First Grow, Journal

Hey everyone this is my first grow and i'm feeling a little anxious today. might have some chemical burn but while asking for help i was advised to start a grow journal in the newbies section. So here it goes, I've added some pics here of my current plant and i am a little worried about the leaves as you can tell. Looking for any advice that can be given. I've got older pics too if anyone wants to see it from seedling but i figure this is a good place to start. The grow is currently about 2 1/2 weeks in and I will add more pics as it goes to get advice from anyone that can help. The first question however is is this checmical burn like suspected? and does the plant look healthy now? (after first signs of burn only ph adjusted water has been added to reservoir to try and dilute the solution)

Grow info:
400w HPS lamp 18/6
pump on constantly during 18/6
waterfarm with clay pellets and rockwool cubes

I have not grown in this particular setup.I believe its a drop hoop around the plants then to the hydroton and the rockwool cube then a drain at the bottom and then back to res correct? What type of nutes are you using and wgat is the ph and current ppm at this stage?

that's correct about the setup. current ph is 6.0, but try to maintain at about 5.8. the nutrients are general hydroponics floramicro, floragrow, and florabloom (only micro and grow have been used) as for ppm, we've got a tds meter because that is what the hydro store sold. And the readings seem to be off the charts so that's been ignored lately. No osmosis system, but the water is put through a pur filter, ph adjusted to about 5.8. and stored in closet to reach room temp.

Ph at 5.8 is good.Your gonna need to know the ppm or tds same thing.Plants this young will have a low ppm especially with those nutes. Did they give you the feeding chart with the nutes so you know what the ppm should be each week of growth? Those nutes are a little touchy so off by a little and you might get that burn effect you got going. I would bet its a nute strength issue but without a ppm reading its gonna be hard to pin point it.I use Fox Farm start out about 800ppm and get as high as 1500 ppm or so.Make sure you have the feed chart and maybe get your tds meter calibrated and make sure its not just a 0-999 it needs to be a 0-9999 meter

just tested, and tds reading of 952 (yeah its a 9999 meter). Thats a little little lower than the last time i seriously took the reading so i'm hoping the burn will cease. Is that a good reading for where the plant is right now (last pic of first post)? how accurate are these readings though? aren't there a lot more dissolved solids in the water than just nutrients? as for a feeding chart, these nurtrients came with the waterfarm and all we've got is a little chart on back of the bottle that gives advice for each stage of growth (first time grower makes recognizing these stages difficult) is there a week by week feeding chart online somewhere anyone know? Im assuming only 50% of any chart though, correct?

Was that reading with the waters original ppm minused or that total including the original water ppm count. Id get that ppm down to about 800 ppm for awhile.Here is the feeding chart for your nutes.Use the lower of the rated ppms for your grow and see if that settles it down then around flowering raise it to the higher ppm listed.. Flora Nutrient Weekly Feeding Program - Greentrees Hydroponics

You are the fucking man, thanks for that. Just tested Ph adjusted water has tds of 223 so i guess that's 729 then in the reservoir? I'll heed your advice ant let it stay there for a little while i guess. You think a a few days should be fine until we need to add again, enough to recover?

2 questions about the nute guide too, 1. is an 800 ppm reading the same as an 800 tds reading? and 2. it gives a range for the ppm but an exact measurement for the amount of nute to add, should adding the recommended amount just give you a ppm reading somehwere between that range?

Yeah try a week at the lower ppm make sure you top off the res with just plain ph 5.8 water to keep the level at full. Never add nutes between weeks. Yes on the chart they give a target are you should fall into.They may say add so much of Bottle A with so much of Bottle B.Then if your low in the range you can add another dose for 1 gallon or 1/2 gallon as if there was that much more water then check again.You gotta get used to the nutes in your particular setup then it gets easy once you do a couple grows you know how high you can max the plants before an issue shows.TDS is total disolved solids which is the same as ppm as the tds meter measures in ppm or parts per million.

