Duracell

Hi, I'm glad to report that things are looking really good The two larger plants ( 1 x AK48 and 1 x WR) are flourishing, the other AK48 seems to have more damage and grows much slower and a bit deformed but the young WR that I planted a week late is catching up quickly. I decided to separate the two strains so that I can regulate nutrients for each strain as needed. The new reservoir lid is now painted white instead of the alu foil tape. Both reservoirs has new water and nutrients - AK48 left and WR right. The two larger plants have recovered enough, so I topped them and will remove the lower growth after a couple of days. Pictures show before and after topping.

Yes, I let it stand for about 10 minutes after adding anything before testing.

PROGRESS!! 17/07/2017 New white roots are forming. Leaves are not showing signs of recovering yet. 20/07/2017 New leaves are BEAUTIFUL and lots of new root growth! Add 10 liters nutrient water to fill reservoirs more as the roots are now long enough to reach the water. Drop light to 55cm above plants (too soon) PH now remaining much more stable, I take it down to 5.5 and let it rise to 6 over several days before adjusting again. 25/07/2017 ECSTATIC with the recovery after the near extinction of my babies! WR recovering faster than AK48. I was too eager with dropping the light and got some light burn on a few leaves, but this time I caught it early and raised the light to 70cm again. This seems to be sufficient light at the moment as the nodes are close together with no stretching. Now I wait for the girls to regain their strength, then I'm going to top them and start building a manifold to try and end with 8 main colas. Get the popcorn, the show will continue.

15/07/2017 I must have looked at hundreds of pictures and read numerous posts to try and pinpoint my problem. Together with some good advice from this forum I have now come to my senses and had a plan. Dump the water AGAIN! Wash EVERYTHING thoroughly (even rinsed out the net-pots with pebbles and plants in them)! Decided that Proplant is k@k and did not add it again. 30 liter water - 86ppm, PH = 7.7 10g GROW nutrients - 300ppm, PH = 7.1 20ml PH down - 315ppm, PH = 5.6 Temp on lid: 24 C Water temp: 20 C Hum: 47% These TDS readings look a bit more appropriate for baby plants Now it's wait and see. Seems that the AK48 is more sensitive than the WR. After all that work and stress I had to sit and enjoy the sea view for a bit.

The next day (09/07/2017) I checked up to see where the temperatures and PH settled. Temp on lid - 31 C Water temp - 25.7 C (!!!!!!! in retrospect) Hum - 44% PH - 6.5 (big jump for one day from 5.8! I now think the Proplant may have contributed) Add 2.5ml PH down - PH=4.8 Decided to leave it there and see what happens. 11/07/2017 The new WR seed has sprouted in 3 days! PH up to 6.2 again! 12/07/2017 PH = 6.8 Temperatures still high. AK48 appears to have nutrient burn - 780ppm (and probably several other problems ). Add 10 liters water and 2.5ml PH down - PH = 5.8, 640ppm. Here my slow brain started to think that maybe 26 C water temperature was not such a good idea so I left the tent open and set the AC down to 18 C. 13/07/2017 My poor babies look terrible, all wilting and turning brown What to do? It's when I lifted the lid that the snotty reality hit me - ALGAE, and lots of it! I was so distressed about the suffering babies that I did not take photos of this now algae incubator. DUMP THE WATER!!! Thinking that more Proplant would solve the algae problem, I, in all my wisdom did not wash the container, but just put new water in(idiot). 30 liter water - 64ppm 10g GROW nutrients (half of previous) - 300ppm 60ml Proplant (double previous) - 600ppm 20ml PH down - 650ppm PH = 5.4 14/07/2017 PH = 7.8. WTF?!?!?!?! Add 30ml PH down - PH = 6.1 Temp on lid = 26 C Water temp = 21 C Hum = 46% I gained a concerned supervisor at this stage (cat) that sat in watching everything I did as it was becoming obvious that I had no clue what was going on Time to go and do some serious homework and get some good advice from the knowledgeable good people on this forum in another thread in "Hydroponics ".

