Hello, I was hoping to get some help from some experienced growers on the problems I am currently having with my drip irrigation hydroponic set-up. I have six plants and some of them have drooping leaves which I assume is related to watering. I water four times a day for 15 minutes each time at six hour intervals. I also have some apparent light nutrient burn on my biggest plant which is the uncircled one in the middle of the first picture. This is on the lower leaves of the plant and seems pretty minor. I am running a diluted Lucas Formula with General Hydro nutrients, it's about 5/8ths the strength of the low light recommended amount. My plants are about three and a half weeks to four weeks old, though some are about a week older than others (maybe only five days). I've been using light nutes for about two weeks but just switched to General Hydroponics and the Lucas formula about three days ago. The main problem I am having is with light spots/discolored patches on the leaves of some of my plants. I am not sure what this is or what is causing it. The patches seem to go from bottom up on the plant and form first in the middle of the leaves then the tips. If the color on the pictures are off the patches are very light yellow/green. I have looked for bugs/mites and haven't found any, nor any damage under the affected leaves. I'm using mostly distilled water though I had to use tap water to up my pH. My tap is about nine in pH and 200 in ppm. My pH has been consistently around or just under 6 since switching nutes (I haven't had to bring it down myself), but my ppm is up from about 440-445 yesterday to 470-475 today. My plants seem to always raise the ppm which makes me think I need to back off on nutes, but I am already running a diluted, low light Lucas Formula so idk. Also I had seen mildfungi/algae growth on my rock wool cubes (some green on the cubes away from the plant's stem) right before I put my plants into buckets with hydroton I had nothing to kill this with so I just covered the buckets in duct tape yesterday. Any help with the following problems would be greatly appreciated: The drooping leaves, the mild (alleged) burn spots are on the middle uncircled plant, and the light spots on the leaves of the circled plants. PS- the pictures after the first are all of plant number 3 and its leaves. The third and fourth pictures are of the circled leaves in the second picture, while the fifth is of one of the first set of true leaves. Any help with these problems would be greatly appreciated and if possible I would return the favor in the future. If any one needs further details just ask and I will post them. Thanks in advance.
Any one? I'm still having the problem and it's on my new growth now too, I'm starting to think I have an N deficiency and/or Mg deficiency. I just upped the amount of micro I am using so that it is at a 1/1 with the Lucas Formula, while leaving the bloom amount at 5/8ths strength. Any help would be really appreciated I don't want to lose any plants.
looks like a PH problem... i'd cut my nutes by 50%, just to be on the safe side... that plant looks a little young for more than 25% nutes IMO if you posted PH in your post.. i couldn't find it.. lots o writing
Yea I'm pretty sure I posted it, either way it's right below 6. So you think I should cut back the nutrients some? What makes you think it's too much as opposed to not enough? Also I need recommendations on a cheap, and good pH meter ("good" emphasized over "cheap"). I have a cheap(ish) Hanna and it sucks I've been using it in conjunction with a liquid pH tester, but I need to recalibrate it constantly. My total nutrients right now are 40 mL of GH micro, and 50 mL of GH bloom; that's in an 8 gallon reservoir, fed three times a day for 15 minutes. If the preceding post(s) are too much text to wade through I can rephrase everything in a list form if you need/want. I tend to be a bit wordy, I admit. Thanks for the help though I'm going to leave this level of nutrients in until Sunday I think, and then when I have some free time I might dial them back if I don't see any improvement.
PH issue for sure. Most likely your hydroton causing the issue. Get you a big batch of well ph'd flush water ready and hold each bucket lid over the tub and slowly flush the hydroton of each netpot (if possible).
I'm not too sure how I would rinse the clay pellets with my plants being in them and not damage the plants too. I've noticed my plants have drooped more since changing the feed schedule from every 6 to every 8 hours so I think I may have been under watering, anyone have any thoughts on that? I'm going to dilute the nutrients in my reservoir some now I think, because I see potential burn on my biggest plant. I'll probably dial it back to 5/8s or half of the Lucas Formula, but I may leave the greater ratio of micro in and cut it back. Any thoughts, or help is appreciated, and thanks to you guys for commenting already. Also I don't have net pots they're in regular 10"-12" diameter pots.
Okay so I'm having more problems that look like burn on my plant that is in the middle and uncircled in the first picture. I've included some pics of it, I'm not sure what's wrong but it's almost certainly not nutrient burn so I'm at a loss (I dropped my nute levels by about 33% yesterday and since then this rapid increase in apparent burn has appeared). People suggested a pH problem earlier and I think that may be it so I'm going to buy some distilled water and try to flush my hydroton some. If anyone has suggestions, or thinks it is something else please let me know asap. As always, any help is greatly appreciated.