G13 Pineapple Express and UFO Skunk #1 from Attitude. First Time Hydroponics Grow

Wake up, check the ppm, and it's at 373 now....This is so frustrating. What is going on with her?! And the problem isn't really getting any better, so I'm not sure if the ppms were my problem. I've done everything I can pretty much to try and correct it, and nothing seems to be working.

im not hating on you or anything bro but this is why i stick with soil

No worries, I don't care if you were hating. I've grown soil once before, and after seeing what hydroponics is capable of, I decided to give it a shot. I figured this first grow would be a learning experience, and so far it has been. I didn't expect to just grow a plant and have no problems/issues along the way. On a side note, the ppm raised from 370 to 383 while I was at work. I'm about to change the res and adjust it back down to 350 and see how it goes.

yea i know what your saying man i been lokoing into tryin hydro myself this dude on here was saying with a 400watt and the hydrofarm bucket he was pulling i believe 16 oz's every harvest and if that is for real i wanna try it

Yeah you're talking about ScottyBalls, that's the journal I was trying to replicate more or less. He gets 10-15 a plant. And Serapis did something very similar and is on par with 11 oz per plant or so at the moment if I'm not mistaken. So it's obviously a good system/setup, I'm just struggling at the moment.

I removed one of the very first 3 bladed leaves to form, which is the original leaf to begin to show problems, in order to better show the problem I'm dealing with. I didn't remove all 3 blades, as the stem leading from them is very healthy looking. Even the veins for the leaf itself look healthy. Hopefully someone can tell me whats causing this, or perhaps what it may be. Also, just checked the res again and the ppm were reading 373.

yea i am going to invest in one of those systems soon....

Raylan. I'm fairly new so take this with a grain of salt, but it looks like an over nute problem. It's that little twist in the leaf that tips me off. When I started I made the mistake of using the feeding schedule that GH had on the side of the bottles. Then I got a General Hydroponics feeding table for recirculation and noticed the levels per additive went down when combined. I keep my PH at about 5.4 and my veg room at 50% humidity and upper 70's temp. I don't have a tool to measure ppm's, so that may not be worth pulling your hair out.over. My system is a cheap home made DWC/Top Feed. Nothing fancy. I flush the system once every two weeks, which seems to be enough. I just took pics of my first grow last night, so I'll show my results just so you know I'm not full of shit. Good luck. It can be a little trying at first. I killed several seedlings in the beginning, keep on truckin'

Nutes

GH Flora Nova Grow (veg)
GH Flora Nova Bloom (Flower)
GH FloraBlend Booster
GH Floralicious Plus
Techna Flora Magi-Cal
GH Liquid Kool Bloom (Bulking Formula)
Botanicare Raw Sweetner (Halfway through bloom to enhance natural flavor and resin/oil production)

2 Plants one bucket

Dwarf Bubba Kush and Sensi Skunk #1 and yes that is just one huge skunk plant.

40% humidity in flower room. FYI

Hey man, thanks for the reply.
This is one of the problems I'm having...is that everything I'm experiencing has received 2-3 different solutions. One being to up the ppm, and another being to drop the ppm. She was doing fine at 100, then the problems started. Bumped to 150 and nothing. Bumped to 300 and nothing. Bumped to 375 and nothing. Shes still growing new growth just fine, but the problem is spreading to the new growth now as well.
I don't trust my PH meter as far as I can throw it, so I think that's been one of my problems. Usually the FloraDuo buffers the PH to around 5.8 when adding part A and B to the DI water. I can't keep the humidity very high at all unless I cut some of the circulation down, and then I experience problems keeping the heat down. At this point I'm at a loss as to what to do, or what not to do.
I'm considerring just letting her go until she's big enough to take a clone and just starting over. Of course to do this I need to find out what's causing my problems to begin with. I'm probably reading into it too much, but is it possible that this is a spider mite problem? I've yet to see too many tale-tale signs that it IS a pest problem, but then again what do I know. I can't see any pests on the plant, but that doesn't seem to mean too much. Your grow looks like it came along very nicely, I wish I could come out with something similar. I think I'm going to try adjusting the PPM back down just to see what it causes, I don't think it can get much worse at the moment. Pics in a little bit, not that it matters anymore.

Give me about 10 minutes to catch up on your recent problems and maybe I can help. I'm hoing you are using Scotty's method and keeping it simple. If so, we should have you all fixed up in no time.

