Looks like you’ve turned a corner!!
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Yes for the time being!
Only problem I’m observing here is that despite more water hitting the res water, I’m still not seeing big drops in the EC/PPMs like I would expect to. It stays pretty locked without increasing or decreasing which makes me wonder whether or not it’s actually feeding/eating
Think if I continue seeing an issue… I’ll just setup a new res and do another water + peroxide dunk to make sure nothing else is getting to the plant roots in regards to the parts I can’t see buried within the hydrotron
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Quick Progress Update:
I pulled off a lot of the older nodes with dead/yellowish looking leaves to help force all of the nutes/development into the newer growth. Also was able to fill in most of the net pot with hydroton to further prevent any potential light leaks hitting the res water
Not looking bad compared to where it was 10-11 days ago…
Both Plants 9/16 -
NYC Diesel 9/5 -
NYC Diesel 9/16 -
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I would remove the necrotic leaves entirely Growmie. Nice recovery 
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Nice recovery looking good.
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Yup absolutely. Been cleaning those up! 
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Veg Week 4
2024-09-12T04:00:00Z→2024-09-18T04:00:00Z
This week was very interesting. With the water & peroxide bath performed on 9/8 things def turned around to say the least. Doing time lapse comparisons… this is what the plants looked like about 6 days ago (9/13) when I made the post -
As of yesterday morning (9/18) for the end of week, this is where things are at now -
So there’s clearly been a lot of good going on which came from the sterilization clean. The pH and water temps have been holding pretty well for the most part. Even with the higher PPMs (Roughly between 400-450) it’s seemed to be alright for the most part throughout the week and saw 20-30 points drops taking place every morning. Also the brown grime has really not shown much at all in the res water
In terms of plant maintenance, I did opt to start pulling off the necrotic leaves on the bottom which had suffered through some deficiencies. I left about 3-4 nodes above on top just to make sure I didn’t over stress the plants. Also added more hydroton under the plants once I observed that there was enough room under them to fill more in. Should fully be blocking out any potential light leaks that might’ve hurt me beforehand
On Monday 9/16… I did observe that the PPM didn’t drop as I expected. Granted I know the roots were growing and whatnot, I gave it another couple days to see if this behavior continued. Unfortunately for the next couple mornings I had the same issue with the PPMs, so it led me to believe that maybe I needed to give things another clean over just to be absolutely sure nothing was compromising the rooting system.
As such, yesterday morning before the lights went off… I went out and purchased a bunch of gallons of distilled water. Took about 3 gallons to fill each res, and after adding my nutes, hydroguard, and pH balancing things, I gave the roots another water & peroxide bath for good measure just to see if it cleans up any excess grime that might’ve been attached to the roots I couldn’t see within the hydroton
In short the plants responded VERY well to their new res buckets. Also with the nutes added, I only did around 250 PPM in each bucket and as of this morning I have not observed any issues with deficiencies. If anything, I think I even observed a couple burnt tips which led me to think that I possibly had too much in there beforehand
Nonetheless, I’m excited with where things are at right now.
Til next week folks… stay tuned! 
Start of Week 4 (Day 22) -
End of Week 4 (Day 28) -
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Great journal. Your detail is spot on and you’re looking good.
My system is RDWC. I opted for a chiller because I’m just too lazy to deal with frozen bottles.
The brown slime. Oh man did i have a huge problem with it. But i found an easy way to deal with it. I tried a sterilized system. I tried Hydrogaurd. I tried everything and just ended up with dead plants.
The solution turned out to be simple. I use a beneficial bacterium tea and it has been amazing. No slime. No algae. Just healthy roots and very happy plants.
It’s a simple recipe.
30ml molasses
15ml Southern AG Garden Friendly Biologic Fungicide
15ml DYNOMYCO Premium Mycorrhizal Inoculant
I add that to 3 gallons of water that’s the same temp as my reservoir. I have an air stone in there too keep it all moving. Wait 24 hours and i as 2 cups daily to my reservoir.
The tea MUST be dumped and restarted no more than every 10 days.
Since i started using this formula I’ve been on easy street.
Good luck and I’m following your journal.
Oh yeah, i like the way you used the totes as an insulation system for the buckets. Smart move there.
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Thanks appreciate your feedback. I try my best
That slime tea idea sounds interesting… although I would imagine it’s as much of a hassle as swapping out ice bottles every 2-3 days. As things stand now I’ve managed to clear up a lot of that brown slime residue after adding hydroguard. I add maybe 0.5 mL every day at lights on after I add my other feed water. Also been top feeding by pouring the res water on the hydroton to hit the roots from the side so that they grow out and develop laterally
At some point I’m going to add an air purifier to make sure it’s nothing coming from the air. I replaced a couple clear tubes and noticed some black buildup near the aerator part going in, which led me to believe it might even have been something airborne. Using black tubes has helped there a bit, along with totally bleaching stuff to sterilize everything
Hydro is fun, til it isn’t right!? 
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it is … if you keep it simple…
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In my experience hydro has only two levels of enjoyment.
☆an absolute nightmare
Or
☆insanely boring
But i do enjoy growing hydro much more than i ever did with coco.
Plus, the yield is insane. Most i ever harvested in coco was 6 ounces per plant. Now I’m averaging 12 to 16 per plant.
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I am really trying to get to that point. Feel like I have a better handle on things so hopefully I can stay the course and keep it simple
I have heard that about hydro yields! Def helped pique my interest more to explore this. My last grow was performed in soil and I had around 8 oz per plant between three Chocolope plants. If I can get more yield on hydro… I’m all for it!
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Right on Grow Bro, they’ll explode over the next few weeks and keep exploding 
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That’s what I’m hoping for!
Considering where it was about 8-9 days ago… I’m expecting it to
The plants have definitely bulked up. Slight magnesium deficiency on the NYC Diesel, so I added a little extra epsom salt to the res
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Veg Week 5
2024-09-19T04:00:00Z→2024-09-25T04:00:00Z
Another week of veg in the books. Not much change in terms of maintaining the plants. Growth spurts seem to keep being displayed and for the most part seeing clean roots. So that's good
Day 30 -
Post-res change things grew pretty well. One thing I did start observing near the end of the week was a magnesium deficiency. I found it kind of ironic that given where the PPM levels were at, that this started occurring. Giving some thought into it, maybe the tap water I was using stored more magnesium than I was expecting...... but regardless I started upping the amount of epsom salt that I add to the res every day at lights on when topping off my res water. We will see what happens
Also began topping the plants at the start of the week. I had about 4-5 nodes of growth after pulling off the necrotic leaves from the earlier deficiencies that I experienced, and as such I started with the top node. As the plants grow out more, I may opt to do a couple more tops just so that I can ensure the plants stretch out and create a nice level canopy. That’s going to lead me into figuring out a viable LST option so that I can tie down the branches. But that’s a discussion for another day in the not-too-distant future 
Towards the end of the week I did notice that the plants were starting to show the magnesium deficiencies appearing again. I opted to give it a couple more days with adding just water and epsom salts to help correct that, but there was little to no improvement. So thus I opted to swap the res again
So yeah, like I said before...... hydro is fun until it isn't lol. But hey they are growing so I'll take it!
Til next week folks… stay tuned!
Root Development (Day 33)
End of Week 5 (Day 34)
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Very nice Grow Bro, roots are looking a nice healthy white, vertical growth is taking off. Strap in the growth is getting ready to explode
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Thanks Growmie. It’s been blowing up, and the other one is starting to catch up!
Hydroguard really saved the day. Been gradually adding in a bit every day at lights on after I finish filling up the res with water/nutes. Keeping my fingers crossed!
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