DWC problems

[Kelly_J]

Hi,

 

Just a quick run down of what i'm using.

 

-400W light

-50Lt tub with 4 plants growing

-nutes are Flairform Grow and Flairform Bloom.

(info can be found here..... http://www.flairform.com.au/Products/flairform.htm

-plants were clones from SPC, Afghani # 1 and are 11 days old.

 

I hand watered the clones with adjusted PH level (around 6.5) until the roots hit the tub.

 

The water heater is on 24/7 and it is on 21 degrees.

 

The roots hit the tub, then i added water and the nutes. The ph level was between 5.0 and 6.0 after adding Ph down and the nutes to get it right, only went for 5.0-6.0 cause it's the directions on the Flairform Grow bottle i'm using.

 

Now i have noticed that the older leaves, have turned yellow and dying, i checked 24hrs ago and they were not as much, but seems to have gotten worse over the last 24hrs. Not all the leaves, just from 2 plants (out of 4) have two or three yellow leaves.

 

the newer fresher leaves are going great, comming out rapidly on one plant and comming out ok on the other three, but they are all same strains, so not sure why one plant is shooting up faster than others. But the leaves have only little dots of yellow and tips are yellow, but not that much, very tiny dots and not on all plant leaves, maybe a couple from each plant.

 

When i first placed the clones in the tub, the light was 1m away from them, then 9 days later i lowered the light to just 45cm from them.

 

At first they were 9cm, 11 days later they are now around 12cm with the bigger one at 15cm. The bigger one might have been a little larger than the others when i got them, not too sure, but i'm sure they were 9cm when i first placed them in.

 

I lft up the net pots every day just to see how the roots are, and they are just growing longer every day, more and more each day.

 

The other prob i have is the temp inside the wardrobe, it's 2m x 1.8, big enough for the job, with the blowing fan on it's around 19 degrees, now with the blowing fan off it's around 23-25 degrees. I had the blowing fan off for 24hrs and the temp got to 25 degrees. Can i leave the blowing fan off for a few days or is it important to have constant blowing air, it's the middle of winter here in VIC as well. The blowing fan is just a 15cm two speed cheapy fan from K-Mart.

 

How can i overcome this and have them grow correctly, I don't have a digi camera so it makes it a little harder to describe.

 

I hope i make sense here.

 

Thanks,

Kelly.

Edited August 23, 2004 by Kelly_J

[Pure]

Ok well this is just a stab in the dark seing as you don't

have any pics, but if it is patchy and burnt around the edges

it sounds like Nutrient Burn to me, DWC does tend to require a lower

concentration of nutrients than say a run to waste system, if

you have a truncheon messure your levels regularly to make sure

they are not getting out of control and burning your girls,

 

If you don't have one you really should make the investment

as it is pretty vital to a great DWC grow, if you can't afford one

though sticking to 1/4 strengh is usually playing it safe enough

 

when I get home I will post a link to help you out with your

leaf problems at least then you will have examples of problems to judge buy

 

 

 

thats just my humble opinion on your issue I'm sure others will have much more to add

 

Owe and about the ventilation fan I would keep it running always the exeption would be

if you decided to switch over to passive air intake

[pipeman]

hey kelly, first thing is I would be a little more accurrate with PH. Aim for 5.5 in a bubbler.

 

Pure is right you need a lower concentration of nutes in bubblers, if you are mixing nutes to instructions you are probably over ferting especially if the plants were young. 1/4 to 1/3 strength is around what you should be doing. Also remember to do a water change every 2 weeks, and at each change flush out the pots with PH adjusted water hand watered from the top.

 

4 plants in a 50L tub will get fairly crowded. Have you though about how you are going to change the water when that tub becomes a solid block of roots? You may want to think about a control bucket to make water changes easier and to avoid root damage.

 

With the temps, yeah you need constant ventilation through the cupboard pretty much. Usually heat is the problem so you intake through the bottom and exhuast out the top, but in your case you might try exhausting out the bottom and have your intake vent at the top, drawing the warmth of your light over your plants.

 

and every grower on the net should have a digi cam IMO. You can get them for virtually nothing these days and its such a useful tool.

 

good to hear from you again too Kelly. good luck.

[banned_again]

yeah lower your nutes to 1/3rd strength...

