Blumat auto watering

[bigbadbiddy]

ffs I keep trying to do this "on the side" because I innitially just wanted to use a drip system and keep refusing to really read into the matter.

You are of course absolutely right, I am on 230V and that should have been noticed by myself.

Sorry for being so dense and thanks for pointing that out.

Will look again

 

[Jhhnn]

I could use some help on this one, nothing has changed, all plants receive the some nutes, not sure what is up.
This pic is from the 24th and most plants are showing minor signs of this.
https://www.icmag.com/ic/picture.php?albumid=66535&pictureid=1641048View Image

Have posted about this problem in a couple of forums, lot's of suggestion and comments and I appreciate them all.
The ppm have been in the 500's once at around 650 but mainly in the low to mid 500's.

So, I am going with N toxicity, removed 8 gallons from the 11 +/- gallons in the rez. Did remix and now we have 322 ppm and 5.82 pH. Going to run with this for a bit and see what we get. Can't keep doing the same ol' shit and expect it to get any better.
I plan on pulling the plants out of the tent tomorrow and giving them a heavy flush (1 gal + per plant) of around 300 ppm and a pH of 5.8, then put them on that feeding till I see some improvement.
Any other suggestions are damn welcome. You can check my grow in the link below.

GR

I have no experience with any problem that looks like that but I suspect you may have microscopic mites- broad mites, cyclamen mites or something similar. Ask in the pertinent forum.

 

[gr866]

I've had some crap like that develop since I started using SM-90 a couple of years ago. It seems to either float on top of the reservoir surface or drop clear to the bottom, and with my reservoir outlet elevated off the bottom of the tank an inch or so, it hasn't caused any problems. As 40 said, I purge my lines out every couple of weeks.

Rives, I could use some mentoring! Or anyone that has any suggestions.

Rives,
I hope you don't mind if I ask you a question, you seem to be a man in the know?
I am running a 400W HPS 5 plant vertical grow with screens, Blumats and straight Canna coco, two gallon smart pots. 3 weeks today into 12/12, and I ran into so bullshit starting at weeks 2.
I have been running General Hydroponics Micro and Bloom w/1g epsom per gallon, cannazym, SM90 and Drip clean. double rez upper and lower, lower feeds the upper to keep a constant level. Approx 500 ppm, high of 635 one time, but average around 500 ppm and a 5.8 to 6.0 pH.
At two weeks this began.

It has gotten worse and now the other plants are showing these signs, though not near as bad.
Have flushed twice, once with a 500pm solution which did not seem to help.
So today, three weeks into 12/12, I flushed with a 310 ppm and 5.85 pH solution at 2 gallons per pot. Let it drain, did check one pot for ppm and pH, got 1100 ppm and a 4.85 ph. I then place the plants back into the tent, filled the rez's with 310 ppm and 5.88 pH, flushed out the 8mm line and rehooked the Blumats to the rez.
I am just not sure what else to do, I plan on a weekly flush and keep my rez numbers in the 300 range and 5.8 to 6.0 pH.
Not only did I get that leaf curl but the pistils on every plant darken though not completely on every pistil, the leaves are very thin and there is very minor tip burn on some of the plants. This has all happened with in the past week but I still got some stretch and the lower leaves are not showing any problem but the buds are all showing some damage.
Do you have any thoughts on this?

One more pic, a group shot. 1st pic 8/20 before the damage started then the second one on the 24th when it began showing signs of problems and finely a pic from the 29th.





This pic is without elevation stands to get all plants even in height.



Thanks for taken a look,

GR

You can take a look at my grow in my sig.

 

[Bwanabud]

Looks like a potassium lock-out to me, and very hungry...probably salt induced, and the coco is locked up.

 

[rives]

Rives, I could use some mentoring! Or anyone that has any suggestions.

GR, I would agree with Bwana - deformed new growth is usually from a potassium issue. What scale are you using for ppm? If it's the .5 scale, you are lower than I run, but it's very much strain-dependent. It would be a good idea to catch the first runoff from the flush to see what you really had in the media, and then check it again at the end to see the results. It sounds like you could have flushed a bit more, I like to pull the runoff down to pretty close to the inbound numbers.

