Nick's Sweet Heat Peps in a Farm+ (TERMINATED)

[nick]

I came home hoping to see improvement. Instead things seem worse.




Even the edges of the leaves on the second plant are starting to show problems now.

I’m starting to think there’s something affecting all of the plants in the lower units.

[Shawn]

I am not sure, maybe mike can assist.

[Kate]

Look up Leaf Spot, (specifically on pepper plants). It's bacterial, I believe.

[nick]

Oct 16, 2018 8:12:16 GMT -5 Kate said:

Look up Leaf Spot, (specifically on pepper plants). It's bacterial, I believe.

Thanks, I did that after you mentioned it previously. 

If that is what I'm dealing with, there won't be much I can do but to terminate, sanitize and start over. Worse, it seems the primary source of the bacteria is infested seed. I could end up here again pretty quickly.

I guess we'll find out soon.

[Kate]

One year, several years ago, I got it in my greenhouse on only one type of pepper plant, (thank G-d). The vendor actually contacted me to advise they had an issue with one batch of seeds, which of course was the batch I bought. They replaced the seeds to everyone affected, refunded the purchase cost, and gave a credit toward future purchases. I thought it was something I'd done, before they contacted me.

[nick]

Maybe I should let Park know?

[Shawn]

Oct 16, 2018 10:14:51 GMT -5 nick said:

Maybe I should let Park know?

Before terminating, talk to park and see what they say.  Also see if mike logs in and sees this.  Mike may be able to give some insight, he is the Pepper King

[nick]

So here’s another wrinkle: My TDS meter arrived today and the water in this unit measured about 1750 ppm. Obviously that’s way too high. What I don’t understand is that I was following GH’s recommended amounts per gallon.

I think then big lesson here is that I’m clearly still new to this and I probably shouldn’t be messing around with GH or any other third-party nutes just yet.

I trimmed off the bad leaves on these plants and I’ll do an R&R tonight. We’ll see if they recover.

I suspect the overfeeding is what went wrong with my tomatoes too. I may put the two healthy tomato plants in the same unit and restart the other with the ones that I (probably) nute burned.

[Shawn]

That is a reason I am nervous to try GH.  I have only used AG and Mooch.

[Kate]

Oct 16, 2018 16:58:47 GMT -5 Shawn said:

That is a reason I am nervous to try GH.  I have only used AG and Mooch.

And yet, I've had no issues. So far, anyway.

[nick]

Oct 16, 2018 18:26:11 GMT -5 Kate said:

Oct 16, 2018 16:58:47 GMT -5 Shawn said:

That is a reason I am nervous to try GH.  I have only used AG and Mooch.

And yet, I've had no issues. So far, anyway.

So my question to you is, how much are you using for your plants?

Because I've been following the GH feedchart pretty meticulously. I've added the amounts per gallon as specified and obviously the TDS measurement was far too high. 

[Shawn]

Oct 16, 2018 19:32:08 GMT -5 nick said:

Oct 16, 2018 18:26:11 GMT -5 Kate said:

And yet, I've had no issues. So far, anyway.

So my question to you is, how much are you using for your plants?

Because I've been following the GH feedchart pretty meticulously. I've added the amounts per gallon as specified and obviously the TDS measurement was far too high. 

nick , are you adding them in the correct order?  Have you read the info that our drbanks put together here?  I knw it they are mixed incorrectly they do not work.

(I myself still need to read it carefully. I did but still get confused.  I need a week without having anything on my schedule to sit and read and understand it)

[Kate]

Oct 16, 2018 19:32:08 GMT -5 nick said:

Oct 16, 2018 18:26:11 GMT -5 Kate said:

And yet, I've had no issues. So far, anyway.

So my question to you is, how much are you using for your plants?

Because I've been following the GH feedchart pretty meticulously. I've added the amounts per gallon as specified and obviously the TDS measurement was far too high. 

