Hi, I'm new and I cannot figure out what I'm doing wrong!

[Kelissah]

Hello there,
I am in my 1st grow and I just cannot figure out what I am doing wrong. The clones are 5 months old 2 months into flower in 5 gallon pots. We used FFOF soil, FF grow big for veg and Big Bloom for flower. At 4 weeks into flower we lost one. They all started to wilt so we took the PPM and the gauge would not read. We decided to flush and 3-6 gallons of water later it would have a 1900 range ppm. We gave them another 2-3 gallons and we were able to bring them all down to around the 800 ppm range. We only lost one from that mishap. We have not given them anything but PH water ever since. They sprouted new shoots on the top that are flowering beautifully even though the rest of the plant was not completely recovered. Only 1 of the plants is almost ready for harvest. The others are sloooowwwlllyyyy frosting up. I took their PPM last week and they were at the 900PPM zone. I gave them 1/4 of the dose of nutes because they were showing signs of deficiency with a 900 PPM going out and tonight I gave another 1/4 of a dose with same ranges going in but the PPM is over 1900 now. They are showing signs of deficiency but I dont want to nute lock them either.

 

[Miraculous Meds]

Sounds like u figured out what u did wrong. Too much nutrients. U ought to check the ppm of ffof right away to see where ur starting at. it used to be strong back when I was using it. I used to cut it with pro ready to lighten the strength of ffof. some people say its fine, but u obviously measured high on ppm.

So u can take a plant all the way thru flower with extremely good health n quality with only 600ppm on a .5ec scale, or 840ppm if u have a .7 scale meter. ec is more universal, so its 1.2ec if ur meter reads that. with soil, it tends to build up salts, so its good to water with plain water every other, or every third watering, depending on if the plants look pale n hungry, or deep green n over fed. Check ur run off ppm n ph if things start to look funny, but that nutrient strength will treat u well, save u money, be more environmentally friendly, n grow awesome huge yielding quality herbs. gl

 

[JohnKimble]

Your vegging for 5 months? Thats probably doing something wrong, its unnecessarily long and increases your risk of something going bad and wasting all that time. A plant cycle from seed/clone to harvest should be around 3 months.

 

[packerfan79]

Are you indoors? If so how much light, what kind of light, how's your Temps, and humidity? Many factors, I have stayed away from ocean Forrest, in favor of happy frog.plants rarely wilt unless they go way to long with out water.

 

[packerfan79]

I have never seen a plant wilt from too much nutes. After all the time they are most likely root bound. this round may not be a cup winner, but don't give up. next time don't veg so long, or transplant to a larger pot. for a 5 month veg I would go straight to a 20 gallon smarty or bigger.

 

[Kelissah]

They were in veg forever because the 600W was at 300W and we didn't realize it. We were away for a month and a half for work and our best friend watered for us. (Newb mistakes I know) My boyfriend was the one doing 95% of the growing until I saw the state of the plants and I stepped in. We grow in a large room inside the house. We currently have the original 9 plants under a 1000W HPS bulb. The room has it's own air conditioner and we keep the room about 78F (and of course several big fans and vent fans) no pest problems at all, no mold, and humidity stays below 60%. We have our flowering clones under the 600W and they seem to be doing amazing! Our plants are about 18" from the light source and I dont feel much in the way of heat at the tops of the plants. I do not want light burn on top of everything else. These plants are avout 5 feet tall at this point. I am just afraid to over nute them since the PPM is raising. I just want them to finish already!

Thank you for the replies, I'm just worried I will lose them after all of this time.

