Are my roots ok?

[Greenvein]

Sup grow family, quick question are my roots ok, they look a bit creamy brownish coming out the net then the rest are white..

Plant one

Plant 2

Thanks fo looking

 

[013]

Hey greenvein!!

not a hydro grower by any stretch but from what I’ve seen. the whiter the roots the better off you will be. Generally speaking dark, slimy or smelly are not good signs. I’ve read some nutes may cause staining but idk which ones

do you add H202 to your res water?
what about an enzyme like hydroguard or Z9?

just wanted to shout until the real hydro folks show up

 

[Greenvein]

Hey greenvein!!

not a hydro grower by any stretch but from what I’ve seen. the whiter the roots the better off you will be. Generally speaking dark, slimy or smelly are not good signs. I’ve read some nutes may cause staining but idk which ones

do you add H202 to your res water?
what about an enzyme like hydroguard or Z9?

just wanted to shout until the real hydro folks show up

Cheers bro, my first attempt so rather catch anything early and although not slimy or smelly there's definitely some discoloration there.

I have been adding bleach and just keep it chilled. Im supposed to top up every 3 days but I know I've forgotten a couple of times and I have never flushed my resovoir but looks like people are draining reservoirs weekly.

 

[Sativa1970]

Are you running that net pot submerged or is that just an effect from uploading the pics? The net pot should not touch the water. The roots look fine. they will turn a light brown with age. You will know if you have root rot. They have a slime oozing from them.

Keep res dark, clean, aerated and cool. If you are ever concerned and running sanitary res, add 1 tsp of hydrogen peroxide per gallon. Sanitizes everything. killing alga and fungus including root rot. Will not harm the plant at that dose. If you are running a compost tea res you need to use root guard additive.

 

[Delps8]

Per @Sativa1970, you will know if you have root rot - the sight and the scent will set off alarm bells.

I use a water chiller at 68° + Hydroguard but a lot of growers use hydrogen peroxide (3%) with great results.

Roots in hydro will tend to get darker as you move toward the end of the root, the main driver being that the oldest part of the root has been in the nute water the longest. Your res should have a "clean dirt" smell, that's the best way I can describe it.

Interesting that you're getting lateral branching like that. My roots have always grown straight down into the res but I also make sure to keep at least ½" between the bottom of the net pot and the surface of the nute mix. My assumption is that leaving a gap helps ensure that the main stem isn't held in a medium that completely saturated//soaking wet. I've never heard any explanation for the practice, admittedly.

 

[Sativa1970]

Just saw your second post. DO NOT ADD BLEACH. It will kill everything including the plant. You want water to be mid 60s to low 70s. Frozen water bottles are a good way to drop the temp a little without changing the chemistry of the water.

Every 3 days top up is a rough guide. Check the water leval and chemistry every 3 days. If it looks good leave it. Biggest problem people have with hydro is fiddling with it to reach perfection. You do subtle nudge changes not big adjustments. The plant is changing the chemistry in response to your changes. Then people wonder why my chemistry has these wild out of control swings.

Res change every week is extreme paranoia. Monthly is more commonly recommended. I do one change, veg to flower with no other changes over the 4 month grow unless there is a problem. My first hydro run was in the early 1980s so problems don't sneak up easily anymore. You absolutely need a PH tester. A PPM/TDS/EC is vary helpful when you are learning but not absolutely necessary with frequent changes. You want PH of 5.8 to 6. Mix nutrient per recommended schedule an PH balance. As the plant eats the food PPM drops and PH rises. As the plant drinks the water leaving food behind PPM rises and the PH drops. Adding PHd water or nute to hold 6Ph res will keep you in the ballpark PPM until your next change.

 

[Sativa1970]

My assumption is that leaving a gap helps ensure that the main stem isn't held in a medium that completely saturated//soaking wet. I've never heard any explanation for the practice, admittedly.

Stem rot is part of it. Roots take up food, water, O2 and CO2. The bubbler helps, but mostly to create an anaerobic environment to stop fungus and bacteria growth. The upper roots out of the water are air roots, increasing plant respiration. Water is like growing in a dense clay soil that will smother the roots.

 

[Greenvein]

Thanks for the help really appreciate it.. yesterday I cleaned my Res and drained/filled the whole system spraying everything including roots and pebbles with H202. The roots didn't look too bad in the light. And found a light leak on the resovoir that I have taped up..

My water is chilled at 18.5c and sterile as I add bleach twice a week.. peroxide is super expensive over here .

My net pots are always submerged and I can't change that it's the design of the system it's very old. I feed from the bottom constantly then it over flows from the top back to the Res. Unless I was to make a spacer that raises the net pot out the bucket

 

[Delps8]

Thanks for the help really appreciate it.. yesterday I cleaned my Res and drained/filled the whole system spraying everything including roots and pebbles with H202. The roots didn't look too bad in the light. And found a light leak on the resovoir that I have taped up..

My water is chilled at 18.5c and sterile as I add bleach twice a week.. peroxide is super expensive over here .