 

is pretty vital to a great DWC grow

 

damn, i wish i knew that before growing in bubblers for 3 years... got one now and it hardly gets touched cos ya get a feel for things that is much more valuable than any numbers or figures... plants eat what they want, they dont do maths and calculate how hungry they are and how much food they need, they just eat what they want, so feed em what they want, not what sum gizmo says they need....

 

bubblers dont grow better when pushed to the limits with nutes, they grow really well while keeping your plants alot lighter green then most systems.

 

early growth, give em 1/3 strength, and as it drops replace with plain water till half of it gone... later give em third, let half top up with 1/2 strength, then plain again... much easier to sort out with a rasised resevoir thats half the size of your total system (tub and control)....

 

the 4 plants WILL fit in the tub, but flower them early (1ft bushes), the roots entangling around each other means each plant has more than 1/4 of the tub to itself so its not that restricting.... dont do like pipey did and fit a monster in 10ltrs he is trying to say... 2m x 1.8m is a very big area.... definately dont think you can fill it with those 4 plants, you would need like 9 of them tubs to fill that space proper....

 

also one thing you aint mentioned is what kind of airpump you got in there???

 

also 19 degrees is nice temp for your bubblers to be in this time of year... if it was 24 degree C in there now, you would have rot probs in summer guarenteed... heat = dirtyness, and a huge problem in dwc....

 

pH 5 to 5.5.. uhhm, keep us updated....

[Kelly_J]

thanks everyone for your replies!

 

the plants are looking a little better now. I just flushed out the tub and added fresh water with 150mls of the grow nutes adjusted the ph level to around 5.5 , plants are around 18cm, with that one plant getting taller and taller and not packing on with leaves as much. The other two have alot of leaves and are real bushy while the other one is growing but not many leaves and the older leaves have turned yellow and are dying, only 3 leaves from that plant are going yellow, the rest of the plant, the new growth is doing good.

 

New leaves are comming out every day and look great, no yellow tips, just really bright green and they come out rapidly.

 

i am using a dual air pump with two airstones, one on each side of the tub.

 

Next question have is when do i begin to flower?

It's been 15 days now since i first planted the clones.

Edited August 27, 2004 by Kelly_J

[smokin]

Hi kelly J,

 

how much head room have you got to play with? as you'll probably have to allow for a little stretching during flowering.

 

take it easy,

[Kelly_J]

i made a mistake in my post before, my wardrobe size is 1.8m(H) x 1m(W) and the space for the plants to grow is 1.2m high and 1m wide. sorry for the confusion.

 

just checked the plants and they are looking brillant, they are bushy, very bushy and have reached 19cm except for that one which is a little shorter.

 

when i open the wardrobe there is a strong smell, but i will start to worry when i open the actual garage door and can smell it, does anyone recommend anything to get rid of that smell, i'm using scents from a asian store at the moment which seems to be fine, but don't really like the smell of inscence.

[racked]

Hey Kelly J

 

If your room is sealed and youve got good ventilation try 2 of those glade plug in air freshners running from an extension cord to the back of your exhaust fan , ive got mine in the exhaust ducting (in ceiling).

 

I used to get the pot smell through the house now its just pot pouri.

Just a note though ; if your ventilation isnt up to scratch or your room isnt sealed , the plug ins will be useless.

 

Only thing is youve got to replace the plug ins fortnightly and it coould start adding up.

[Kelly_J]

Plants are going good, 23cm high, just changed to 12/12 flowering.

 

The main prob is now trying to hide the smell. I am using Ammonia and spraying it all over the garage. The room stinks of ammonia for a few hours then dies off, is there anything i actually put in the wardrobe that can control the odour and get rid of it?

 

I saw these at grow.com.au....

 

Airsponges

 

Odour Zap Odour Eliminater 50 gram Block and 200 gram Block.

 

Has anyone tried them? Do they work?

 

I have 4 plants and they are 1 day into flowering stage and allready starting to stink, but not from outside yet, only inside the garage.

 

Any help is appreciated!

Kel.

Edited August 30, 2004 by Kelly_J

[pipeman]

look in department stores for electric deoderizers or negative ion generators.

 

for a small grow something as simple at pot puree sandwiched between flyscreen or something in front of your exhaust fan might be good enough.

 

or if you really keen have a go at building yourself a little carbon filter which would be the best solution IMO. checkout the faq at overgrow .