My very first grow - AeroFarm

Hi again,

You are doing fine do not worry!

I'm trying to get hold of an Aerofarm myself, but everywhere has sold out and they say G.H.E stopped making them.

Any chance your hydro shop posts to the UK ?

Cheers mate
 
Hi again,

You are doing fine do not worry!

I'm trying to get hold of an Aerofarm myself, but everywhere has sold out and they say G.H.E stopped making them.

Any chance your hydro shop posts to the UK ?

Cheers mate

I believe I have seen one in hydro shop in Amsterdam. I know for sure that they do ship to UK.
try calling them: http://www.dampkring.nl/


If they don;t have it on stock let me know - I'll check at my hydro shop for you.

Adam
 
It seems, that 2 of my plants are less resistant than 2 others...
What is strange is that 2 oldest plants (10days older then others) are the less resistant ones!
When I am talking about resistance I mean pH fluctuation and nutes - how much harm overdosing nutes or running out of desired pH range can do to plants.
Few days ago my plants were doing fine so I extended nutes to EC=1,4 (from 0,8) . This caused two older plants to get a serious nute burn while young ones suffered only a little. I flushed the system for 1,5 day and decided to change nutes as I didn't trust the GHE One Part solution to be complete.

I decided to use GHE Flora series 3part that I got as a free gift for buying One Part. That gave me that crazy idea that those guys at GHE knew that they screwed one part up and they give some proper nute to their customers so they can switch to it when one parts dissapoints them ;-)
But to be fair I need to say that I was overdosing One Part in the beginning and I bought EC meter only last week. I will give One part another try in the future and let you guys know.

Ok, current stats:
age: over one month
plants height: 26-36cm (0,85-1,2 ft)
no of nodes on a plant: 7-9
light: MH 250W 18/6
pH : 5,87 (fluctuating)
EC: 0,8 (GHE Flora Series)
Humidity: 60%
Temp: 23C (73,5F)
Water temp: 21-23C (70-73,5F)

I noticed that my roots have strange colour - I am not sure if it is because of my additives and nutes (water is dark brown) or are they starting to rot. I got pretty scared anyway and ordered some hygrozyme.
I added it today for the first time - ca 1,5ml/l which is a little less then advised (2ml/l) but I prefer to go slowly ;-)
A small airstone is pumping air inside my res for 24h/day - I just switched it on few days ago but it seems that roots got whiter where air bubbles could reach them...

I have decided to start decreasing the amount of light my plants are getting.
I am using MH light now but have a 250W HPS ready for flowering.
My plan is:
1. to decrease light by 1,5h a day so I can reach 12/12 by the end of this week.
2. to feed them more nutes in 2 days from now (bring EC to 1)
3. to change bulb to HPS by the end of this week and start with 12/12 HPS in the beginning of next
 
...continued from previous post... (sorry about that)

4. monitor EC and bring it to 1,6-1,8 in 10 days from now...

Let me know what you think.
Advices appreciated!
Adam
 

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hey buddy, im sorry i havent seen your thread in a minute, i am in the states and its more common to use PPM than ec, but an i do know ec of 18 is very high, and to take it from ec1,0 to 1,8 in 10 days may be very harmful, you see your plants leaves looking like the claw? this is common for soil growers who over water, that airstone must always be running no matter what, believe it or not the roots will suffocate without it
 
also it may be the nutes, but get the hygrozyme, they are enzymes that attack harful bacteria, its essential in hydroponics, also my rule for adding nutrients is i let the plant dictate to me, i avoid nute burn very well by doing this, see how nice and dark the leaves are? this means they are getting more than enough at its current stage, theres three ways the plant will tell you if it has feeding issues, light green, dark green (almost blue) and burnt tips, now its completly natural to see light green on your newer growing leaves, but yellowing at the bottom older leaves means it needs more nitrogen, if the plant is still dark green then do not go higher ec, as the plant gets larger and older she will ask you for more food, as for chaning light cycles you can just flip the switch to 12/12 when you are ready, one bit of advice, people switch to bloom nutrients the day they flip the switch, this causes the plant to turn yellow from the lack of nitrogen, you should wait 2 weeks into flowering before you use bloom food, now i got confused about how you are feeding, you use General hydro right? the flora seris is a 3 part system, you said you were lacking mag and iron, with the 3 part you need to use all 3 together mixed, during vegitative growth you use less bloom nutes, and vice versa, all 3 parts have all different nutes so it will be lacking if you used grow and micro nutes without useing bloom
 
hi Morris,
Thanks for useful tips ;-)

I have discovered and experienced much more until now:

1. It is impossible to go from EC-0,8 to EC=1,6 in 10 days. I just raised to EC=1,1 after 3 days and burned them again... ;-(
I had to flush them and started feeding them with nutes again. What seems strange is that they do not accept the level of nutes from the GHE tables. I believe this is due to the previous nute burns.
Currently I feed them with half of the recommended dose, keeping EC at 0,7 (but adding more FlorGro to the mixture)

2. I have decided to give them a smooth switch from veg to bloom and decreased light to 12h/12 in 5 days. After 3rd day I have changed bulb to HPS

3. in the beginning my pH was raising like crazy but in 5 days I managed to stabilize it around 5,6.
I have noticed that HYGROZYME lowers the pH initially but may be responsible for raising it later... Even though it f*#ks pH I am going to keep using it at 2ml/l.
My roots look much better now - whiter and more fresh. I believe that airstone+hygrozyme combo is a must in a system like this one, where roots are constantly under water. I have read somewhere about guys cutting their roots, not allowing them to sunk in the water - what do you think about it?

