I am a fairly experienced grower but this is my first grow with auto's using the ebb/flow type setup. The top set (newest growth) of leaves is drooping and I can NOT figure out why. I did a res change yesterday and got no changes. It really looks like moisture stress of some sort but I really can't figure out why, I've tried watering less (once a day), I've tried watering more (once every two hours), I've tried not watering, nothing, no changes.... I'll post some pics so you guys can see. It really looks like overwatering (and with the addition of the HPS thats the first thing that popped into my head) but they actually get worse when I water them and get no better when I refrain from watering I need help NOW please. anyone with experience please assist. These are the conditions as of now. Light: 600w hps about 20'' from the closest plant (20/4, autoflowering plants) Temp: 77 RH: 40-75% Medium: Hydroton (recentlly leeched of salts) Floods: 15 minutes, ph of 5.7-6.0 Watering: once every 5 hours for 15 minutes Res temp: 60F Res water: 550ppm (200ppm cal/mag, 150sensigrow, 150, sensibloom, 50 from superthrive/ph down) Attached are a few pics. 1. One of the plants under a CMH (lookin happy), the larger plants still drooped a lil in this setup during the end of the day but nothing like this before I rearanged and threw in the HPS 2. One of the plants after I moved them, but before this strange drooping appeared 3. two days later, all plants drooping, no idea why
pics 3,4 and 5 look a little over watered do you have enough air in the water if there is a lack of air in the water it will get root rot
I admit, they DO look extremely overwatered. However, I've only been watering a few times each day for 15 minutes! I've also read that it's nearly impossible to overwater in hydroton in multiple places. I'm so stumped with this issue. its getting worse.
check your delivery lines to make sure they are working properly. how long ago did you add that superthrive? 50 ppms or that sounds way to high. the one time i used it in hydro it messed up my plants
well considering the facts that they are in hydroton (which holds very little water) and that I didn't water for a day with no increase in health. I don't think it's my watering frequency. I've read in multiple places that its nearly impossible to overwater with hydroton if your are ebb/flowing. At this point due to lack of assistance from experienced growers I'm blaming my nutrient soup. I replaced my res with fresh water ph'ed to 5.8 , 50ppm cal/mag. I'm going to wait a couple days and see if my leaves stop drooping and curling but I can't think of anything else to try.
Other facts regarding this grow 1. Yes I am able to pull the 2 gallon pots out of the inserts and there are plenty of white and furry roots growing out of the bottom of every pot (even the smallest ones) 2. Well, I emailed Advanced Nutrients customer service and they told me I should have at least 150ppm cal/mag for all plants when using their Sensi products with R/O water 3. I flood the pots at 5.6 and it'll come back at 5.65. I understand that ph difference of a greater extent can result in shock but I doubt this is the reason for my wilting because .05 ph change isn't anything major. 4. My Hanna 98129 was recently calibrated using 4.00 and 7.01 ph solutions along with 1500ppm calibration solution. It's perfectly accurate down to the 100th of a ph point 5. I have spent the last few days bumping my nutes up to 800, then 900, then 1020. When I flooded with 1020ppm water the water returned from the flood with 980 so I know they are using a large bit of nutrients (or at least it appears that way). However, this had no effect on the plants' overall health and so today I did a fresh water flush with a small bit of FloraKleen. Flooded with that solution (5.8 ph) twice for 15 minutes each time, didn't seem to do much. I have diluted my nutrient solution back down to 750 for the time being until I get this figured out because I don't want to stress them anymore than need be. 6. Temperature was my 2nd suspicion (right after overwatering). My 77 temp is measured at the canopy (tallest plant now 13''). 73 at the base of the plants (where they meet the hydroton rocks). I've got a nighttime temp of 56. I don't think thats too low but I could be wrong (I understand the tolerance for temp change is somewhat strain dependent). Temperature of the water in my res stays around 57-60 degrees. I'm pretty sure that's about perfect. Do you think I would see improvement if I upped the res temps? Couldn't hurt to try, we'll see in a couple days 7. (to answer tjcsd) I bought the system new. I have one 12 plant grow under my belt that turned out decently. I found my hydroton rocks were shifting ph in the beginning of the grow but that stopped when I leeched the rocks of salts using FloraKleen 8. (to answer wert) There is no fungus or mold. Just checked. However, I do have some copper spots and yellow blotches starting to form on some of the fanleaves.