Hi GC, this is my first DWC setup and its kind of disapointing. I spent a lot of time getting this set up right with the thought that this would be faster than soil, but with all the problems im having its taking much longer to get going than soil. One of of the DWC plants was started from seed in rockwool, the other one was cloned and has been alive for over a month but hasnt grown yet. They've both been in DWC for a little over a week now, maybe 2. The picture of the plant in soil is the same strain planted at the same time as the DWC one, you can tell it looks much healthier. What strain? LSD and LA Woman (LA Woman from seed) How old are the plants? Clone is over a month old, seed is over a week What type of lights and how many watts? 250w MH How far from the lights? Almost 3 feel What is your watering frequency and source of water? As needed, from britta filter. Original fillup was with distilled What, how much and when was it fed? NPK? 1/4-1/3 strength Lucas formula, about 400 TDS reading What is the medium/runoff pH and PPM if in hydro? 6.0-6.2 What are the temps and humidity in the room? 73-81 What size pots? 5 gal Any bugs? Look real close. no Any other pertinent info? Oh forgot to say I also added a few small doses of Liquid Karma. 2 Bubble stones per bucket. Water level is about .5"-1" submerging to mesh pot.
Does that britta filter do anything for you? I bought a PUR filtration system a couple years ago and not only did it not lower either the ppm or the pH but it actually made the ppm rise by 30. The hydro seed plant looks almost the same as the soil one to me. And the hydro clone looks about right, I've had some that looked that, some that looked worse, and some that were pristine. I think a lot has to do with the genetics. Edit: Just went back and reread your post. Didn't realize the clone was so old. What method did you use to clone it?
Yeah its an old clone....about a month in waterlogged rockwool. Grew roots that were thick but only about half an inch long. I picked away the rockwool and put it in the DWC. Its growing new roots slowly, but ZERO top growth????
I'm working through a similar problem. Apr 28 I put 8 clones into veg. 2 problems with that, 1) I shoulda let the roots develop further before moving to veg tubs. But, more importantly 2) I overcompensated on the pH down by miles and couldn't get a lock on the actual number because BOTH of my pH meters shit their pants and I'm judging pH based on ppm and plant health. Anyway, my clones are recovering now after being stunted for a couple weeks and is gonna push back my schedule =/. The Super Lemon Hazes were better able to cope with the low pH than the White Widow clones and they look better. This White Widow is the smallest of them all but the roots are looking a lot better now.
I should probably test my pH meter I never thought about that. And you're absolutely right on #1, the roots weren't long at all when I put them in, but I got impatient. But with rockwool you cant really wait too long? I waited till several were out of the bottom, but that was like during the second set of leaves. I also think I put too much food in the water, next time I think its just going to be straight water with maybe a little bit of liquid karma, no nutes at all.
@Wasabe Just replaced 1/3 of my total system water with clean water to lower the ppm. Filled up 4 gallons in a bucket through the britta and checked the ppm, at around 110. Not too bad, I havent checked straight tap water but I bet its worse than 100! Now the total system ppm is around 300 instead of a little over 400....Hope that will help some roots grow