Alright i figure since i'm on here might as well keep asking questions...

so here we go first off take a look at my first picture attached here, thats our little seedling shelf with 2' t5 flourescent. the germinated seeds were put in rockwool which sits in a baking pan with the tiniest bit of ph 5.8 water. is this ok to just sit the rockwool in a little water? they seem to be doing fine so far.

next picture is of my main plant. my question is which of these circles exactly is a node? I think its the green and white ones right? so is this where to take for clones? and also if I were going to top to i just chop that blue one at the top right at the stem?
thanks for everyones help!

FilthyFletch said:

Yeah try a week at the lower ppm make sure you top off the res with just plain ph 5.8 water to keep the level at full. Never add nutes between weeks. Yes on the chart they give a target are you should fall into.They may say add so much of Bottle A with so much of Bottle B.Then if your low in the range you can add another dose for 1 gallon or 1/2 gallon as if there was that much more water then check again.You gotta get used to the nutes in your particular setup then it gets easy once you do a couple grows you know how high you can max the plants before an issue shows.TDS is total disolved solids which is the same as ppm as the tds meter measures in ppm or parts per million.

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Alright I think i get what your saying, you've been a load of help so far so thanks for all of that great info. Much appreciated if you could pop in every now and again to help out first grower, glad i ran into you

Yup got the circles right. You can cut a clone from anywhere on the plant once its mature.I take like 2 inch cuttings at the end of brnaches.Just give yourself about 1 1/2 of stem and 4 little leaves ontop to let it grow.Just pm me if you get a question I enjoy helping people here on rollit and like to learn from others..

this is probably a stupid question but whatever i gotta know, when is a plant mature and ready for cloning? when it first shows sex or before then?

Just an update to the grow, here are some pictures of the babies from today. Looks like they're recovering pretty well from that burn. Any advice?

the plants look good and healthy...I do have one question, the plants in the planter (are they clones or seeds from germination) They seem to be stretching quite a bit, so you should either move them up closer to the light or the light down closer to them. That should make them much happier

moser16 said:

the plants look good and healthy...I do have one question, the plants in the planter (are they clones or seeds from germination) They seem to be stretching quite a bit, so you should either move them up closer to the light or the light down closer to them. That should make them much happier

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yeah their seeds from germination just stuck in rockwool, i see them stretching a bit but i dont really have a way to get tem closer at the moment, but i'll work on it. thanks for the advice. Also, I feel like the seedlings you are talking about have greatly slowed their progress, is the one t5 flourescent enough light for the stage they are in? i thought it would be fine until i planted them but they dont seem to be getting any bigger any advice on that?

Yo its been a little while since i last posted and the plant has really taken off. Take a look at the pictures, shes real bushy we havent pruned or anything. yet to show sex, but while we're waiting any advice on what to do next? should we take clones and try to sex them or wait for the plant to show sex and take clones if its a female?

thecloset said:

Yo its been a little while since i last posted and the plant has really taken off. Take a look at the pictures, shes real bushy we havent pruned or anything. yet to show sex, but while we're waiting any advice on what to do next? should we take clones and try to sex them or wait for the plant to show sex and take clones if its a female?

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watch the watering, although it looks like you are on some sort of hydro system. The leaves look to be a little droopy and over watered. Other than that they look really good. As far as sex goes, are you in the 12/12 cycle? Mine have been in it for 2 weeks and have yet to show fully. So it just takes time. Plants will show sex when they are mature or forced to show sex. Take your pick.

Nah we're still in 18/6, and planning on waiting for it to mature before 12/12, that will maximize yield, correct? I have also heard that forcing the plant to flower too early can cause hermies, which I definitely want to avoid. As for the watering, I think those leafs look a little droopy because the picture was taken during the dark cycle so the leaves weren't standing up to get the light, I think it looks much better once the lights turned on. Thanks

heres some pics from three days ago, our main plant is real bushy, i know shes lookin a little wilted but its gotten hot in the closet and theres not too much i can do, added some home made co2 though. planning on going into 12/12 starting tomorrow, does anyone think the other 2 are ready to go into flowering? don't really have a spot to veg them right now so i hope so. thanks for your help in advance

Any help/advice anyone?