Producer Grow

Okay sue me I have not been on in awhile, I had been planning to update this but I have had zero time.

I am starting my 2nd batch my first one went horribly wrong for lots of stupid (my own) reasons. I have since purchased the cannibas bible and read all manuals and posts on the producer.

I am now trying to grow skunk, I am in my first week of veg and things are going smoothly. Now that I understand ppm, ph and not to "rush" the process I am doing well.

I transplanted the youngin's from 1" rockwool into 3" rockwool two days ago and put them in the lower chamber. The pump is on and the airstones are cranking out pretty bubbles.

Each plant is the same colour no drooping and no nute burns so far so good. I am currently at 5.6ph and 635ppm although I can go as high as 800ppm I am being more cautious this round.

I appologize for not having a digital camera I will pick one up this week and post pics not only of the plants but of the unit as well.

I underestimated the skill needed to use this machine especially timing and mixing chemicals. Below are the pros and cons I have found with the producer in case anyone is interested in an unbiased review.

PROS

Very sharp looking machine, state of the art with computer run auto program. State of the art also in the parts used to build it balasts, lights etc. Overall to me a great package.

Cons

Not stealth at all you better have a safe place to hide this monster. The ph and ppm pens are very cheap I recommend you purchase higher quality pens before it arrives. The pump switch to activate the airstones is on the back of the unit which is a pain in the ass to get to. Lastly and most importantly is customer service which I give a 2 out of 10. It seems to me they want to sell you things like they are on commision and not overly interested in helping you get to the root of any growing problems. Several times I have had people read to me the manual word for word who had never actually used the product.

Overall to me I like the product although they need to tweak a few things. I found this site and others invaluable in helping me get the process right and I am enjoying coming home to check on my babies.

Thats it for now any questions let me know and again I will update this grow as it progresses.

Okay so I picked up a digital camera a sony cybershot 7.2 unfortunately I know about as much about growing as I do about photograpghy so please forgive the attached pics hopefully they get better over time.

I thought I would cheap out and use 28l instead of 56l in the resovoir, thus saving money on chemicals. Well lets just say I screwed up the pump needs more water so I have to revert to 56l, lesson learned and no damage done so it's all good.

I forgot to adjust my ph the other day so one little guy has a touch of nute burn (the blurry one sighhhh). Now every day when I get home the first thing I do is adjust, I am considering purchasing a ph nanny but first I want to get through one cycle.

On Saturday I start my 2nd week of veg and I am following the bcnl recipe to a tee. I have no idea "yet" about chemicals so I am very dependant on the chart.

By the way I know they are small I started from seed two weeks ago.

If anyone sees anything wrong or has suggestions or tips I welcome them as I am very much a newbie learning from his mistakes.

Thanks...........

One question if I may please.......when I ph'd down today I stirred up the resovoir to get an accurate reading. Before I switched on the pump I topping up with water and minor nutes (now at 771). I just noticed that the rockwool has brown patches from watering which I assume is from stirring up the res. Should I be concerned? better yet is this something I should be doing? You can see one of the brown spots in pic 2 above.

Thanks.

You want to put something over your Rockwool cubes to keep the light from hitting the cubes, otherwise you will get algae growth on them. Personally I use plain old aluminum foil. That browning is probably algae. Growth looks fine, once the roots emerge from the bottom of the pots the growth will explode and double each week. Go easy on the nutes, they grow fine at half the schedule doses.


To get good close up shots, put your camera into "macro" mode.

Thanks for the input NoDrama it is very much appreciated, tin foil and less nutes it is...

Okay so what a day I had to clean out the resovoir it had a lot of algae in it. After shop vaccing it and wiping it out I refilled it with water and turned on the pump to clean it and the tubing out. Again I shop vacced it out and wiped it down. I started my week 2 veg today I mixed my nutes to 535 in 56l of water and ph'd to 5.6, just before I added tinfoil to the baskets I noticed two plants missing!

I have two lead suspects please see attached pics, I questioned both of them trouble the white one and monster the brown one. Neither one has confessed as of yet but I have my eye on monster she can be a bitch!

I have a fan that I just started running on low to strengthen the plants, no sign of roots out of the 3.5 rockwool yet hopefully soon, the temp with the door open is 71.8F when closed 76ish.

