Hi all,

this is my first hydro grow and third grow ever. I'll do a Roadrunner autoflowering from Dinafem (lowryder 1 x dinafem 1) which I got as a freebie from the attitude. I've been keeping a journal offline for about a week and I'll be posting it here entry by entry. Hopefully someone else will find this helpful. All comments welcome!

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Basics:

Drip system - General Hydroponics waterfarm standalone, 2 gal reservoir

Nutes - FloraMicro, FloraGro and FloraBloom combo. They came with the system

Light - CFL for the first week or so, then 400W hps

Water - unless otherwise specified distilled water from CVS pharmacy

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I don't have any pictures from the germination, so I'll just go over it briefly - I used jiffy substrate, the seed sprouted on the second day, I transplanted it on the 6th day.

It was about an inch and a half tall and had two real leafs starting.

The root of the plant was about 2.5 inches long. I hope I haven’t damaged it.

I put two gallons of distilled water and put in 5 ml of each nutrient. Initially the pH came in at something like 4.5. I poured over the pebbles and let it circulate for about 3 hours. Now the pH is closer to 6.

I think I managed to transplant the seedling properly. It is now on the balcony getting some sun with its new system. I plan to leave the pumps on all the time for now.

Pictures of the setup are attached.

plants-0.jpg

plants-1.jpg

here are the pics, sorry

Leave the pumps on all the time.Try and get your ph down to 5.8 and watch for slime growing in the bucket.They are not that light proof.

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things are looking ok. The setup spent the night under the 25W CFL. There is miniscule growth - the true leafs are slightly bigger, there seems to be a small budding of second set of true leafs.

I have been pouring water from the drip right around the seedling. The root isn’t long enough to reach under the drip, although I have no idea how moisture spreads inside the pebbles.


plants-2.jpg

ph last night was a little higher. Maybe 6.5 sharp. I need to see exactly how much work adjusting pH is going to be. This week is also not very informative as I am still using the very small concentrations for the “seedling” phase.

I also noticed that the water level has gone down an inch. I need to read up on exactly how that affects pH and stuff and how to replenish it.

Chances are I’ll have to bite the bullet and order pH up, down and PPM meter. bleh.

pH this morning is flat 6.5, water level is down easily an inch, it is a cloudy day with sunlight meter reading of 5.5-6 compared to 4.5-5 under the CFL bulb.
plants-3.jpg

I noticed that the pump causes a lot of small droplets of water to end up on the leafs. I know that would be damaging in the sun. Today is a fully indoor day because its raining outside, but nevertheless I turned the pump off. Will turn it back on in a few hours.

I'm also noticing white residue on the pebbles. Looks like dried nutrients. Turning pumps back on.

Tonight pH is definitely over 7. Still less than 7.5. I’m concerned about letting this go overnight as it could easily end up at 8. Pharmacy is closed, so I have two options:

a) add some tap water to the reservoir.

b) add lemon juice to tap water before pouring in.

I’ll start with some amount of brita filtered tap water and lemon juice. I will let it sit for 30 minutes before re-measuring. Better to start with more juice and then dilute further. I will try to achieve 6.0 pH before pouring water in.

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Started with filtered water. pH is 6-6.5

Straight lemon juice pH is below 3

a few drops of lemon juice in 1 qt of filtered water - pH is upper 3s

pour away 75% of the filtered water, refill with filtered - pH is low 6

will wait at least 10 minutes and re-test

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Still in the low 6’s although slightly lower than before. Poured it into the plant at the corner that’s farthest from the root. Also added another quart of filtered water. The reservoir is now at the recommended 2 gallon level. Will retest in 15 minutes or so? Maybe more.

There is definitely nutrient burn on one of the leafs. However, the growth appears insanely vigorous. liquid keeps splashing on top of the leafs, so the pumps go off for a while.

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Final test for the night - pH as coming from the drip is 6.5-7 closer to 7

Today pH is about 7. There’s definite nutrient burn on both leafs. It doesn’t show very clearly in the picture but its there.

I emptied half of the container and replaced it with a gallon of distilled water. That should cut the nute concentration in half. I moved the setup outside in the sun and the leafs have perked up.


Will test pH shortly and update.

Attached Images

	plants-4.jpg (63.4 KB, 18 views)
	plants-5.jpg (68.1 KB, 13 views)

I turned the CFL light off and left it off overnight. I’m hoping that will slow down the absorption of nutrients and alleviate the burn.

This morning I noticed the water from the drip is getting the leafs very wet. They were hanging very low and the plant looked like it was dying. I dried them out with a paper towel and turned the pumps off for a few hours. Also, I emptied half of the reservoir and filled it up with filtered tap water. I poured the water over the pebbles to give a chance to the plant to drink some water w/o nutrients for a while. The reservoir should not contain 1/4th of the original nutrient strength.

Attached below is a picture after about 3 hours with the pumps off, the leafs have perked up a little:


Turning the pumps back on just to get the pebbles wet. Will dry the plant again and turn them off again. pH is up to 7 again, and it won’t be a few days until my pH adjusters arrive so I’ll be improvising with lemon juice until then.

Question to anyone reading this - should I completely flush the system and put the plant on 100% water regime to get rid of this burn? If so, for how long?

Attached Images

plants-6.jpg (62.6 KB, 6 views)

I moved the pebbles around and built small mounds right under the drip holes. Now the water will not splash and get the leaves wet. I let it run for a few hours and it worked - the leaves are dry.

At the moment the plant seems to be doing slightly better. I am not adding any lemon juice and keeping the light off overnight. I am contemplating flushing the nutrient completely and just running water through the plant.

The setup is out in the sun and the leafs have perked up. Haven’t checked pH as there is absolutely nothing I can do about it for at least a few days.


plants-7.jpg

why was there nutes this early?

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