That is EXACTLY what you want to see. That means that right now, as of today, she is happy with about 370, so I'd go with approx 350 ppm until it starts dropping again. Keep in mind, that you will not see improvement in existing leaves. Your upper growth should look great however. Also, get a PH pen you can rely on. Your current one might just need calibrating. Drop it in some CAL 4.0 and if see if it reads 4.0. Distorted leaves usually indicate a micro nutrient deficiency. It is usually can be caused by PH lock out, however in this case, I believe it to be too little nutrients until just last 48 hours.

Remember, just 48 hours ago, you only had PPM at 150. Give plant time to adjust. If you have some SuperThrive, add a 1 ml per gallon (1/4 tsp)

Your PPMs are going to fluctuate, your plant is a living thing. You should not have been frustrated that your PPM rose overnight and here is why.... When your lights go off, photosynthesis stops. The plant quits producing energy and begins to store it and make it available for cell construction (growth). This process requires water and the plant takes it from the reservoir. The plant isn't utilizing nutrients like it does in light, therefore the volume of water intake will be much higher than the nutrient intake. Because water is removed from the tank, but not nutrients, the nutrient's parts per million value increases because the water decreases. Does that make sense?

right now, you are in that new grower phase of fear and consternation. try to realize that most adjustments need to be minor. Most mistakes that kill plants are dumb ones. Over reactions, trying to many remedies, over analyzing your plants. Try to remember that it is a weed. It is very versatile. (most strains are, but not all). RELAX and chill

there is nothing wrong. just keep at it with the ppm like you learned. small adjustments. If you don't believe a reading, take a new sample and test again. Also, hydroton does not change ppm or ph. it is completely 100% inert. That is why it is the most popular hydro medium....

Raylan said:

Wake up, check the ppm, and it's at 373 now....This is so frustrating. What is going on with her?! And the problem isn't really getting any better, so I'm not sure if the ppms were my problem. I've done everything I can pretty much to try and correct it, and nothing seems to be working.

Click to expand...

Also, your RH is OK too.... if you can keep it near 50%, you are doing well for either cycle.

Serapis said:

That is EXACTLY what you want to see. That means that right now, as of today, she is happy with about 370, so I'd go with approx 350 ppm until it starts dropping again. Keep in mind, that you will not see improvement in existing leaves. Your upper growth should look great however. Also, get a PH pen you can rely on. Your current one might just need calibrating. Drop it in some CAL 4.0 and if see if it reads 4.0. Distorted leaves usually indicate a micro nutrient deficiency. It is usually can be caused by PH lock out, however in this case, I believe it to be too little nutrients until just last 48 hours.

Remember, just 48 hours ago, you only had PPM at 150. Give plant time to adjust. If you have some SuperThrive, add a 1 ml per gallon (1/4 tsp)

Your PPMs are going to fluctuate, your plant is a living thing. You should not have been frustrated that your PPM rose overnight and here is why.... When your lights go off, photosynthesis stops. The plant quits producing energy and begins to store it and make it available for cell construction (growth). This process requires water and the plant takes it from the reservoir. The plant isn't utilizing nutrients like it does in light, therefore the volume of water intake will be much higher than the nutrient intake. Because water is removed from the tank, but not nutrients, the nutrient's parts per million value increases because the water decreases. Does that make sense?

right now, you are in that new grower phase of fear and consternation. try to realize that most adjustments need to be minor. Most mistakes that kill plants are dumb ones. Over reactions, trying to many remedies, over analyzing your plants. Try to remember that it is a weed. It is very versatile. (most strains are, but not all). RELAX and chill

there is nothing wrong. just keep at it with the ppm like you learned. small adjustments. If you don't believe a reading, take a new sample and test again. Also, hydroton does not change ppm or ph. it is completely 100% inert. That is why it is the most popular hydro medium....

Click to expand...

