Phatty's First Hypothetical Grow... Help appreciated!

[phattybudz]

So, after a lot of debate about the legal issues and the financial issues, my impulses won out and I decided to find a lot of pictures on google of this "marijuana growing" thing. I will post more pictures as I find them on google. Hypothetically, if I were to grow, I would be using..

52x52x7 original hydro hut (I've read the threads bashing them, but this hut belonged to a friend who didn't have any problems with it)
600W hps (yield master 2 hood) for flower
flourescents for the babies, and a 400W MH for veg
6 bucket RDWC/ 185 gph water pump / airstones in each bucket
6'' vortex 450 cfm (no carbon fiber yet)
Botanicare power plant and power flower, with thrive-alive cus the babies were unhappy

Let's see, what else... I'm not sure what strains these pictures are, but I know they're not all the same, so I'm a little worried about that. I think they're about 3 weeks old, but I'm not 100% sure. They started off real bad, with brown and yellow spots indicative of nutrient lock-out due to bad ph (Or so I think...) and now they seem to have a deficiency issue, because they were being underfed (they were at like 100ppm nutes, then had nothing for a day, now at 300.)

So currently, the conditions are: 526 ppm (tap water is at 228 after ph down, so 300 ppm power plant, and however much thrive alive was recommended) 5.48 ph, 73 degree water, 74 degree room, 64% humidity.

Please let me know if there's any other helpful info I could include, or anything you would recommend...there are already problems and I greatly and appreciate any and all help/comments.

I have a couple questions: Ph is rising overnight about .5, how often should I adjust this/is this normal? Do these look like they're going to survive/thrive if they're taken care of properly? I Think the nute burn/deficiency issues will be under control now, but I'm still worried about them. Another issue is that I have to move out in a little under 4 months, so those would be my only chance for a while.

Enough yakkin', here are the pics:

 

[Dr Dog]

Very cute
I can't help you out with hydro, but I will be back to check on your "imaginary grow"

 

[Gratephul4THC]

Why are peoples PPM's so high, my normal tap water is about 110 PPM's, i'll be back to check in on your "imaginary grow" as well

 

[phattybudz]

Yellowing is worse. Nitrogen deficiency? made a post in the infirmary. This is turning out so poorly, I'm really getting frustrated...

 

[phattybudz]

I should have titled this "My series of fuck-ups."

I don't even know how this happened, I wasn't even stoned... I dumped in 2x the right amount of epsom salt, ... haha, and my ppm/salinity went off the charts... and I wondered why.



More time and money wasted.

So I am making a promise to myself not to have any more fuck-ups, and hopefully this thread will have a happy ending. Letting water sit out overnight then filling em up and giving em Power plant, cal-mag, epsom salt, thrive-alive, and setting the ph to 5.8. I'm really hoping they recover, I'm not sure if it's better to leave them without nutes/water for 8 hours or to feed them with water right from the tap but I figure the former.

 

[phattybudz]

Ok guys, here are pics of the plants, after one week of abuse (me taking care of them...) including not being fed for 2 days.

I just mixed my nutes to Stitch's specifications (I think...my 20 gal. of tap water was at 200ppm, I mixed 50ml calmag, like 25ml epsom salts, and then 300 ppm of power plant, and now my ppm is at like 940... this seems high and scary to me and I'm hoping I haven't already screwed up again...I guess I can add more water if that's too high? I'm going to feed them after this fully mixes, and I will update how they handle it in a few days.
















I don't believe in god but I'm praying for these babies...

Questions: Do I need my vortex running even now, or just once I've got the MH in there? I haven't been running it, just a clip fan for ventilation.

 

[Guest]

HOLY BAD DREAM?????

DUMP OUT ALL WATER NOW!
NEXT refill and let them be in just tap water
for 2 weeks to heal them if possible?????
THEN after they look better,and have healthy roots(WHITE)
go easy with food and no need for salts and shit????
remember my tip is GO EASY!
FEED LIGHT,good luck......

 

[phattybudz]

Thanks for the input Lou, I am pretty sure that the main problem is either a sulfur or iron deficiency, so I'm just using power plant and cal-mag for a little bit (not too much,) to see if it's iron... if it doesn't improve I'm going to foliar feed with epsom salt. (Thanks Pepe and MNS!)

I'm also thinking about switching to Flora Nova nutes, or at least using those next time.

Made a few upgrades to my system: 25 gallon storage tote for mixing nutes, 2 gallon jugs to freeze and drop in my rez to keep water cool (about 68F,) and some more soda crates so my buckets drain when I want them to without me having to lift them, which was a real pain in the ass.

I will write in about a week on how those kids are doing...

*Edit* Current conditions: 300ppm power plant, 80ppm calmag, ph 6.1, room temp 78 (the hottest it's been,) and 62% RH.

I can let the ph drift up to 6.5 before I correct it right? Otherwise I'd constantly be adjusting it...

*edit* Should I trim that yellow growth or just leave it?

*EDIT* My water is at like 63F with my new ghetto water cooler, but it goes up to like 79 without it.... so do I need to invest in a more expensive cooling solution? suggestions?

