It's fall and time to fire up the ole DWC gizmo. This is my second attempt to grow Orange Sherbert, I tried a couple years ago and they didn't work out. So, maybe I'll get lucky this time.
This little one sprouted without a problem. She was up on Sept 23, so she's 11 days old today. She has had one solution change after 7 days. Her first starter solution had an EC- 0.22, Calmag and RO water with Hydroguard as bennys.
After 5 days, I gave her 1ml of Micro, increasing her EC- 0.35.
I changed her solution after 7 days. I'm using General Hydroponics Flora Trio, and their feeding schedule.
For her second change, I'm actually using "Week 1", of the feeding schedule. Their feeding schedule amounts are very extreme. So, a two week old plant on week 1 of the feeding schedule.
Her new EC-0.55. It was a big jump but luckily she's adjusting. She was a little pouty at first, but she's working on it. There isn't any roots coming through yet, they should be any day now. Water temperature has been around 74f-75f.
She's got a good start, I hope she makes it. FC!!
4x4x8 grow room
Spider Farms G8600
General Hydroponics Flora Trio
This should be a fun grow to follow. The damn mice/squirrels/rabbits/chipmunks have chewed wires under my car 3 different times. (so far, not the brakes!)
Day 18, veg
This Orange Sherbert is coming along nicely. She started showing roots about 4 days ago, around day 14. I changed her solution on day 14. I also gave her a second air stone and increased the amount of air to 7.8L. Now I don't know if that's the correct amount of air, that's just what's printed on the pump. I don't have a gauge to measure the exact amount of air, but I can see what the air stone is producing and how the plant is responding. I've done this a couple times so I have an idea of what I'm looking at. When I first started growing in water, my buckets looks like a Jacuzzi, and my plants didn't like it. Oops!! Too much.
Air stones can also become clogged and they won't have the output of a new one. But, they cost money, and these are still good enough for me!! What do you do with a wheel barrel full of used air stones? I'm looking for suggestions!!! lol
Here the little lady now. She's not unhappy.
She's almost ready for a topping. By day 21, she'll be topped and in her forever home, in a big girl tote. That's next weeks episode. 😆
Here she is, with her trusty side kick, Cheese Head. AKA, little one.
Her stats are, EC-0.69, Ph-6.03, 72.1f/22.27c.
Day 24 veg,
Why should this grow be any different than any of the others? Right? So, hello root rot you SOB, come on in!!
Orange Shurbert was looking good, she was killing it, (softly 😆) Her 21st birthday came and she got up graded to her tote, with 15 gallons of solution. I cleaned her tote, spotless. I cleaned the air stones, I cleaned everything!!! except the pump that I use to mix her solution in the mixing tub, I cleaned the tub.
I mixed her 15 gallons of solution, and when it was finished I saw something swimming around in there. A big hunk of crap!! Where the Fuking hell did that come from? The inside of the pump that I didn't clean. The more that this piece of crap swam around, the more chance that it would go back through the pump and get minced up even smaller. Then I started seeing more little chunks of crap swimming around.
Did I really have to dump all this solution just because there's crap floating in it? Really? It takes a few hours to percolate another 15 gallons of RO water. I said, fuck it. I used an extra fine paint filter to strain and capture all the mystery chunks. I almost got them all but there was a slight malfunction at the end and, well, I didn't get them all. I thought, I'll add more beneficial bacteria, and I did.
Two days later, I could see I had a problem. I thought/hoped it was just the change to LED light, but when the leaves start to turn, that's a tell tail sign. All of her numbers were spot on, so only one reason for this action. At first glance, her roots looked good. There was just a very slight discoloration on the roots at the meeting of the net pot. That section of the pot had been submerged. I've been pumping the bennies too.
This is the fourth time, maybe more that this has happened. The bad stuff seems to start in the net pot where it can't be seen. (Rapid Rooters??) Then it slowly develops, and starts to spread south to the actual roots. I haven't lost a plant yet to root rot, it's just a bump in the road. This time I took matters a step farther and I didn't wait to start the H2O2 treatment, I nuked her. I gave her 75ml of H2O2 in 2.5 gallons. I'm fed up with this root rot shit, and I'm not scared to experiment with my plants. I read that the Advance Nutrient sales rep suggests 150ml of peroxide per gallon!!! Well, why not?? I had always used 30ml per gallon, these times are a changing.
At lights on, she got soaked in a H2O2 bath at 150ml+ ratio. She soaked for an hour with an air stone and calmag with an EC-0.45. In the past it has taken another 2-3 days before the roots look terrible and I have to remove them. This time I said, See Ya!! off with the roots!! She'll have new ones in 5 days, twice as much. Oh well, this will give Exodus Cheese a chance to catch up.