It's possible that you could have some critters in your roots, but you may also have problems with the Canna if you didn't flush it heavily and pre-charge it before you used it. I know that Dan in V+B thread has recently started having issues with Canna after using it successfully for a very long time. It sounds like something might have gone askew with their manufacturing process that is contributing to lockup.

 

[gr866]

GR, I would agree with Bwana - deformed new growth is usually from a potassium issue. What scale are you using for ppm? If it's the .5 scale, you are lower than I run, but it's very much strain-dependent. It would be a good idea to catch the first runoff from the flush to see what you really had in the media, and then check it again at the end to see the results. It sounds like you could have flushed a bit more, I like to pull the runoff down to pretty close to the inbound numbers.

Yes I probably could have flushed more but 2 gallons in a 2 gallon smart pot is more than I have ever done.
When I flush again later this week or next I will do a heavy duty flush, LOL.
I did catch runoff and it was low, 4.85, I have only run Hempys with coco so I never paid any attention to the runoff.
Will check it all next flush.
Thanks for the info.
GR

 

[Bwanabud]

I may have missed it, but what is your water source gr866 ?

 

[gr866]

I may have missed it, but what is your water source gr866 ?

RO and rain water, RO is 30 ppm 5.49 pH, rain water is 2 ppm and pH
varies normally around 5.5.

 

[Bwanabud]

Was hoping it was well water, would have another possible solution...your rain water must be collected from the morning dew, glistening on the breasts of Aphrodite herself.

 

[bigbadbiddy]

Just an update:
I found the "right" Shurflo pump, filter and accumulator combo. Even got connection hoses and nozzles.
Should have everything I need safe for a piece of hose to dangle into the reservoir (or would you rather drill a hole at the bottom of the res and connect the "intake" hose to that? I had a feeling it doesn't really matter if you do that or just let the hose dangle in the reservoir, so long as it reaches to the bottom of the reservoir).
Oh and a 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch adapter for the pressure reducer.

Thanks for all the help and sorry for being so dense.
Did cost me over 200 bucks all in all though and I'm still a bit salty that the "oversized" solution was more than 70 bucks cheaper... oh well

 

[Bwanabud]

I hard pipe the feed line into the rez myself, with a foot valve in place to eliminate backflow & re-priming pump. If you're planning on using a rez recirc pump the "dangling hose" may become an issue.

Here's 1 of mine

 

[gr866]

Was hoping it was well water, would have another possible solution...your rain water must be collected from the morning dew, glistening on the breasts of Aphrodite herself.

No but when it rains my GF goes out in the nude to take the lid off the barrels,

Ok made the decision last night, seeing as how I could not sleep a fucking wink worrying about this shit, to do a major flush today.

Posted this in response to a post in my grow thread in Vertical/Colosseum.

Have unlimited, well I have 10 - 23 gallon black molasses tubs that holds rain water. Put 17 + gallons in a 20 gallon tank, added 0.4 ml Drip Clean/gal and pH'ed to 5.85, starting first flush.
1 gallon per plant, let sit for a bit, then another gallon, let sit, then another gallon, then just divide the remaining liquid between the 5 plants. Will collect runoff after each gallon and do measurements.

Have 15 gallons of RO water, add 0.4 ml Drip Clean/gal and pH'ed to 5.8. Then follow the same routine for flush.

At that point I would hope to be rid of any bad shit causing my problem. I will move them into the tent but not hook up to the rez.
I plan on going into the city tomorrow and go by my Hydro shop and pick up some Canna nutes. Upon returning I will mix up a batch of Canna nutes do a two gallon per plant flush and start using the rez with the new nutes. Thinking since their not growth much they should be ok for a day till I can get the new rez ready.

I will look up the best rates to use on the forum or should I just go with the recommended rates?

I know I will be blessed with a wonderful crop at some point.

GR

 

[Bwanabud]

I use Canna Coco A+B with Canna Pro coco, very simple and really like the results so far.

 

[gr866]

Ok, so I went to the Hydro store to get some Canna A&B.