On 08/07/2017 it was time to give the girls a bigger play pen so into the DWC they went. To make up for the germinated White Rhino seed that I murdered, I decided to plant a new WR seed directly in the DWC and hope that it catches up. Here follows the ingredients and readings as I went along: 30 liter tap water - 70ppm 20g GROW nutrients - 480ppm 30ml Proplant - 580ppm (got told to add this by a big hydro shop to help prevent root problems, but not so sure if it was good advice?) PH=7 15ml PH down - 680ppm PH=5.8 Light 90cm above lid. Yes, I now know that ODd the poor babies with nutrients but this is an ongoing suspense thriller. I set the AC in the room to 24 deg C, zipped up the tent and convinced myself that they would grow problem less forever after ALL HELL WAS ABOUT TO BREAK LOOSE! Notice the "clever " transparent 16mm PVC pipe sticking through the lid? It was meant to make reservoir changes easy using the pump in the container. BAD PLANNING - Massive light leak that would catch up to me quickly! Stay tuned for the next episode

The real grow story begins with ordering the seeds on 24/05/2017 and the agonizingly long wait for it to arrive on 27/06/2017 Into the germination kit the seeds go on 28/06/2017. I have not yet devised a plan to keep this part of the process at a constant nice and comfy temperature, so because of cold conditions they took a while to peek out. On 05/07/2017 both AK48 and one White Rhino seedling were visible. And this is when impatience caused my first mistake - I went digging for the second White Rhino seed to see if it germinated and ended up damaging the pin root So, the first lesson would be to practice patience when working with cannababies

Hi Guys, I have started my first grow on 28/06/2017 with feminised seeds from Nirvana: 2 x AK28 & 2 x White Rhino. The journey to get to that magical infusion of seed into grow starter started some months before with a LOT of research on the net. I found a site that is both extensive and very easy to navigate and use: www.growweedeasy.com So I will start with my setup so far. I had to empty an outside room to fit a grow tent into where no one ever goes. Available space was 2.6m x 2.6m. I started by installing an old 12000Btu split aircon (very good decision!). Tent: 1.2m x 2.4m x 2m - you can always grow fewer plants in a large tent, but lots of plants in a small tent is more problematic Light: 400W HID industrial fitting that has been stripped down and modified to hang with rope ratchets, MH for veg & HPS for flowering (R1100 for all). Operated on standard 24h plug tipe timer. Ventelation: 150mm Inline fan (not a centrifugal fan, but it copes for now with only one HID) from Luft fans with 10m flex ducting (delivered to my door for <R800). Carbon filter. DWC: 60 liter ADDIS container with small fountain water pump and dual outlet air pump. Taped the top of container with foil tape, but will probably paint the lids white in future because water tends to get under the tape. Other equipment: Cheapish TDS & PH pens, pruning scissors, measuring cups & spoons, Propagator Pro from Nirvana, PH up & down and nutrient powder from Hydro Herb. More about the setup and equipment as the story unfolds.

Going to move this over to the Grow Diary and start the story from the beginning

Photo

Ok, it seems I've learned a few lessons and have the girls getting stronger by the day. The problem was Ph swing caused by massive algae growth in the tank. To rectify the algae problem, I washed and cleaned EVERYTHING (including the roots), paid a lot more attention to light leaks into the reservoir, set the AC in the room down to 18 deg and left the tent open 24/7. This now gives me an air temp in the tent of around 21 deg, water temp of 20-22 deg, temp on the reservoir at the plants of 26-28 deg and humidity of 40-50%. TDS meter indicates 390ppm with tap water (50ppm) and 0.3g/l nutrients. Some roots are now 30+cm long and growing vigorously. Photo taken a couple of days ago, will post more.

Hi Narnia, thanks for the input. Got the res all cleaned out and the temp stable between 20-21 degrees C. TDS meter now indicated around 315ppm with 0.33g/liter nutrients. Left out the "Proplant" completely as the instructions do not cover hydro at all. Roots are still very short, but the ones that are visible seemed to be brownish. 24h after res change it seems that new small white growths are forming. What product can I use for Bennies? Have read good things about "Hydroguard", but don't know if it is available in SA. I used Nirvanas germination kit to germinate and transplanted to DWC, drippers are not wetting the substance but only the roort growing down. Will give the girls a day or two to see what the new leaves look like and then report back.

I've run into immediate problems my 4 new babies after placing them in the DWC. Water temp was too high at 25 degrees, but I have managed to get it down to 21 degrees now. Feeding "Grow" powder feeding from Hydro Herb Africa; started with 0.5g/ liter of water - reduced to 0.33g/liter because the leaves look like nute burn (see photos). Had some light leaks on the Addis container, but closed most - only light getting through now is between the clay pebbles. Was told to use "Proplant" in the water to prevent algae and root problems, but it doesn't seem to do any good as I had major algae issues. Keeping PH between 5.5 and 6.5 but found that it increased radically overnight. Changed complete container, water and nutrients today. Any input, diagnosis and theories will be greatly appreciated.

Hi, a quick introduction to say Hi to all the chilled people here. I have smoked since late '90s and have just now started my first grow on the sunny east coast of our lovely country. AK-48 and White Rhino from Nirvana is on the menu for the near future Sure I'm going to learn a lot here and can't wait.