Thanks again Serapis for taking the time to reply, I know that my grow will not benefit you as if it were your own, so thanks. As for the PH meter, I plan on ordering a new one as soon as possible. I have 4.0 and 7.0 calibration solution, and it will read the 4.0 fine but I believe I contaminated the 7.0 as it never reads it right. Also, after submerging the electrode the PH will continue to rise by .1 as long as I leave it in there. It went from 5.9 to 7.5 in about 2 minutes last night in DI water, and did something very similar to the water from my reservoir. As far as the PPM situation goes; The current PPM is 380. It has fluctuated from 350-380 over the past day or so. Your entire situation regarding the slight increase in PPM overnight makes a lot of sense, but the only problem is I'm using a 24/0 vegging cycle for her, so there is no dark period. Would something similar still take place given the lighting schedule? Also, if you were going to ask why I'm using a 24/0 it's because I'm limited with height, and I wanted bushier growth. It's debatable, but a few articles I've read by several botanists stated that you receive 33% more veg growth as well.
I completely agree that I'm in the new grower phase, and fear is a big part of it. A huge part of it being that I've never grown hydroponically before, so everything is a learning process and the end result of this grow is somewhat important. I try to be hesitant with anything I do as it seems the margin for error with hydro is a little smaller than with soil. Every time I take a ppm reading of the res, I take 3 samples and average them together. They're usually all 3 the same, give or take a few ppm.
Also, you said that my new growth should look fine, but my newest growth is beginning to show small signs of the same problem. It starts towards the ends of the blades, an works its way up the leaf to the stem. I keep thinking it is a problem with my humidity as well, because after the first night of using the humidifier I can't seem to get the humidity above 40% now. It's usually about 38% with the temperature being 80F. Sorry for jumbling all of this together, I'm tired/aggravated by work so my mind is a mess at the moment.

Quit stressing the ppms... 380 sounds right for that stage of growth. the ppm will fluctuate up and down, it is just the plant taking what it needs, when it wants to. As long as you are in it's range, you are fine. Sounds like the electrode in your ph pen might need replacing. Have you soaked it in an acidic cleaning solution recently?

take a small bucket and float a big sponge in it. The sponge will evaporate water into the air at a clip rate and help with humidity. You may also want to slow down exhaust fan if you are running one, let humidity build up in grow area, only exhausting as needed for temperature or air exchange reasons.

I'm not really stressing the PPM, I'm stressing the problem that my plant is having, and from what you told me it was a nutrient deficiency of some kind so that's why I'm stuck on it. I just want her to look as healthy as she could, and to grow to her full potential.
Will try the sponge/bucket idea in a little while. I had something similar before I bought the humidifer but I figured I could take it out after adding it, I guess I'll have to try both and see if that gets the humidity up.

Just remember, take it easy. I get teh vibes that you are stressing hard, or at least it came across that way in an earlier post when you were virtually throwing your hands up in the air, as if giving up out of frustration. That is the feeling I picked up on, sorry if I was off.

Everything will be good mon... get a ph pen asap. otherwise, everything is ok.

My tent is at 44% RH and I really don't think about it much... I worry about extremes.... 30% is too dry, 70% is too high...

Yeah I was about at that point when I posted that earlier, but then again I have a few other things stressing me out unrelated to this grow, so you were on and off. Hah. And I plan on it.
And it's just hard to look at her and say "everything is okay" in my head, when she looks half dead from the bottom up. I mean if worse comes to worse I can always start over, so its not THAT serious, but I don't care for wasting time.

How much was your tent btw? I went for the 24x48x62 for $70 with the intention of running two waterfarms in it, but I ended up only running the one with the PE in it. Looking back on it I should have got a taller one, as I like to keep my waterfarm elevated a little for ease of draining, and the light hangs about 10" off the top of the tent, so I really only have about 2' of grow room vertically before being too close to the light. Eventually I'll get around to finishing one of the rooms in my basement for a dedicated grow area, but for now tents will have to do. I'd like to get one similar to yours in size, but I guess this one will have to do for this grow.

Sarpis obviously is way more experienced than I am. He's right. Small adjustments and patience are key. I have also used Thrive B-1 as a healing tonic. Above everything else I think PH is super vital. I have friends that swear by 5.2, but I prefer 5.4-5.6. I had problems when I started and hated trying to figure it out, but I stuck with it and it turned out better than I ever imagined.

I had to use a humidifier at first, but then the plants got bigger and the RH naturally rose. There are some different opinions on RH. If my RH gets over 50% I immediately lower it. I know growers in humid areas that would kill to get their RH in the upper 30's. Too much RH will increase your mold potential during flowering. Maybe a timer for that fan would help achieve a more consistent level. With that being said if you are above 30% I don't think it's the source of your problem. doesn't sound like pests either. Has to be PH, nutes or a combo. Just watch that new growth like Sarpis recommended and don't worry too much about the other stuff. It sucks when your plants can't just speak and tell you whats wrong. Wouldn't that be a perfect world. Wait that sounds like "Little Shop of Horrors". Maybe not perfect per say. LOL