6 million ways to die

If you can answer these foolish questions without chastising me you will be ordained a highlander.

!. what is the white dust, blackish and greenish dark spots on the top of my rockwool cube? Im guessin the greenblack shit is mold but the white dust is throwin me. Maybe salt deposit? Should I cover the cube from light?

2. Is my ppm raising due to evaporation, whats a good ppm? I was at 1150 and its now 1450.

3. is it normal for your reservoir to get coated in sediment? Im guessing a combo of nutes and clay pellet residue. Its really coated though and its been 5 days.

4. New growth just got super skinny and a little deformed. Lets play name that deficiency!

5. I using a drip set up. Any suggestions on cycle times? Like 15 min every six hrs or leave it on all the time. I know every plant different but I just kinda want a starting point.

6. Do you dry off your Hanna ec/ph or just put the cap back on wet? Its fucking water proof!

1. The green growth on your rockwool would be algae. Covering it would help, but usually by the time I notice algae my clones are ready to transplant. Take the paper off the rockwool it will get black mold spots.

Is the white dust on the plants or the rockwool. Powdery white mildew would be noticed on the fan leafs mostly. If its the rockwool its probably mineral salts.

2. 1400 is the max PPM you would want. Definitely try to get it down a bit.

3. Put a small fish tank pump in your reservoir as a circulation pump, cheap, effective, always keeps your water fully mixed.

Im not sure about the clay pellets, you could always add a screen for your water return to filter out any larger stuff.

4. Without pics its to hard to really tell. If the nodes are starting to stager, and not growing 2 evenly, then some people would say the plants are showing you that they are ready to flower. Once my seed plants start to stager they show sex very soon after.

5. Your medium will determine how often to run your feeding cycles. Either way I definitely would say every 6 hours, or all day is Way Way too much. I wouldnt want to run more than 2 cylces a day during the light cycle. If your using rockwool cubes they hold a Lot of water and require less feeding, where as if you use just clay pellets they dont hold water and the plants can take more feeding cycles. And like you said, every plant is different so it takes a little trial and error.

6. Don't use one, but Imho I would imagine you would never wanna just put the cap on wet, the only thing that will do is break it down faster, and you will end up having to spend more money to buy a new one sooner.

Anyways hopefully that helps.

Dear Highlander,

my girls are 3 months old and due to a few med problems I hesitated to flower. There on 24 hr light. They wont show sex on 24 hr light will they?the white dust is on the surface of the rockwool. Salt deposits then? Will the algae hurt my plant? Should I continue to wait to flower until I see a more healthy plant?

Ive got a bad ass "water jet fan" that keeps circulation strong in the reservoir, thats why the sediment build up seemed weird.

Thank yo for takin the time to reply. I appreciate the help.

I only ever use a 24 cycle for seedlings, you should always use 18/6 for veg, they can show sex during veg cycle. The reason you want 18/6 is because your plants actually do need sleep at night, some time for photosynthesis to stop and the plant gets a chance to rest for a new day of growth, you will notice your plants grow surprisingly faster with a 18/6 cycle vs 24hr.

Yeah it sounds like salt or calcium build up, nothing I would worry too much about. As far as algae, I only use rockwool for clones and my clones grow algae in the rockwool well before they root, it has never harmed my plants.

You wouldnt want algae in your res because it uses the oxygen in the water that your plants need. I would imagine that the algae in the rockwool will be using some of the oxygen as well, but if you have a drip system set up properly the rockwool will not be soaked 100% of the time and it will actually be drying out a bit at night and wont allow the algae to grow.

By the sounds of it I think you may be overwatering a bit. And definitely change your light cylce to 18/6 for at least a couple weeks before flowering.

Thanks for the advice BC. You are wise beyond your years. Seriously though, its hard for me to get good advice on here for some reason. Im on it as of now. Hope to see some improvement, Im dying to flower!!!

kiss-ass