From now on the door to this room stays closed to prevent any further thefts!

Them cute lil kitties wouldn't eat your pot would they???? Of course they would!!

Just thought I would post a few more pics.......I am worried about the droopy one it seems to be fading fast. The one with the burns was all my bad but it is looking okay just a bit of burn on the tips. I am wondering though is the colouring of the plants okay? They seem to be green and yellow now is that normal?

LOL No drama yeah I know I know I guess cause they can't roll the only option is to eat them....

Here are a few shots the one that worried me yesterday is doing really bad.......

......................

When you call BCNL talk to Blair there, he will help you with your grow the most. The manual they send with the unit also explains alot about the system and how to use it.

Currently what is your PH and your PPM levels, did you use RO water, distilled or tap?

I swear I read all the manuals cover to cover No Drama great in theory but when it comes to practical and growing it does not cover day to day issues which is why I turned to the online help and or phone help. It's all good I deleted my previous message no need to ruffle feathers.

I am using tap water once the chemicals are added to 56l I ph down to 5.6 and check it daily and adjust when I need to. My ppm is now up to 613 I added some hygrozyme to the mix yesterday with a diluted version of the regular 2 week veg mix.

And thank you about the heads up with Blair I will definately give him a call at some point.....the manual has his extension.

A quick question please is your rockwool soaking wet??????? I found my problem alge everywhere (again) and my rockwool was drenched. The rockwool was covered in brown as was the resovoir obviously I did not do a good enough job cleaning it out after I put on the tinfoil to block the light.

I took the one that was dying apart (the rockwock that is) and the brown had spread 1/3 of the way into the rockwool, I didn't know what to do so I made a gut decision.

I took all the plants out drained the resovoir and flushed everything out with vinegar and water, pump tubing everything I wiped down the walls the underside of where the pots go everything. I flushed out the system drained again and mixed new nutes to 635ppm and 5.6ph.

I was extremely careful taking the old rockwool apart so I would not damage or touch the roots and put them in 1" cubes then into the 3.5" cubes. This time however I made a hole in the centre of both cubes for the roots. I now have the roots maybe 1/8th of an inch out of the 3.5" rockwool (they were all curled up inside the rockwool). I could not believe how brown the inside of these cubes were in some cases the brown was 2/3's of the way down the cube almost at root level.

I gave them a light water and covered them again with tinfoil with the veg light off so I would not have any excess light, once done I flicked the veg light back on. Lesson learned about covering the pots as even though I had cleaned out the system everytime the drip system turned on the excess water dripping out of the rockwool was polluting my resovoir or at least that is my theory.

Sighhhh there goes 4 hours I hope some survive the transplant......

Plants should be ok. What nutes are you using? AN?

The pumps will top water the RW for 10 minutes 2 times per day, which is about double what RW really needs, but they need to accommodate peeps who use other mediums also, like hydroton. My next batch will be using hydroton to see if it works well, its reusable which to me means less stuff to throw away and more environmentally friendly. That algae can be a bitch, it doens't necessarily attack the mj plants but it will overgrow the res if not kept in check. My RW right now has light algae growth on the top, but it doens't matter much as tomorrow is harvest. Hopefully the Hydroton pellets will not let algae gain a foothold to begin with.

Yea I am using an, after I bought the producer I went through the list of all the chemicals I did not have and ordered them so I could follow the directions to a tee.

I hear you about the enviroment thats why I prefer vinegar over bleach.....I will be following your hydroton thread to see how it goes.

Don't have time to check out your thread as of now, but will when I have time.

I am so sorry to keep asking for help but I just don't get it........and it frustrates the fuck out of me. As you can see by the attached pics I once again have problems.

My ph daily is so out of whack that I am almost out of ph down. I leave for work 5.6 I come home 9.7. Son of a bitch! Ph down and repeat daily!!!!!!!!!!!

If anyone has any input I would greatly appreciate it, I have to change out the resovoir tomorrow night.

Sighhhhh

What kind of water do you use. what is the PH of the water? What are the temps of the water? What kind of PH down are you using?

Hey No Drama it is tap water and I keep it as cool as possible as per advice from bcnl. I use a ph down crystal form called earth juice.