First-time grower. Using Dealzer grow box; deep-water culture. Planted four seeds of Super Skunk from reliable Dutch website in superplugs. Three germinated. The last one did eventually, but languished and couldn't catch up. The box is a diminutive 35"x16"x9". A charcoal-filtered fan pulls air from a charcoal-filtered opening through the box. Fluorescent grow bulbs at different strengths for veg and flowering. Using Moon Dust fertilizer. Keeping my pH around 6, but it has spiked in both directions. Air temp in the box is 72. RH was 70%, but after placing two small bowls of DampRid in the box, the RH seems to have settled at 65%. I was hoping for something much lower. Change the water and nutes every week or two. Scrub everything, start with new tap water and nutes (applied fairly conservatively). The last couple of times the pH of the bin water being tossed has been 6 or 7. A couple earlier readings were super-high (8) or super-low (4). May just be my error. Two months in veg. Started out 24–0, but was getting brown leaves so I changed to 18–6. That fixed that problem. Everything grew great for the next six weeks or so. My plants were halfway up the sides of the grow box, so I changed to the flowering grow bulbs and a 12–12 sleep schedule. In a couple of days the plants started wilting, leaves curling and drying up, or had brown edges. Full, green leaves, often the entire petiole, would just fall off. These plants were fuller and sturdier a week ago. I became concerned that I had overloaded the plants with nutes. (I've read that less than prescribed is usually the right amount of nutrients.) When I changed nutes yesterday, I used 1/4 tsp. instead of the 1/2 tsp. prescribed. Do I have root rot? A deficiency or excess of some nutrient? Really want to save something from this grow. I'm growing my own because a dealer is hard to come by (new city) and decent weed is so expensive. With all I've spent on this grow, I'd hate to lose it all. View attachment 1504202 View attachment 1504197 View attachment 1504200
Not an expert I'm a first timer myself idk if it's root rot but I can say that your roots are not suppose to be exposed to light that will cause root rot
Your roots look ok and the problem is likely a result of your ph fluctuations. What are you using to test your ph and why is it all over the place?
I guess I'm using the cheap aquarium approach. Get a little water in a container and add a few drops of pH test indicator and compare to the color on the bottle. Then use pH Up and pH Down to adjust the pH and test again. I think at first I didn't realize how much movement in pH you can get with just a few drops of pH Up or pH Down. I think I got sloppy without realizing it. (I think this was the 8+ reading when I checked it days later.) The 4.0 I have no idea. I thought I had everything set right with the pH, and then several days later it had taken a dive. I do add water every day or two to make up for evaporation. After several days could that cause a big pH swing? Average water here: 250–350 ppm.
Nothing wrong with the ph test you are using, I use the same thing. Are you adding ph adjusters to the straight water you give it in between? Are you using a ppm tester to determine if it needs water and no nutes? If not this is what I found to work well for me. I use tap water and the ph is pretty consistent. I fill a bucket (I just use a 5gal.) almost full of water and let it sit over night to get the chlorine out as much as i can. I figure out how much ph adjuster to use by adding a bit at a time until it is where I want it. For me 1ml of ph down that I use puts it there. If using nutes mix the nutes before adjusting the PH. I mix for less than the amount of water, so I use nutrients for 15L of water when I might have 18L in the bucket. Use the solution in the bucket to keep your reservoir topped up. My theory why this works so well is because if mixed correctly you are always adding the proper ratio of water and nutrients. Just a thought that could save you time and headache.
Thanks a lot, Chronicibus. Yes, I do check the pH after adding the nutes. But I don't pH-adjust the water I use to top up the basin the plants are in. So as nutes are absorbed and I'm pouring in water at ~7.0 pH, things could get out of whack quickly. I don't follow your point about checking the TDS to see if all is needed is water and not nutes. I guess if the TDS is approx. what it was when you last filled the grow basin, you conclude that there are lots of unused nutes in the water? BTW, I only checked the TDS a few times. I got the TDS-3, and I guess the battery leaked. (Recently I bought two flash lights, and within a few months both were ruined by the batteries leaking out. Anyway, that's why I suspect a battery problem.) There was rust in the viewer, near the top of the device. This happened only about the second time that I used it. I wiped off the TDS-3 and then left it to air dry. Then it was kaput. I used the device correctly. I didn't drop it in the water. I just put the two prongs in, which you have to do to get a reading. Anyway, Amazon won't replace it, but apparently there's some place in China that will help me out. I only wish that were a joke. If you don't mind my asking, what TDS meter do you use?
I don't use one at all. That was my point, that if you are not using one to determine what ratio to mix at to replace the solution absorbed or evaporated that it is easier to just mix one solution and keep using it to top up the reservoir until empty. Once you dial in the amount of ph adjuster to use it then becomes a matter of mix, pour, repeat. Not that it is the right thing to do, but I have not tested ph levels or cleaned my res out for over a month with no ill effects other than a bit of nute burn on the tips. I try and simplify things and having a formula to follow helps remove over thinking from the equation.
Cool. Thanks. As for (not) keeping things simple, I read and read how to grow until I was going nuts. Then just before I started this grow, I read in the Jorge Cervantes book that many people, especially in micro-grows, don't do any pruning, etc., at all, but end up with primo buds. I went with that advice. I figured I'd start simple.
Yea, thats not even close to a good formula for hydro cannabis. I use a 2-4-5 for flowering. Add some guano tea and cal mag.
Do you have an air pump going to your water? Roots don't look too bad YET, if you don't have any type supplemental Oxygen being supplied to your root zone. Like rootswoman says you should get something to keep light from reaching the root zone. I would really recommend a pH meter (I use hanna or blue lab) and a ppm meter (I use blue lab). That should really help you get a grip on your feeding solution. I think I saw you mention they were about 250 ppm? You need a higher ppm at the stage your in. I'd suggest a target range of 500 to 700 ppm and a ph of 5.6 and let that number rise to low 6's before knocking it back down to 5.6. Some plant support would be beneficial in that tent I see in the background as well. Lastly you need to get something with a higher P-K specifically on the 3 number N-P-K you see on nutrient labels. And lower N. Botanicare products have always been nice to me. The grow solution, bloom solution, and Cal-mg are easy to use and provide your plants needs. You don't need to necessarily wash that container every feed either. Monthly sounds generous. Or just add some H2O2 to help get extra Oxygen your lacking and to kill anything that might be living down there. pH meter, ppm meter, nutrients shift, netting for support, air pump and hose. If you plan on running future grows i'd get this list. If not then spending the money wouldn't be worth it and I can give you a simpler solution.