Hello Friends, *** Updates towards bottom! Please read thru! Thanks! *** I will do my best to organize this to make it as easy as possible! Symptoms: Brown spots on lower leaves: spreads to kill off leaf. Slightly dry, crunchy upper leave tips. Stunted growth over past 7 days. Yellowish new growth. Leaves seem a little droopy? Strain: Nirvana AK48 Fem. System: 2x3 DIY Ebb and Flow with Growstones Hydroponic Media Light: 600W MH 5500k w/ enclosed hood and 400 cfm fan venting to attic. Air: Passive draw via cracked door. Water: these plants were watered ONCE a day with pure RO (PH of 6.8-7.1) only from seedling in rockwool 2" cubes for the first 10 days. Nutes: None for first 10 days. Added GH CalMag, Sensi Grow 2part PH perfect, Silica Blast on day 11-15. Symptoms seem to continue/amplify. PH after nutes was between 5.5 and 6. Temps: My temp ranges from 76-83. I recently switched from t5s over to my MH hood. My water temp is 68-71, but i was watering with a spray bottle that I left in the room and didnt mesuare temp =(. I would assume 75ish, since it was in range of the light =(. I have only watered over the top of the plants into the rockwool cube surrounded by the growrocks in the net pots. I have been bubbling my 20gal res for 24 hours and am holding off on adding any nutes or starting the flood table until I get some advice. Question: Whats my issue/deficiency? my roots are just poking thru the bottom of my rockwool cubes. Can i carefully remove the cubes and transplant them directly into the media? My rockwool stay pretty wet, while my growstones I am trying to get my roots to stretch to are drying quickly. Any advice appreciated! Note: I noticed the dusty spots in my photo. Its a combination of poorly rinsed growstones and maybe a little drywall dust =(
Nobody can be blasé about temps, least of all you, take temps seriously or suffer the consequences, maintain an average of 75f/25c in veg at a recommendation of 55-75% Rh. If in doubt flush your entire system, then add 50% less nutes, adding 15-20% more on each feed over the next month, careful as rockwall does hold a lot of nuted water, this should be flush out as well, careful of damaging those delicate roots. I let the boys below, go on about Ph this and that, but always if in doubt flush and flush again, with air temperate Ph neutral water
Thanks for the input, vostok! I am worried that I am overwatering the rockwool, and underwatering the surrounding growstones =( I may just try and seperate the plants/roots from the rockwool.
If flushed correctly ...it will take some days to show the efforts of improvement, for me 3-5 days depending on your air temp.
I woke up with one girl looking like this =( With the slight worry of over watering, I waited until this morning to flush with 5.8 RO that was slightly enriched with Cal Mag(1/8th strength or less) ~100 ppm. Hopefully she can recover =(
Update 12 hours later:My wilted girl began perking up very slowly. I began to question my roots so I carefully dug them up to find lightly browning roots. Can anyone identify if this is root rot? If so, any suggestions on cures/prevention for the future would be greatly appreciated. I think the root system is the cause of my stunted growth These are 16 days old from seed Sent from my SM-N900V using Grasscity Forum mobile app
And a few more... I carefully trimmed back some of the brown I think that my moisture holding rock wool cubes is deterring my plants from wanting to reach into my stones
So after further investigation while setting up my Rez and Table and flooding a few times, I noticed that my PH would increase on my back flow each time. Nearly 0.5-0.75 point increase jump from my set 5.8. I assume this is because I poorly rinsed my growstones. So I began flooding and draining my table for three hours, then adjusted it back to 5.8. Now after my thorough rinses, My ph only fluctuates 0.1 or less after each flood or drain. Could this have caused my root problems, or at least been the cause of my roots not reaching for the stones? Maybe so. As always, any input appreciated on remedies for the browning/shrinking roots from the photos above, and the odd brown spots. Thanks again, fellows!
Bump..Can anyone offer advice on those roots? Having trouble getting feedback or recommendations. Or maybe just some words of encouragement Sent from my SM-N900V using Grasscity Forum mobile app
While I do not grow soilless, I'd say your problems stem from overwatering. Your plants are TINY. Reduce the frequency of your flooding schedule until your plants are larger, and need more water. What kind of reduction, I have no idea. Hopefully one with more experience growing this way will chime in...
Well, I think I am down to just one, and she is not showing any signs of growth. I have my ph stable at 5.8, temps at 77, rh at 30. It only gets watered when the rock wool is dry (flooded to barely touch the rockwool) with a 200 ppm solution of calmag sensi grow, and silica blast. Going into Denver for a bottle of aqua shield today. Not sure what else to do Any advice?
I would follow Vostok's advice given in post #3, flush and decrease your nutrient levels. Like I said before, I don't do hydro. But IMO I wouldn't be feeding a plant that small anything. After sprouting, seedlings have enough stored energy in them to grow out 2-3 healthy leaf sets before needing any nutrient.
OK OK...Root rot, Pythium has a shitty smell, you never forget, so take a sniff? to my blog on root rot http://forum.grasscity.com/blog/1093/entry-9666-root-rot/ http://forum.grasscity.com/blog/1093/entry-9667-root-rot-2-pythium/ Aquashield is the latest tool from Botanicare, but the one before that was best Hydrotone I think they call it
Just an update and a question. My plants seem to be recovering from the root rot, and are experiencing better growth. I can't seem to understand the drooping. They only get water every other day w/ ph5.8 300ppm water. They look overwatered? The leaves are droopy. Any ideas?
those roots in that first picture remind me of a time when i left the dome off on my tray of clones one day. Air pruning can cause them to brown and "shrink" maybe it was just that. Not enuff water for them. I see the rocks but is the water even close to the roots? I have never done flood and drain so i might be talkin out of turn. Just that it looked so much like my experience.How did it turn out?