First Time Hydro Grow (questions/pictures)

Hi all! Awesome forum, I tried to read and learn as much as I could from this site and others before starting this process.

I have a genHydro Waterfarm system using hydroton as the soil. Started out with clones, as germinating sounded a littler tougher for first time growers. Using 2 x 1000 w HPS lights running 18/6 right now. Keep the water temp around 70F, air temp around 75 temp, and water ph around 5.8-6.2. The outflow ventilation through the lights will be installed within the week.

I follow the recommed genHydro feeding schedule with micro, grow, and bloom.
http://generalhydroponics.com/site/gh/docs/feeding_sched/GH-FloraSeries-REC-Charts.pdf

The 'setup' picture shows, 4 calio plants, 2 sour D, and 2 flo. Of the 4 calio plants, one took off and is almost a 1.5' after 2 weeks. 1 of the calio plants died completely and I'm working on replacing it with a 2 week clone. The other plants are growing at roughly the same rate.

Any/all comment is much appreciated, I hope to be able to contirbute one day.

Questions:
1. For plant 4, the leaves are curling in like a taco. Any ideas?
2. As in some of the pictures of leaves up close, should I trim the yellow/curling leaves? I read some info about topping but nothing about trimming.
3. Why is there such a large difference in growth between plant 1 and plants 7/8, which are all calio plants. Is this due to the quality of the clone?
4. What info do I need for chaning from veg to flowering? All I know is the light schedule. Is this also when the Co2 timer should be turned on?


Again, thanks for responses! happy

edit: pictures are title by the upload format; e.g. plant 4.jpg

Nice work man i like your setup. I did mine in one big res but next time i want individual buckets for sure. As for your questions...

1. Im not sure about that curling one... it looks like it might be too hot, but those lights are also pretty far away from your plants and 75 is low. I would try to increase the humidity. clones sometimes need domes while they establish roots, but that might be too big for one now. I would try to get the lights closer if its not too hot also.

2. I wouldn't trim any leaves until they are blocking light from where you need it or not getting any at all.

3. some clones root faster than others.

4. not much you need to know, you can do it all at once or gradually... but once youre in 12/12 its important that it is dark for a full 12 hours. plants measure the length of the darkness period, not the daylight.

Ya for first time I thought this set up would be easier to manage.

thanks for the reply, I'll change up the humidity and light level a bit to see the impact

Nice setup. Looks pretty organized. The lights look a little far away to me. I always thought you wanted to keep them pretty close to the tops of the plants. Perhaps you can scoot them a bit closer together and lower the lights down a bit. Here is an article I read recently that was decent. A little verbose but well worth the read. http://www.marijuanagrowershq.com/grow-light-intensity-principles/ Near the bottom is the part about wasted light.

Since i lowered the lights, huge growth from the other 6 plants. I'll post some update pictures here soon.

Another question came up, as I am at week 3 of veg. Approx. how tall do you want your plants to be before switching to flowering? There is a good amount of room from the lights to the floor (about 10 ft).

well mine tripled in size easy... but i went from seed so they were less mature when i flipped, i think clones stretch a little less. id plan for plants twice as big during flowering.

ten feet is pretty tall.. id let them veg a bit more, maybe think about topping since you have so much space.

x2
I think it depends on home much room you have. (sounds like a lot) Also what strain you have. Some strains like diesels or kush will double in size. If your already 3 weeks along, you might want to tie some of the branches down to allow more room to grow and also allow more light and airflow in the canopy.

Update:

End of Week 4, outflow ventiallation + filter installed. Tonight I will start the transition to flowering. The 3 Calio plants are growing very well. Two of the plants are rather lackluster, short, and bushy. Hopefully these will spurt a little more in flowering.

the longer you veg the bigger the plants will be and more plant more buds......

unlucky said:

the longer you veg the bigger the plants will be and more plant more buds......

Click to expand...

Right. Because of the difference/height restriction I don't think I can allow the 3 Calios to continue to grow anymore.

I also heard that if you wait to switch to flower too long it will adversely affect the rest of the process. Any truth to this?

yeah. those will be giant. definitely switch now. keep the lights as close as possible to the canopy (like 2-3 ft) and move up as they grow.

You have 1000w bulbs. Just stick your hand under the light at the height of your plants. If you are burning your hand then you are burning your plants. Back the lights off. Adjust as needed with plant growth.

Nutrient solution flows back down through this drainage outlet into the growing container to be recycled. After a predetermined amount of time the timer switches off, cutting electricity to the pump until the next cycle. Remaining nutrient solution drains back down through the stiff 6 inch tube with screen connected to the fitting at the bottom of the growing container, through the pump and back into the nutrient container.

Just spotted spider mites today. I initially sprayed with Mighty Wash when I planted the clones and again at week 2 as preventitive measures. How do you take care of these pests from flowering to harvest without potentinally ruining your harvest?

Hit them quickly with a miticide with the active ingredient of "DICOFOL". Follow the directions on the bottle. and use exact measurements.

Alright. I have been checking but out of curiousity but can male plants pop up from clones?

wesmokedatkush said:

Alright. I have been checking but out of curiousity but can male plants pop up from clones?

Click to expand...

most definitely not from a female mother, they still can be stressed and caused to hermie as any other plant though

If you don't get mites under control soon you might as well start over. You should be spraying weekly if you see them or not.

adower said:

If you don't get mites under control soon you might as well start over. You should be spraying weekly if you see them or not.

Click to expand...

I sprayed as soon as I saw them and recheck and all the mites were dead. I was unsure of spraying weekly because I have read that this might ruin the harvest.

The bottle on Might Wash says spray with Power Wash a couple weeks before harvest to get rid of any residue. So should I be spraying every week then spray Power Wash a week or two before harvest?

You can spray all through veg and maybe the first 2-3 weeks of flower. You just don't want to be spraying anything on your buds when they start forming. I use diluted neem oil when they are in veg and it works for me. I spray them every week in veg and I never have to touch them once they go to flower. It also helps a lot to totally wash down your room after every crop with hydrogen peroxide dilluted in water. Those fuckers can hide anywhere!