Hey guys! I just created my account and this is my first post, so please bare with me a little bit as I am a beginner. Here's the deal. I finally gained the courage to start my first grow this year. I decided to go with a dwc for my first grow as it seemed the most economic method. Im using 2, 5gal buckets, with 8in netting pots. Demensions of grow box are about 3ft lenth, 18in deep, and 5ft high (just enough for two) I have the plants in some rockwool which is surrounded by some hydroton. They are autoflowering lowryders strains (berry ryder and polar express) and are about 6 wks old. I had them on a 24hr cycle for the first 3 wks and then switched them to an 18/6 cycle as I have read it is prefered. However, more recently they seem to have almost slowed down in their growth. I left for about 5 days, but had a friend frequently check up on my girls. Unfortunately there was a set back in where they were left in the dark for about 36-48 hrs. When I got back the lower leaves on one plant (berry ryder) were dried up and the upper leaves were starting to curl. The other plant (polar express) has been a little more resilient, but is looks to be going through the same thing. Because they seemed to be on their way out I did a nute and water flush and put them back on a 24 hr cycle. Its only been 3 days since I have done this and I cant really tell if there has been any significant changes. I did some more reading last night and found what some of the causes could be: underwatering, overwatering, overfertilizing, and even too much heat. So last night I added some more water to the buckets and some to top as I had seen the rockwool looked awfully dry and then changed the bulbs to something with less intensity to bring down the heat. Its been about 12 hrs since I have done this. Now the leaves on polar express are starting to droop more I have added some pics of what I have been working with along with the types of nutes I have been adding. I have been following the chart to the T and the ph has been perfect for the most part btwn 5.5-5.8. The taller one on the left is berry ryder (sativa hybrid) while the shorter one on the right is polar express (an indica hybrid) Please let me know what you guys think! any help would be greatly appreciated!!! I cant let my babies die!!!!!! -A concerned parent lol
my opinion on drooping leaves would be over watering since you mentioned they were in a dark period for 1-2 days. In night mode there is no heat to generally dry the soil, but you should always lift ur buckets to see if they seem heavy or not, thats how i measure my watering. also i didnt see any pictures!
thanx. I added pics on another post I created earlier today. For some reason I cant find it, but its titled (leaves curling wtf is happening?) lol Ill try and upload some more pics. I just got done flushing the systems. I added new water and got the ph on point. I didnt add any nutes this time around as I saw they were kind of clumping. I also cleansed off the pots as I saw some slime (looked like nutes) on the sides of them. Hopefully things will turn around within the next day or so.
here is the link to the other post with the pics. I did as you suggested and moved the lights a lil closer. The reason they were up so high was because a couple of wks ago I noticed they had heat burns so I raised the lights. But since I changed the wattage I moved them down. Again, any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated http://forum.grasscity.com/absolute...aves-browning-curling-drooping-wtf-going.html
Damn that looks beautiful. You are a lucky parent lol I wish mine looked something like that. They just started their 7th wk and look no where close to that. Are they autoflowering? If so, there is no need to change the lighting cycle on them. If its not then you could probably wait another wk before switching the lighting cycle. Good Luck!
If you're going by the numbers on the chart on the bottles, you're most likely burning them up with too much nutrients. You probably want to run something more lie 1/2 of that amount. Do you have a way to check what the ppm or ec of your nutrient solution is? What is the temperature in your room? of the nutrient solution? What is the humidity in your room? Where is the water level in the bucket, in relation to the very bottom of the netpot?
Np, just trying to be helpful. Hopefully more ppl will start replying to my post as well. So far so good tho. Thanx to everyone who has contributed. Keep it coming, all suggestions and advice is greatly appreciated. Im here to learn!
As of right now, I have no way of checking these things. Other than the ph I have no definite way of knowing how to check everything else. Usually I check the ph of the water before and after adding nutes and throughout the day. You may be right about me adding to much nutes. I should have been more cautious when following the chart. I flushed the systems out and added fresh water without nutes and a balanced Ph. Hopefully things will turn around. I figured once I see a positive change I will follow your advice and simply add 1/2 nutes or even 1/4 nutes. As far as temp in the room it is usually kept between 70-80F. I may need a better fan.
You should buy a TDS meter. If you don't have one use half what it suggests. You cannot over water in dwc its literally in water, lol. So not sure what that was about. You should NOT be adding nutes when you add water. Only when you change res.what happens is your plant is drinking some or all of the nutes and particular nutes are building up and causing lock out... If you are in fact adding nutes every time you add water.
Here is the solution to almost everything in dwc. Empty bucket and start over. Clean it out good, inspect the roots and mix up new nutes. You plants will be fine. If they have nute.
Lol, I thought maybe it was over watered because the water was too high in the bucket. Which it in fact was. Now I have it between 1/2-3/4in from the botton of the net. I would only add nutes when I would change the water. I would change the water once a wk and would change the nutes along with it. As I said before, now I have them sitting in fresh water with a ph between 5-6.
Thanx. I did exactly this and now have them sittin in fresh, ph balanced water. Hopefully this will turn things around
Sry there were some huge posts I was skimming for keywords. Yeah you can over water in the net pots but only if you don't have rooted hanging down. I fill mine past the pot everyday because its drinking 2 gallons a day lol. Pics would say a thousand words.
Yea the roots are starting to stick out a bit at the bottom. However, when I started experiencing these problems I have noticed the roots almost disappear. Sounds weird I know, but imagine what Im going through lol Right now I have the water sitting at about 1/2in-3/4in away from the bottom. Hopefully this will help. As for pics, follow this link to my original post. It has the pics and I am not able to repost pics in different post. http://forum.grasscity.com/absolute...aves-browning-curling-drooping-wtf-going.html
Just checked it out. I don't think you were over feeding at all. I think the plants are stressed out because they don't have enough light. They are extremely light depraved. If you are using cfls you need them three inches or so from the top of the plant.
Yea unfortunately the person I left baby sitting the girls forgot to give them light.They were without rays for about 36-48 hrs. A major set back, I know. Since I have been back I have been babying them. I have the lights now appx 4-5 in above the girls. I had them on a 18/6 cycle but due to the current situation I have reverted back to a 24 hr cycle to keep them safe.