1st dwc grow going bad

jakethetank said:

I just nute locked my plants in week 6 of flower due to too much nutrients building up in my tank.

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Do you not regularly change the water/solution in the tank?

I havent done a dwc grow yet but i am interested in having a look once my current soil grow finishes and so i have been doing a bit of research in preparation.

My understanding is that you should completely drain and refill the tank every week with a new nutrient solution. During the week, you should always keep the water level the same by topping it up with plain water only.

Is this not the way to go?

its one way to go but not the only way. I just top off the level when needed and do a full change like every 3 weeks if I remember to do it.

doctorD said:

its one way to go but not the only way. I just top off the level when needed and do a full change like every 3 weeks if I remember to do it.

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the one thing im curious about is: with my plants i have been doing a complete res change in veg every week. during bloom i have not done one yet and im at 2 1/2 weeks.
i dont see any worse or better condition of plants ( mind you this is only one grow). now the plants drinks the water if you only top off the res with ph balaced nute water and make sure the res is at the right ph before your topping off, wouldnt it be all right to not even change it cause its all being drank up in the end anyway. now of course this dose not pertain to changing nutes of flush for harvest i would still do a swap at those times.
just some medicated of mine thinking for ya. lol

the only thing to remember is the plant will eat some things first so you need to be in tune with your plants needs to know if its missing something in the mix.

a EC meter can give you an idea on what your plants are eating,,,,,,if on res day you have your res at lets say ph 5.8 EC 1.6,,,two days later the water level has droped,,,test the ph maybe its the same ,,good,,,test the EC it might be 1.4 so you now know how much nute to replace,,,if when you test you may find that the water level has drop and the ph is cool and the EC has either gone up a little ,,,so they have not eaten but they have drank so just top off the water,,,,,saves on nuts and over/under feeding,nute lock from too much salt build,,,,EC meter gotta luv it

fruits of ireland said:

a EC meter can give you an idea on what your plants are eating,,,,,,if on res day you have your res at lets say ph 5.8 EC 1.6,,,two days later the water level has droped,,,test the ph maybe its the same ,,good,,,test the EC it might be 1.4 so you now know how much nute to replace,,,if when you test you may find that the water level has drop and the ph is cool and the EC has either gone up a little ,,,so they have not eaten but they have drank so just top off the water,,,,,saves on nuts and over/under feeding,nute lock from too much salt build,,,,EC meter gotta luv it

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that makes me want to go buy one... when the next check comes in. that makes sense though. im going through nutes fast. and when im out do you think it owuld be ok to switch to iconic in the middle of a grow? ill post some pics up tonight of the progress

so your thinking of switching your nutes? make sure to clean out res tip top maybe whit a light bleach and hot water ,you dont wanna mix the two can be bad,,,i like to do it every two week,,,let s know how it gos

Nice man, good journal you got going on. I'm currently setting up my 5 by 4 closet. Gonna go with 4 plants in their own 5 gallon buckets. at what height/ week do you usually switch to the hps light?

wiseguy316 said:

things seem to be looking better, pull the plastic from around the rockwool your choking it, roots want to shoot out the sides but they cant, if left on algea will form on them

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Great advice brah...

You really should be changing your res every 5-10 days. I change my res every 7 days. The reason for this is becasue plants shit and piss to and when there becomes enough plant shit and piss in the water they stop drinking the water and wont take up the nutes or water becasue it is to dirty for them. This is the reason changing your res every week is a good idea. You should be changing your res every 5-10 days the whole way through the growing of your plants which means veg and flower not just one or the other. I guess if its not hurting your plants do your thing and change it when you want but my understanding is it is alot better and they will love you more and give you better results with a regular res change weekly

bluntheadtnulb said:

Nice man, good journal you got going on. I'm currently setting up my 5 by 4 closet. Gonna go with 4 plants in their own 5 gallon buckets. at what height/ week do you usually switch to the hps light?

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since this is my first bubble grow im not too sure. i started the hps at 18 inches and they are about 45 inches tall now 3 weeks into bloom... i hear people say they grow another 2/3, but this seems to be tripling in height. im wondering if they will slow the growing and start really budding soon. the flowers look great though nice and big. bigger than what i ever harvested from my soil grows.

yeah makes sense to change your water out that much ill have to do it on my younglings i have growing. these plants i have in bloom are pretty much root bound in the tubs around the air bars. and that is why im changing my set up to a bucket grow.

This may be a dumb question (working on starting my first grow) but if there isn't anything wrong with the water why do you need to change it? I can see the reasoning behind changing it if you dumped too much nutes in, but why do some people change their water so often?

well the way it was explained to me is that the plants also give off wastes in the water and that needs to be cleaned out every week or 2 weeks.

got some new pics took me a bit my keyboard broke but were just at 4 weeks of bloom and the buds are looking 3 times the size of anything i grew in soil already. granted i didnt have a 600w hps. looks like seed sacs all over the buds... but i pulled the males as soon as i saw them maybe a week into flower at the latest. what do you guys think

well this is annoying it wont upload my pics... ill try again later

alright had to switch to a differnt browser so i could load pics this is the pics at 35 days flower. the one looks like it has seeds? though i pulled the males within the 1st week of being in flower, weird to me that it pollenated some how. but the other 2 females have no seeds it looks like. everything is coming along well. im guessing about 4 more weeks and they will get harvested. the buds are now triple the size of what i have grown in soil. of course like i said i have a 600w hps now too. still using super nutrients a & b as my only nutes. ph stays at 6.0 temps in the room are 70-75 at all times. ill get some pics of the plants i have in veg pretty soon need to do a water change on them tomorrow too

Tulane41 said:

This may be a dumb question (working on starting my first grow) but if there isn't anything wrong with the water why do you need to change it? I can see the reasoning behind changing it if you dumped too much nutes in, but why do some people change their water so often?

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the reason you are advised to change the res is because over time alot of nutes will sink to the bottom of the tank and start to build up blocking airstones/airpipes which can then also create additional problems but this can also cause problems with your ppm.
there have been many who olny change the res once or twice during the entire crop and had awsome results and would swear by it. the conclusion is experiment find what suits you. me im a bubble head always and forever the cheepest,easiest not to mention outstanding results when compared with soil.
viva la bubbloution

This may be a dumb question (working on starting my first grow) but if there isn't anything wrong with the water why do you need to change it? I can see the reasoning behind changing it if you dumped too much nutes in, but why do some people change their water so often?

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This was the answer I got when I asked...

Your plants pick and chose what they want from the water which after a while leaves the water deficient of some elements, and concentrated amounts of others.

Plants do not just take nutes from the water, but also to a degree they will deposit some of what they don't want back into the water.

Salts build up on the sides of the buckets, on the pots and in the root zone over time. How soon that happens depends on the brand and type of nutes. This salt can dissolve into the water at a later time, throwing off the ppm.

Changing the water resets the bacteria/spore load which is a concern for some.

took some pics tonight wondering if you guys think they look like there are a bunch of seeds in the cola? i pulled males under a week into flowering, i dont see how they could have gotten pollinated.

I have never seen a male plant in my life....but those are definitely seed pods. Lots of them.

Check out this thread.. It might help a bit.

https://www.rollitup.org/advanced-marijuana-cultivation/45525-false-seed-pod-question.html

i honestly feel like they arnt seeds.. i have never broke up a bud and had as many seeds as it would show on these buds, because thats all there would be is like 25 seeds per bud. i could see 5-10 but not like this. who know i guess only time will tell. 3-5 more weeks till they are done. has anyone else had expirence with this?