Uneven growth in hydro system

Bluenoser

Bluenoser

Well-Known Member
I have a 4 bucket RDWC system with plants that just turned 2 weeks old, and for some weird reason, some are growing much better than others, despite having exact same conditions and sharing the same nutrient rez.

I just don't get it, maybe someone out there can shed some light on what may be going on.

We had a serious heat wave in the 1st week of growth that has now passed that may have effected the one problematic plant in one of the buckets.

One green crack plant is rocking it, looks totally healthy and older than the rest, with lots of roots hanging in the bucket, while the other green crack plant looks like it is showing signs of deficiency and stunted growth with only one little tap root just starting to appear. Why might this be?

EVERYTHING is the same, the top feed is working fine, it's getting the same nutes delivered to it as the healthy plant, the fan air flow is the same, so why does this one plant look so sickly?

I've already trimmed it's first set of leaves off because they were getting spotted, brown and crispy, but now the next set of leaves is starting to look the same.

The rez temp is 19 degrees C, and the PPM's are around 80 right now, I just did a rez change this morning thinking maybe there is bacteria in the nutes as it did get to almost 85 degrees F in the grow tent with that heat wave, and the nutes got to around 24 degrees C at one point. It was freakin hot here last week!

So, what do you think?
:)

14july2018-8.jpg

14july2018-8.jpg


14july2018-3.jpg

14july2018-3.jpg

Healthy plant - Green crack

14july2018-2.jpg

14july2018-2.jpg

Withering plant - Green crack
 
Clones or from seed? As even same strain seeds can be different just like people, some strong and others sickly. Even some Clones I have had to fight more than others to get them to go from the same Mother.
 
So this isn't because of any deficiency, or having nutes in the reservoir at an early stage?

Some people say never use any nutes until they are a month old, while others such as General Hydroponics recommend a pretty high PPM when they are seedlings.
 
I'm getting a little alarmed, as I am wondering if what is going on is some kind of fungal infection.

The pictures previously posted were of a grow in a totally different part of my yard, and it seems the very same thing is happening in a totally different grow tent in a different building in my home.

The symptoms look the same, brown spots on the leaves until they eventually curl and die.

Take a look at these pictures, it looks the same as in my other grow, yet these plants are gown in soil, not in hydro, and have a totally different environment.

What is causing these brown spots??

18July2018-3.jpg

18July2018-3.jpg


18July2018-2.jpg

18July2018-2.jpg


18July2018-1.jpg

18July2018-1.jpg

 
I'll link some buddies who are more hydro than me. Well get you some help brother.

In my opinion, those brown spots look eerily similar to calcium deficiency. Are you using CalMag?
Lay out your PH for us and what has been happening with PPMs daily. Have you seen huge fluctuations? If your PH is swinging crazily throughout its range, it will cause certain minerals etc to be rejected by or unable to be absorbed by your girls. Some plants just have a wider range of what can be absorbed, when and how.

@KCCO77, @Pennywise, @Scrogdawg ......can we help our friend here out a bit further?
 
Thanks guys, the pH is exactly 6.2 right now, so that's a good thing.
I don't have any calmag yet, and ironically, I just came form the hydro store, doh.

I did however just buy a product called "Root Pack" for my rez, it's been getting far warmer than I'd like it to be, hovering between 20 and 24 degrees C, and my grow room is fluctuating between 75 and 84 degrees with this nasty heat we have been having here.

There is no way for me to keep the temp swings from happening other than containers of RO water frozen and put in my rez to keep cooling it down as I don't have a chiller.

Hopefully the beneficial microbes keep my roots healthy :)

BTW, can I add flora micro later after adding the flora grow?
I did add some in the beginning, but since I had to do a partial rez water change I might need to add more of it, the instructions say to add flora micro first, but will it cause lockout or any weirdness if I add some more now?

Thanks again!
:)
 
I'd go with a fresh Rez instead of adding a little something here and there, for warm Rez temps find an enzyme cleaner like Z7 from Flying Skull or Hygrozyme. Sensizyme would do the same thing, it'll keep your roots clean in warm water. I run an entire Grow last summer with Rez temps in the low 80's using Z7.
 
Thanks for the advice, I really appreciate it :)

I've already changed the rez twice in 2 weeks, it was cloudy and smelled odd when that nasty heat wave hit us back in the beginning of this month so I changed it right away after less than a week of it first beign set up.