18.5? That's close to the point where uptake of one of the chemicals (K or P, don't recall) will start to drop off but if you've been running this setup for a while, you've avoided that. Just something to keep in mind.

Where's "here"?

My net pots are always submerged

Got it. Great to know because that's real world. My comment was based on the instructional DVD that I got 6 years ago when I bought my tent.

 

[Greenvein]

18.5? That's close to the point where uptake of one of the chemicals (K or P, don't recall) will start to drop off but if you've been running this setup for a while, you've avoided that. Just something to keep in mind.

Where's "here"?


Got it. Great to know because that's real world. My comment was based on the instructional DVD that I got 6 years ago when I bought my tent.

I didn't know there was a temp drop off for uptake.. my water goes from 18.5 up to 19.5 then drops again. I'm UK.. the bleach has been running for a month now and plant has grown so I think it's ok. I was advised by another member how to use it.

Thanks

 

[Greenvein]

Really appreciate the help here fellas got alot of useful info.
I've set my chiller to drift between 19c & 20c
I will Res change every three weeks for now
I will continue my bleach twice a week

Do you guys top up your Res when lights are out?

I'm looking into some spacers to go under the net pots to raise them out the water a bit but probably for next run though.

My cube isn't anywhere near the weather though I planted it near the top of the pebbles to keep it out of the water.

Cheers again muchly appreciated

 

[Delps8]

Really appreciate the help here fellas got alot of useful info.
I've set my chiller to drift between 19c & 20c

Good margin of error to avoid reduced nutrient uptake.

I will Res change every three weeks for now

(facetiouness follows) The number of times Earth has revolved around the Sun never struck me as a good metric for reservoir management.

You might be able to swing that but, unless you have a good sized res, you might run into nutrient imbalances. I run one plant in a large res (holds 28 gallons of nutes) in my 2' x 4' tent and I'm able to get about three weeks from a res but I use the topping off approach.

I adopted that approach after reviewing this page and the attached PDF on res management.

The reason I went with topping off is based on the info in both documents though the Bugbee paper made the light go on, to whit — nutrients in a res are taken up at varying rates, some are taken up in a few hours, some take days. By the end of, say, the first week of a new res, the N, P, and K are gone (per Bugbee, there are four chemicals in the "fast" uptake category). If a grower adds more of the original nutrient mix, the amount of N, P, K will be restored and the plant will take them up, again. However, the boron, Mg, et al are not taken up which results in an imbalance. If you're doing plant tissue analysis, you can bring your res back in balance by adding the chemicals that are needed. If you're not doing tissue analysis//adding only the chemicals needed then you're creating an imbalance.

However, if you add RO water you're not mucking up the percentages. Yes, you're dropping EC but, who cares? The plants have taken up N, P, K, (and the other chemical) and they're working on the Mg and whatever but the ratios are good, just not as strong. That's all that's needed to keep the levels of chemicals as the "sufficiency" level…and that's all we're trying to do when we add ferts - make sure that the plants have enough chemicals so that they can grow. More fertilizer ≠ more growth. More ferts ≈ more problems.

Do you guys top up your Res when lights are out?

I can't see myself shutting out the lights when I top off. I spill enough even when the lights are on. ;-)

 

[Greenvein]

I adopted that approach after reviewing this page

This was a great read and makes sense.. cheers. I topped off my Res once but buffered my RO water first which stopped my EC dropping back down. I will check out the pdf tomorrow but this has definitely paved a road for me.
I'm in a small 40L Res so will use what I have read and work out what works best

Plenty of time to get right

 

[Sativa1970]

You have given a lot more info to go on. I made several assumptions. Most people fight heat in a tent and you are metric. Delps8 was right, 18C is when you start to lock out P. That leaves an excess of P in the res causing a chain reaction of lock outs. The two charts I attached are a great reference to keep handy, Should help diagnose any problems you may have in hydro.

There are a bunch of different hydro systems. I saw the bucket interior and assumed DWC. You have a spillway to a central res and a pump to recycle the water. Are there any bell valves in the drain system? If so, it is an ebb and flow or flood and drain system. Water should rise and lower like a tide. If there are no bell valves in the horizontal pipe it is a simple recirculating system. The bottom of the net pot should be roughly in line with the bottom of the drain pipe. No more than the bottom 2.5cm of the pot is submerged when the pump is running, The pump should cycle on and off with a timer.

I didn't realize UK was that strict with hydrogen peroxide. Just read how it is classified and restricted in UK. Wow.. I recommended it because it is cheap, easy to get and effective, but guess not. I just grabbed a extra liter of 3% when I was at the store for $1 US. look into hydro guard there.

A small amount of bleach, under 5 PPM in RO is safe for plants and humans. Swimming pools run 1-3PPMs. If you were on municipal water that already had 5PPMs and you added another 5PPMs it would not be safe.

You need 8 liters minimum per 30 cubic cm of plant veg for a stable res. So 30cm tall, 30cm wide =8 liters, 60 tall, 60 wide = 16 liters and so on. At 90cm tall you will start noticing the res will start requiring a lot more maintenance. Don't forget you have 2 plants so 90cm tall is 180cm of veg. Your res almost can not be too big. You want to top up in the "day". Partially so you don't interrupt the dark hours but more importantly so you can see what you are doing. Plants don't care when you top the res.

