Question for the experts.

[Homegrow3r]

I'm looking into getting that cheap RO alternative, the car wash system, you've probably seen it on here, the pH is up and down and needs daily balancing and I think according to all advice that if I use better water then I won't have that problem, unless I get a hardwater nute kit, which is also an alternative.

 

[MynameStitch]

Either is good, yes if your pH is going up and down and you got to use a lot of pH adjuster to get it straight it can cause nutrient balance issues with the plant due to hard water and high amounts of pH adjusting.

RO water is a good alternative, hardwater nute kit? Which one are you talking about? You got a link?

 

[Homegrow3r]

Not got a specific link but I've seen mention of them and saw a starter kit on some site last night, I'll have a look after work and see what I can find again and post it if I can.

 

[Homegrow3r]

Until the washer arrives, I got myself a brita water filter, large one, I'm putting the water through it twice, dropping the ppm from near 600 to 200, that's an EC of 1.2 down to 0.4 I'll remix this stuff for the small pots and then trash the premix of nutes I have at the moment and remix 100l of it, it's a waste but sod it, has to be done to stabilise this gig.

 

[10k]

Brita filters DO NOT remove sodium from your water, they will take out alot of minerals if the particle size is large enough, but the sodium will remain in the water.

I wouldn't remix that 100 liters until I was sure the water wasn't high sodium.

waterfarms...your plants should become accustomed to living in that topdrip / dwc hybrid environment. Its much more likely a lack of airflow in the enclosure during lights off thats causing the overwatered looking condition from those plants foliar back feeding all that built up night time transpired wetness. They need constant airflow during the darkness in that kind of sealed up growspace, lest they start getting the dredded rust spotting and bud rotting later on in flowering too.

Looks like your running a PVC hut too arrgh, hows that working out for you ?

 

[Homegrow3r]

Airflow is really good actually. Fans run 24/7 I don't turn off the scrubber or the input inline either.

I've actually checked into that carwash implement and I need to use too much water to bother with it. I'm going to check into the hardwater nutes.

 

[Homegrow3r]

Just topped up the res tonight again and the difference is immense since I started this post, I have at least twice as much vegetation. Am getting the hang of the EC values now and tonight I got it to 1080 with a starting value from the water of 290, so I'm in or about 800 which converts to EC 1.6. I'm getting nearer to the ideal every time.
pH is more stable now than it was, I haven't touched it in days after having put it to 5.5 on Thursday and it was only just up above 6.0 today on both, so it's keeping more within an acceptable range.
The stems on these plants are almost an inch in diameter and the plants aren't a foot tall yet, I've never seen growth like this on soil, the Indica will be what's making it thick but I've never seen stems as thick unless it was on proper trees.

 

[MynameStitch]

good, cause you know when things are good when your pH is staying stable!
Good to hear ya got things under control, show us another update soon

When pH goes up and down like yours did, it could be caused by hard water, too high of nutes where the plants take more water out of the system than nutes and depending on if you have acidic nutes or alkaline nutes it will make it more alkaline or acidic depending on which you use more off.

 

[Homegrow3r]

My camera has bitten the dust, time for a new one methinks. The plants are looking much better now since I have the hang of the ppm metre. I have the pH sorted too at about 5.5 and things are more stable, the brita filter definitely seems to make a difference. I took 50 cuttings off of the big bangs last night as there was now enough veg to do that.
All looking a lot better and thanks for all the help Stitch. The Afghan hasn't been cropped yet, I'll let it veg a bit more before I do it, next crop maybe when the big bang has run through. I hope to get about 40 cuttings into the E&F table, just put on 50 to allow for some redundancy in case some don't strike.
The Stem on the Afghan is outrageous, never seen anything like it, the plant is at most 18 inches tall and the stem is easy 1.5 inches diameter. This hydro promotes a lot more vigour than soil, glad I made the swap, it's a bit fussier to get dialled in, but seems well worth it.

 

[Homegrow3r]

Update with photos for Stitch as requested.

The big bangs in the front that were the problem have given up 50 clones now which are in the process of rooting.

All is looking good, looks like I have the hang of it now, more or less.

 

[VenturaHwy]

They may be getting too much light - when you cut back to 12 hrs you'll know......

 

[Homegrow3r]

These won't be getting 12/12, only the clones I am making from them. It's all good now if you read a bit farther into the thread.
Too much light in my experience is a light burn, I've seen and had that already.