Hello Friends, 3 days ago I transferred 10 Femenized wedding cake seedlings to a superponics 16 setup with Lotus nutrients Grow 8-4-13 at 75% of the recommended dose with 16.5 gallons of water in the reservoir. The tds reading is 275 with nutrients and the water temp is 68 degrees air temp 77 degrees with a Kind series 2 xl 600 2 ft above. For the first day I had the feeding schedule set to 4x in 24 hrs 15 mins every 6 hours beginning at 6 am. I had the top feed directly over the rockwool and it seemed over soaked so I stopped the feeding yesterday because they look super stressed. I have the air pump set to half strength instead of full which is how i set it when i started. Roots have begun to touch water on half of them. How much of this am i doing wrong? I’ve attached pics and need help. I’ve gotten much needed info on this forum through searches of old threads but now i need to reach out for some much needed assistance.
Seems to me like you’re well on your way! You’ve done your homework, which is a great start, and you’re asking good questions will will help you throughout your grow. You’re measuring some of the right things so far and they’re within the correct range.
When growing DWC style I have had great success following Current Culture’s reccomendations for enviroment and feeding. Check out their charts here. I’ve got no affiliation, but I trust their expertise in the field.
Does your setup allow you to control your temperature and humidity accurately?
I’m glad to bounce around some ideas with you to get you feeling confident, but I think you’re on track for a good grow.
What are your biggest concerns or uncertainties right now?
Can you link or describe the supercloset package you’ve got? Did you get a full cabinet or tent from them?
Down turned leaves can be for a lot of reasons, but I’m going to guess it’s from stress due to over watering and low humidity. Again, this is just a guess as there are at 9 different things that your plants could be deficient in or have an excess of. Purple center could also be from cold temperatures, phosphorous deficiency, or just the fact that you’re growing with LED (when I transplant from CMH in veg to LED for flowering my stems and petioles start to turn purple - not sure why yet). With all of that said - a stable environment and some consistency, will often shake things out and your plants will be very happy in a few days or weeks.
If your growing environment is properly controlled (temp/humidity throughout the day and night) your water temps should stay good in a grow your size without the need for a water chiller.
Once I know more about your setup I can give a better recommendation, but using some small plug-in style controllers for temperature and humidity from ink bird work well when connected to exhaust/intake fans to control small grow environments.
A nice, short and thorough read on growing from start to finish, and some nice targets to aim for, can be found here from LumiGrow. Page 12 has a very nice chart that sums up what an environment’s set points could be from clone through final week of flower. The info on gradually ramping up light intensity is a bit old and there are some new studies coming out that contradict this, but the info overall is well put together.
Does that supercloset allow you to set a target value for temperature and humididty? If so, I would adjust it to be more in line with the targets outlined in the above linked document from LumiGrow - for plants that young I would aim for about 70% RH and high 70’s for temp, just like you’ve got right now.
I would reduce the top feeding to twice per day, maybe even once. After the roots have grown down into the reservoir you may not need to top water at all.
The roots should not be allowed to dry out. If the roots are inside your system, between the lid and the surface of the water, they should be OK as they are in about 100% humidity with all of the bubbles breaking the surface.
I keep my water level so the roots from the cups are able to touch the water, or are just above the surface and get constantly showered when the air pump’s bubbles break the surface and spray water onto the roots. You can adjust the intensity of your pump to make the bubbles more aggressive so they shower your roots when they pop.
Hey Dev, I have some irregularities i wanted to ask about. Im using Lotus nutrients Grow 8-4-13 which has a granular wet sand consistency. I did 2 weeks 1/2 tsp per gallon and I’m on week 1 veg stage of the program which increased it to 1 tsp per gallon The ppm is just under 900 and due to the consistency of the nutrients it tends to accumulate in the roots a little. Is this okay?There are also spots on 2 -3 plant i cant identify Am i under/over feeding? There are 2 that seemed to have stopped growing. Should i kill or remove? I was going to try to remove but the roots of all in the center are intertwined and i didn’t want to accidentally kill the healthy plants. Still feeding 4 times per day every 6 hours for 15 mins under a Kind Led xl 600 with the air temp around 75 water around 68 and humidity around 65-70
they look a little bit sick …? my opinion…
What can you offer for advice
check whater ph …nutrients…i’m a beginer like you …ask somebody with more exp
If you want @devjyarn to see your question, you have to put the @ in front of his name so he gets a notification…
Thanks still new
Hey @devjyarn I have some irregularities i wanted to ask you about. Im using Lotus nutrients Grow 8-4-13 which has a granular wet sand consistency. I did 2 weeks 1/2 tsp per gallon and I’m on week 1 veg stage of the program which increased it to 1 tsp per gallon The ppm is just under 900 and due to the consistency of the nutrients it tends to accumulate in the roots a little. Is this okay?There are also spots on 2 -3 plant i cant identify Am i under/over feeding? There are 2 that seemed to have stopped growing. Should i kill or remove? I was going to try to remove but the roots of all in the center are intertwined and i didn’t want to accidentally kill the healthy plants. Still feeding 4 times per day every 6 hours for 15 mins under a Kind Led xl 600 with the air temp around 75 water around 68 and humidity around 65-70
Good to hear back from you @donv!
It looks like the affected leaves are older, and the new growth appears to be healthy. My guess is they had a calcium deficiency, but they are now recovering.
What is your water source? If it’s RO or something with fewer than 200 ppm as a starting point, add a calcium supplement to bring it up to that level then use your nutrients to bring the final nutrients up to 900 ppm.
Are you dissolving your nutes before you add them to your reservoir? You could try first dissolving them in a quantity of water, to make a concentrate, then pour that into your reservoir to bring it up to your final concentration.
Are you able to measure and track your nutrient pH and EC (ppm)? Watching the trends over time will give you a good idea of what is happening inside your plants. It looks like a turkey baster or long syringe would fit into one of the unused growing sites - pull up a small sample to test and record as needed.
@devjyarn thanks brudda, appreciated your help last time and again now. If possible should i remove the small plants?
Unless there’s a good reason to get rid of them right now, like you’re running out of space or looking to comply with plant counts, I would leave them for now. They won’t harm the other plants, and should recover over time. As things start to get too crowded you can make a call as to which plants will get thrown out to make room for others.
Appreciate your time and knowledge!
Yoo @devjyarn i can use your help again. Its seems i underestimated how fast these girls were going to grow. Im looking to switch to flowering light schedule soon. With the overcrowding what should i do for space? Trim off all lower foliage?
Give them a good defoliation before flip. Clean out the under canopy. Below your trellis line.
Happy Growing
Definitely trim them up the way @docdre mentioned - below your trellis line. With the plants that closely spaced you may want to prune them down to a single branch/main cola each. Lateral branches may shade other plants and cause them to compete for light. You could also choose to cull about half your plants and flower the plants you keep. Now would be the time to take clones if you plan to try that.
Always a pleasure to help.
Happy Growing