Droopy Plants Dwc

[RHINObeast]

Morning guys, looking for some advice on this, I had a little issue with some bugs in my soil grow from fox farm soil so instead of using pesticides i switched them over to a DWC set up, No top feed....When I first put them in there after soaking out all the soil they were obviously droopy an it, but maybe within 2 hours they were thriving peeking up nice and tall man I thought I had it going pretty good feeling good about he change. So I woke up this morning and the plants look OK but not how they looked yesterday. I went this morning reading info on diffierent individuals setups, etc etc....I had my 6 inch net pots submerged in the water about 2 inches covering the bottom of the pot. I read that I should lower it just barely under the net pot which i did. I checked my PH this morning and yes it went back up to around 6.3/6.4 in which I lowered it back down to 5.6 to 5.8. It's not that they are lifeless, but the top colas are wicked flexible and kind of starting to limp over. I added about 2.5 tsp of rapid start to the 13 gallons of 5.5 spring water yesterday afternoon and that is ALL I have given them. I didn't want to start nutes right off the bat like this. I'm no expert with this system, but I looked around and to my knowledge decided to lower the water to just about a half inch submerged as opposed to the 2 inch submerge. Any help on this would be greatful, they're super nice plants and I wanna keep these girls going! Maybe it's just the transition, lack of nutes, water level, etc I'm gonna say right now I DO NOT have an EC/PPM meter obviously something I know I need and can buy one but I just set this up yesterday. Here's some pictures!

 

[FennarioMike]

It's totally normal for the plants to continue to show signs of shock for a while after stripping away the soil. I did that too once and lost a couple of plants. Some tolerated it better than others. Even gently soaking out the roots still knocks them for a loop - and then a whole new medium and all. It takes them a couple of weeks to equilibrate. Those don't look so bad at all.

You want your water level ABOVE the base of the netpot 1 - 2". You want those roots to bathe in the oxygenated fluid - that's your new medium. You wouldn't place a sprout above dirt and make it reach to find it. Put it right in the water and keep it there. All sorts of people do it different, but there's zero solid reason for leaving an air gap.

I'd keep them with zero nutes at all for at least a few day until they get a foothold. Treat them like you would when taking a clone - you want them to reestablish new roots in a new medium. They might start yellowing on the lower leaves as they convert them to sugars and send it to make the new roots - that's ok.

 

[FennarioMike]

What were the bugs and do you think they'll transfer to this? I use Neem oil - all natural oil pressed from the Neem Tree. It's not a pesticide in like a chemical way, it just leaves a protective layer on the leaf the bugs have a hard time getting though. I wouldn't use it in flower - but it's inexpensive, goes a LONG way and does a great job without adding poison to your plant.

 

[RHINObeast]

What were the bugs and do you think they'll transfer to this? I use Neem oil - all natural oil pressed from the Neem Tree. It's not a pesticide in like a chemical way, it just leaves a protective layer on the leaf the bugs have a hard time getting though. I wouldn't use it in flower - but it's inexpensive, goes a LONG way and does a great job without adding poison to your plant.

I had root aphids, nothing to do with unhealthy plants clearly they are lush green, it was the Fox Farm Ocean Forest I bought, @SatansTaint discussed with me that they changed their vendor and got bought out, something to do with that. Could have been in transit as well, etc. Neem would not have worked for this, it was either 4 different things, from a post I read, start with H202, then organicide then nematodes then botinaguard....clearly these bugs have to be the most difficult things to get rid of. I did do the h202 and it killed a shitload of them but sure enough they came back. My idea was to take away their environment (the soil) and since yesterday's transplant, no signs of these things anymore, plus they hate the water. I had been growing in soil for about 3 years now and it's safe to say I'm
Pretty much done with it, however @SatansTaint hooked me up with some info on Vermont Compost and in the future I would like to try it again, it's nice I conquer two methods of growing anyways so I'm more excited about this than disappointed. Good news is man I got two sour kosher clones, and if for some reason these things try to die on me I'm thinking I could just take cuttings

 

[FennarioMike]

Yeah, take cuttings anyhow that way you're ready. Root aphids can still exist in DWC, not as easily but they can be hearty little fuckers. Keep up the treatments and maybe consider running a sterile rez using something like UC Roots or Clear Rez. I use UC Roots constantly and add it every 2 days - keeps everything away. No, you don't get the beneficials, but you get a crop...

 

[RHINObeast]

Yeah, take cuttings anyhow that way you're ready. Root aphids can still exist in DWC, not as easily but they can be hearty little fuckers. Keep up the treatments and maybe consider running a sterile rez using something like UC Roots or Clear Rez. I use UC Roots constantly and add it every 2 days - keeps everything away. No, you don't get the beneficials, but you get a crop...

