First aero grow. autoflowering. transitionary issues with nutes and/or other.

Hi all. I have been growing some cream caramel auto in my aeroflo36 for the past 28 days now and they are starting to flower, which is amazing. Only downfall is that my plants were looks strong and sturdy yesterday, the leaves looked as if they were thriving, reaching towards the light. Today, the complete opposite, they are shriveled and drooping.

I made the following adjustments within the last 48 hours.
Drain half of reservoir
Refill with PH balanced water
Add 250ml of Advanced Nutrients Final Phase flush
Let system run for 24 hours
Completely drain reservoir
Refill with PH balanced water
Added the following nutes

Connoisseur A&B 300ml
VooDoo Juice 300ml
Bud Candy 300ml
Bud Factor X 125ml
B1 150ml

Here are the current stats as of this morning
Air temp - 70-77
Water temp - 73-77
PH - 5.75 -5.83
PPM- 850
EC - 1.2
Humidity - 40-50%
Light Cycle - 19 on / 5 off
Light Height - 17"

Setup
Setup

Secret Jardin DR150 Tent
Phresh 6x24 Carbon Filter
Valuline 6' inline fan w/ speedster controller
Aeroflo 36 Aero Unit
Growlightpro 450W LED
Other Misc items



The "blue" photo shows how stout that they were just 24 hours ago. Yes there is some prior damage that was done a week ago by a negligent roommate that knows how to grow soil, not hydro, and I was out of town for Turkey day. Needless to say, he messed it up and upon my return, I got everything back in order.

help please?

No one??? Ok, well until I get a response, I am shooting from the hip and making these changes:

Drop the PPM to 745
Drop the EC to 1.03
Stabilize the PH at 5.75
Add 100ml of Final Phase flushing solution.

Currently -
Air temp - 75
Water temp - 77
Humidity - 47%

What's your sprayer schedule?

It's 24/7. It's an aeroponic unit, the Aeroflo36.

Res temp is a little too high need to cool it down

Are u using rock with Hydroton

what was the PPM before you changed it? did you up the nutes/PPM's and have you flushed with that Advanced Nutrients Final Phase flush before?

Your res temps are a bit too warm, try running a watering schedule like 1 min on 4 min off.
This will help to ensure your pump isn't heating up your nutes while keeping things properly moist and not
overwatering. I used to run my AF60 just like this and would give me some stellar results.

View attachment 1916735

bengalyork said:

Res temp is a little too high need to cool it down

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I have noticed that I am on the upper scale. Need to bring it down to help increase DO, but how without an expensive chiller? It fluctuates between 73-78.

bengalyork said:

Are u using rock with Hydroton

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Straight hydrotron around rapid rooter plug in coco coir cups.

MEANGREEN69 said:

what was the PPM before you changed it? did you up the nutes/PPM's and have you flushed with that Advanced Nutrients Final Phase flush before?

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I have never used final phase flush before.After letting the ppm's drop to 745, I added some epsom salt which brought it back up to about 860. I then increased the ph to 5.9 and let it rise as high as 6.2, then lowered it back down. So far, I am seeing improvements. I am doing this blindly so I have no idea why, but I'll go with it until I encounter something else to diagnose. I will keep in touch with this grow.

disposition84 said:

Your res temps are a bit too warm, try running a watering schedule like 1 min on 4 min off.
This will help to ensure your pump isn't heating up your nutes while keeping things properly moist and not
overwatering. I used to run my AF60 just like this and would give me some stellar results.

View attachment 1916735

Click to expand...

This might sound dumb, but where exactly would I find a timer like that? The timer that I have is 15 on, 15 off increments.

I use these timers with great results and feel they're a very fair price. Some say that they're prone to failure but I've heard the same
thing about the 75 dollar cap cycle timers as well. I usually just buy two for in case purposes. I've run them with the AF 1/4hp pump
just fine too so should be good.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Repeat-Cycl...469?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item33680bd6e5

bmw626 said:

This might sound dumb, but where exactly would I find a timer like that? The timer that I have is 15 on, 15 off increments.

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That's way too much watering time and far too much drying out time if you ask me. Back it on down to something more in tune with what disposition said.

