I transplanted. some plants from soil to dwc and the first 3 days they looked great, now the leave are drooping quite noticeably now ph is ranging from 5. 6 to 6. 1 and ppm are only at 56. help me put stoners !
wilting is getting worse, ph at 5. 5 and its just in ro water. I noticed no new root growth the past 3 days and brown spots on roots, algae? I added some h2o2 to my res. water is just below bottom of net cup so it has a wicker effect plants haven't grow any new roots and leads haven't grown noticeably either. can someone tell me what in the hell is up.
It's pretty easy to overwater in a DWC if the water level is too high. The splashing will wick up if you use rockwool/grodan/rapidrooters, or constantly keep the root base wet and it will droop. It doesn't look like it, but is the seedling in any rooting medium? Also, how much aeration do you have in your dwc and what is the temp of the res? Do you have any ventilation, and what is the rH? The 56ppm, is that filtered water or what? Any stem discoloration?
using just hydroton but the worst looking plant I took out of the dwc and put into rockwool. I have all the plants in a 3 gallon container with a ten inch long airstone and 70g air pump temp inside cab is 75 and I'm not sure bout res temp but it is. cooler than. surrounding air, I will find that out tonight that's filtered and a little bit of sensi grow a and b my tap water is 3 ppm filtered I have. lots of vent, 6 inch pc fan moving air out and negative air pressure bringing it in. but right now cab isn't sealed up so its got all the room air coming in and out
as for the stem, it looks fine, except there is one dark ish spot just below where the leaves are, it looks purple to my eyes also, the underside of the cotyledons are starting to yellow and there is one same purpleish colour on the tip of it the drooping is getting so bad now the first ripples leaf tips are now touching the stem, classic overwatering sign if i would be growing in soil, so i can i assume thats what the problem is?
The 70g air pump you said, is that 70gph, or 70gpm? If it's the 70gpm, then it's probably overwatering due to splashing (is the hydroton all the way up the netpot wet?). Also, they don't need any sensi grow just yet. You can add a bit of cal-mag, but wait until they at least have 2 sets of leaves. Lower the water level to 2" below the net pots, and dilute the res to <20ppm
yes that is per minute sorry if i were to lower this water anymore, im fearing the roots wont see any water, since they have stopped growing there is only about 1cm of root that actually touch the water surface, the largest root mass i have is maybe 6 inches long, they really seem to have slowed down since i switched from soil to dwc i do not have cal mag, so should i just be running filtered water without any nutes at all? i was told a low dose at 50-70 ppm would be fine but i guess it all depends on strain/ growing conditions one plant has a few roots branching off the main one, and the longest is browned, and thats the one that has been sitting in the water, so is this from lack of oxygen? sorry for all the questions but im new to hydro, but have a good understanding of how it all works i just dont want to lose these, they are for learning and getting a good mother, since i have another 18 germed seeds almost ready to be transplanted of various top quality strains that i dont wanna fuck up
It's fine if the roots aren't submerged in water. Take the lid off the res and put your hand a couple inches over the water, you will feel little water droplets splash your hand. The 2 inches of air room (I use 3-4") is almost like a aeroponics setup. Water splashing and keeping the roots hydrated while being surrounded by air. You will also notice if you leave that air gap, after a few hours your net pots/hydroton will be wet on the bottom which is how you want it to be. Instead of calmag you can get epsom salt from the pharmacy (make sure it just contains magnesium sulfate) and get it up to 30ppm or so. It really depends on genetics, some can tolerate more than others. Some will get stunted from a slight amount of nutes and droop. Either way, this early they aren't needed at all. Most people will push 300ppm after 2 weeks or so if you have seedlings that can tolerate it. The browning could be from the nutes, you might want to google around to see if other people experience discoloration from Sensi grow. The browning could also be caused by light exposure in the res, so if there are any light leaks you want to fix that quickly. Lack of oxygen is a possibility, make sure there is an air stone directly below the roots. Bubbles floating on the surface from an air stone a couple inches away won't cut it. You also need to find the water temp (I use a stainless steel cooking thermometer) and keep that between 62-65F (16.5-18c)
the containers i am using are black but maybe some light is still getting through i will lower water a little bit and keep roots inside net cup for now, and yes, i do notice water up inside the net cup even though water is below it im going out and getting some fish tank thermos tomorrow, and may go buy some cal mag too, im just going to use filtered water for now, and see how they respond. should the one be fine if i put into cube, it wont be in net pot until i see roots coming out
Yeah the cubes will be fine, but like I said one of the biggest mistakes with DWC and rooting plugs is overwatering. They wick up, and you MUST lower the water level or else splashing will keep them drenched and either cause damping off or droop like crazy. Alternatively, raise the rockwool cube a little higher than flush with the lip of the net pot so water won't hit it. A bunch of hydroton in the bottom will create a barrier for splashing While they're in the cubes, soak them once and don't water again until you put them in the DWC. Let them dry out and the splashing on the small roots hydrate the plant. This will also let the roots seek out the water and grow pretty quickly.
i dumped the res and noticed the water was the same colour as the roots, so im thinking it was the sensi grow and not algae i think 70gpm is enough in a 3 gallon tank lol, and there are lots of bubbles and water is splashing up so i will see how they respond i have voodoo juice and b52, when should i be adding these? used a little juice for clones that were given to me and they seemed to like that
awesome, i will keep the ones i got in the cubes and do that, and i did as you suggested and put some hydroton on the bottom so they wont be drenched, now only time will tell, thanks.
70gpm is more than enough, but it has to be spread evenly. If there is just one central air stone it will just go directly to the surface, it doesn't recirculate. You need a lot of surface area for bubbles to come out of, so the best way is get a micro pore diffuser, or getting air discs like these HydroFarm: Air Stone 8 inch Disc (12/case) [eco-5439] - Aeration - Pumps, Irrigation & Watering Supplies - Discount Specialty Farm, Greenhouse & Garden Supply Store - Horticulture Source I put one air stone under each net pot, that's the only way they won't droop (from lack of oxygen) You could use voodoo juice, I wouldn't use b52 just yet since it has an npk (2-1-4). You should start b52 at 10 days old or so, keeping them under 50ppm or so.
do they have tees to connect mutiple stones like those off just one pump? i have 12 containers total and want to be able to use the air pump with a few of these, since i dont want 12 air pumps running that would be silly
Yeah, to prevent any back pressure on the air pump (could eventually cause damage to piston/diaphragm pumps) you should use a manifold like this: Cheap plastic version of the below picture is also available. You shouldn't split the pump more than it should be, for example a 18L/min (similar to yours) should be split only 4 times to 1/4" tubing or otherwise you might have a lot of backpressure
i cant find anything like that over here!!! driving me crazy i bought this cheap plastic valve you could controll the flow but it broke within the first two minutes but thats exactly what i need so i can run my 3 pumps, 4 containers per pump, preferably metal lol. for back pressure couldnt you just have an extra slot open so back pressure escapes through there rather than back into the pump?
google for nearby aquarium/pond shops or hydro stores could have them. You can just release the back pressure, but that's just wasted air that could be going into the res. Getting a better manifold to equally push the air causing no drag is better.
well its been almost 24 hours since lowering water level and just using ph'd water tops of leaves are starting yellow, looking like defficiency, no noticeable root growth, and wilting hasnt got much better, although 1 plant has improved there isnt as much drooping