I’m having trouble with my newest batch of seedlings. This will be my 5th grow cycle and I haven’t had this issue before. I have 3 seedlings (about 1.5 weeks into veg now about 4 nodes on each plant), each is a different strain, sitting in a shared 10 gallon Rez (growing Hydro, DWC) under a single 300w LED sitting about 18" above.
I changed the rez on 3/31 and beforehand the plants were all pretty healthy - perhaps showing early signs of nutrient deficiencies. That past rez was only ph’d water with a few mL of GH Flora Micro. This new rez has about 1/4 strength of the early veg recommendation on the GH label (1.25mL/gallon) of the GH Trio.
Since changing rez’s all three plants began slowly drooping and yellowing. They are now at the point where they look like they are dying. The yellowing is occurring mainly on the lower leaves, with some brown spots on them as well. The new leaves look pretty healthy, except they are drooping a lot as well.
I first thought they could be getting too much water, so I unplugged the submerged water pump that was feeding the bottom of their rapid rooters with a constant stream of water. The roots have all reached the top of the water level on the rez, so I figured that would be fine. On 4/1 I checked the pH and it was a little high at 6.3, so I adjusted it back to 5.8. However, the plants continue to get worse and worse. The air stones are creating a bunch of bubbles in the rez, so I don’t think it’s due to lack of oxygen. The main roots on each plant are turning brown so root problems/root rot is definitely a factor.
Anyways, I am kind of stuck. Do you think they just need a lot more nutes? Or should I give them a flush with pH’d water? Other factors, temp: 72-81 degrees, humidity pretty low between 25-40%.
I hate to say it, but this isn’t a good system for you to run 3 different strains together. Most strains don’t like the same nutrient feedings as others. Plus, they’ll be fighting for root space. Just one plant can fill that container with roots.
Hey, thanks for the reply. I only plan to keep them together until I start plant training (which would be right about now if they were healthy). I completely agree that they shouldn’t stay together much longer, but I don’t think that’s the cause of my problem since whatever it is, is affecting all the strains equally.
it happened to me recently, all my plants at once the morning after res change. Switched out nutes to lower strength and all recovered, losing bottom sets of leaves. All doing fine after a week. I had added too darn many of the different additives and they OD’d.
Thanks for the tip! I was about to give it more nutrients because the lower leaves yellowing seemed to me like a nitrogen deficiency. I’ll try reducing instead.
I see mention of doses given for nutes but no PPM? the water itself starts with a ppm/tds do you have a meter or guessing?
They are large enough they should be closer to 1/2 dose and showing signs of Calcium def
In my hydro system I keep the PPM’s about the middle of the desired range. If the desired range is between 1050 and 1300 I’ll run it at 1150. I find myself adding water every day to keep the correct PPM.
if you are adding nutes at 1.25ml/gallon than you have hard water are you using tap water? if so what’s it’s ppm? It doesn’t always hurt to use tap water or even well water but it can create grief if your water has excess minerals in it.
I use Jungle juice 3 part which is same composition as GH flora series and even at 5ml/gallon I barely hit 600 ppm with Cal mag and enzymes added and pretty low ppm to me is below 200 which is what I would expect to see at 1/4 dose. I am no saying you have nute burn I am suggesting you check water used prior to adding anything 250 or higher you need to buy RO or distilled water for first few weeks in the future, I am saying you have a Calcium def in hydro it’s very important we add Cal-mag supplement through almost entire grow and if you really want to test Buy some distilled water add half dose Micro grow bloom with half dose Cal-mag your ppm will be under 500 but you will know exactly what it is made up of
Thanks for the info. I am using tap water which reads about 150ppm. I said I used about 1.25 ml/gallon, but it was probably closer 2mL/gallon. That along with about 2mL/gallon Cal-mag, 2ml/gallon of hydroguard, and something like 8 mL of Botanicare pH down (for a 5 gallon rez) is what brought it to 480ppm. If that seems wrong then it’s probably about time I calibrate my ppm meter (been almost a year since I last calibrated).