I should be taking few pictures of the plants soon - It is 8 days since i start:spew:ed switching to flowering and I cannot see any preflowers. I suppose I just don't know where to look for it but I am afraid my plants are all males. 2 grown from feminised seed but how can you be sure ?

Take care and step in to see pics later ;-)
 
As promised...
They're in 5th day of 12/12 light cycle now....
By the end of this week I am going to switch to bloom nutes...

As you can see it is very crowdy there now.
I think, that Aerofarm is suitable for growing maximum 4 plants - you can't use its 5th slot unless you decide to grow very small and short plants - there is not enoough space, light isn't penetrating deep enough and my plants are growing together, touching mixing their stems and leaves...
Also their roots have tied together.

no more talking - just pics ;-)


oh - one more thing:
I've been looking for preflowers but cant find any.
Can you tell its sex guys?

Thanks
Adam
 

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Did somebody mention SEX?

I looked and I need closeups to help tell the sex. Old eyes aren't what they used to be. Close ups?
 
hi Orzz,
Thanks for reading my thread.
I think that one 1 of 4 is a female for sure. I can see hair on the first pic.
The other 3 have some small rounds - I am not sure If i took correct pics.
It was a pain in the ass to take pictures with magnifying glass but I hope you can see smth.
Adam
 

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Great job using the magnifier with the camera.
I just can't tell for sure and don't want to mislead you.
With that said it looks as if 2 of 'em may be males.
Damn I forgot which pics .... the last one is one.

Sorry I am not much help. Good Luck.
 
I have found hair on second plant!
Both of identified females were grown from feminised seeds.
That means a success rate from fem seeds is 100%
The other two plants grew from old regular original skunk seeds - I think both of them are males...
I just need a confirmation of that - are this round small spots near new leaves a male's balls?
Is there any chance that they could turn out to be females?
If not - I should be removing them ASAP...
Adam
 
ok... I have to calm down.
I am getting too excited ;-)

Yesterday I have found out that I had 2 fems.
I wasnt sure about the other 2 but I didn't want to take any additional risk.

I was reading a lot about sexing in past few days and I have found a very nice idea on what to do with male plants.
Take a look at that post here

http://forum.grasscity.com/recreational-marijuana-use/262352-tale-male-cannabutter.html

It is called : A tale of a male cannabutter ;-)
I would appreciate somebody confirming that I have actually killed males.
That would make my heart much lighter ;-)
Adam
 

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It's done ;-)
My apartment stinks like hell.
I have given some to a friend.
I can't try it before next weekend ;-(
How long can it be stored in a fridge?
Should I freeze it?
Any ideas or good recipes to use it for?
Hope someone reads this thread and replies ;-)
Thanks
Adam
 

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I last tried to make butter years ago. Was a mess. Haven't tried since. Let me know what you think of yours. Good Luck!
 
ok, it's been almost 2 weeks from last pics...
Let me know what you think - I burned them again ;-(
They don't seem to accept any nutes level where EC exceeds 0,8
I start to burn them immediately.
I have also changed my nutes dosage - switched to full flower nutes now.
no more talking - just pics - let me know what you think of it.
both plants come from indoor feminised seeds mix - do you think this is the same strain or 2 different? Height difference is huge!
It seems I have at leaset 15-18 flowers on each plant. I wonder how much of a dried stuff can I get....

your thoughts are interesting to me ;-)

Take care

Adam
 

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Hey Adam your op is looking good. I can't tell if there are 2 different strains from your pics. But I can see nice green leaves with healthy buddage starting.
 
I am 30 days in flowering now.
Last week I noticed that lower parts of my plants are yellow-whitish because of lackof light. I decided to prune the middle fan leave to allow more light through.
I cut a lot of the main fan leaves from the middle part of the plant, got rid of several lower branches that looked faint and I was sure won't flower. Alltogether it was 10-15 ounces of green material!

But I was just starting...

After that I changed water in the res.
During changing I noticed, that roots have started to grow together, they grew in side the water pump and looked really messy.
I cut down at least a third or even more of the roots, separated them and washed under a shower ;-)

Nutes were dosed according to a table - full dose for later flowering period. EC reached 1,0

I couldnt sleep that night ;-)
I started to worry that pruning in flowering wasnt a good idea...

RECOVERY:::
First day after they didn't really look well. I noticed early symptoms of nute burn.
Thinking that a plant is in stress I decided to add more clean water to dillute to 0,7 EC
I added more hygrozyme.
The day after EC has raised to 0,8.
Since then I could see a great improvement - The plants started to lok healthier and buds started to gain mass more quicker.
Lower buds that were shaded before started to develop too and now the difference between lower and higher buds is not that huge...

Funny fact:
each of my plant drinks 1-1,5 liter (1/4 - 1/3 gallon) of water a day! a lot!!! ;-)

Take a look at pics.
I start to think I have 2 different strains. The trichomes on first plan are thinner and look more like hair while on the other they are much thicker.

I hope nobody minds my pictures - mania. If I upload too much just let me know ;-)
My love to them makes me do this.
 

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