I can't seem to find that Z7 stuff anywhere locally, and amazon.ca does not seem to have it unless I'm not searching for it correctly. The hydroguard is $85 bucks and takes 2-3weeks to get here from amazon so screw that, lol.

I just changed the rez again last week, so, if I add that flora micro will it screw anything up?

I'm just trying to ensure all is well until I do another rez change in a week or so.

It's a gross day here right now, 80% humidity and 80 degrees outside, it sucks, if I'm sweating, I'm imagining my plants are also :)
 
Likely KJ got it from the same source as myself which was @Scrogdawg (in a completely selfless manner), who ordered Extra when he and another member were in the midst of an order. I covet the stuff, but my buddy @KCCO 77 uses I think Hydroguard......hell correct me on that for res....but his has nothing to do with heat, maybe more so on the cold side.
 
Do you think my rez is too cold?
I just took a look, its sitting at 21 degrees C right now, and the room is at 79 degrees F. Maybe I'll standardize readings to C or F, lol.

I just added some of that Flora Micro to the rez water, to hopefully add some calcium, then, I realized it is the one that is for hard water (the label melted off in shipping remember, lol) so I hope it's OK to use in the RO water, I never use tap water.

The total PPM's right now are at 650 or so, and every time I try to add some more flora grow, I can see the leaves start to curl a bit, as they are right now. The plants are now 20 days into the grow since I planted the seedlings in the hydro.

What I don't understand is that I have added far more of the floragrow to the nutes than the feed chart says I should have to add. According to the chart, adding as much floragrow as I have so far should result in a PPM reading of over 1000.

Could they be feeding this much as I'm adding the nutes daily? It's not like they are big plants yet or anything.

22July2018-10.jpg

22July2018-10.jpg



22July2018-2.jpg

22July2018-2.jpg


22July2018-1.jpg

22July2018-1.jpg

 
Oh, and as you can see, I've transplanted my 2 harlequins into 5gal pots filled with promix from my local hydro store :)

When do you think I should transplant the 2 skunk candy plants from their small homes?
 
Guy Cavallero said:
I'll link some buddies who are more hydro than me. Well get you some help brother.

In my opinion, those brown spots look eerily similar to calcium deficiency. Are you using CalMag?
Lay out your PH for us and what has been happening with PPMs daily. Have you seen huge fluctuations? If your PH is swinging crazily throughout its range, it will cause certain minerals etc to be rejected by or unable to be absorbed by your girls. Some plants just have a wider range of what can be absorbed, when and how.

@KCCO77, @Pennywise, @Scrogdawg ......can we help our friend here out a bit further?
Click to expand...
Hey how’s things been I lost you for a bit but here u r @Pennywise is bang on. Cal mag is a must when using RO water. Other than that how’s the RDWC system working for you??
 
I dumped my rez and started over today.
I went to my local hydro store, bought some cal-mag, added that first, then added the flora micro. I just added the flora grow, and will soon add some flora bloom. All as per the instructions on the label, but I only added half the nutes, as my grow room is really hot, running between 80-84 degrees today. We are in another heat wave, and I have no way to cool the room down.
The instructions say not to add too much nutes when there are extreme temps or over feeding may occur, so I'm being cautious because my plants are not looking so good right now.

I've been adding frozen water bottled to the rez to keep the nutes at around 20 degrees, but right now they are at 23 degrees C, I ran out of ice packs. I hope that OGbiowar root pack helps to prevent root rot.

Unfortunately my healthiest looking plant, the biggest green crack now has top leaves that are really stressed out looking, a bit crinkly, and there is even a tiny hole here and there in the leaves. I'm guessing this is from too high temperature and temp swings?

The system I built is working just fine, its just the inability to keep my room and rez temps stable that are causing the issue.

We have a heat warning in effect, gonna be in the high 30's all week, so this week is gonna be a challenge to keep these plants going I think.
 

Similar threads

T
NFT type system with 4x4 vinyl fence posts
Replies
2
Views
3K
Cultivator
Cultivator
T
Hydro help please - slow growth yellow leaves
2
Replies
33
Views
4K
Cultivator
Cultivator
MadameCrash
Passive Hydro
2
Replies
22
Views
39K
Tead
Tead
BirdieNumNum
Are low reservoir temps stunting growth during winter?
Replies
3
Views
671
BirdieNumNum
BirdieNumNum
J
High iron well-water killing my plants?
Replies
3
Views
3K
LEDBud
LEDBud
Back
Top Bottom