What’s up DGC!
Well on today’s show, episode 517. Dude, Scotty and Guru answered questions I had and asked more about my dual root zone aquaponics setup. https://www.dudegrows.com/can-foliar-feed-calmag/
So I basically copied the setup Steve and Marty from Potent Ponics podcast run. The bottom 1/3 of my pot has hydroton balls then a layer of burlap to keep soil out of the fish water. And finally the top 2/3 of the pot is soil. This is so I can take advantage of all the benefits that soil has to offer. And be able to amend the nutrients that are not provided by the fish or not necessarily good for the fish.
I got into all this cause I’d link to be able to provide my family with fresh CLEAN fresh fish, veggies and fruit. I am trying to stay as natural as I can and not buy to many nutes and things.
So I make my own LABS (Lactic Acid Bacteria Serum) for my plants. Out of rice wash water, and milk. I use a formula for this called ROBERTOS BREW Flower Power, Marty told me how to find the recipe. I haven’t gone through the whole recipe and made the flower power ferment, but I plan too!
I’m also trying to make as much of my own nutes. I plan to start using epsom salt for mag, crushed eggshells for cal and Ferments for my P, K and micro nutes. And to he fish provide the N. My soil is black gold brand mixed with worm dirt from my worm bin.
I use just enough water to saturate the soil but not leak through into the hydroton balls and then into the planter bed. When I water I use worm tea, and if needed will use some Age Old Organics brand bloom nutes in flower. I also dose the fish water with chelated DTPA iron once a week. And use Recharge in the tank and soil.
My fish tank is outside plumbed through the wall and into the tent, where I have the planter bed. My system is called a CHOP (constant hight one pump). No fill and drain, pump runs 24/7 and there is a stand pipe with holes drilled in it at the depth I want to keep the planter bed water level. After that just drains back down to the fish tank.
My lights started as just some cheapo amazon fixtures. But I have replaced the led’s they came with to some Cree 3590’s and Luminus cxm22’s so now they’re much better!
I’m not an expert in aquaponics and not even a novice yet lol! But I’m determined to make this work for me! My first run went smooth as silk, tested at 23%and smelled like bubble gum! Oh it was so good!
But this run has not gone so smooth. I’m actually having some problems with deficiencies right now. I have 3 ladies in the tent now. A Northern Lights Afghan cross, a Black Dog and a Widow Haze cross. 2 weeks from flip yesterday. But this problem started about a week before flip. I no I shouldnt have flipped with problems but I was running out of hight in the tent.
I started seeing some lightening of the margins in new and middle growth on Northern cross and some lightening of the whole top new growth of the Black Dog. The widow cross isn’t as sad as the other 2.
I’m not real good at identifying what’s goin on with the signs and could REALLY use some help!
Here are some pics of the plants and setup. Along with deficiencies lol.
Thanks for making a cool ass show and taking time to answer questions and spread the good word about cannabis! And thanks for noticing and liking what im trying to do.
You guys kick ass!
This post had no author. It wasn’t difficult to figure who wrote this with your intro. 😉 I hope your next run is more enjoyable. I know it can be frustrating to see such damage. A light dose of an immediately available calcium source like the fellas mentioned on the show would of helped as soon as you noticed the problem. At least you know now how to correct this issue in the future. Unfortunately letting the deficiency get this bad this early in flower is hard to bounce back from and still have a large harvest. As soon as the first spot appeared would of been the time to foliar. Good luck!
Ouch, you have major nutrient deficiencies, as you stated. Unfortunately your immobile nutrients were unavailable too long and the upper part of your plants will likely never recover. I think those whites spotes on the lower leaves, bottom pic is dry salts? Your plants are also suffering from osmotic pressure imbalances. Most likely root zone is too wet.
You may need to top plants to somewhat healthy leaves and provide a well balanced complete nutrient fertilizer. IMO recovery will take long and you need to revert back to veg. Try to provide a dry area to your root zone.
I admire you for taking on an aquponic grow. It seems there are many difficulties. You should monitor everything ph, ec, water temps etc you know and you will be the expert. Something is different in this run you must figure out what you are doing different.
Notes:
4 Cree 3590 and 2 cxm leds are not enough photons to flower those large plants, for my liking.
Soil bucket sitting in the water is detrimental. Your top soil layer will suffocate your plants. It seems too wet. I diagnosed your systems to the best of my knowledge, unfortunately I am not an aquoponic expert.
Hope you can get back to those bubble gum buds again.
Thanks for the responses guys!
So do you guys say it looks like mag deficiency? Or what would you guys say, is there multiple deficiencies goin on here?
I do monitor my system. Ph-6.5, 365 ppm fish water ph 6.5, ammonia 0 ppm, Nitrite 0 ppm Nitrate 5 ppm.
I thought I was seeing different deficiencies on different plants. So I thought it is due to ph or something like that. But for aquaponics the ph is ok. It can’t get to low or the fish will suffer and it can’t get to high or the plants will suffer so the happy medium I’m told is 6.5 to 6.3.