Talking to my Hydro guy at the store yesterday and filled him in on what I have been doing, ppm's and pH. We talked about the Blumats and I showed him a few pics of the plants, BC1 in picticulary. When I got to the pic of BC1, I said and this is the bitch that is causing my grief. He began to laugh and said that he knew exactly what the problem is. He told me that before he opened the store that he had ran Blumats with coco and the same thing happened to him. Said he, like I, was trying to control the amount of water/nutes to the plants, and that he let them get to dry which sort of shut down the plant (lockout) and they were not able to access the available nutes from the low amount of water in the coco. It was good that I had done a heavy flush with the proper pH and nute range and that my nutes were fine and that I did not need to change them, told him that I had been around 550 ppm but had lowered it to 300 ppm while trying to correct the problem and he said that's fine but as they start to recover that I should start raising that number to between 4 and 500, then around week 7 increase that to close to 600 ppm if they are feeding heavy at that point. He suggested that since there is no runoff that I flush weekly to every 10 days, mainly to make sure they have the right moisture and to flush any excess nute buildup. Said at the rates I am running I should not have any buildup but did not hurt to flush. He assured me it will be ok, lol, felt like a kids in grade school being talked to by a teacher just assuring me.
So, we move on from here, got my first good night sleep last night in over a week. He had never ran a vertical grow but was damn interested in what I was doing, said I was probably sat back by a couple of weeks, I can live with that.

GR
Not many store owners would pass up a chance to make a sale, I really like this guy and he has extremely fare prices, can't get stuff from Amazon at the prices he gives me.

 

[Bwanabud]

According to Canna's calculator those are very low numbers foR a nute base, for veg that's fine...but in flower they'll demand more, and once they start sliding in mid-late flower it's very tough to bring them back. JMHO

 

[gr866]

According to Canna's calculator those are very low numbers foR a nute base, for veg that's fine...but in flower they'll demand more, and once they start sliding in mid-late flower it's very tough to bring them back. JMHO

Thanks Bbud,

Not switching nutes until I use up these gallons of Micro and Bloom, and will be increasing rates with every refill of the rez. Just not going to jump big numbers all at once. Adding about 1.5 to 2 gallon a day at this point. That should increase as the plants heal from my fuckup, and will be giving them more mix than in the past so I should get to desired numbers fairly quickly.

GR

 

[dr-dank]

@gr866, sounds good advice. Most here say no need to flush but I do a weekly one and find output is 2 x input, so seems things are building up. I made a post about why I think this is more a problem for some, and no problem for others. Comes down to heat/humidity variance. If plants transpire alot I feel there is no option but to have salt buildup over time, unless you are very lucky and match ppms. But even then you may start l;ow and finish heavy... I run a perpetual so no way to match ppm to growth stage.

I run about 500 ppm at .5 conversion. I use drip clean but fail to believe it can do much w/o run off. I tend to flush at full strength, in at 500, out at 1100, as don't want to leave them hungry (after the flush the BMs shut down for a few days).

HTHs

 

[Bwanabud]

I do think a certain percentage of run-off is essential, or salt build up will take place. But at the same time think checking run-off can be deceiving, hi ppm outputs don't tell you what elements they really are...and they are probably salts. The fluctuation of the PH run-off is a better picture of the plant's/coco's ability to absorb or intake the nutes.

But all Canna users I've seen say go by the mfg. nute schedule & yields/health will show the results, and their suggested ratings are far higher. I've been feeding at 500ish (Hanna scale), and 2 weeks into flower they were starving for nutes...up'd the feed rate and solved it in 2 days.

The interesting thing with feed rates is which system are you using ? Truncheon, Eutech, or Hanna ? Folks here discuss their feed rate in PPM's but the unit difference is substantial based on your location and unit preference....when I read the Canna chart it was shocking how low I was feeding. Whether coco's CEC is in the equation or not, 300-500 PPM Hanna is far too low for flowering cycle.

BTW: I'm not suggesting you make huge/fast changes in your feed schedule, just take a look here FYI.
http://www.cannagardening.com/growguide

 

[twistedthreads]

Don't mind me... I'm new to blumats and just subbing for info..

And what an Awesome thread this is... Thanks for all the information..

 

[LostInEthereal]

I actually placed an order with SV for some tubing whatnot this weekend, and because they are just about an hour away I offered to come and pick it up. Going to go check it out tomorrow and see what the store (their home) and backyard garden is like.

Just need to cut a hole in my reservoir (~13gal "vittles vault" for petfood) and I should be ready to rock.