 

[FreezerBoy]

Your problem looks exactly like those suffered by poisoned huts. Put them in another room, hut free, and see if they come around.

 

[FreezerBoy]

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=81061

an open letter from HydroHut

 

[phattybudz]

Freezer, thanks, I have seen those threads. The thing is, a friend of mine used this tent before I did with no problems, and it is one of the older ones. I was pretty sure that there were a lot of people who didn't have problems, and since it's been successful in the past, and I was MASSIVELY underfeeding them with a nutrient solution devoid of iron, I'm going to see how they are in 5 days on power plant and cal-mag, then try a foliar with epsom to rule out sulfur at Pepe le Puw's suggestion.

Also, I don't have any other room I could put them in, so that's kind of out...I am also going to start venting with my vortex, which I wasn't doing.


*edit* Btw, my ph is rising .1 every hour (5.5-6.1 in 6 hours)... I know it's supposed to raise normally but this seems like it's too much...

 

[phattybudz]

I stopped by the hydro store today to run it past them, and the first thing the guy asks about is my water... so I tell him 200ppm tap water, and he suggests to buy filtered water or get an R/O system. This is one thing I didn't ask my friend about his set-up! I'm 100% positive his water was much cleaner than mine, and I'm thinking that will definitely make a difference. The current kids seem unhappy, but in a different way, which is encouraging because it tells me (intuitively at least,) that I was the cause, rather than the hut. I'm getting orangish/rust coloring on the edges, but no more yellow.. it's definitely different, so I'm going to cut out the epsom salt in the foliar, and use better water and see how that goes.

I may or may not try to save these current kids, they've already been through so much, and I'm going to be out of town for a week, so I'm thinking about just shutting everything down until I get back, and replanting new kids with fresher cleaner water, leaving the vortex and clip-fan for now (I've been told that should be plenty of ventilation, and that's what my friend did before when he used this hut,) and see what happens. Also the guy at the hydro store recommended different nutes and another calcium product instead of cal-mag, but I'm going to use the rest of what I have left before I shell out more $ for that.

And another new problem I encountered: Tiny tiny black flies, what are they and how do I nuke them back to the stone age?

 

[FreezerBoy]

FWIW my tap water has an EC of 0.5 (that's a ppm of 250-350 depending on your conversion scale) without the yellowing. That doesn't mean you don't (or do) have bad stuff in your water but, the number itself isn't unacceptable.

 

[Maj.PotHead]

wow my PPM right from the tap is around 600-700 and the way i feed it can get 13-1400, and thats in Soil with 10-15% drainage runoff. only reason why i know my waters PPM w/out ferts is Sirsmokealot a member here is family and he tested my water w/out ferts. tested his water same 6-700ppms and 13-1400 ppms ferted unsure of EC we use the same ferts

heres a question i havent seen asked or mentioned dose your city use cloriene to sanitize your drinking water??? pour a glass from the tap. if it smells like a swimming pool then they do, my city dose so i allow my water min 8 hrs before use but 12-24 is better to allow the cloriene to evaporate. because your plants look like whats happened when ive watered w/out lettn it evaporate several times. i dont do that anymore lol i refill jugs directly after watering. oh yes ya mentioned ya scored the setup from your friend do ya have new nutes or his old ??? . hope ya get it sorted out

 

[phattybudz]

Yeah, I believe chlorine in the water might be an issue, I only let it sit out for like 8 hours before, but I think one time I filled it straight from there... I may try letting it sit out for a full day instead of buying water, I'm not sure... Thanks for letting me know it looked similar to your issue though. I'm using the same brand nutes as my friend was before.

 

[FreezerBoy]

In my aquarium days, 24 hours was the "norm" for letting tap water sit open. Supposedly, hot water dissapated chlorine faster than cold.

 

[phattybudz]

Well I ended up not changing the water and murdering my children today, they had gone even further downhill, so I've decided to start from scratch with new children...

Things I'm going to do differently:

Better water (it drops from 200 to 190 ppm after I let it sit out, is that the chlorine evaporating? I'm not sure if I should buy water or go R/O or what...)
Better ventilation
Start with cal-mag

Think I might just make a new thread when I get the babies... hopefully that will be today. Thanks to everyone who tried to help, I think even though I murdered my children I learned to be a better parent.

 

[wisco61]

the reason your tap water's ppm is high may be because there is a lot of cal and mag along with other stuff in there. so the calmag might be completely unneccasary. I have water with about 300 ppm and i just use the lucas formula with hardwater micro for the most part and it seems to work real well. it locks in the ph also, really no drift at all, just the normal changes in relation to amount of nutes in the res. anyways, something to think about.

 

[phattybudz]

Went out and bought gallons of GH Micro and Bloom for the Lucas Formula...I read up on it and it seems like a good idea, I can always use my botanicare stuff later...

As soon as I get some new babies (people are so flaky, jesus christ...) I'm going to try again. I haven't yet decided whether or not to just use my tap water after letting it sit out for a full 24 hours or buy water, but I'm leaning towards the tap cus it's cheaper and easier...... I suppose I should also get an analysis of the water from my city so I can figure out exactly what's in my solution. HHMmmmmmm...