The last grow was in the high 6’s for ph being a completely new system. And it did well.
So the biggest difference between this and the last grow is the outside temps.
You mentioned osmotic pressure imbalances.
First can you explain more about what that is exactly? Lol I have no idea.
And could the low outside temps at night and in general this time of year be a cause?
The tank has a heater set to 75° but it’s getting into the 30’s at night now and inside the tent the tempty re the same as the house temps and much warmer than outside. Could the difference in temps cause multiple deficiencies like a ph problem does?
The first plant was grown in spring and the temps were plenty warm and not much swing. That’s the biggest difference between the two grows.
I also agree that I need more light. An HLG 135w kit is gonna go in there.
I don’t think the soil is a problem. I grew the first run this way and the Growing With Fishes podcast guys have been using this method for years. Although I could have screwdriver up the layers of hydroton balls to soil this time! The hydroton layer in the buckets is about 2″ higher then the water level in the planter bed. So the soil doesn’t wick up water all the time and keep the soil to wet.
But it almost looks like the Black Dog with drooping sad leaves could be to wet.
The Growing With Fishes podcast is on tomorrow and I’ll try to get their eyes on some pics of my plants and parameters see what they think might be goin on here.
I hoe I can save this grow!
They look like they are mainly nitrogen and calcium deficient. That bottom pic looks like possible bug damage from something like thrips. You could possibly have some root damage causing the lock out and stress. I’d do some real good inspecting.
Thanks Jmystro I’ll keep up with the before lights on foliar cal/mag and soil feeding cal/mag. I’ll also feed the fish more often and take as close a look as possible for root problems.
And thanks for the replies and advice from everyone!
Indi- Very cool set up which I didn’t mention in your previous post. I was thinking the exact same as Mystro’s note just above. That one may be tough to recover especially since you don’t have your process dialed in for those specific genetics.
Are you keep a good journal? That is going to help you tremendously as you progress in getting your whole system locked in. Very very cool project! Circle back with us as I am confident the crew will want to know how you got it growing on.
Terms to learn to understand osmotic imbalance
Turgor pressure
Osmosis
Solvent
Solute
If a plant absorbs salts say NaCl and the plant can’t not use the excess sodium nor the chlorine, which will build in the plant’s vacuoles. The salt ions buildup. Then the plant will require more ions (nutrients) in the solvent (water bed or medium) then normal in order to flow into your plant. Ions will flow from a higher concentration to a lower concentration ( osmosis). This will lead to nutrient deficiencies while having a good ec. It’s more complicate then this, microbes and cellular pumps and transpiration don’t allow the simple flow of osmosis to happen, nor will I detail.
The plausible answer what is different in this grow is there is a non essential salt or ions that are being metabolized. This is creating your osmotic imbalance and contributing to your nutrient deficiencies. Also you may need to look at your ammonia converting enzymes and/bacteria. Hence your ammonium ions will contribute to deficiencies, osmotic imbalance and toxic environment, too much ammonium ions. Are you testing?
Do you think your height differential between your fish tank and plant zone is big enough or are you pumping too much water in the plant root zone. It seems too wet. However, I am not an expert in aquaponics. It’s something I would question. Also do you have enough fish to provide the necessary nutrients and if not are you supplementing enough.
Note- you can still be very successful without being a biochemical nerd and understanding this. You ask for more details and you seem very engaged.
Good luck – I think I may give aquaponics a try this summer.
Ps I don’t think it’s going to be easy to rescue these plants to harvest. However, you should do everything you can to turn this around so you can learn from your mistakes.
As a newbie just let me say, damn that’s a lot of detailed work. I hope you get rewarded with some dank bud.
Well I have searched where I can for root problems but nothing obvious stand out.
Elmo, Yes I do keep a journal. But sadly on this grow I have been a bit of a bumb about it and have some gaps…
Sticky Fingers, thank you for explaining that and duming it down for me lol.
I’ll do reading and learn the terms and understand more.
I do test my fish water parameters Ph, Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate. I think I posted my last test results in the thread.
Ammonia-0 ppm
Nitrite-0 ppm
Nitrate-5 ppm
Thanks again for the help guys I really do appreciate it.
I am not giving up on these plants and am going to finish this grow and figure out what I did wrong and get this dialed in!
Thanks ScottyDawg! The first aquaponics run I did this summer paid off in great nugs! Critical Kush that smelled sweet and tested out at 23%
What’s up guys, DGC!
Well been foliar feeding cal/mag every other day and watering soil with some Age Old Organics brand bloom, cal/mag and Recharge.
Things seem to be getting a little better I’m going to keep up with what im doin.
I’m also going to try making some Fermented Fruit Juice.
How do I add updated pics?
You can just create a new post with the pics and I’ll see them and add them to this post if you like.