What type of medium; soil or hydro? hydro DWC (rockwool cube/hydroton) Indoors or outdoors? Indoors What strain? unknown What type of lights and how many watts? 250W MH How far from the lights? good distance fertilizer and last feeding? canna aqua vega / canna rhizotonic (yesterday) What is the medium/runoff pH? 6.0 What are the temps and humidity in the room? 81-85F / 55% What size pots? 3.2 GAL (reservoir filled 1.5 GAL) i picked up a healthy looking clone yesterday (1st pic). tonight, all the leaves are drooping severely and starting to curl (pic 2). is the 85F temp. killing them? are the roots not receiving enough moisture? i dug out the rockwool cube and noticed that roots grew a little bit more out of the rockwool cube. i figured the leaves' symtoms may be a result of underwating so i dug out the rockwool cube and planted it deeper into the net pot. ive been dripping eyedroplets of fertilizer at the base of plant to wet the rockwool cube as well.
[ DAY 3 ] i left the door open for 16 hours of light. temp has been between 80-83F. clone seems to have recuperated a bit. some of the drooping in a few leaves has been reduced. - other leaves have curled over completely (one leaf has turned upside down) - some leaves are getting really yellow on the edges as well. the reservoir also looks really cloudy with sediment at the bottom. are my air tubes not bubbling enough? any suggestions?
hey man, if that's a fresh clone without feet(roots).... you need to get that thing in a humidity dome, it has no roots to take up water... As for the nutes, I always strat my clones with nutes, I think it's the best way to go, that way the food is there as soon as they need it... Just make sure you have a weak PPM in there... around 400-600
what do you mean by strat? roots were showing through the bottom of the rockwool cube when i first planted the clone. they grew a bit more before i replanted it. not too sure how much they've grown now. i wander how much longer til they grow out through the bottom of the net pot. i mixed PPM to 490 on day one. should be even less now.
as far as i know, the clone is being watered correctly. i have followed the canna feeding schedule and it is slightly below the recommended dosage. maybe i should water with plain water until more roots develop before i start adding fertilizer? i think i will mist the foliage with water as well.
Hello Jus_chillin! It's wilting from lack of water. Fill up your reservoir old chap. Your net pot should be submerged in the solution to a depth of about an inch, until you can see roots growing out of the net pot. Then you can drop your water level to an inch or so below the bottom of the net pot. At the moment your roots are not touching the water/solution, so the plant can't use it to stay alive. That's your main problem, without doubt. Fill up your reservoir. Whilst your there, Canna aqua vega + rhiz should not make your solution cloudy, so ditch that murky solution, scrub out your res, and make up a new batch at a quarter to half strength. It should be a slightly off-brown colour, but still very transparent. Then set your pH between 5.3 - 5.8, and try to keep it there as consistantly as possible. These last two points aren't causing your problems (as the plant is not in contact with the solution), but they may cause issues in future, so you'd be wise to get on top of 'best practice' now. As someone mentioned, clones are rooted in humid atmospheres, and generally need to be aclimatised into a drier atmosphere slowly, but looking at the size of that baby, I don't think you need to worry about that for this plant. Just fill up the res my friend, and all should be good. HTH, HAND, and all that jazz.
thanks for the responses. the clone seems to be doing a lot better. finally a root is showing through the net pot and all of the leaves are standing up straight. however, i made a new batch of weak fertilizer and it still turns cloudy! when i first add the nutes to the water, it is like you described, sort of clear/brownish. after a few hours its cloudy and sediment forms on the bottom of the bucket. how can i fix this? (btw, the rhizotonic expired a few months - possible cause?) thanks again.
i think that particular nute is pretty strong so you need to be careful. it needs to settle for a while with that brand.
ive been putting real low doses of every fertilizer. how long do you let your freshly mixed fertilizers sit before you start using them? here's some updated pics on the baby.
Make sure that you stir in the A nutes really well, and don't rush to add the B. If you mix them together they form insoluble salts which cloud up the solution and can't be used by the plant. That's why A & B are kept in seperate bottles. Possibly. Leave it out of the next batch and find out. It is, after all, just a root tonic. If you want to fill a reservoir and disappear for week; 2-4 hours to make sure all's well. If you want to pop into the grow every hour to stroke your plants and shower them with affection; use it straight away and check with each visit.
there are a lot of roots dangling out of the net pot and into the nutrient solution now. i noticed little brown bugs attacking the roots. what are these? how do i kill them off?
i might have just f*cked over my baby. i suspected bugs (fungus gnats i think) coming from the rockwool cube deep in the hydroton. so i dug out the rockwool cube to find the roots infested with the little bugs. i extracted the cube from the hydroton to wash the bugs off the roots. in doing so, i accidentally tore off 90% of the roots so i decided to peel off the rockwool cube completely. now the plant is back to a stem with few dangling roots. i replanted it back in freshly washed hydroton. did i just f*ck my plant over?
Quite possibly. 90% is a lot of root mass to lose. At the very least you've set it back a fair while. Get it back in DWC, and raise the water level to make sure all roots are submerged. As is often the way with sod's law, now would be the ideal time for a dose of unexpired Rhizotonic, but I'm not sure I'd advise using the out of date stuff. Keep a close eye on the plant. If it doesn't look good after a few (5ish) hours you may want to consider removing most of the upper portion of the plant (like topping), leaving just a few of the lower growth tips which will be more easily sustained by it's limited root system. Fingers crossed, but your into fairly advanced territory here. Gluck.
awww 90% is a lot. I hope she pulls through but she might not have enough roots to keep all those leaves healthy. take pics so we can see.
This baby's lower leaves are still sprouting and the drooping is going away.. still waiting for that first root to pop through but it looks like she's going to make it! I have been feeding her rhizotonic only. I appreciate everybody's input.