NeerGreen: New Era grow #1

Last night I removed the nute feed from my ailing Alice. I poured water over the Hydroton evening, night, 1st thing in the morning. Her condition is worsening, but there is still growth.
Halle is thriving, albeit quite slowly by ordinary standards I imagine.
I pumped 40 liters out of the res and added 30 liters of just water. Ppm (indicated; I wonder about the Nutra Dip) went from 460 to 310. I had to vigorously pH-down to about 5.6.
I put Runter Alice back on the drip feed. I'd hate for her to dry out ... and one never knows - perhaps the horse will sing.

Here are my little pretties:
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(whinny!) Do re mi fa ...
I think the trend is reversed and things are looking better. Runter Alice isn't getting any worse ... the cotyleda have stopped their dying-back, and the second set of leaves has shown growth overnight. Halle is positively burgeoning. Still no sign of roots coming through the net pots.

I credit dropping the ppms with the improvement. So i added another bucket of tap water to the res, knocking ppm back from 310 to 280 indicated. I downed pH to about 5.5.
Halle and Alice ... cn

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The latest.
Halle
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Runter Alice
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cn

Things are definitely looking up.
Yesterday i built a shoosh box for my air pump. It's a noisy beast, and without the shoosh box I could not sleep. Now that Halle has roots extending into the res, I've discontinued top feed on her and rigged both feed lines to Alice.
Root pic isn't very good, but those are new! Weren't there at this time yeaterday. Yow!!

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Here are Halle and Alice today. Res is nice and stable - pH 5.4; 290 ppm. cn
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Just checking in... let see how it goes from here... best of luck

Big day today: I changed out my nutes.
The original batch began to have a very faint but definite smell, like vitamin pills. My res felt squeaky clean, but the in/out feed mlines (that 1/2" black vinyl) had a slight coating of slime. So i laboriously emptied the res and both buckets, then wiped them down with very dilute dish soap and a drop of Physan 20.
When I added fresh water to the res, it read 170 ppm!! Four weeks ago my tap water was 40 ppm. Must be seasonal ... our water is a mix of mountain water and groundwater.
So i made a mix of 70 liters water to 10 liters full-strength veg feed, which reads 1440 ppm. The blend is 290 ppm, same as what i just changed out. I'm still stabilizing pH ... had it set to 5.5 at 5pm, but at 10:30 it had run up to 6.9. Just dropped it and will check in the morning.
Halle has roots! They're growing fast ... couple of inches a day on the longest, which is branching out secondaries.
Alice limps along, no roots yet, but she's alive and enjoying her top feed. cn
Halle ....................Alice
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I got radical today.
Alice (my poky little White Widow) is showing yellowing of the outboard half of her first set of true leaves. So I decided to do a bit of diagnosis. I took her net pot and a bucket of water ... and floated the Hydroton, so that I could pull the Oasis cube up without trauma and inspect her roots. They had not shown below the net pot yet, even though her healthier tentmate Halle is going great (okay, medium) guns.
The roots are long enough to reach out of the pot, so I allowed a tiny root tip to protrude from the bottom, then gently filled the Hydroton back in. Let's see if Alice survives this handling ... and maybe even thrives.
I also removed the top feeds and their hose, and rigged the "main stage" watering system. This feeds nutes into the buckets from the bottom, while a gravity drain maintains level and returns excess nute solution to the main res. I rigged the pump with a Y and made a ghetto check valve from a but of tubing, a barb and a not-round pebble. Most of the pumped liquid exits that side relief port. The rest is gently circulating into the buckets.

The nutrient solution I made up yesterday shot up in pH to 6.90 by evening's end! I aggressively pHed it down to 5.2, and this morning it was at 5.9. I have it now at 5.4. I am guessing that I am seeing outgassing of carbonic acid. I also punched total ppm up from 290 to 420 ... yeah.
I had a little headslap epiphany last night as a dab of some rather nice extract was helping me fall asleep despite a spell of laryngitis. I am supplying 108 watts of light to two plants, so maybe I cannot expect faster growth. it's full Indian summer here in the 'Stan, with 84 degrees outside today and 80 in the grow room, so as soon as temps drop I will engage the 600W MH conversion bulb. maybe growth rates will jump then.

Here are Halle and Alice today. cn
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Hey man, nice journal so far!

By the way you probably won't name your plants after a while...lol.

How old are Halle and Alice? They look like my 9 day old from seed feminized buddies.

I just started a grow too so maybe we can collaborate, even though I'm doing a soil grow, it's still indoors.