We are around 1 and a half months now and we have a few issues. The bottom leaves are drying up and browning. You can see it in the pictures. please if any one can help let us know. I also have spots on the top leaves and dont know what that is from. the lights are 2 feet about the plants. We keep the nutrients fresh as well as the water. We have the lights on 12 hours a day. We keep the PH level at 6.5-6.75 all the time. What is the best nutrient for hydro plants?? If you can help us with any of this let me know I have one in the soil and if someone could tell me if those leaves look like there doing ok. Thank You!!!!!!!!!!!
I think the spotting could be from ph troubles, keep the ph lower, 5.8-6 for hydro. What nutes/ec are you using?
im using a stealth hydo machine and usein the cemichals in that that came with it. I heard youwant PH to be at 6.5-6.75
The plants appear very stretchy and should be much, much thicker, taller, and fuller at that age. Above post is correct in that Ph is too high, ideal Ph is around 5.8 give or take (I'm certainly no expert but have been doing my reasearch for quite some time). What size/type of lighting are you using? What type of hydro system is that (DWC, Ebb & Flow, etc)? What nutes are you currently using? What are your ppms/EC? Are you starting with R/O water?
6.5 is good for soil, hydro wants to be lower. It could be that the nutes are weak too, but without more info on the nutes it's hard to say. How much are you adding, and what are the instructions. I would adjust the ph and see how they do over a few days. DDo you have an ec meter?
First off thanks for all the help thus far. So I changed my PH to 5.8 and my lighting has been at 12 hour on/off for 3 weeks. I just built a cabnet for um to help out. Tell me if it looks decent i have a fan going in as well along with a temp gauge. I have 2 soil plants on the side that are only about 3 weeks old. Before i had my plants ou in my room so if i wwas up my lights were on even if the plants lights were not so i think this room will help out great. I got a kit so im not sure on the exact nuts. that came with it or the lights either. But i got it from Stealthhydroponics.com and it was called the Duel Spectrum Bubbleponics Complete kit. So it you know what they use thats what i got i am deffinitly willing to try something better if anyone know of a great nuts. or lights.
as jcommerce said. .. What lights do you have. They are all stretched and the one in the background OMG!~
Dude, not to burst your bubble, but I would start over with new seeds if I were you. Those plants are in no condition to be on 12/12 yet, or probably ever for that matter (you'll be lucky to get one tightly packed bowl out of your harvest). I see you have CFL lighting. Since those bulbs operate at a low temp, you can have them very close to your plants. I would germinate new seeds, drop those lamps down a TON closer and keep them close close close throughout the grow. I would get 4 - 8 more sockets and bulbs to, or better yet, get an HPS setup. I'm not bagging, believe me, I went through the same thing back in high school. You should have seen some of my failures...LOL. If you take a few hours to read through the stickys and some of the better threads on this site, you'll know exactly what to do. Best of luck bro!
Yo man wuts up. Ok I just started growing with rockwool and hydroton too and I had to learn a few things to grow healthy plants... First off keep the ph between 5.7-6.0 and temps between 70-85oc Only mix your nutrients at about 1/5th or 1/4 strength untill they stop burning, then let them gradually increase them after 2 weeks....also aim your fan in between the lights and the plants and lower your lights to 10-12 inches above or if they are flourescents just leave them about 2 inches away... also get bigget rockwool cubes.. hope that helps bud
I see your lights now. They need to be inches away + that is not enough light for the setup you have or any setup IMHO.
You must purchase a digital pH meter to properly grow in hydro. The pH should be between 5.5 and 5.8 to make the micronutrients in the hydro nutes available for uptake by the roots. The problems you are showing in your leaves are due to nutrient deficiency from having the pH too high. Cut back on the nute strength until you have healthier plants. Get a pH meter or go back to dirt, because you will never get the plants to yield any descent amount unless you pay close attention to the pH. You will also need more light. Just add more aas the plants grow. It is better to have three 400w lights, that you can place around the plants, than one 1000w light that is overhead and immobile.
When I first put a seedling into my hydroton I try and mix the nutes to under 200 PPM. After only a couple of days, due to evaporation and other things, the PPM climbs to about 400 so I then dilute it back down to the desired strength. It is during this time that nute burn will most likely happen. When the nute strength stops climbing after a couple of days or if it starts to decrease then it is time to start raising the PPM (strength of your nutes). Your plants resemble that of nute burn and ph problems. You definately have a problem with nutes whether it is the strength or the ph.
That is good advice from sneakers. Keep the nute strength low especially if you are using tap water. All hydro nute mfg suggest a pH range from5.5-5.8 for hydro. This important to allow the plant to uptake some of the microelements like iron, and manganese. If the pH is too low then the plant will uptake too many micronutes, and this will greatly reduce yield, or even be fatal. Ph control is your most important job as a hydro grower. Keeping the rez topped off with clean, pure, water is important to prevent the nutes from becoming too concentrated. Check solution water levels at least twice a day. The plant will immediately consume most of the nitrogen in a nutrient solution. If you add nutes to nutes, then the whole formula will be out of balance, since the plant has already absorbed most of the available nitrogen. Never add nutes between complete solution change out. There are three rules that should dtermine when you change out the nutes. • the add back rule • the pH rule • the 10% rule Here is the PH rule I use. You must have a very accurate ph meter. Strips are not accurate enough to grow hydro. The yield increase from using a meter will give you more than what the meter cost. First add nutes and then measure the ph. If you are using RO/distilled water, the ph will be 5.6 after you add nutes.(Dutch Master, AN) After a few hours the ph will drift up to 6.2, and I will adjust it back to 5.6 or as close as I can get, which is sometimes as low as 5.2-5.5. Again, it drifts back up, this time to 6.1, and I adjust it down again to as near 5.6 as I can get it. I don't worry unless I over-adjust below 5.2. After a few days of this procedure, the ph will stabilize and remain at 5.6 for a few hours, up to a day or so. Then the ph will start to fall below 5.6 without any adjustment by me. This is when I change out the rez and start the process all over again. The time that this sequence takes will vary with the plant size, the amount of water the plant is consuming/transpiring, and the concentrtation of the nute solution (ppm). If your nutes are not drifting from low to high then the solution is not properly buffered. To buffer your nutes you can use Botanicare Cal mag Plus, and AN Barricade. The Add Back Rule: Once you have replenished the original rez volume with fresh water, then it is time to change out the rez with fresh water and new nutes. Never add nutes between nute changes. Add fresh water once or twice a day to maintain the rez volume. Do not adjust the ph before adding water to the rez. Most of the time you will find that adding fresh water to top off the rez, will bring the ph back to normal range. Check the ph and adjust if necessary, after adding water to top off the rez. If you have a 5 gl nute solution rez, and you have added 5 gl of fresh water over the last few days to maintain the rez level at the full mark, then it is time for a complete change out. This is the add back rule. Keep and re-fill your plastic jugs to help maintain your add back count. The ten percent rule: The ten percent rule is very simple. When the tds of your solution has dropped by ten percent it is time to change out the nute solution. If the nute solution tds drops ten percent in too short a time, then you need to increse the nute strength in your next batch.
anal, but I guess better overkill than not enough changes, but thats not the prob. Nothing worth while will grow with his lights period. CLOSED untill he gets real lights