This is my first grow, and I am concerned about the condition of my plants, and how to ensure their success: This is week 2 going on 3 (Day 19) from germination until now. I started giving 1/4 nutes when I saw the second set of leaves. I am using the GeneralHydroponics series FloraBloom,Grow, & Micro. I also have ArmorSi, but have yet to use it because I don't understand how. The PPM is at 250, Temp fluctuates from 76-80 F, and water level in bucket is at roughly 3 1/2 - 4 gallon, with a HydroFarm FLC series light roughly 2 ft above. Is there anything I am doing wrong, and is there anything that I can do to improve my plants condition? Thank you GC Fam!
What are your res temps? I'd be using some beneficial microbes if I were you. And hydrogaurd if your res temps are high.
Subbed up mine are about 12 days old running success nutrients on 3 and elite nutrients on 2 at full strength starting yesterday they seem to love it....... looking good man sending good vibes
Yeah. You have root rot which has more or less put your plant into a dormant state while the pythium feeds on the roots. They should be white with fine hairs sticking out. I battled this for the past 2 months and finally have it beat. You'll need to clean and disinfect EVERYTHING with bleach as well as treat the roots. At this stage, you'd be better off starting over. It's going to cost some electricity while they are rehabbing for the next 3 weeks to get them back. You could get back to that point quicker with new clones. If the plants were bigger then it might be worth the 3 weeks of rehab. If you DO want to save them - You need to cut back all Roots that are beige or brown, limp or slimy. Cut them all the way to the basket if you need to. Then take the whole netpot and thoroughly rinse it in plain tap water. Spray everything good to flush out pathogens and dead matter. Scrub all buckets and air lines with bleach and clean air stones. In bubble buckets, I rotate air stones weekly so I can soak them in disinfectant for at least a few hours. I scrub all of the buckets with bleach every week. Then when you set the plants back up - run your water level 2" ABOVE the base of the netpot - assuming you don't have anything spongey like rockwool below the hydroton - that will cause these issues too. I see different opinions as to water level - but my flower system is a 6 plant Under Current _RDWC and they recommend keeping the level there for the entire grow. Some people will say that you need to lower the level so that the roots will go deeper. BS - complete BS. Do it this way and much more lateral roots will form. An air gap in the root zone won't have fresh oxygen and all of that surface area of roots isnt being used. Keeping it in the solution keeps them clean, oxygenated and absorbing nutes. To rehab tour roots - run them in pH'ed RO water with disinfectant ONLY for 5-7 days. I also use Cannazyme (at 1/2 strength) to dissolve any dead matter. After 3 days add in a root stimulator like Rhizotonic. The plants will yellow as they cannibalize to make roots, but they will. When they have a few good, long roots - go SLOW. Add 1/4 strength nutes AND disinfectant for the next week. They should resume growth and roots should come back. All of this is assuming that the water temp isn't exacerbating the issue. In buckets, it's impossible to maintain the optimal 66 degrees so the tendency is to add more air to compensate. More air means that you need probably 1/4 of the recommended strengths. Adding more air with too high PPM's for it will cause a puthium bloom. So, with higher temps, and more air, you'll really want 1/4 strength nutes and disinfectant every 2 days. Someone said beneficial - DO NOT ADD BACTERIA TO A WARM BUBBLE BUCKET. Beneficials are more for soil or cocoa and will almost certainly lead you right back to the same problem. They start off as beneficials, but they aren't meant to thrive in a fully liquid environment and they themselves end up as food for the wrong bacteria. It's very rare that anyone successfully uses beneficials in a DWC. Definitely not especially if you aren't chilling the nutes. Most people go with a sterile rez with DWC and use H2O2 or Calcium Hypochlorite, like UC Roots. If you keep it adequately disinfected, nute level low - and clean everything regularly- it will go. You'll need to add the disinfectant every 2 days to maintain adequate availability. Bubble buckets are a hell of a lot of work if you run into these kind of issues but they CAN be overcome. Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum