The roots look good, but the plant… not as much.
It’s the “blurple lighting” they look better if I turn just the white lights on.
I’m also trying a new nutrient line, so could have some issues as I switch it over, also as I said just fimmed, they usually pray early in the morning, so I’ll d figure that out. It’s also a new strain, so could be hungrier or less hungry, so figuring that out! But that’s the adventure of growing.
Keep in mind while blurple works plants do use the entire spectrum. You should have at least one full spectrum light even if it’s not your primary light by volume.
The absolute highest success I ever had in Hydroponics which is slightly different from aeroponics but not by much I just fully submerge the roots in water and use an air bubbler to keep them from drowning, but anyway the most success I ever had while testing a million different lighting setups was a full spectrum light above the plant with a string of blue up top at a very specific frequency that I found in multiple study papers but then most importantly strings of red at a very specific frequency that I found from those same papers on the bottom and through the middle of the plant.
When I added that red to the bottom and threw the middle I saw such an explosion of growth, mind you these were tomato plants primarily so there was a lot of plant to cover. But red light does not trigger the plants desire to grow towards the light because it’s a shade response so running the strings of red right through the leaves of the plant meant all the middle and bottom leaves were not useless and it had access to way more energy than usual.
I tried the same thing with just blurple but it did not do quite as well, it still worked just fine and it definitely still worked better with the red light all around and through the bottom. But it definitely did better with the full spectrum lights up top. I’d say the amount of growth didn’t change much with the full spectrum but the quality of the growth seemed higher if that makes sense
Great write up, the light has actually has the entire spectrum, it’s a “blurple”, but it’s got small 2600k and 5000k LEDs, as well as 2 massive cree cobs, one 2600k and the other 5000k.
This is also only my Veg light, my flower light isn’t a blurple and it has UV, IR and FR on it and it’s something totally else compared to these two.
The veg tent has two of these bad boys.
I’m also trying a new nutrient line, so could have some issues as I switch it over
My guess is this.
Perhaps give them a little lower EC to ease the transition. Some of that growth looks like nute toxicity to me. (“The Claw!”)
It’s… not hungry. You can see when a plant is hungry when they’re other wise good, but pale coloured leaves. Thirsty by otherwise good but drooping leaves. But only like “slightly tired at the bus stop” droopy, whereas these look a bit more like “depressed in high school” droopy, (and a bit on the small side considering how nice the roots are, but I do hydros) which leads me to think it’s some sort of nute toxicity or uptake disorder (ie ph problem or lockout) but I don’t think those need to be worried about.
Giving too much nutes is always much harder to fix than giving too little. You can always add, but even when changing reservoirs, you can’t take back the nutes from the plant. But you can give them more which they will happily and fast use to grow a lot.
I like to think I keep mine like 90% fed so they’re always that bit hungry. In my experience it’s the easier and safer way to good harvests, for me at least. But to each with their own styles.
Yeah the EC and the PH have been creeping up, I need to tailor it a little more often than I’m capable of right now, so I know things aren’t ideal. Ph and Ec this morning was 7.6 and 3.0. I know it should be around 6.0 and 1.6 for right now.
Pictures with the blurple off and it recovering from the fim yesterday.
Edit, the line I’m changing too is supposed to be “ph perfect” and should hold the ph better. I liked the old line, but it required constant ph down and it wasn’t available locally, online only.
That looks a lot better.
Still a bit clawy, but much better.
Yeah I’ll be adding some water to drop the EC this morning, the EC sounds worse than it is, the tap water is naturally .6-.7 so I try to shoot for a veg EC of 2.2-2.5 which usually works, but seems to be a little hot for these ladies right now. Last grow grow and strain seemed to be fine when the EC climbed to 3.0, but these ones seem more finicky.
I appreciate the looking out tough, I didn’t even notice until you mentioned it, they are definitely clawed, I usually try to keep mine from being hungry, just burning the tips a hair and as long as they still pray.
Yeah depending on the size of your reservoir, EC can vary quite a lot. At least my room isn’t perfectly temp controlled and during summer heats there’s more evaporation. Not with my current hydros, but still a thing to consider.
My pleasure if anything I said helped
It holds 40lish, but I put 20l in at watering (make nutes for 16l) and if the EC climbs or the pump runs out I’ll add some fresh water during the week
Was lazy last grow and didn’t change my reservoir every week, that caused issues, but I wanted to see for myself.
I also think I figured my issue out, my PH pen is punched, they apparently last about 18 months and mine is 3 years old (whoops). It gave me 3 different readings on my tap water yesterday morning. So I have a new one on order.
