New Grower My little ladies need a diagnosis ???? PICTURES

[grga]

These think differents had a rough start, they were barely growing the first few weeks due to the res level being too high. They would not root down into the res. I dropped the res level down and they took off!!! suffice to say they should be alot bigger and more developed then they are. right now they are 43 days old and only 7 inches tall, I saw the first hairs about 2 weeks ago, I was told by a board member that they shouldnt be switched to bloom nutes for a little while because the delay in growth in the beginning will cause them to extend their life, longer than the usual 70-80 days the most other board members are doing with their think different's. I noticed that the branches have started to alternate (rather than opposite branching like on lower nodes) and that vertical growth has slowed down. also the res is no longer raising in pH after a res change, its going down..... did a res change last night with pH set at 5.7, this afternoon it was 5.5. Are these ladies ready for bloom nutes???? I included some macro shots of the alternating top branches I was talking about.

I was also thinking that res pH could be going down because of the cal mag I added...... could this be whats causing the pH to drop?

I will monitor the growth in height for the next couple of days and repost.

Grga

20L DWC AN jungle juice, barricade (pottasium silicate) cal/mag, and carbo-boost under a 400w MH.



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[big_buddha]

Could you post some pictures of the whole plant? 7 inches sounds short but my current TD was around 20 inches wide whilst less than 10" short. 2 weeks later and she was over 2 foot tall and 3 foot wide. You probably stunted her a little at the start but dont worry if you can get her dialled in before her stretch period is over then she will still end up a good size. What is the EC of the feed in your bucket? I find that my pH drops suddenly when the feed has been too weak and the plant is feeding faster. I believe that I have read the rootzone secretes acids to aid in nutrient uptake so this can suddenly cause pH to drop when the nutes have been removed from the mix. If your pH drops overnight to 5 or below then that is definitely a sign she is ready for a switch to bloom nutes. A drop from 5.7-5.5 could be explained simply by your feed mixing properly as the nutes are dissolved/spread around.

Secondly you say you are not using bloom nutes but are feeding with carbs? Usually carbs are added a couple weeks into flower as a boost to bloom nutes?

Also if your roots wouldnt grow down into the res whilst the water was at meshpot depth then that is quite likely a sign that you are not pumping another air into the bucket. What pump do you use? what volume of air per minute does it push? You should be looking at a minimum of 15L per minute, preferably 25-30+ per bucket. When you are pumping 20L+ per minute per bucket then you should never encounter the problem of roots not growing through the mesh. Give us as much information as possible about your DWC setup, light cycles etc and we can help you more easily