Pyreonfire
Active Member
Hey guys.. so in the past 7 weeks I've managed to kill a seedling, a month old plant and it looks like I'm about to kill my 7 week old flowering auto. I've got a 10 day old seedling who is doing ok (for the moment) but I'm feeling less than confident. I just can't get my system in order!
So, here's my basic set up:
Everything has been an auto so far. DWC 6 gallon buckets (homemade from food grade buckets), wrapped in foil tape. I have 4 air stones in each bucket pushing air, hydroton with rock wool in the net pots. They are under a 300w LED blurple for the time being... I purchased a Spyder Farmer sf2000 but it hasn't arrived yet. Temps are right about 80 degrees with 55% RH pretty steady. Bucket temperatures have been about 69 degrees. Air is being vented out with a 3.5" vent set up (don't remember details but it's a good one) with a circulating fan running all of the time.
As far as nutrients go, I'm running in RO water that I have being filtered through a whole house system. The baseline EC is 18. I'm using General Hydroponics trio, Cal/Mag and hydro guard (Southern Ag) as a preventative since my water temp is a bit high. My Ph is typically right about 5.2 after I add all of the nutes and drifts up to about 6.5 the next day and I'll have to add a bit of PH Down on occasion to pull it back down and let it drift again, although some reservoirs it stays pretty steady.
Now, here's where I'm getting into trouble. I can't get my EC to stay down. Every single reservoir change, it rises. I have been starting at a very low EC and without fail, it spikes. This last reservoir change, I added 6 ml of each nutrition in the trio and 6 ml of cal/mag and my starting EC was 518 for a 7 week old flowing plant. It jumped up to 585 the following morning. Even my 10 day old seedling had a starting EC of 100 and it was at 400 today!
Here's the weird thing, I was having trouble getting a solid reading. So, I took a sample of water from the bucket without the roaring bubbles and grabbed an EC reading. I left it sitting out on the counter and when I went to check again that evening, I thought "hey, I'll recheck that water sample I took earlier" and it had dropped! I left it sitting in the jar for another hour and it dropped again. Like over 100 points. Left it out and the following morning the EC had raised. Just a jar of nute water... nothing drinking from it. That's weird, right?
My roots have been looking really good but recently, since starting the Southern Ag I'd say, they look more stained. But then my reservoir is darker from the Southern Ag, so it pretty much matches. Maybe there's something here?
And the worst part, my 7 week old plant is looking terrible. All of the lower leaves are yellow, the new growth is starting to turn yellow too and I'm worried that I'm going to lose her before she's done flowering. I'm also worried about my 10 day old seedling because I can't even keep her EC in check and she's not even eating much yet! Thankfully she looks great still... but is it only a matter of time?
Anyhow, I could really use some pros to pick apart my set up and tell me where I'm making my mistakes. I'm willing to give whatever a try!
So, here's my basic set up:
Everything has been an auto so far. DWC 6 gallon buckets (homemade from food grade buckets), wrapped in foil tape. I have 4 air stones in each bucket pushing air, hydroton with rock wool in the net pots. They are under a 300w LED blurple for the time being... I purchased a Spyder Farmer sf2000 but it hasn't arrived yet. Temps are right about 80 degrees with 55% RH pretty steady. Bucket temperatures have been about 69 degrees. Air is being vented out with a 3.5" vent set up (don't remember details but it's a good one) with a circulating fan running all of the time.
As far as nutrients go, I'm running in RO water that I have being filtered through a whole house system. The baseline EC is 18. I'm using General Hydroponics trio, Cal/Mag and hydro guard (Southern Ag) as a preventative since my water temp is a bit high. My Ph is typically right about 5.2 after I add all of the nutes and drifts up to about 6.5 the next day and I'll have to add a bit of PH Down on occasion to pull it back down and let it drift again, although some reservoirs it stays pretty steady.
Now, here's where I'm getting into trouble. I can't get my EC to stay down. Every single reservoir change, it rises. I have been starting at a very low EC and without fail, it spikes. This last reservoir change, I added 6 ml of each nutrition in the trio and 6 ml of cal/mag and my starting EC was 518 for a 7 week old flowing plant. It jumped up to 585 the following morning. Even my 10 day old seedling had a starting EC of 100 and it was at 400 today!
Here's the weird thing, I was having trouble getting a solid reading. So, I took a sample of water from the bucket without the roaring bubbles and grabbed an EC reading. I left it sitting out on the counter and when I went to check again that evening, I thought "hey, I'll recheck that water sample I took earlier" and it had dropped! I left it sitting in the jar for another hour and it dropped again. Like over 100 points. Left it out and the following morning the EC had raised. Just a jar of nute water... nothing drinking from it. That's weird, right?
My roots have been looking really good but recently, since starting the Southern Ag I'd say, they look more stained. But then my reservoir is darker from the Southern Ag, so it pretty much matches. Maybe there's something here?
And the worst part, my 7 week old plant is looking terrible. All of the lower leaves are yellow, the new growth is starting to turn yellow too and I'm worried that I'm going to lose her before she's done flowering. I'm also worried about my 10 day old seedling because I can't even keep her EC in check and she's not even eating much yet! Thankfully she looks great still... but is it only a matter of time?
Anyhow, I could really use some pros to pick apart my set up and tell me where I'm making my mistakes. I'm willing to give whatever a try!
