Looking for help diagnosing please

Grow Support
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What is the strain and type(unknown bag seed, strain name, regular seeds, feminized seeds, auto-flower, etc)? = white widow photo

Indoor or Outdoor? If outdoor, planted = indoor

in ground or in a container? = hydrobucket dwc

Size of space (max height and area, length/width)? = 2x4x7

Soil or Hydro? Type of Medium used? System type? = Hydro, dwc, rockwool

pH? Of the soil or medium (root zone/reservoir/run-off) and of the water and/or nutrient mix that is fed to the plant? = as close to 5.8 as i can keep it, ranges from 5.6 to 6.2

Type and strength of nutrients used? NPK? EC/TDS/PPM levels? Of what you feed it as well as what is in the water by itself and in the soil/medium (run-off), or reservoir. = Cyco Platinum nutes, full line, RO water. Half dose of nutes right now

Temperature? Day vs. night temp or highest and lowest temps? Root zone temps? = average temp day: 75, night:71. Water temp 74

Humidity %? Day vs. Day average 50, night average 40

Light system/watts/lumens/FLUX/PAR? Spider Farmer SF2000

Ventilation system? Size? CFM? CO2? AC, Humidifier, De-humidifier? One inline fan and filter for air intake, one fan and filter for exhaust, both AC infinity, both set on 5 (50%), humidifier in tent

Number “weeks/days” from into Season, Vegetative Growth or
Bloom/flowering? 3 weeks ish vegetative

I noticed some discoloration that popped up in the last 48 hours. I am a new grower, looking for confirmation and advice from others with experience, please. I believe its a calcium deficiency. Getting ready for a water change, what corrections can be made?

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Looks good tbh. The spots on your leaves are most likely caused from nutrients getting on your leaves from splash.

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Thanks for your reply. There has been no splash on the leaves, im fairly confident about that.

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It’s nothing really. I have them spots on mine and I’m 4 weeks in flower

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Leaf tips started to curl down, spots on leaves have increased a little. I changed water/nutes this AM and added a full dose of nutrients this time as i believe the plants are big enough to be ready. Seems like a Phosphorous or Calcium deficiency, but i personally cant tell for sure.

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You need to add cal mag and silica to your nutrient program FYI.

Water temps are too high at 74F and risk developing root rot.

How far below net pot is liquid? How much air to the liquid?

A TDS pen will better allow you to hit desired TDS levels when mixing nutes. 900 ppm in veg, 1,100 in flower.

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Im going to show my inexperience with a few basic questions, thanks in advance for humoring me.

Cyco product packaging and website both say their nute blends are specifically for RO water…so I assumed that their nutes include calcium and magnesium to make up the difference. Oops on my behalf.

At what point do I add cal mag and silica? Im asking this because alot of literature states to add nutes to water in the order they are listed on the nute chart.
And how much? Use the basic concentration per volume of water?

Not much i can do about water temps on this run, i need a chiller or another way to keep the temp lower…but its just not in the budget this time around. I can lower the tent temperature a few degrees, which will in turn lower the water temp. Is this advisable?

Liquid starts out about an inch below net pot.

I do have a TDS pen, when i made the nute solution this AM, both buckets were at 450

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Silica is an absolute must for hydroponic growing. As is Calmag depending on the nutrient line youre running. I started off with MSA Stout Silica out of South Africa and that stuff is absolutely amazing but costs like $55 a quart, went to Silica Blast, and am now using NPK RAW Silica powder. Its a partially soluble, partially flowable silica that can be added in any order and is inert so it wont mess with your pH. Im still on the fence about it currently but the plants seem to love it and my pH stays stable longer. That being said it is 45% silicon dioxide which the highest % you can buy as a home grower.
On the other hand Monosilic acid (MSA) is the most readily available form of silica you can buy.

As far temps go, anything above 68-70° is a danger zone for bad bacteria. So if you have more of that shiny insulation you have on top of your bucket to block light and whatnot, id suggest wrapping your buckets in it as well to help with temps.

Contact your nutrient manufacturer and find out what scale they use for their nutrient line. Most companies run the 500 scale but some like Fox Farms run it 700 scale. And a tds meter is pretty much worthless on a 700 scale, without factoring in calculations on every test. EC meters are the best to use over all because 500 and 700 scales EC are the same regardless of the tds/ppm values shown. I personally use the Bluelab Truncheon meter that scales everything simultaneously and hives instant readouts. One of the best investments ive made so far.