 

[Kelissah]

https://www.icmag.com/ic/album.php?albumid=62724&pictureid=1481151

 

[Granger2]

Make sure you get plenty of runoff at each watering/feeding. Don't keep them too wet. Next time if you use FFOF, mix it half and half with Pro-Mix. Good luck. -granger

 

[jedi5891]

Try using a trusted brand of products like Canna, House an Garden, Advanced nutrients etc, and follow there feeding schedule. Soil should be fairly forgiving, but always try to use a proper E.C meter. Also make sure your PH is on point. In soil you want to be between 6-7, but around 6.8 is optimum. Try to give your plants a good flush once a month with plain water to remove salt build ups. Having a proper range of nutrients will keep healthy plants.
Read, read an read some more, keep growing an keep learning. Live light an peace.

1 of my current grows

 

[Kelissah]

I was always under the assumption that flushing the plants shocks them and that flushing is a last resort kind of thing. We have about 50 clones almost ready to go into the flower room, we are planning on using a 30% vermiculite mix (I have a ton left over from my snake egg incubation) EC meter? This is the first I have read about a EC meter, our outgoing soil PH is about 6.5... if our PPM gets much higher we will be forced to flush again but I don't want to shock them. I am feeling like I am in between a rock and a hard place.

 

[JohnKimble]

Electrical conductivity or EC for short, is measurement Europeans use instead of ppm for checking their nutrients. Its supposed to be much simpler since PPM is basically a conversion of EC but there is 3 types of conversion factors. Salt, natural water, and KCI. Salt has a multipler of 0.5, so if the EC is 1.5, you multiply that by [strike]10[/strike]er 1000 then multiply by 0.5. You would get 750ppm. But the other 2 conversion factors have different multipliers, natural water is from .65 to .85. So yeah when someone says "they use this ppm" make sure you know which ppm their using so your getting the right information, or just switch to EC.

 

[Granger2]

I doubt that there's much stress to the plant caused by flushing. You can flush, and immediately hit them with 1/2 strength nutes. Good luck. -granger

 

[packerfan79]

I think fox farm nutes are ok, I would not worry about trying the fancy new line of this or that. Learn how to make it work for you. biggest Newby mistake is to blame the nutrients I did it after a horrible first round. I think you should check your roots. even under low light roots will grow, 5 months you got to be root bound.

 

[Kelissah]

they are 5 months but almost 10 of those weeks are flowering. I knew the nute lock would cause them a week or 2 setback. They are looking much happier and healthier since I gave them some big bloom, I can see where the previously dying leaves are healing, much more supple and tons more frost. I think I am finally getting on the right track. Thank you all so much for your help. This community is beyond amazing and I am so glad I chose this forum to join <3

 

[packerfan79]

I didn't see how often you feed vs water. I always did a feed,feed water. I did on occasion have to change to a feed,water.schedule. I have never used the ffof,only happy frog. I think the ocean Forrest has more feed in it. I would feed every other time.

 

[amanda88]

You burnt the suckers as you well know, on your next grow add 30% perlite to dilute those hot soil effects, and no nutes for 2-3 weeks after, ppm and ph ain't any big deal in organics, ...something to consider?

 

[Scrappy-doo]

You can also do a water only soil recipe and not have to deal with nutes or ec meters. Just add plain ol water when they are thirsty. Makes life much easier.

 

[Mikell]

Back to the drawing board Kimble.

http://www.manicbotanix.com/hydroponic-grow-guide/ec-to-ppm-conversion-chart.html

There are more complicated explanations elsewhere online. The key part is to ignore everything but EC.

Vermiculite holds a hell of a lot of water. Something to consider.

 

[JohnKimble]

Back to the drawing board Kimble.

http://www.manicbotanix.com/hydroponic-grow-guide/ec-to-ppm-conversion-chart.html

There are more complicated explanations elsewhere online. The key part is to ignore everything but EC.

Vermiculite holds a hell of a lot of water. Something to consider.

What was I wrong about? An EC reading of 1.5 millisiemens is 750 ppm using salt conversion (0.5). I guess the salt conversion though is the US standard for PPM. I didn't know that.

 

[Mikell]

The math you edited?

This is why EC is better. No confusion, it is what it is. Like litres and kilos compared to that wierd duck system down south.