticulture in the last decade." Simply explained: it is developed using a proprietary bio-fermentation process, made from ALL NATURAL ingredients that produce a supply of bacteria-free ENZYMES and complex chains of amino acids."

 

[kovenant]

Mid Town -> hey buddy. i checked out the roots last night. day and night difference. they went from off white/light brown slimey wet look to being off white/bright white and dry looking (even the submerged roots look dry... meaning "clean" and crisp.)

running Conn A&B, Cal Mg, Zone, and 1/8 doses of Fulvic & Humic acids @ 600ppm in 5.9pH. nutrients are being used.... was just 650 last night @ 5.7pH.

i have a float valve in my controller hooked to a 50gal res (the 50 gal res has a float valve from my RO system.)

res smells like nutes right now. i didnt get down in it and smell when i had the root rot cropping up, but i didnt smell anything bad from just a foot or two above from where i sit and mix.

and trust me Mid Town -> i went and read off hygrozymes site when you first mentioned it

and every enzyme company says there product is the best (and i get that you are just pointing out that hygrozyme are enzymes! ) but AN says about Sensizym:

Enzyme products made by our competitors were found to contain far fewer types of enzymes and they had inferior manufacturing standards. To put it bluntly, their enzyme formulas were junk.
We offer an unconditional 100% money back guarantee on our products because we don’t make junk.

Sensi Zym contains nearly 100 different enzymes that immediately start breaking down root zone components into nutrients while accelerating nutrient uptake of starches, carbohydrates, and other elements necessary for rapid growth and high yield.

Sensi Zym accelerates growth of beneficial growth-stimulating microbes when used with Voodoo Juice, Tarantula and Piranha.

Sensi Zym helps crops utilize water and water-borne elements, which increases growth, yield and drought resistance. Sensi Zym speeds maturation, cell replication, and harvest production. Enhanced enzyme activity means better, faster hydroponics harvests.

If you want to decrease root zone material expenses, apply Sensi Zym to used rockwool, coco coir or other hydro media. Sensi Zym’s enzymes will digest all dead protein matter (including dead roots), and turn it into nutrients for your next hydroponics crop.

This decreases pathogenic infection and allows you to use your root zone media over and over again! So now you know why you need enzymes. But remember, only Sensi Zym gives you faster growth, better resistance to diseases and stress, and larger harvests.

they mention more about the actual testing they did, how, the finds, etc. but bottom line is - all companies say the same thing... their product is the best. chances are, they all work. probably some better and some worse. im glad hygrozyme has done so well for you and i will probably try it (or use it in addition with Sensizym) in the future. Multi-zyme has actually worked really well for me too. it had my roots white as snow until i started adding all the other shit! i hadnt been adding my beneficials in since the beginning like i should have... thats my fault - not the fault of the products ive been using

live and learn

 

[Guest]

Awesome one Kov.... I'll tell ya man, reading this grow diary is really making me flashback to the days of my first grow. It's awesome! I loved it, spent tons of money and never knew exactly what to do next...but sitting still and letting nature 'work things out' was never an option.

I couldnt tell though, why did you push your water temp so low? 68F is where ya wanna be to avoid stressing your ladies.

I also think Mid-Town has hit on a few keys topics for ya. Remember, hydro will only yield more than soil if the plant is not stressed. When you stress her, she can and will take weeks to recover, causing significantly lower harvests. This is the true challenge for the hydro grower, since we have direct access to the plant's root zone.

I would highly recommend NOT changing out your rez again if you can avoid it. First off, money savings. It's like using expensive chocolate powder to make chocolate milk for yourself....ya mix it up, taste it and if it's not perfect you're throwing it all out and starting over instead of just adding more powder/milk. Do the same with nutes... changing them out to 'fresh' is only wasting your money and will force you to re-visit the hydro store to buy more.

However, I am guilty of doing the exact same thing man. If I wanted to journal my first couple grows it would be a freak'n novel with me changing this and that and adding this and that. Totally chaotic and all over the place.

Lastly, and it's usually where I've become a stickler - forget what people SAY about beneficials, additives, etc. Test them. Simple as that. It's a little harder with a recirc dwc setup like you have but still very possible...and WAY WAY fun! This is why it's usually recommended to start with base nutes for a few grows, get a feel for what your ladies can do with just nutes (along with enzymes of course). My personal findings, each grow just gets better and better, and my use of additives just goes lower and lower.

GL and keep it up! THis is a fantastic thread for anyone lookin' to dive into growing...shows just how much work, confusion, cash and time it can take!