I’m growing DWC for the 1st time and I’m running in to some issues which look like nutrient deficiency. I’m not sure that is why I’m asking 4 help. I have 5’x5’x6’8” grow tent 2 1600w Mars II LED 4 non recirculating dwc bubble buckets 18/6 light schedule Nute strength was about 380ppm just bumped it up to 580ppm and added some cal mag supplement I’m running about 13 litres of water in the 5 gallon buckets. Day temps around 75-80 and about 30-50% RH Night time temps drop to around 64 Reservoir temps can reach about 74-75 depending on how quickly I can change over the ice bottles I use to keep the reservoir cool at night res temps drop to about 64 sometimes 61 only when lights are off. Plants are about 13 days in the buckets after sprouting started seeing some discolouration on the leaves and they were not growing very tall at all just bushy. Started to notice the discoloured areas getting worse so I tried moving the lights away from the plants. Still seeing discolouration and plants seem to be not growing. Tried to add call/mag at about 150ppm to the solution which is now running a total of 580ppm. I’ll attach some pics any help would be great. Thanks.
580 ppm would fry my dwc plants at that life stage, and I'd probably have them at around 300 ppm. And they would be severely stressed by increasing nutes that much so quickly. It's hard to tell because of the lighting, but there might be some lighter coloration on the leaves that might indicate a CaMg need. CalMag ppm also count in total ppm. The bottom leaves look like they've had nutes spilled on them, or got nute burn. Too little light and food will slow growth, or cause lighter green leaves. Too much light or food can cause injury or death.
I'm a stingy feeder. Getting up to 600 ppm caused some problems recently, and I had to back off. In the future I'll never go above 500, and will probably stay in the 400s max. But I follow the Vapor Pressure Deficit chart religiously, and that might require less food.
This may or may not be a part of the issue, but I would suggest trying to change those frozen water bottles more frequently and try to maintain the reservoir temps below 70 degrees F. Allowing them to reach up to 75 even for a few hours is asking for root problems. I personally always try to keep mines in the mid 60's, but that's just me.
Good advice, but some of us are lazy, and hope to survive with warmer res temps. That's what I do, but I also add clorox every day to combat root rot.
Flushed out all plants, fingers are crossed. After the flush the plants started to look better (well a bit better) but now they’re dropping. Ph is good temps are good hoping these girls can be saved.
Plant look terrible I’m still hoping I can save. They’re so droopy it’s unbelievable. I know they’re in shock is there anything else I can do? I’m checking the ph daily a couple times and I’m checking the ppm. They are sitting at a 5.9-6.1 ph and 190 ppm strength. Temps are staying cooler and res temps get to a max of 70. Not sure what else to do. I’m going to sprout some new seeds just don’t want this to happen again any advice for starting from scratch again would be helpful.
These plants are easily stressed by changing anything too fast. But they are survivors, and I'd expect them to recover. Recovery won't be instantaneous, and could take a day or two.
Plants are looking a lot better now. Thanks for all your advice @bkarnaze. I’m still a little baffled at the brown spots on the leaves of one of the girls. See pic. Any idea? I have my ppms up to 300ppm including a little calmag not sure what else it can be.
Spilling nutes or wrong pH RO water on leaves can cause damage. Maybe that's what happened. Also, if 1 leaf covers up another one, while touching it, condensation can happen between them that can cause damage. As long as the new growth is healthy, all should be well.
Ok cool I’ll keep an eye out the rest of the plant is really peeking up. Thanks again for the advice this far you have certainly saved my ass
I am a tad sloppy when I’m checking ph and ppm plus the cat insists on coming in the tent lol so it’s hard to be neat when I have to fend off the cat lol
How are your girls doing now? I messed up and got nutes on my leaves and I had this same browning on my leaves.
They’re doing good. The one with the brown on the leaves is a bit stunted at the moment but it’s coming along well. I’m probably gonna give them another week and a half a flip to flower. They’re all bush like 80’s style lol. I botched the last FIM I did
They’re doing good. The one with the brown on the leaves is a bit stunted at the moment but it’s coming along well. I’m probably gonna give them another week and a half a flip to flower.
If you insulated your buckets your temps may stay more consistent. I used 3M adhesive spray and insulation for metal duct work. I made it 2 layers thick and so far my buckets only fluctuate a few degrees. Sent from my SM-N960U using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Looks like you got it figured out now. But I was going to ask what your water source was and also how you were testing PH. Lastly if you are using a PH meter when was the last time you calibrated it.