Dave's Dual Area 51 Grow

Mx822 said:

1.5 ms/cm to a Hanna meter that's 750 ppm I just looked up.

My tap water is at .5 ec already and I followed the nova bottle for early veg growth it said ec of 1.0 I'm pretty sure I've kinda took some advice off the guy at the hydro store and he said to kind of not so much worry about the .5 ec in my tap water but I'm still really new to this so any advice I'll gladly listen to I'll check her out tomorrow and see how she's going fingers crossed she's not a crispy mess lol

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My Hanna combo meter can be set to different conversion factors, from .5 to .75 I think. Mine is set to .66, but I think you're right that it should be .5 for American meters. (link to reference)

But even if you use .5 to get 750 ppm, that still seems too much for a seedling. Try to get it in the 300 ppm range (.6 miliSeimens). I start raising it after the plant's grown some big fan leaves, after the first couple weeks of veg. Most recommendations I've seen here tend to max out around 800-900 ppm, but that's only when the plant's close to its maximum veg size. Anyone, please correct me if I'm wrong!

Personally, I never use tap water because the stuff from my tap stinks and I almost never even drink it. And if you start out with RO-filtered pure water, you have more control over the minerals that go into it. But other people swear by their tap water, so it might be ok. For you, it's an experiment with 2 possible outcomes. I hope it's the good one! But I'd recommend starting with pure water and adding exactly the amount of nutes you need.

yup yup. ~300 ppm is right where you want to be for weeks 1-2 and RO is the only way to do it for hydroponics.

daveroller said:

Trimmed Lusinda & tied down some branches while flushing with plain water.

I’m trimming a lot more this time. Last time the foliage got too thick, so I’m erring on the side of trimming too much.

Front of Lusinda after trimming:

Front after tying down the 2 tops:

Back after trimming:

Here’s Lusinda after tying down her 2 tops in back:

Now that I look at her from this angle, I’m thinking that I could have left some of the tops in the middle where I opened up the plant by spreading her main branches apart.

Spotted some roots hanging down while changing the res water:

Also noticed some nute burn on a couple of the fan leaves hiding in back:

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Torture That Nasty Azz Biotch.She Will Respect You In The Morning

daveroller said:

The 2 little girls aren't looking too great:

Looks kinda like what happened last time in this bucket. I'm wondering whether the pump cycle needs to be different with this system. They seemed to perk up when I changed it to pump more often while I was flushing Lusinda. (Both pumps are controlled by the same timer.)

I'll go out and get a cheap timer that can be set turn on for 15 minute invervals, maybe once every hour. The other pump only goes on for 10 min every 2 hours.

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How they looking, Dave?

greatbranch said:

How they looking, Dave?

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A little bit better today. They're both growing finally. The Tahoe is especially looking strong. Libby is still looking a little ratty, but she's growing.

Those are all looking much better. RO system looks cool, is it going to stay in the washroom or will you be able to implement it into your grow room?

The Gator said:

Those are all looking much better. RO system looks cool, is it going to stay in the washroom or will you be able to implement it into your grow room?

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I'll leave it next to the bathroom sink. It's the closest place to the grow room where I can put it. The garden hose is long enough to reach my plants.

Lusinda today:

Lusinda’s tds went down every day from 586 ppm to 440 ppm in the last 5 days. Probably time to change it again or add some nute.


All 3 of my girls together:

The 2 babies are growing bigger:

They’re doing much better after stepping up the watering schedule.

Note about RO filter:

Update from Sunday

Libby & Tabitha:

Lusinda:

I’m keeping Lusinda nice and short by tying her branches down.

Nice fishboning in Lusinda’s roots:

Great pic of the roots, they really do look like fish bones!

Gave Lusinda fresh nutes today. This time just the base nutes + B52, a B vitamin supplement.

I’m thinking of adding the Final Phase for extra Magnesium just a few days before the next water change. Besides providing more Mg, it’ll start getting her ready for the next flush.

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I set the SGS-160 to full power today as well. It’s the light that’s hanging over Libby & Tabitha. Now both lights are set to full power, with their red LEDs turned on.

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Libby & Tabitha are getting a lot bigger. I topped them both today for the first time.

Their roots are getting flushed tonight to get them ready for a water change tomorrow. There was a little slime covering stuff in the res, so I washed everything thoroughly and added H2O2 @ 5 ml per gallon to the res. The only other stuff I added was Final Phase and pH UP/DOWN. I'll increase their nuteage tomorrow, since they're a lot bigger than last time. I'm thinking maybe around 450-500 ppm.

Nice looking RO system, Dave
I love my RO filter and couldn't grow without it.
Great looking grow, as usual, can't wait to see them bloom.

daveroller said:

Gave Lusinda fresh nutes today. This time just the base nutes + B52, a B vitamin supplement.

I’m thinking of adding the Final Phase for extra Magnesium just a few days before the next water change. Besides providing more Mg, it’ll start getting her ready for the next flush.

---
I set the SGS-160 to full power today as well. It’s the light that’s hanging over Libby & Tabitha. Now both lights are set to full power, with their red LEDs turned on.

---
Libby & Tabitha are getting a lot bigger. I topped them both today for the first time.

Their roots are getting flushed tonight to get them ready for a water change tomorrow. There was a little slime covering stuff in the res, so I washed everything thoroughly and added H2O2 @ 5 ml per gallon to the res. The only other stuff I added was Final Phase and pH UP/DOWN. I'll increase their nuteage tomorrow, since they're a lot bigger than last time. I'm thinking maybe around 450-500 ppm.

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They look great

Looking good, Dave! How much do you miss schlepping those 3 gallon jugs around?

Try some hygrozyme it will clear up that algae.

greatbranch said:

Looking good, Dave! How much do you miss schlepping those 3 gallon jugs around?

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It was a lot nicer to have all the water that I needed right at home last night! I changed both reservoirs yesterday and have to change one again today. And my 10 gallon water tank was filled up again just a couple hours after changing both res's. The built-in tds monitor always reads 0 ppm now.