Lime green plant + hydro noob = anxious farmer

[NexSacramentum]

Method - Hydro
Strain - G14 auto
Type - auto
Plant age - I put seed in soil on 30th June, transplanted to DWC on 17th July
20litre oxypot
Growth Technology IONIC Grow Hydro HW
Air temps - min: 19-20C max: 24C
Res temps - min: unknown max: 23C
Humidity: unknown
Lighting type: THE SUNNNNNN
pH levels: 5.5-6.7 daytime and rises to 8 overnight when measured in the morning



Looking a bit lime green. This is my first ever hydro and I have no idea what I'm looking at. I've grown in soil before but not had lime green plants before and I'm panicking slightly because I don't know what's wrong. I do live in a hard water area (ppm out the tap is around 220, and my water supplier website confirms I live in a hard water area)

If I had to guess it'd be down to the rising (because of my hard water) pH levels overnight causing an X amount of hours where the plant is taking up minimum nutrient. I've been using lemon juice as the hydro shop was closed and the internet says it's okay but I'm getting pH down tomorrow.
If it is a nute def my mind wants to go either nitrogen or cal/mag, but I haven't grown in about 5 years!

Halp a brudda oot. Thanks!

[Jingo]

Hey brother, your plant is definitely telling you that it wants more feed. Here's a link that gives the lowdown on exactly how much you need to feed to keep a stable pH, in hydro you don't want to be adjusting pH after you do your initial res. You just want to monitor and adjust your feed level to bring your pH more in line.

https://www.thctalk.com/cannabis-for...d-how-to-react



J

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[Easy-T]

I'd say it looks hungry up the ec a couple of points

From behind the bushes

[NexSacramentum]

Man, you guys. Such a quick response, you're all fantastic. Okay, I'll keep her in this res for now, I'll scour that article jingo posted (love that name btw) and go from there. I have a shit load of learning and re-learning to do. I'll update when appropriate.
Honestly, thanks a tonne both of you!

[NexSacramentum]

Being the nervous nelly I am, I'm posting to nurse myself while still understanding that I can do nothing until the shops open in the morning, so I apologise.
Sorry jingo, but I had to re-adjust pH again with lemon juice (I know, I know, it hurts me, too) as it swung up to 7.8 over a period of about half an hour. So, I turned off my air pump. My pH has been relatively stable for an hour without the pump on, as I had read that dissolved O2 can raise pH.
I also made up a fresh res with an EC of around 1.6-1.7 (water EC 0.59 out the tap so I put nutes in until EC was 1.7), and this amount of nutrient solution lowered the pH to about 7.3. I put in a fresh airstone, and after an hour or so, the pH rose to 7.8, and I think it's probably raised a bit now, I'll go and check... pH 8.47.
I did read that post, jingo, and I saw this which matches my issue;
"Static water level
Static EC
Rising pH

Buffers probably raising ph. This is usual. Having a static water level is not though, so again, a slight reduction in EC or a res change should resolve this."
(I won't lie, I'll have to read it again after a good sleep so I apologise if I've missed something.)

I changed the res yesterday and advice is to raise EC, not lower ((((
I'm starting to think that the pH swing is too fast/unstable for the plant to take up optimum nutrients (if that's a thing, I don't know how quick nutes are taken up in hydro other than "faster")

The only thing I can think of is that the lemon juice/citric is breaking down/precipitating because of chemical nutes or it’s something to do with oxygen/the air stone, or a combination of both causing the pH to drop.
But then I didn't put lemon juice in the fresh res and the pH still rose to 8.3 with the air pump running so Process of elimination says the oxygen is the airstone but I don’t know of ALL the solutions, I only can think of these two.

I apologise for any possible non-sensical syntax/grammar but when I overthink, I overthink hard, spin like a top, hence the weed smoking to calm me down. Irony at it's finest, no? If anything isn't clear, please let me know and I'll explain myself.
Either way, I'm going to get pH down (phosphoric acid) in the morning from the shop and see if my pH levels stay put.