When your plant looks like this, it's roots. No spots, no weird colors, everything is green, but she looks like shit. In another day she'll look worse, but she'll come back around.
Her roots don't look to bad atm, but I've never had them survive and the plant spends too much energy trying to fix them. So, by removing everything it now knows what it has to do. It still has roots in the net pot, enough to continue.
I returned her to a smaller bucket, not the tote. It has enough solution that it is 3/4 up the net pot, so it's soaking. I have it at the 150ml ratio H2O2 per gallon and no roots.
I have refilled her tote and I've added beneficial bacteria. I'm letting that sit and form the bio-film. I've learned that this is my most dangerous time, is at this transition. There's no bio-film coating everything and she doesn't have big enough roots, so without these, she doesn't have any protection. I'm going to see if starting the bio-film will help. So while she recovers, I'll get her tote going.
Let's see what she looks like next week.
I completely understand how this guy feels. My ass is getting handed to me by something I can't even see. How embarrassing!! lol
I can't blame anyone but myself. If I could, well, I have a list. lol But with reoccurring root rot that I thought I had it under control, only to find out just how out of control it was/is.
I started with the basics. The plant sits in Hydroton, and that sits in water. The water is RO water and everything is supposed to be removed from it, bacteria and Everything. That leaves me with the Hydroton. It was washed with H2O2, and rinsed, 3 weeks ago. Done deal, right? So, I thought.
But with this reoccurrence, it's a broken record. Time to get serious, I'm getting pissed!
Hydroton first. If the damn H2O2 didn't clean the pebbles then a nice hot bath in the pressure cook will fix it's goose. So, for 90 minutes, at 15lbs of pressure, these 7 quarts of pebbs are as sterile as I can get them. I put them in jars with lids to keep everything in place, and of course the lids sealed upon cooling. lol I'll take the pebbs out, drain them, and let everything dry. I didn't put any type of a preservative in them. Anything organic should be wiped out now.
RO water was my next concern. I'm told that nothing can get pass the filter but others say that an unused RO system, one that sits idle can grow bacteria. That's tonight's cleaning project. Pullout the three filters and fill the system with a diluted 3% h2o2 mix. After letting it sit, run the mixture through and replace the filters. I just happen to have another RO system and have been saving it just for this time. I read that these systems last about three years, that's how long it's been. I ordered new filters because I robbed them a long time ago.
Last night, I made another amazing discovery. While filling one of the three humidifiers, I found the inside of the tank extremely slimy. It had never been like this and the slim was black, fuck! These were cleaned 3-4 weeks ago with vinegar, as per manufactures recommendation. Well, having a machine atomizing black mold into the air isn't good. Having 3 machines is an uprising!!!! Get the gun, Martha!! I scrubbed the holy hell out of these dirty birds until I was happy with them. Refilled, and I added a dash of bleach to each. Now the house smells like a toddlers swimming pool. But at least the air pumps aren't picking up the mold and pumping that shit back into the water, and ME too!! But no signs anywhere else.
So, I'll clean and rework the RO system, with new filters. If the plants don't get their shit together, I cut them and turn them into clones, then re-root them in fresh clean Hydroton. Basically start over.
I've taken both plants and nuked the hell out of them. I used a 150ml per gal/4L ratio of 3% H2O2 and submerged their net pots for 45mins, then return them to their 2.5 gallon+ buckets with the same 150ml 3% H2O2 treatment. After 24 hrs, I added 45 ml of 3% H2O2, and have been adding that amount daily, while letting the initial 150ml dissipate. I'll maintain the daily doses of 45ml until they recover.
Cleanliness is next to the good stash of weed. I got lazy thinking these damn machines are doing everything for me. Oh, sure a fully automated grow room sounds great, doesn't it, Mr. Jetson?
See ya next time.
Sign, disgruntled employee
This isn't a drinking water RO system, there is no holding tank. But, there is still places there can hold bacteria and pathogens. 👍
I’ve switched from using H2O2 to HOCI, expensive to buy, cheap to make your own after a small investment ($150 for a generator that makes 1 L @100ppm every 8 mins cycle, I use it @800ppm concentration so I cycle it 8 times). My ROI was less than a year, HOCI has a variety of household uses, cleans better than bleach or h2o2.
https:// hyposource.com/pages/hydroponics
https:// cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0559/9254/9565/files/two_page_hocl_for_greenhouses.pdf?v=1629446077
Yeah, words are one thing and meanings are another. It's a changeable puzzle.
3% fresh. It degrades so quickly that the 34% that I was buying was degrading so quickly that calculations weren't accurate. So, smaller bottles of 3% to fix the problem, then that's the end of that. Back to live grow.
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