I take the cap off a jug of distilled water and using a graduated pipette, (one for each nute), add CaliMagic, shake, then add the micro, then grow, then bloom, shaking as much as i can between, as its mostly full by the end. I rotate the jug several times after I'm done adding everything, then remove the cap and feed. Any leftovers, usually not much, I put in a cupboard and feed the next day. I never add plain water. I refill with my mixed nutes only. I took this method from both online veggy growers, (somewhere), and local pot growers that grow for the dispensaries and swear by the stuff. Pot is legal here...not to worry. I don't consort with the criminal underground ...much. (Just Kidding)

As far as the ratio, with the exception of my herbs, that get whatever I've fed everyone else, I use the recommended 3:2:1, 2:2:2, 1:2:3 schedule. I will say that my little Sweet Heat likely got closer to 3:2:2 when it was a start because I'd separate out enough water to feed it after mixing for the rest of them, and then adjust with a small addition of water and grow. It seems it worked fine. It's been happy all along. It's been fed from the communal jug for awhile, now. I don't find it confusing or hard at all. Before I switched to GH, my flowering/fruit setting  plants were NOT very happy, and keeping the TDS in the correct range was insanity, and I was stressed out over it. I think AG nutes are fine for herbs, lettuce, etc., except I think you can taste it whenever you feed/harvest, even with waiting a day after feeding, and I never do with GH.

I'm not sure why your TDS was way too high, but if/when it is, don't wait. Dump and refill ASAP, right away. Has it been hot there?

[nick]

Nope. No heat here. After the leftovers of Hurricane Michael blew through fall weather arrived.

So on the GH feed chart in the “Early Growth” phase they recommend (per gallon):

7.5ml Micro
10ml Grow
2.5ml Bloom

For my two gallon tanks I had doubled each of those amounts (15ml, 20ml, 5ml) and that’s how my Sweet Heat tank got to 1700ppm.

I’m going to mix up a batch of GH nutes tonight and measure the TDS levels just to see what it’s like right after mixing.

[Kate]

Oct 17, 2018 5:45:43 GMT -5 nick said:

For my two gallon tanks I had doubled each of those amounts (15ml, 20ml, 5ml) and that’s how my Sweet Heat tank got to 1700ppm. 

I mix one gallon at a time, and use it in all the units. I'd do this even for the larger tanks, I think. I actually used my pipette that measures in ml, and filled a teaspoon when I first used it, so I could be sure I was getting accurate measurements. I also checked my TDS in 12 and 24 hours. I was really paranoid when I realized how low my TDS was before I changed to the GH. Now, I'm much more relaxed about it. I check my TDS and pH about once or twice a week. I'm sure I'll have issues in the future. Chaos theory and all. Environmental changes affect everything.

[drbanks]

Kate, that procedure sure sounds familiar

[nick]

Oct 17, 2018 6:15:30 GMT -5 Kate said:

[I mix one gallon at a time, and use it in all the units. I'd do this even for the larger tanks, I think. I actually used my pipette that measures in ml, and filled a teaspoon when I first used it, so I could be sure I was getting accurate measurements. I also checked my TDS in 12 and 24 hours. I was really paranoid when I realized how low my TDS was before I changed to the GH. Now, I'm much more relaxed about it. I check my TDS and pH about once or twice a week. I'm sure I'll have issues in the future. Chaos theory and all. Environmental changes affect everything.

Yeah, that’s what I’ve been doing. I mix one gallon at a time in the standard AeroGarden jug. Each gallon got the amounts listed on the GH feed chart and each unit got two gallons.

My pH has been right on target throughout.

Experiments with the TDS meter are going to happen tonight.

[nick]

I decided to clip the bad leaves on these plants before I left for work yesterday. They seem to be responding well to that. Today they finally got the R&R I had been putting off while waiting to see what the TDS reading in the tank was.

Feeding after the R&R was with 16ml of AG nutes.





If I end up having to terminate these I won’t be shocked, but right now I really think this was a case of nute burn. All of the tomato and pepper plants got the same GH nutes and I think it was far too much for the young plants. I won’t be surprised if they still have issues but I’m fairly certain the nutes were the problem. More on that to come in another post.

[Shawn]

These look really good.

[Kate]

Oh, I'm so relieved! You just don't know!