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
looks like nute burn to me. Not sure what lighting system your using (cfl's?) but you need to get them a lot closer, as your plants are super stretched. If its cfl's or t5's put them about 3" from the plants.
Thanks for the advice! I flushed the buckets out and cleaned them very well. I even cleaned the hoses and airstones. I also brought the lights down a lil lower. I added new fresh water with no nutes this time around and got the ph to stabilize between 5-6. Hopefully things will start looking up. Again any additional info or advice would be greatly appreciated