So my literature on growth is quite up to date. I currently have made room for my friends deep water culture shed that he bought, The Caddy from SunlightSheds.com. So two years ago they had attempted to use it and it failed, the clones died a few weeks in to a month in. Its under a 400W MH/HPS system Probable cause: Root Rot Last year we attempted to use it again, under which I observed from the whole set up again, the ballast had gone bad, we had to manually turn the light on which was not to big a problem. I had my concerns of the constant 24hr fan blowing on them (clones), but was sure that it was fine, the stems started turning purplish which I was told was strengthening them. The clones died 3 weeks later probable cause root rot and oversaturation, the water was filled to the top of the container to just barley touch the bottom of the cups each clone was in. Was this an issue? should the water level be very low to just allow the drippers on top to drip little by little and let the roots grow farther down to reach for water?? That was my first question. Now the time has come I and my friend are trying it again, he suggested we build another tray to go on top of the reservoir pictured there with our seedlings in rock wool (we originally were going to go back to pellets but then we transferred the brown plugged sprouters into rock wool cubes, placed them in the tray, and are allowing them to be dripped on and the tray has a whole punctured to drain excess water...should we be concerned about the oversaturation of the rock wool? I've been told that the Rockwool should be dried intermittently to allow the roots to search for water as I was told this was good. I wanted to test the theory and gathered all my extra seedlings i could fit and place them in their cups with the pellets and place them around the droppers to continue to grow under the late and water them manually...once they are ready should I attempt to place them back in their original tray and use the DWC again and at what water level? any suggestions about the fan being to harsh on seedling sprouts? attached are pictures It might take me a day to get the pictures of the current set up any help would be GREATLY appreciated please. thank you.
400w's is alot for clones! Try getting some 2 or 3 ft. fluorescents to put in there just above the clones. Most cloners spray the bottom of the clone with the water. Those seem to work the best. There are a few D.I.Y. projects on here that show you how to built a cloner for fairly cheap and work really well. Here is a link. Lets Build a Clone Machine *Step by Step* You might just need more air stones in the bottom of the bucket, or move them so they are directly under your clones. That could be the reason for your root rot.
I will take the flourescents into consideration. Right now I will have to make do with what I got, and am debating between the origional set up shown in the first pic i posted or this new one just crafted, The ph is 6.7 400w MH 20in above the tray, rougly 16-17 from the standing sprouts, some sprouts look a little droopy and are horizontal