My First Grow: White Widow x Afghani Kush x Black Domina 400W DWC

[wang]

So I was supposed to have more than just one plant, but my dog ate one and my caregiver said his last batch of clones "went bad".

My only worry right now is the new growth looks a little yellow. This is my first grow so I'm not sure if this is something I should be worried about or not.

So for now, here's my White Widow x Afghani Kush x Black Domina

400 Hortilux Eye Blue MH right now, will switch to a HPS for flowering. This bucket has a 4" blue airstone and 4' flexible diffuser, with a whisper 30-60 pump powering the stone and a top fin 8000 pump powering the diffuser. Theres another bucket running off the pumps but I don't think it's going to survive the dog attack.

Planted it yesterday, running at .7 EC of the lucas formula (1:2 Micro:Bloom) with RO water, PH is 5.8, res temp is 68-70 and room temp is 78. It's currently 28" from the light which is air cooled with a 265CFM squirrel-cage fan pulling air through the hood out the exhaust.

Can't wait for root porn!

 

[LivingCanvas]

Hey W,

Looks like a solid setup. I'm currently vegging in a similar setup with the 5 gal bucket DWC and a waterfarm top drip DIY. I am also using the Lucas formula 8/16 M/B with RO water.

I don't know how your strain feeds (heavy/light) but I would like to suggest being careful with full strength lucas formula right away. Your discretion, as I said I'm not sure how heavy your strain feeds.

Also I would recommend taking the pH to 5.2. It's recommended in the lucas formula I looked at, and after ~4 days time feeding my Critical Mass ph swings up to ~6.29 (near the top recommended range for cannabis in hydro) after dropping ~260ppm.

Best of luck! Hope the dog didn't do your girl in.

 

[wang]

I dropped the PH to 5.5 a little earlier.

I'm not on full strength lucas yet, I'm running a EC of .7 right now, or about 500PPM at a .7conversion.

This is the plant that my dog got to, not sure if she's going to make it or not. She's on a much lower nutrient solution, between .2 and .3 EC. I'm going to keep her there until she either dies on me or I pick up my next clone.

Thanks for the tips!

 

[FreezerBoy]

Bad dog, bad.

Everything else looks good. Woo hoo!

 

[rollinmachine]

even though i try to save my trim my dog loves stealing and eating the leaves when im trimming or pruning. if the dog ate it when its that small dont let him near the grow when they start flowerin. the frosty leaves taste sooo much better to them then the veg leaves.
f.y.i.... if a pit wants sumthin bad enough he will get it. damn sneaky lil bastard...lol


lookin good so far though she looks healthy keep it up and the dog away from the ladies.

 

[wang]

Day 4

Day 4

The dog-bitten plant was found dead this morning. No real loss there.

Not seeing much growth on the other one but it's only been 4 days since I planted it. The PH swings seem stable, every morning when I wake up it's at 6.2 and I set it back to 5.5 and it's back at 6.2 the next morning. Pretty easy to deal with.
I haven't needed to add any water to the buckets water level only dropped about a 1/4". I did top-feed a little bit this morning with some of the nutrient solution..

Looking forward to roots!

 

[wang]

Day 6 - Root porn!

Day 6 - Root porn!

Dropped the water level to about 2" below the netpot this morning when I saw this little guy.

 

[wang]

Day 8

Day 8

The roots just keep coming!

So I'm going to do a res change tonight. I started noticing these dark spots on the leaves yesterday, I think it's from when I top-fed it before the roots started popping out and some of the nutrient solution splashed onto the leaves. The spots were never yellow as far as I know. Should this be something I should be worried about, with roots now I'm not top-feeding anymore.

Any suggestions for EC level tonight with the nutrient change, using RO water and GH FloraMicro and FloraBloom? 'Will also be adding beneficial bacteria tea to this res, the last one only had a little bit poured through the hydroton when the clones were put into the net cups. I brew my own using Mycogrow and Ancient Forest EWC. Currently the EC is at around .9 after starting at .7 and dropping the water level 2" since planting.

 

[wang]

So I've been told what I'm seeing on these leaves are signs of underfeeding? Does this sound right?

If so I think when I do the rez change tonight I will go to full strength Lucas formula.

edit: hope it was underfeeding, the new res is now running at full lucas w/ calmag+.

 

[wang]

Day 11

Day 11

Been battling with her over the last few days, trying to find the right nutrient level.

I was under, then I was over, etc...

Things are looking better now, new growth seems okay. Should I remove the badly damaged leaves?

EC is around 1.3

 

[atomos]

looking good so far!!!

 

[FreezerBoy]

I'd have said you dropped the water level early but, she seems to be OK.

My guess is a nitrogen deficiency. You mention MH and HPS. This suggests a veg period. Vegging plants want nitrogen. A flowering formula during the veg stage lowers N. If you're in veg use veg proportions of 1:1 or 2:1 rather than the bloom formula of 1:2.

If damaged leaves are primarily green I'd leave them on but, trim the tips. This allows max light absorption but immediately identifies trimmed growth as old growth (growth that cannot repair itself) that is to be ignored when diagnosing your current state of affairs.

