Note: Some/most (all?) of these posts are going to ramble on a bit. I'm using this as much for my own grow journal as to keep friends and other readers informed as to the going's on. I want enough detail/reasoning so that if I have the same problem 5 years from now, I can look back at this log and see the cause and resolution. Always keep good logs!
The pH was a bit too low and the plants were experiencing a bit of nutrient burn on the tips of the leaves. Adding an additional 5 gallons of water weakened the nutrient solution and brought the pH up to 5.8. Right where I want to be.
As expected, the plants were getting too much water with twice a day waterings. I have reduced this to once a day. I usually don't start indoors this early in the year - it's still too warm and too humid, but I was bored. The heat and humidity have caused their share of problems. With the AC set to 74 degrees, temperature in the tent has hovered around 85-88 degrees, and humidity about 70-75%. Reservoir temperature has been around 80. The reservoir temperature being so high is especially bad.
Ideally, air temp would be around 80, humidity at 50-60%, and nutrient temperature at 65-70 degrees. The nutrient reservoir temperature being so high (especially when combined with the high humidity and overwatering) can lead to Fusarium wilt. Water temps that high make for a perfect breeding ground. I really need to spend the $ and get a water chiller.
For now, I have opened up the top of all 3 doors in the tent and left the door to the room open in order to bring temp and humidity down. I really hate doing this as it is possible to introduce all sorts of parasites, mold spores, etc. to the plants. The main reason for this tent (other than reflection of light) is to avoid these problems by having a closed environment.
Here is a picture of what one of the plants looks like that is over-watered and is possibly suffering from fusarium wilt. The HID light really throws off the white balance of the camera. I have attempted to edit this picture to make the colors of the plant look nearly correct, even though it makes other items in the background look a bit odd. Notice the drooping leaves, and in the later stages, the complete rolling/curling and browning of the leaves (top right).
Here is how the entire set-up looks now. Astute observers will notice a few small changes.
- I've put cube covers (vinyl/polyester) over the rockwool cubes. These are to keep algae from forming. They are white on top to reflect light back to the plant. They are black on the bottom to keep as much light as possible from the cubes, further preventing algae. There's a little algae there already, but it will die off within a few days with no light.
- I've raised the flourescent light that I use for seedlings. When the plants first started showing these symptoms, I wasn't sure what was going on. I thought maybe they were getting too much light (light bleaching), so I turned off the HID and hung the flourescent light between it and the plants and just left that on. That didn't improve the situation, so I went back to the HID. I'm keeping the flourescent high because: The HID light causes RFI to the crappy Hanna monitor making it's readings useless. When I need to take readings, I have to turn off the HID, making it very dark in the tent. The flourescent being up high allows me to work. This is a real PITA since you don't want to hot-start HIDs - it can dramatically shorten their life - bad thing when the bulbs cost $100 each. Fortunately I use a digital ballast and it has a built-in timer to avoid hot-starts. I can just plug the ballast back in and it will turn on the light automatically when it's safe to do so.
- The fan has moved. It was clipped on the corner of the tray. This was too much wind for the plants that are closest, and the seedlings in the back weren't getting any wind at all (there should be enough to make the leaves flutter without moving the whole plant). So, I moved the fan to the top of the control board. This has partially alleviated the problem. What I really need is a larger fan with a *really* low speed setting. But this one works fine once they've aged a few weeks.
- The plant on the front (lower) right may appear smaller. If you look very closely (click on the picture), you'll see twine wrapped around it. When I was moving the fan, the entire head fell off onto this (the biggest or 2nd biggest) plant, snapping several branches and bending the stalk badly in multiple places. I pinched off the broken branches, stood the plant up, and am using the weight of the twine to keep it standing straight. If it doesn't recover in a week or so, I'll throw it out. :-(
Now, the part you've all probably been wondering about. Is it all worth it? Well, to me, hydro is easier, certainly cleaner, and far more interesting. For those that are just about growing and getting food, here's a litle motivation:
I germinated a bunch seeds from the stable owners at the same time. Two of them went into the hydro set-up, the rest went into an outside planter (which gets more and better light than the hydro set-up). I used miracle grow for the dirt since that's what most people would use (I would do something totally different if I was growing outside, but this is an experiment). These seeds were germinated and transplanted (rapid rooter and rockwool cube for hydro, the planter for soil) on the same days.
I didn't have a ruler, so my hand will have to do for comparison purposes. First the hydro:
Now the soil:
Convinced yet???
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