And like @Myfriendis410 mentioned, always make sure you have atleast a 2" gap below your netpot and the nutrient mix to prevent suffocating your roots. And dont go cheap on airstones and airpumps. A 2x4" stone or a 4 to 6" disc stone is perfect for a 5 gal, but i honestly feel the discs do a better job.

Welcome to the world of Hydroponics. Looking forward to watching your progress.

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Always Silica first, then calmag, then main nutrients, then bio supplements like microbes, then salts. General rule of thumb, allow about 10 to 30 minutes between silica and calmag to allow the silica to bond to the water and not fall out or gel up. I personally have never had issues just shaking/mixing really good and following the order without waiting. On the other hand NPK RAW Silica can be added in any order at anytime but i still follow the order just because.

Cal mag is usually only needed once you start going in to flower.

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450 is way too low for your girls. You should be shooting for around 650 ppm at week 3.

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All good advice; thanks for picking up the torch haha!

There are a few actions you can take to lower water temps: my favorite is to place a block of 1" styrofoam on top of the bucket to reduce the amount of light hitting the bucket which can drop temps 3 to 5 degrees. Frozen water bottles are a major PITA and don’t recommend unless you can stay on top of it daily.

One other thing you can do which will help the standalone time is to ditch the buckets and use a yellow topped tote. That increases your nutrient solution volume such that PH doesn’t fluxuate wildly and you can go a couple of days at least in flower between rez top-offs. You’ll find in flower your plant may consume up to a gallon per day so makes it a problem to maintain proper nutrient levels. But you’ll find this out for yourself.

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Agreed 100% 27 gallon totes are around 12 to 20 bucks. And leaves you with about 9 to 10 gallons of nutrients with a 2" airgap.

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This beast right here is in a 27 gallon and is drinking around 1.5 to 2 gallons a day right now.

Buckets make hard work out of an easy job.

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I actually bought a used bucket system off a local grower and the only part i use is the netpot bucket lids. The buckets i use for filling during res changes.

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Not familiar with that line of nutrients. Id contact them to be sure.

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I forgot to answer the air question, I have a 2 port active aqua pump running a little above 50% into disc airstones. Lots of bubbles and percolation when i look in the buckets.

Is it worth lowering the tent temperature to 70 degress to try and avoid the danger zone for water temps? Or will the plants suffer too much from low temps?

Another question on water temp: it comes out of the tap and through the RO filter around 50 degrees or so…does using water in this temperature range hurt the roots or plants? Ive been letting it sit for a day to bring it up to mid 60s to avoid any unknown issues from temperature shock (if there is such a thing).

This is all good information for me to research and learn about, thanks both for your time. Looking into silica options now, and Ive contacted Cyco about supplemental cal mag when using RO water.

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I’d keep doing what you’re doing.

You can’t have too much air: bump that air up as far as it will go. Blue airstones are a better choice as they produce a finer ‘bubble’ that will migrate up to the bottom of the net pot; keeping it damp.

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Yes, anything below 15 Celsius or 58°f causes slow absorbtion of nutrients and slows down root and plant growth.

Im going to assume youre in a very cold region considering it takes days to raise your temps and has to be a pain in the ass. Our faucet water comes out at 40°f in the winter and i was giving it to mine for the longest before i realized the root shock aspect. Luckily im using a tap water formula and dont have to dick with RO so i can just run it at 65ish degrees and its about 68 by the time im done mixing and my res never goes over 70. But i also grow at lower temps than many people keeping my tent below 80 for the majority of the grow. Usually in the lower to mid 70s. My grows tend to be a little slower than id like but issues are less and again thats a regional thing, its cold af here.

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Also; R/O membranes work better with water around 70F so if you can introduce a bit of warm water to your tap it may run more quickly with less waste.

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My problem has progressed on my larger plant. New nute solution yesterday morning and things are looking worse. Ph was 5.8 when i made the solution, it has been no higher than 6.3, ive been gradually adjusting down. Im guessing Calcium deficiency or nute burn, need some experienced eyes. Ec 1.0 ppm is 700 on the 700 scale, the chart calls for 1.2 and 850. One good thing, got a Truncheon at the local shop today. Thanks

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It also occurred to me that light intensity could be an issue. SF-2000 at 50% but it was way too close to my plants.
Added calmag this AM, ppm a bit higher than I wanted at 1000, but doing a full water change tomorrow when the raw silica arrives. No noticeable reaction to my changes yet, will check again in the morning.

@Myfriendis410
@Ebb

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