 

[wang]

My guess is a nitrogen deficiency. You mention MH and HPS. This suggests a veg period. Vegging plants want nitrogen. A flowering formula during the veg stage lowers N. If you're in veg use veg proportions of 1:1 or 2:1 rather than the bloom formula of 1:2.

Yea, they are under 18/6 right now so they are in veg.

I was under the impression that with the lucas formula you used the 1:2 Micro:Bloom ratio throughout the entire plants life? You're saying I should use 1:1 Micro:Bloom or 2:1 Micro:Bloom, or are you saying I should be using GH's FloraGro?

I have to admit, a bunch of people have advised me against going with the Lucas formula since I've started.

 

[FreezerBoy]

Lucas is a "one size fits all" formula. In reality, one size may cover all but, it can't fit all. Example: Lucas says 0-8-16 while my plants (with my old water) said 0-3-6 was too strong (still trying to figure the formula for my new water).

My nitrogen comment is a guess. RO strips water of vital nutes that nute makers leave out intentionally, expecting you to add them with tap. RO may be the source of your trouble, I'd avoid it if at all possible. It could be a Manganese deficiency, supporting my theory of more Micro. It could be Potassium which destroys my theory. My thinking is trace elements and Nitro are most needed in veg. 1:2 makes most of your EC non-nitro/trace elements. 1:1 or 2:1 increases the percentage of nitro/trace elements.

Only way to see is to try. DWC shows effects quickly. It will fix as fast as it fails. If 1:1 fails to improve conditions or worsens them, try something else.

Keep us posted, break a stem.

 

[wang]

Alright, thanks for clearing that up.

I think my ratios are right at the moment, I was using 0-5-10 for the first week, when I started to see the yellowing/brown spots. At that point I went ahead and bumped it up to full strength 0-8-16 w/ a teaspoon of CalMag+/gal. That worked out to be an EC of about 1.7, and resulted in the slight burns you can see on some of the upper growth. The next day I diluted it down to an EC of 1.3 and it's been sitting there for the past few days and things are looking a whole lot greener.

I also FIM'ed it earlier today. I leave for the next few days for Thanksgiving, so I'll adjust the PH tomorrow and she'll be on her own for 4 days. Also trimmed the damaged leaves as you suggested.

Thanks for the help!

 

[wang]

Day 18

Day 18

So I came back from the long weekend (plant was alone Wednesday at midnight to this morning 2am) and she looks great. PH was at 6.1 when I came home, EC had raised to 1.7 but after topping off with plain RO water it went back to 1.3. Before I left I decided not to adjust the PH for the weekend since it was only at 5.9 and was on a slow rise up. Looks like that was the right choice, I was worried the PH might have gotten too high while I was gone but that does not appear to be the case.

II FIM'ed it 6 days ago, and I think you can see the results of this in the first image, it seems the plant has responded by creating 8 new "tops"

Planning to do a res change in the next few days, the addback is almost equal to the reservoir at this point, will probably do it Wednesday.

Still seeing tiny burnt tips on the leaves, so might drop the EC to 1.2.


She's a solid 10 inches now, so I'm hoping maybe a week more will put her in the 18" range and I can start flowering at that point. Does that sound about right?

 

[Teddy KnowHow]

She's a solid 10 inches now, so I'm hoping maybe a week more will put her in the 18" range and I can start flowering at that point. Does that sound about right?

Sounds and looks good! I'm also doing my first hydro grow under 400W HPS, in a NFT system though. My plants were just a little bigger than yours when they went 12/12 and now 2 weeks later they've almost overgrown my 80cmx80cm (2,6ftx2,6ft) space. Luckily I still have a lot of vertical space left

Now that they have established their roots I'm sure the growth rate will be exponential! Have you thought about low stress training? Good info -> https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=115377 Take a look if you already haven't.

 

[wang]

I thought about LSTing it but I'm not sure I'm going to do it this grow. Probably the next one though.

Is it possible to FIM the plant again? The reaction the plant had to the first was amazing!

 

[wang]

Res change today as planned. The last res lasted 12 days and needed no PH adjusting, was 5.5 12 days ago, and was 6.3 this morning.

2 gal RO H20 (tested with EC of 0.00)
10 ml Cal-Mag Plus (brought PPM to 210)
10 ml Flora Micro
20 ml Flora Bloom
EC 1.25 (PPM 850) PH 5.5 no need to adjust

 

[Hydro-Soil]

My nitrogen comment is a guess. RO strips water of vital nutes that nute makers leave out intentionally, expecting you to add them with tap. RO may be the source of your trouble, I'd avoid it if at all possible.

Please stop telling new growers to avoid R/O water. It's the best choice they could possibly make, regardless of what your experiences with tap water are.

R/O water and Lucas are the only thing a new grower needs to grow great plants.... don't need epsom salts, don't need F'n Cal/Mag.... Just need to feed it the proper amount of nutes for the lighting it's getting and get your pH to swing the full range... 5.2-5.8.

IF... you ever run into a strain that's mag hungry... you'll know it and can fix it with a tiny *pinch* of epsom salts for $.89 until you get horticultural grade.

Tap water is unpredictable and getting worse in a lot of areas.. R/O is the only way to remove that variable and the Lucas Formula provides everything you need for a general nutrient. LATER you can tweak it... not as a new grower. *sigh*



Stay Safe!