Joe’s nugs
Member
Hello all! I’m new to the community and growing marijuana in general. I don’t have any local resources for helping with my problems along the way but with the internets help I’ve done decent so far. I’m running into some issues that I need some more help with, and I’ll have to include pictures and information to explain what I mean.
First let me start by explaining that I was growing in soil up until recently. I ran into a few problems with soil along the way but nothing major until the fungus gnats larvae had stopped my root growth and I didn’t know how to kill them for good until I found the BTi bacteria. Anyway, around the same time I was fighting gnat larvae I decided I was going to need to build a hydro setup that involved less frequent maintenance because sometimes I would have to leave my plants unattended for a couple days at a time and with soil it wasn’t possible.
So not really caring about the fate of my current plants (the gnat thing had them in bad shape pretty quickly) I decide to build a hydro setup that I would repopulate with new clones. After the system was finished, I had also been treating the larvae for a couple days with great success. My plants were looking healthy again so obviously I can’t just pitch them, so I googled if a soil plant can be converted to hydro and I’ve seen people have luck. So I take one of my plants and start scrubbing it’s roots clean to move to the new hydro system.
The first night it spent in the hydro setup went great, it was looking good the next day. It spent the whole next day under light and getting 24 hours of flowing water. I should also mention these plants are about a week into flower at this point. Toward the end of its first day in the hydro setup I noticed two things, a tiny spot of blueish/black mold on the roots and some wilting in the leaves. I figured I was drowning the roots and decided to put it on a timer giving it a thirty minute flow with an hour in between waterings, and no water overnight. You’ll be able to tell how my system runs from the pictures, it’s kind of a hybrid system that’s most like an ebb and flow but with more of a drip/steady flow style feed, but also will have the benefits of a dwc setup when roots reach the bottom of the buckets. I’m flexible to changing the feed method as well, my plan was to add internal misters to the buckets after my roots started to develop a little more for something of a low pressure aeroponic effect. There’s a fourth bucket outside of the tent that sits lower than the three inside the tent and recirculates everything back up hill. The ph is set to around 5.8 and I have what I would consider a proper nutrient solution in the bucket currently. The whole system holds about 7 gallons of water and I circulate with a 400 gph pump.
Basically what I need help with is this. The plant that I’ve tried to move from soil to hydro isn’t looking any better with the different watering timing and I’ve put it back into veg lighting to hopefully see any signs of improvement. (I know I’m stressing the shit out the this plant but my goal is to test the system, not necessarily crop out this round). So what is happening with my hydro system that needs adjusted? I was overwatering at first and then dialed it back about perfectly to the golden rule of “until it’s almost dry again, then rewater” and now it looks thirsty. And dead as a door nail. And the roots have some mold growing on it. Should I try converting the other two plants that are mid flower, in soil, to this system? With some major adjustments of some kind, obviously. The incentive to do that is that the hydro system is in a charcoal ventilated grow tent and I’d really prefer my nugs in there.
If you’ve made it this far into this post I appreciate you more than you know! I’m going to start including pictures pretty much in the order that they happened. They’ll include some of the construction of the hydro table just to illustrate how it works. The last photos are of my current plants that are just on the shelf under an old hps light in my basement that I really have to do something with soon, even if it means growing them in soil in buckets inside the hydro table in the tent. Step one is trying to diagnose the hydro system though!
View attachment 4321376
First let me start by explaining that I was growing in soil up until recently. I ran into a few problems with soil along the way but nothing major until the fungus gnats larvae had stopped my root growth and I didn’t know how to kill them for good until I found the BTi bacteria. Anyway, around the same time I was fighting gnat larvae I decided I was going to need to build a hydro setup that involved less frequent maintenance because sometimes I would have to leave my plants unattended for a couple days at a time and with soil it wasn’t possible.
So not really caring about the fate of my current plants (the gnat thing had them in bad shape pretty quickly) I decide to build a hydro setup that I would repopulate with new clones. After the system was finished, I had also been treating the larvae for a couple days with great success. My plants were looking healthy again so obviously I can’t just pitch them, so I googled if a soil plant can be converted to hydro and I’ve seen people have luck. So I take one of my plants and start scrubbing it’s roots clean to move to the new hydro system.
The first night it spent in the hydro setup went great, it was looking good the next day. It spent the whole next day under light and getting 24 hours of flowing water. I should also mention these plants are about a week into flower at this point. Toward the end of its first day in the hydro setup I noticed two things, a tiny spot of blueish/black mold on the roots and some wilting in the leaves. I figured I was drowning the roots and decided to put it on a timer giving it a thirty minute flow with an hour in between waterings, and no water overnight. You’ll be able to tell how my system runs from the pictures, it’s kind of a hybrid system that’s most like an ebb and flow but with more of a drip/steady flow style feed, but also will have the benefits of a dwc setup when roots reach the bottom of the buckets. I’m flexible to changing the feed method as well, my plan was to add internal misters to the buckets after my roots started to develop a little more for something of a low pressure aeroponic effect. There’s a fourth bucket outside of the tent that sits lower than the three inside the tent and recirculates everything back up hill. The ph is set to around 5.8 and I have what I would consider a proper nutrient solution in the bucket currently. The whole system holds about 7 gallons of water and I circulate with a 400 gph pump.
Basically what I need help with is this. The plant that I’ve tried to move from soil to hydro isn’t looking any better with the different watering timing and I’ve put it back into veg lighting to hopefully see any signs of improvement. (I know I’m stressing the shit out the this plant but my goal is to test the system, not necessarily crop out this round). So what is happening with my hydro system that needs adjusted? I was overwatering at first and then dialed it back about perfectly to the golden rule of “until it’s almost dry again, then rewater” and now it looks thirsty. And dead as a door nail. And the roots have some mold growing on it. Should I try converting the other two plants that are mid flower, in soil, to this system? With some major adjustments of some kind, obviously. The incentive to do that is that the hydro system is in a charcoal ventilated grow tent and I’d really prefer my nugs in there.
If you’ve made it this far into this post I appreciate you more than you know! I’m going to start including pictures pretty much in the order that they happened. They’ll include some of the construction of the hydro table just to illustrate how it works. The last photos are of my current plants that are just on the shelf under an old hps light in my basement that I really have to do something with soon, even if it means growing them in soil in buckets inside the hydro table in the tent. Step one is trying to diagnose the hydro system though!
View attachment 4321376
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