hydro guru's - need some help

[zachrockbadenof]

hey... so growing '4' diff plants in hydro buckets.. they are vevor buckets- each has its own airline and stone- maybe its a bit more work, but i can cater to each indiv. plants likings.. using gh 3 part nutes... i am 5days into 12/12, grow looks good... the roots are pearly white, but i am planning to do a cleanout of the water in the next days... all of the ph's are within the 580-625 range... ec wise they are between 800-1000 - will bump it up in the next week or so...
one plant a sdkush is drinking about a gallon a day, the other plants about 1/2 gallon a day... i have only used some GH cal/mag once as they plants are green and healthy...
a question about the airstones, which are round balls, about 1''.. is this going to be enough air- the water in bubbling like mad, wondering for later in bloom...
temp wise, i am in the low/mid 70's with a fan blowing on the plants- i have one of those c02 bags hanging between the mars fce8000 in the 5x5ft end - i am trying to get the temp up, but 75, maybe 76 is the best i can do, without heating up the whole floor of bedrooms- i read where guys say low 80;s is optimum temp under led, but i'd have to sell my left gonad to pay for the oil heat...

any suggestions are appre- thanks

 

[Drop That Sound]

Watch out the root ball's don't end up swallowing\blocking off the smaller air stones (they float around easier IME) and you should be okay. You might wanna T off and add another extra stone for each bucket if that starts to happen, but probably not as big a deal in single DWC buckets like yours anyway, where you lift the plants out for res changes all the time. Usually more of a problem with RDWC systems(especially with bigger plants), when you aren't disturbing the roots or the lines as much. I mostly have switched over to using lead free soaker hose, with extra tiny holes poked in to make my air diffusers now. You can make rings that fit down in the round buckets perfect without moving, and get good aeration all around 360 degrees unlike with stones.

 

[zachrockbadenof]

making rings is interesting... i checking that out now...thanks

 

[Drop That Sound]

I don't see why you would need to up the EC (lower it if anything!?), unless running other types of non bareroot hydro systems with medium.

What scale is your TDS\PPM meter based on?

I've always found the sweet spot to be around 1.0 EC in veg, and around 1.3 to 1.6 at the absolute max in bloom but only for the hungriest of strains in DWC. The plants never really ask for more in water culture systems IME unless maybe you are dialed in to the T with real c02 supplementation and max ppfd lighting and whatnot.

It might seem like they want to suck it up the stronger feed solution now if you give it, but might not show any problems until a week later or so, especially when going into flower. Veg is usually smooth sailing in DWC, but a lot of different chemistry I'm too stoned to get into right now starts happening after the transition to bloom. Like, diferent enzymes and waste products are released back from the roots, etc. You gotta keep a much closer eye on the levels, and watch out for drastic swings in smaller single bucket grows. Res changes might become increasingly needed as you go.

If 800 was your initial target number, and the solutions are rising upwards of 1000PPM towards res change or whenever, that def means you should probably back off a bit, which comes as no surprise to me. I always try to keep the target EC range close to the same I intitially started with as they drink the solution down over time.

GH trio should have everything they need BTW. I can't remember the last time I bought calmag for anything hydro related other than some coco grows over 10 years ago.. I also use good tap water though, and don't mess with RO that much.

 

[zachrockbadenof]

hey thanks... to check my ec i am using a blue truncheon commercial- on the ppm500 scale we are between 600- 1000.... one plant was blinking between 1000-1200... now its blinking between 800-1000.
what i am finding is in the morning when i check the water level, and they are always down, some more then others, and i give em plain tap water, the ec usually goes down the one level lower.. the ph stays pretty constant for instance..
my headbanger was ph 5.91 and ec 800-1000 - gave it water, then it was 5.93/same 800-1000. the other 3 plants were very similar ph's were all between 5.90 and 6.05- and after watering the ph went up a couple few points, and the ec 's went down a touch... i usual wait an hr or so after giving water or ferts to recheck... i wish i could get the temp up a bit, but i just checked and it 76F, humidity is 55pct- i am running the mars fce8000 at about 70pct, and keep it about 18'' above the top... i mite raise the height a bit to spread out the light as even after only 5days in flower they are growing like a ....weed...

 

[Hiddenjems]

hey... so growing '4' diff plants in hydro buckets.. they are vevor buckets- each has its own airline and stone- maybe its a bit more work, but i can cater to each indiv. plants likings.. using gh 3 part nutes... i am 5days into 12/12, grow looks good... the roots are pearly white, but i am planning to do a cleanout of the water in the next days... all of the ph's are within the 580-625 range... ec wise they are between 800-1000 - will bump it up in the next week or so...
one plant a sdkush is drinking about a gallon a day, the other plants about 1/2 gallon a day... i have only used some GH cal/mag once as they plants are green and healthy...
a question about the airstones, which are round balls, about 1''.. is this going to be enough air- the water in bubbling like mad, wondering for later in bloom...
temp wise, i am in the low/mid 70's with a fan blowing on the plants- i have one of those c02 bags hanging between the mars fce8000 in the 5x5ft end - i am trying to get the temp up, but 75, maybe 76 is the best i can do, without heating up the whole floor of bedrooms- i read where guys say low 80;s is optimum temp under led, but i'd have to sell my left gonad to pay for the oil heat...

any suggestions are appre- thanks

You may need a chiller. The plants will absolutely love 80* and fairly humid early in flower. The problem is how warm the water in the buckets will get.


