Hey guys, this is my first grow so please share your wisdom with me wise ones. I think 2 of my 3 plants are showing signs of Phosphorus deficency or nute burn, but I honestly have no idea. Planted on 6/1, sprouted 6/4. -My largest seedling's first set of leaves (fan leaves?) are now showing a good amount of dark brown spots along the edges of the first set of leaves. It was much less noticable yesterday. I noticed today the brown edges are starting to point up towards the light. -My second plant is just starting to develop small brown spots on the middle of the first fan leaves. This plant has always been a dark green compared to the other 2 also. All plants had red/purple stems once they sprouted, but this plant has had purple veins up unitl the new set of leaves grew. They do not seem to be purple anymore. -My third and smallest plant seems the healthiest, but its the slowest growing. SETUP DWC 12g tote, filled to 5.5g (1in below net pots) 3.3x3.3x6.5 grow tent 2000w TSW2000 Mars Hydro LED grow light (really 350w, but SMD LEDs) 10w air pump to aerator Oscilating tower fan and carbon filter attached to exhaust fan PH: Seedlings had inconsistent PH (maybe cause of red stems), now PH is settled at 6.1 PPM: Seedling had just dechlorinated tap water at 180ppm. Added 1/4 strength of Sensi Grow once seedlings started showing yellowing last week (just under 2 weeks old from sprout). PPM is now 280 with the tap water. Res temp: was 68, but now creeping to 72 which I will start addressing. Nutes: Sensi Grow PH Perfect, Hydroguard Roots look great btw. I plan to pick my 2 best seedlings and put them in their own tote here soon. Nute burn, Phosp defiency, other...? Any help is much appreciated.
The nice thing about AN sensi is you don’t ever have to mess with ph at all.. I’d start by first removing the tap water from the equation while they’re that small. Head to any store that sells reverse osmosis or distilled water, and mix up a light batch at 150-250 ppm (700scale) with the an sensi. Add the recommended hydroguard and those plants will take off. As they get older over the next couple weeks, you can start using tap water, but reverse osmosis really lets the sensi work well. Whatever you do, don’t ever mess with the ph. You’ll be chasing problems forever. That’s sensi grow, general hydroponics armor si, and hydroguard. Nothing else needed for veg.
Jaboc has given good advice. My only slight disagreement is to go a little slower on increasing feed. Your seedlings actually look fine, but the tap water is probably hurting them a little. The new growth looks good, so they should thrive.
Thanks for the info. So if my PH creeps up to let's say over 6.5 for some reason, you don't recommend adding PH down to get back in range? My PH with the sensi was initially about 6.6 then I PHd down to 6. It evened out at a steady 6.15 the last few days without treatment. My tap water ph is 8.7. After adding absorbic acid to kill the chloramine it drops to 7.5. I was then adding nutes, letting settle and PH to 6.0.
Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't that pots your using? If so then no offence your ph comments are wrong. Reservoirs work differently and you have to adjust them.
Yes mate you absolutely have to keep ph in range in dwc. Anyone who tells you otherwise is a moron. If it goes under 5.5 or over 6.5 you get nutrient lockout.
Oh and r/o water causes more dramas than it's worth with ph fluctuations. If you don't need it (which you dont) then It's just another hassle and you've gotta balance all the calmag you've stripped out too. Use the tap water. 250ppm nutes plus the water. Ph5.7 and pet it drift upto 6.3-6.5 before bringing it back down. Should take 3-5 days. The drift is normal and it's a good thing. Allows for better nute uptake. Keep shit as simple as possible and there's less room for things to go wrong.
My tap water comes out at 8.5. I’ve never checked ph once this entire grow. That’s only the case with the advance nutrients ph perfect. You absolutely must check and adjust ph every day with any other nutrients. And yes that’s an rdwc system.
My attempt at using 190 ppm tap water failed miserably, and the sprouts almost died until I went back to using RO. Not only do we not know what those tap water ppms are (usually mostly calcium) but there could be other things in the tap water that don't register on a ppm pen. Only ionic salts do that. Get some RO or distilled water.
No do not adjust it at all. That’s why so many people have problems with these nutes and why people all over this forum bitch about AN. The second you adjust the ph, the nutes stop working and you get lock out. Mix the nutes, walk away. Change the solution every week. Other than over feeding, I’ve had absolutely 0 issues this entire grow. RO water helps the nutrients work well. I’m sorry if some of you disagree, but the results don’t lie. Edit: just so there’s 0 confusion, advance nutrients ph perfect is the only nutrients I know of currently where 0 ph adjustment is needed. Trust me,it took me a very long time to accept that, but as soon as I stopped adjusting and fiddle fucking with it, all my problems went away. Every other nutrients 100% require ph maintenance. No exceptions
Bro why all the dwc people trying to say you don’t need to check your ph??? Tf. I would pay more attention to @Spanish@rcher. His advice has helped me a lot. You most definitely need to set your ph. Drop the nutes in at the strength you want, ph it. If it’s slips or goes too high, adjust it. I don’t really think it’s detrimental to have the correct ph...
If there’s one thing we can all definitely agree on, it’s [mention]Spanishrcher [/mention] gives excellent advise. Only reason I replied to this, is I use the exact same nutes with exceptional results. I’m unnecessarily busy this year and not having to check ph every day has been an absolute blessing. I invite all of you to try it if you haven’t yet. Best decision I’ve made. At the end of the day do what works for you. Best of luck
So my plants have gotten worse since yesterday. Now the top leaves of my largest plant are turning brown. The bottom leaves are crinkled up and almost all brown/black. Second plant's small spots from ealier are now large. Ive noticed this issue starts at the middle of the plant leaf then works its way to the tips. My smallest plant is now developing the small spots which will eventually take over the leaf. But my smallest plant didnt develop spots until 2-3 days after the first two plants. If it was nute burn, wouldnt this plant show signs as soon as the others did? I bought enough drinking water to change out my res. I could not get any distilled today, so I went bottled. Im thinking 1/8 strength nutes this time and see what happens. Does anyone think this looks like a Phosphurus deficency or excess? It looks similar to a cal/mag difeiency according to the below chart, but I was under the impressions seedlings do not need CalMag until 3-4 weeks out. I looked up my tap water report and did not see any Calcium or Mag listed. I am debating calling the water authority tomorrow to confirm.
I bet the roots are fucked with only a 10w air pump....... and being in only 12 gallons, your gonna have massive issues even if you can get the plants back on track.
Roots look great. I have a good amount of air bubbles it seems compared to some videos. I only run 5.5 gallon in the res. I have a second pump as a backup I was thinking of adding into the lines also. Pump claims 15.7 lpm, I run about 19 liters. If adding the second pump gets me over 19pm should that be enough. Ill get a roots pic tonight.
I tried to get them next to something white to compare. Should the roots be fuller as it coming out the Hydroton more at the net pot? There are some roots poking through, but nothing too long right now.
Your plants don't look that bad to me. I've had young plants that looked much worse eventually thrive, including recently. I think the tap water and slightly too much ppm is causing your problems. The new growth looks good, and it will soon win the race against your water's attempted poisoning. Deficiency charts are devised by depriving plants of one element, and then taking pictures of what happens to the leaves. It's highly questionable whether the charts can be used in reverse to deduce deficiencies from the look of the leaves. Most hydro problems are wrong pH or ppm. Chasing deficiencies is a fool's errand.