kovenant
Member
Klutter -> thanks for stopping by mate! thanks for the positive thoughts. its definately work but it is such a fun job!
let me try to explain why ive been changing out my res so much. for one, each time i run plain RO water for a day i get growth spurts (happened first when i was on the eb&flow tray. noticed the growth and thought hmmm.) talked it over with a grower friend who does a flush every couple weeks and has experienced the same with most strains he's grown. thats the first experience/thoughts with flushing and running RO water, so i've been partial to thinking that it doesnt stress them - maybe trainwreck is rugged and can take punishment (if thats what flushing and change-outs normally do.)
so... that's the base principal behind why i havent worried as much about it.
now, i obviously would like to save as much money as possible and doing add-ins is something i started a few weeks ago. the problem im having is being able to keep the system stable.
after flushing and refilling my res with RO Water what ive been doing is adding in my addatives, then micros, then macros, then after it mixes through the system, pH'ing. (originally i was doing macros, then micros, then addatives.) and what happens is... at first, my system is the most stable. i say most stable because i even initially i have pH fluctuation. usually pH raising about .2 points a day or so (and ppm's lowering.) at first i was adding pH Down daily to keep it at 5.8pH. since then ive been trying to set my pH around 5.5 or 5.6 initially so i can let it drift up toward 6.0 or very low 6s - so that im not having to add as much pH Down. what ive noticed is that the more pH Down i add... over time, it takes alot MORE to notice a result in the pH. AND it seems that the more acidic (well...even when the pH isnt lowering to reflect it, there is alot of pH Down 'acid' going into the system) i notice negative results. so... dump the solution and remix in a new one that is more stable.
if someone can tell me what im doing wrong... ill let the same solution is for the whole (or majority of) time. the other reason i've had to do so many res changes is because of the problems ive experienced. nute deficiency, nute burn (due to overfeeding? ppms were low... but many said it looked like overfeeding burn), root aphids, root rot problem, etc.
now that ive got the roots cleared up and looking crips and white. ive started with Zone and base nutes. im interested to see how the res responds over the next week and a half... i want more than anything to get it stable were im not constantly battling pH. i am kind of also unclear on how much nutes to use doing add-ins. i started keeping my solution and just doing add-ins about a week before i had to correct this root problem... so didnt get enough time to see how it was doing. also, will be better to experiment with less additives (like now.) but... because i have an auto-topping system - i have no idea how much water is adding in... so am kind of guessing how much to add in based off what my ppms fall to and where i want them to be. thats what i had been playing around with prior. i was working on getting up to 1000-1200ppm... got up to about 1000 just before i dumped and flushed to run the zone.
/shrug
im up for suggestions. i hear what the choir is singing about not flushing and keeping the solution through all or most of each grow phase... but what i need to understand is 'how?'
-edit-
by the way. started germing the seeds last night about 11pm. this morning at 4am all of the PPP had sprouted tap roots. none of the others had split or showed roots yet.. though 2 of the Durban Poison x Skunk and 2 of the White Rhino looked about to split. Kalichakra holding strong... saw no change. im using the shot-glass method with distilled water with a ting of liquid karma and root excellerator. what i did was mixed up a solution of 1 gallon RO water, a couple drops of liquid karma, and a couple drops of root excellerator. i put about 1/2" of the solution in 4 shot glasses, and put 5 seeds from each strain in a shot glass of its own. the remaining solution i soaked the Oasis cubes overnight in. this morning i put the 5 PPP seedlings - root facing down - about 1/2" into the Oasis cubes and pinched the tops together lightly.
i couldnt believe that all 5 of the PPP showed taproot within 5 hrs!
let me try to explain why ive been changing out my res so much. for one, each time i run plain RO water for a day i get growth spurts (happened first when i was on the eb&flow tray. noticed the growth and thought hmmm.) talked it over with a grower friend who does a flush every couple weeks and has experienced the same with most strains he's grown. thats the first experience/thoughts with flushing and running RO water, so i've been partial to thinking that it doesnt stress them - maybe trainwreck is rugged and can take punishment (if thats what flushing and change-outs normally do.)
so... that's the base principal behind why i havent worried as much about it.
now, i obviously would like to save as much money as possible and doing add-ins is something i started a few weeks ago. the problem im having is being able to keep the system stable.
after flushing and refilling my res with RO Water what ive been doing is adding in my addatives, then micros, then macros, then after it mixes through the system, pH'ing. (originally i was doing macros, then micros, then addatives.) and what happens is... at first, my system is the most stable. i say most stable because i even initially i have pH fluctuation. usually pH raising about .2 points a day or so (and ppm's lowering.) at first i was adding pH Down daily to keep it at 5.8pH. since then ive been trying to set my pH around 5.5 or 5.6 initially so i can let it drift up toward 6.0 or very low 6s - so that im not having to add as much pH Down. what ive noticed is that the more pH Down i add... over time, it takes alot MORE to notice a result in the pH. AND it seems that the more acidic (well...even when the pH isnt lowering to reflect it, there is alot of pH Down 'acid' going into the system) i notice negative results. so... dump the solution and remix in a new one that is more stable.
if someone can tell me what im doing wrong... ill let the same solution is for the whole (or majority of) time. the other reason i've had to do so many res changes is because of the problems ive experienced. nute deficiency, nute burn (due to overfeeding? ppms were low... but many said it looked like overfeeding burn), root aphids, root rot problem, etc.
now that ive got the roots cleared up and looking crips and white. ive started with Zone and base nutes. im interested to see how the res responds over the next week and a half... i want more than anything to get it stable were im not constantly battling pH. i am kind of also unclear on how much nutes to use doing add-ins. i started keeping my solution and just doing add-ins about a week before i had to correct this root problem... so didnt get enough time to see how it was doing. also, will be better to experiment with less additives (like now.) but... because i have an auto-topping system - i have no idea how much water is adding in... so am kind of guessing how much to add in based off what my ppms fall to and where i want them to be. thats what i had been playing around with prior. i was working on getting up to 1000-1200ppm... got up to about 1000 just before i dumped and flushed to run the zone.
/shrug
im up for suggestions. i hear what the choir is singing about not flushing and keeping the solution through all or most of each grow phase... but what i need to understand is 'how?'
-edit-
by the way. started germing the seeds last night about 11pm. this morning at 4am all of the PPP had sprouted tap roots. none of the others had split or showed roots yet.. though 2 of the Durban Poison x Skunk and 2 of the White Rhino looked about to split. Kalichakra holding strong... saw no change. im using the shot-glass method with distilled water with a ting of liquid karma and root excellerator. what i did was mixed up a solution of 1 gallon RO water, a couple drops of liquid karma, and a couple drops of root excellerator. i put about 1/2" of the solution in 4 shot glasses, and put 5 seeds from each strain in a shot glass of its own. the remaining solution i soaked the Oasis cubes overnight in. this morning i put the 5 PPP seedlings - root facing down - about 1/2" into the Oasis cubes and pinched the tops together lightly.
i couldnt believe that all 5 of the PPP showed taproot within 5 hrs!
Last edited:
RIGHT ON!