And also for aero, look into getting a Sentinel DRT-1 timer. That's the only one I'd even consider using for this type of application...

disposition84 said:

I use these timers with great results and feel they're a very fair price. Some say that they're prone to failure but I've heard the same
thing about the 75 dollar cap cycle timers as well. I usually just buy two for in case purposes. I've run them with the AF 1/4hp pump
just fine too so should be good.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Repeat-Cycl...469?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item33680bd6e5

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Thanks man, I'll look into these!

JJFOURTWENTY said:

That's way too much watering time and far too much drying out time if you ask me. Back it on down to something more in tune with what disposition said.

And also for aero, look into getting a Sentinel DRT-1 timer. That's the only one I'd even consider using for this type of application...

Click to expand...

I think you mis understood what I had said. I have a timer that I use for my lights that is 15 on/ 15off. I have never seen anything in those small increments that he was mentioning, until he just shared an ebay link with me about it. I would never leave the roots to sit for 15 minutes. woot.

Ok, so I had a big ol' huge response that I had typed up and I had two windows opened, clicked to close out of one, then my defective mouse decides to double click, and I lose both windows and everything that I had just typed. fml.

I'll keep it short.

As of right now, ph is being set at 5.9 and allowing to rise to 6.2, at which time I lower it again to 5.9 and let it naturally rise. I figured this to be best so that all nutrients across the ph "spectrum" can be absorbed properly. If this continues to work well, I will start dropping it to 5.6 and letting it rise to 6.1 or so and lower it again. I firmly believed that that PH was supposed to stay at 5.8 at all times, regardless, no matter what. With that thinking, I believe I have practically damaged my plants. Again though, they are doing better now with the higher PH and I will continue to monitor.

I want to also mention that these plants are of the autoflowering variety. They started flowering as of 3 days ago so I want to receive any insight as to what to do with the nutrients, do I feed gradually and watch closely to see how much the plant can tolerate, or just follow the label, which in my opinion seems overkill. The PPM's are current set at roughly 870, up from 740 which was before I added epsom salt, which I was told was good for the plants. It did raise my EC from 1.06 to 1.2.

Another thing that I am noticing is that the PH is climbing rapidly. I have to use quite a bit more PH down just to get it stabilized than before. Is this normal or is this is a sign of something bag? Also, is the use of sooooo much PH down bad for the plants/roots?

I am not quite certain that just because my reservoir temps are a little high, that I am having all these issues with my plants. Or could I be wrong?

*Random Facts*

My water level in the runners is at 2.5 inches right now.

I am short one LED light. I have a 4x4 grow area with a light that has a core penetration of only 2x3. Ordered 2nd. LED light today, should arrive before weekend. Will have a total of 900W of 7-band LED lighting at 16".

Air temp 73-81

Water temp 73-80

Humidity 35-50%

PH - 5.8-6.2

EC 1.2

PPM - 870-ish.

Please bear with me and my lack of experience and first hand knowledge, as well as my crappy iPod quality photos.

bmw626 said:

I think you mis understood what I had said. I have a timer that I use for my lights that is 15 on/ 15off. I have never seen anything in those small increments that he was mentioning, until he just shared an ebay link with me about it. I would never leave the roots to sit for 15 minutes. woot.

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The Sentinel recyclable timer is adjustable anywhere from 1 sec to 24 hrs.


Anyways all of your numbers look good still except for that res temp, which I think the minimum you've stated of 73 is beginning to approach on the high side.


Definitely over watering though... those leaves are sweating!


Best of luck to you on the aero grow. I'm personally intimidated by its seemingly high maintenance and little room for any error.

they look alot better now. you should do a total rez change, clean the system and start from there.how often are you changing the rez? also how long ago did the damage on the leaf start? it looks kind of like a CAL/MAG prob. epsom salt helps with that. if you have a magneticly driven pump that can cause probs too. you should look into getting some CAL/MAG and base nutes that is easly water soluble if you dont all ready have them. if so what are you useing for nutes?

JJFOURTWENTY said:

The Sentinel recyclable timer is adjustable anywhere from 1 sec to 24 hrs.


Anyways all of your numbers look good still except for that res temp, which I think the minimum you've stated of 73 is beginning to approach on the high side.


Definitely over watering though... those leaves are sweating!