I’d go ahead and try a run with some southern ag garden friendly fungicide. But if you end up with root issues the water temp will be the culprit.

 

[zachrockbadenof]

You may need a chiller. The plants will absolutely love 80* and fairly humid early in flower. The problem is how warm the water in the buckets will get.


I’d go ahead and try a run with some southern ag garden friendly fungicide. But if you end up with root issues the water temp will be the culprit.

i wrapped the buckets with this lite weight alum sheeting- the ress temps so far have not gone over 72.5F... so i think i am good... so far... with the temps... as the temps here in the early spring rise, i am sure the room tooo will rise, and then ofcourse the bucket temp... i am looking into a chiller, hopefully i can etch out this grow without it..

 

[Hiddenjems]

i wrapped the buckets with this lite weight alum sheeting- the ress temps so far have not gone over 72.5F... so i think i am good... so far... with the temps... as the temps here in the early spring rise, i am sure the room tooo will rise, and then ofcourse the bucket temp... i am looking into a chiller, hopefully i can etch out this grow without it..

If you change the solution out fairly often and use southern ag garden friendly fungicide, or another anti-pathogen 72* will work. I used to run 4 5 gallon rdwc buckets in a 5x5 tent. As long as daytime temps didn’t get much over 75* everything was fine.

I wrapped my buckets in reflective bubble wrap, it helps a lot, especially when the plants are small and a lot of light makes it to the buckets.

 

[sturgeongeneral]

Make sure those roots don't start turning brown. Since your running gh there's no microbes in it so you'd be safe to run a little peroxide or foliar spray with some florashield to help root health... Usually res water you don't want to be in the 70s, potential for rot. As for the air stones, you want that water bubbling so its well oxygenated. As for the nutrient strength id just go off the look of the plants. Most ppm/ec guidelines aren't a 1 size fits all. In 1 room I'm 3.0 ec at peak flowering, another I'm feeding 2.5. Just gotta let the trees tell you when they're happy. Your air temp and humidity look fine for vpd.

 

[zachrockbadenof]

If you change the solution out fairly often and use southern ag garden friendly fungicide, or another anti-pathogen 72* will work. I used to run 4 5 gallon rdwc buckets in a 5x5 tent. As long as daytime temps didn’t get much over 75* everything was fine.

I wrapped my buckets in reflective bubble wrap, it helps a lot, especially when the plants are small and a lot of light makes it to the buckets.

thanks... i running 4buckets in a 5x5tent tooo... every morning when i water and/or feed the plants, i'm using water from the fridge... it 60/61F... putting a quart in some of the plants makes no diff on the temp, but my sdkush takes at least a gallon, so that will help a bit bringing down the temp... in reality i could put that one sdkush plant in the middle of the tent and i'm sure in a week or two it would spread out taking over the whole tent.. never had a plant grow like this... hoping it turns our good... n i'm be on amazon later buying some fungicide... just to be sure... thanks

 

[zachrockbadenof]

Make sure those roots don't start turning brown. Since your running gh there's no microbes in it so you'd be safe to run a little peroxide or foliar spray with some florashield to help root health... Usually res water you don't want to be in the 70s, potential for rot. As for the air stones, you want that water bubbling so its well oxygenated. As for the nutrient strength id just go off the look of the plants. Most ppm/ec guidelines aren't a 1 size fits all. In 1 room I'm 3.0 ec at peak flowering, another I'm feeding 2.5. Just gotta let the trees tell you when they're happy. Your air temp and humidity look fine for vpd.

i purchased some tee's so i will run '2' airstones per bucket... just to be sure ... and yes i do notice that some plants are hungrier then others , so i feed accordingly... thanks

 

[zachrockbadenof]

so i installed the tee's today, looks like a lot more bubbles over the whole area... i then hook up my extraction pump to drain the water out of each bucket.... in another 5 gall bucket i add water, then nutes to the level that plant has in it now... then take out my month old triplett ph probe (cost 180dlrs) to check the ph, and it reads 740, which is what my tap water is ... i add a bit of ph down... it goes down to 735, add a few more drops.... doesn;t move... so apparently the ph probe is shot... i guess what do u want a 180dlr probe to last more then a month...haha... so i ordered a cheapy from amazon till my replacement comes...

 

[sturgeongeneral]

I like the blue dots myself but I always keep some of the gh drips on hand for a safety. With my ebb and flow and dtw coco i stay around 5.8