Another thought, would aquarium/pond buffers be appropriate? I was looking at Seachem Acid Buffer for ponds as it claims to be safe for fish and plants, and stabilises pH for up to 3 or 6 months. Not a sponser.
Goodnight!

[Jingo]

I'm really not too sure about using lemon juice in hydro, I know it's real common for soil growers that are going organic to use it. I use phosphoric acid I just buy 75% tech grade and then cut it in half.

It would be real interesting to do one rez with distilled water just to see if that would kick start things. I mean you put in your normal nutrients, but you just wouldn't have that high background EC. You may even be able to dilute your background water 50/50 with distilled and get something going.

I don't know anything at all about that aquarium stabilizer stuff, but it worries me that they say it will work for 3 to 6 months. I would think it might cause some part of your nutrients to precipitate out, but who knows.



J

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[NexSacramentum]

That's probably where I'm going wrong, mixing hydro with organic, though my reasoning being it was the only thing to hand and I didn't really think about it. This is where the pH down stabilises my pH and I hate myself for using juice

As for the water, just for my own peace of mind, the ppm is 293 and the EC is 596 us/cm (so when I say an EC of 1.3 it shows as 1300us/cm (this is where I'm told I'm converting it wrong). This isn't me arguing against your suggestion; over the past few days I've been looking for a countertop/desktop reverse osmosis system that's not 300 smackers. I'd distill my own water if I had the equipment.

Attachment 386016
Attachment 386017

I'm going to take both pH pen and EC pen with me to the shop and have them check they're still reading accurately. Well, as accurate as the cheap imports can be...

Thank you for the replies, I understand it can be frustrating dealing with the same question over and over again but I really appreciate it.

[Jingo]

A cheap reverse osmosis system with a large storage tank would work real well.I put a 14 gallon tank on mine which has nine available so I can pull a lot of water real quick for my grows, I started using RO water exclusively when I first started doing deep water culture. Your background EC is almost half of my typical nutrient strength. Like I would typically be feeding about 750 ppm.



J

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[NexSacramentum]

You, jingo, are the one. You said:

"I mean you put in your normal nutrients, but you just wouldn't have that high background EC."
Before I read that, I was reading about KH and how it can cause pH in water to rise over time.

I just thought, experiment time. "Okay, where can I get water from?" Online? Haaaa not for a quid a litre. Shops? THE SHOP! So I looked on the Tesco website (or Walmart depending on your preference), and found mineral water that is advertised to be pH6.3, 5 litres for £1.10/$1.40, so I risked it and bought 4.
Long story short, my EC is running at about 1.14/570ppm, initially it was pH5.6 but it has settled around pH6.7/8 with the pump running for about an hour so honestly I'm pretty happy that the whole issue was my tap water. I'm going to keep checking my pH and adjust accordingly. Haven't got pH down yet but it's on the list.

I do have one last question though. Do you have any recommendations for products that neutralises pythium? I've heard hydrogen peroxide can be used but it can also, apparently, be used in explosives, and it's a struggle to find any on supermarket/phamarcy websites in England (Tesco, Boots etc (I assume you're from 'murca)). I've also seen this Silver Bullet Root (hydrogen peroxide impregnated with silver or vice versa) but my brain can't tell if it just likes the marketing labels. I don't have pythium (yet) but I want to try and reduce the risk of it developing because of the sugars in the lemon juice. I have cleaned by DWC bucket but just to be sure.

Thanks again, you absolute sterling of a person.

[Jingo]

eBay might be the best place to try and get about 30% food grade hydrogen peroxide, that other stuff with the silver impregnated thing would be just as good I think. Silver is antimicrobial and usually when they do advertising they're just putting in silver ions or something not the metallic silver. There are a few hydro brands that are just hydrogen peroxide I don't remember what they are, but if you see something like that you can use it to. Some guys use beneficials that never made a whole lot of sense in my brain, it's just hard to tell once you start growing bacteria what type you're growing. Imop



J

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