Best of luck to you on the aero grow. I'm personally intimidated by its seemingly high maintenance and little room for any error.

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Thank you! I did 5 months of solid reading on these boards coming into this project thinking that it was going to be cake, HAHA! It's been one of the more difficult things I've had to learn in life, up there with women actually. lmao.

Gonna get a timer that allows 1 min on, 4 min off, that will save with power too!

Any say so regarding what to do with the PH or how to handle it?

MEANGREEN69 said:

they look alot better now. you should do a total rez change, clean the system and start from there.how often are you changing the rez? also how long ago did the damage on the leaf start? it looks kind of like a CAL/MAG prob. epsom salt helps with that. if you have a magneticly driven pump that can cause probs too. you should look into getting some CAL/MAG and base nutes that is easly water soluble if you dont all ready have them. if so what are you useing for nutes?

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Total res change was done two days ago. I flush the system roughly every 9 days. The damage started after I did a res change and switched from the GH Flora nutes over to the 2 part Advanced Nutrients "Connoisseur" Blend + additives. I followed the nute calc on their website and started out with 1/4 strength, that left me with roughly 650ppm. so I bumped it up to half strength of everything, and that put me right at 1000ppm, which according to the website, is the ppm that it should be at right now, but obviously not because it started burning everything. (or so it seems to me) The morning after the previous nights flush and fresh nutes, everything was starting to droop down and from what it looks like to me, is a cal/mag dif, like you had said.

I purchased some Epsom salt and only put in 30ml worth, which is about 3 tablespoons. I was doing some reading and read that 1 tablespoon per gallon is required. Is this true? I noticed when I added that little bit, that it jacked my PPM by about 100 as well as my EC by .2. Should I add more epsom salt? If so, how much? What should I set my PH at to take up CAL and MAG at the same time?


Some more pictures of the problem areas that I am seeing. It's slowly killing these guys it seems like. Someone come forth and help rid me of this problem, please!

yeah 1 tbsp per gallon sounds right but i whould make sure..those leafs will never get any better looking the damage is done. watch the new growth to see how their doing.

how about some pics of the tops?

bmw626 said:

..........snip......
Another thing that I am noticing is that the PH is climbing rapidly.

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First my disclaimer I am an utter newbie. I have done one NFT grow of tomatoes prior to my current attempt. However if you do a search on Al B. Fuct and rising pH he states it can be due to roots rotting.

He also discusses ways to handle root rot. Here's one of the posts:
https://www.rollitup.org/hydroponics-aeroponics/399206-its-fuct-world-41.html#post5471376

The AeroFlo systems are nice systems but is it possible you have an emitter block off in the tube? I copied the AeroFlo system when I made my home made one. I put the emitters in the tube like yours and I lost a plant due to emitter block off. I made an external manifold that I now sit on top of the system so there's no chance of an internal blockage I can't see or get to.

Anyway I wish you the best of luck on finding the source of the issue. I know all to well how frustrating and scary this stuff is when it goes south.

curious2garden said:

First my disclaimer I am an utter newbie. I have done one NFT grow of tomatoes prior to my current attempt. However if you do a search on Al B. Fuct and rising pH he states it can be due to roots rotting.

He also discusses ways to handle root rot. Here's one of the posts:
https://www.rollitup.org/hydroponics-aeroponics/399206-its-fuct-world-41.html#post5471376



The AeroFlo systems are nice systems but is it possible you have an emitter block off in the tube? I copied the AeroFlo system when I made my home made one. I put the emitters in the tube like yours and I lost a plant due to emitter block off. I made an external manifold that I now sit on top of the system so there's no chance of an internal blockage I can't see or get to.

Anyway I wish you the best of luck on finding the source of the issue. I know all to well how frustrating and scary this stuff is when it goes south.

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Thanks for the tip. The sprayers are functioning flawlessly though. I am also using VooDoo Juice and Bud Candy for a root stimulant. The roots look discolored but I think they are just stained. As of right now the PH is stabilized itself at 5.8. I also added 20ml of Con. A & B (should of technically added 300ml according to AN nutrient calculator) as well as its second weekly dose of 150ml of VooDoo Juice and, 50ml of Bud Factor X, and 150ml of Bud Candy. We will see how it goes after the lights come back on. Will provide pics of the tops and roots at that time.