 

[Greenvein]

You have given a lot more info to go on. I made several assumptions. Most people fight heat in a tent and you are metric. Delps8 was right, 18C is when you start to lock out P. That leaves an excess of P in the res causing a chain reaction of lock outs. The two charts I attached are a great reference to keep handy, Should help diagnose any problems you may have in hydro.

There are a bunch of different hydro systems. I saw the bucket interior and assumed DWC. You have a spillway to a central res and a pump to recycle the water. Are there any bell valves in the drain system? If so, it is an ebb and flow or flood and drain system. Water should rise and lower like a tide. If there are no bell valves in the horizontal pipe it is a simple recirculating system. The bottom of the net pot should be roughly in line with the bottom of the drain pipe. No more than the bottom 2.5cm of the pot is submerged when the pump is running, The pump should cycle on and off with a timer.

I didn't realize UK was that strict with hydrogen peroxide. Just read how it is classified and restricted in UK. Wow.. I recommended it because it is cheap, easy to get and effective, but guess not. I just grabbed a extra liter of 3% when I was at the store for $1 US. look into hydro guard there.

A small amount of bleach, under 5 PPM in RO is safe for plants and humans. Swimming pools run 1-3PPMs. If you were on municipal water that already had 5PPMs and you added another 5PPMs it would not be safe.

You need 8 liters minimum per 30 cubic cm of plant veg for a stable res. So 30cm tall, 30cm wide =8 liters, 60 tall, 60 wide = 16 liters and so on. At 90cm tall you will start noticing the res will start requiring a lot more maintenance. Don't forget you have 2 plants so 90cm tall is 180cm of veg. Your res almost can not be too big. You want to top up in the "day". Partially so you don't interrupt the dark hours but more importantly so you can see what you are doing. Plants don't care when you top the res.

Thanks alot my system is RDWC so constantly recirculating I don't have any timers on that pump. And the net pot I'd say 10mm submerged max and the water level is at least a inch from the rock wool but probably more.

Yeah I see online how cheap H202 is in the us it's crazy! Even hydroguard isn't easy to find online but I have it saved somewhere just in case.

when I done a Res change I used 5ppm bleach with RO water and will use 3ppm every 3-4 days after. My tent is 1m x 1m and my plants will be scrogged so all excess vegetation will be removed so I think my 40L Res will be enough.

I was always scared if light got inside the Res even for five minutes I'm doomed

Last thing to mention I have been using my Coco nutrients in my DWC system but they seem to be growing alright now. Just think I left my Res go too long without topping it up.

Cheers

 

[Delps8]

I was always scared if light got inside the Res even for five minutes I'm doomed

Last thing to mention I have been using my Coco nutrients in my DWC system but they seem to be growing alright now. Just think I left my Res go too long without topping it up.

Cheers

There's no issue with the timing of topping off the res. There's no connection between when to do anything to a plant and "the dark cycle". The reason for that is that :the dark cycle:, in cannabis and all other C3 plants, takes place with the lights on because it has nothing to do with whether the lights are on or off.

Cannabis is a C3 plant because that it does not need darkness to carry out its "dark cycle" processing. That's called the "Calvin cycle" in plant biology and it's a continuation of the process of photosynthesis.

Cannabis can be grown with a photoperiod of 24 hours. If the plant is an auto flower, you can run 24/0 from seed to harvest. If it's a photoperiod plant, the plant will remain in the vegetative state. The only reason we switch the light cycle to 12/12 for photos is to induce flowering. Photosynthesis continues throughout the 24 hour cycle with cannabis, regardless of the amount of light.

Re. "too much light in the tent during lights out" - per Bugbee, cannabis is very light sensitive but far less so than conventional wisdom tells us (no surprise there). No particular color of light is "safe" but the amount of needed to cause a problem is surpassingly high, to my way of thinking, anyway. As Bugbee states, plants don't react negatively to a full moon and the full moon can be "very bright". Just work quickly and keep the light levels low, certainly lower than the full moon, and you should be OK.

 

[greenmobster440]

Them roots look good. Pearly white. I once used a product called Dark Energy on the res. Stinks like shit and turns the root ball a shade or two darker. You'll know if they are having problems. Looks like ya got some issues up top. Lots of great advice on here so far. Best of luck to ya.

 

[Greenvein]

Them roots look good. Pearly white. I once used a product called Dark Energy on the res. Stinks like shit and turns the root ball a shade or two darker. You'll know if they are having problems. Looks like ya got some issues up top. Lots of great advice on here so far. Best of luck to ya.

Cheers yeah they was flea ridden when I got them and I didn't top feed at all so malnourished.. water temps too low aswell but all fixed we're all good now they have taken off! I'm using Coco base nutrients so going to try the same brands hydro base next feed. Plenty of time though

 

[greenmobster440]

Excellent to hear that. Glad ya got the help ya sought. So many good growers here willing to help. Love this place.