Clear Rez I think I have some of that that came with the EZ Kloner, I will keep that in mind, although even running the clear Rez I'm still going to have to change the res every week? This first shot I plan to go 2 weeks in the current Rez to account for the transplant changeover, and i will add bites maybe have strength for the first real week introduction

 

[RHINObeast]

Clear Rez I think I have some of that that came with the EZ Kloner, I will keep that in mind, although even running the clear Rez I'm still going to have to change the res every week? This first shot I plan to go 2 weeks in the current Rez to account for the transplant changeover, and i will add bites maybe have strength for the first real week introduction

Not bites nutes.....stupid spell check

 

[FennarioMike]

Clear Rez I think I have some of that that came with the EZ Kloner, I will keep that in mind, although even running the clear Rez I'm still going to have to change the res every week? This first shot I plan to go 2 weeks in the current Rez to account for the transplant changeover, and i will add bites maybe have strength for the first real week introduction

Well, yeah in a bucket it still a good idea to change it every week - unless you can use a top off rez. The problem is that the residual nutes in the bucket might not be exactly in the same ratio anymore as intended, so if you just keep adding to it the nutrients can become unbalance. But, some people do it.

I have a pretty big 6 plant RDWC and I do about an 80% changeout every 3 - 4 weeks and keep the rez sterile with UC Roots.

 

[RHINObeast]

Have to ask, instead of using my Ez cloner, can I just drop my cuts right into the dwc setup that I have? Not sure if that would speed things up or slow things down

 

[mojavegreen]

Toss everything, deep clean, pop some beans.

 

[RHINObeast]

Have to ask, instead of using my Ez cloner, can I just drop my cuts right into the dwc setup that I have? Not sure if that would speed things up or slow things down

Plants are at a standstill ( my sour Kosher clones are rooting just nicely they will surely make it with no issue at all) it's been 4 days and they have just wilted even more, I know it's time I take some cuts because truthfully they don't look like they're gonna make it. Here's a pic as of yesterday, maybe it's too soon to tell but you would think they would try to push their roots out an it more, but then I sit here thinking well clones can take like 7 days for just first signs of roots, so maybe I just need to keep waiting for things to happen, although I'd rather shut down one of my dwc to save a bit before working with the new clones

 

[RHINObeast]

Toss everything, deep clean, pop some beans.

I agree with you except for the fact that I could just take cuttings and not pop any beans at all, these beans that I have were not easy to get and I want to preserve the ones I do have

 

[RHINObeast]

Only took a week to bounce back, I even gave these ladies their own personal home, cheap little Home Depot 5 gallon bucket and lid. Looking just like they did before the transplant

 

[Tat2420]

Those home depot buckets may let a small amount of light through...I can say for sure as I have never used the orange ones, it's just what I was told...lol
As for the rez...unless I'm growing all the same strain, I keep each bucket as it's own separate entity. Change the water every week or so completely with fresh nutes and hydroguard...its a bit more work but I enjoy it.
Some people relax to puzzles or crosswords...i relax to nutes and plants haha

 

[RHINObeast]

Those home depot buckets may let a small amount of light through...I can say for sure as I have never used the orange ones, it's just what I was told...lol
As for the rez...unless I'm growing all the same strain, I keep each bucket as it's own separate entity. Change the water every week or so completely with fresh nutes and hydroguard...its a bit more work but I enjoy it.
Some people relax to puzzles or crosswords...i relax to nutes and plants haha

I second that feeling man. thanks for the advice on the buckets and process, def planned on swapping fresh nutes and water every Saturday morning with the wife, def relaxing for sure, just spark one up right before that and then after kick back for another and watch some Netflix lol

 

[RHINObeast]

Not sure if this is a deficiency, result to transplant, reaction to me lowering ph from soil grow (6.7 to 7.0) to hydro 5.6 to 6.1

 

[RHINObeast]

Not sure if this is a deficiency, result to transplant, reaction to me lowering ph from soil grow (6.7 to 7.0) to hydro 5.6 to 6.1

exact measurements at 4.25 gallons of water in the five gallon buckets:

Just started feeding aggressive this week:
12 tsp flora grow
8tsp flora micro
4tsp flora bloom
4tsp cali-magic (go cal-mag)
Added about 1tbsp epsom salt

Please let me know if I need to make any corrections, I believe maybe I should always stick with half strength nutes but I tried this aggressive schedule for this week. It's been a week from transplant

 

[RHINObeast]

exact measurements at 4.25 gallons of water in the five gallon buckets:

Just started feeding aggressive this week:
12 tsp flora grow
8tsp flora micro
4tsp flora bloom
4tsp cali-magic (go cal-mag)
Added about 1tbsp epsom salt

Please let me know if I need to make any corrections, I believe maybe I should always stick with half strength nutes but I tried this aggressive schedule for this week. It's been a week from transplant

Mind you roots are pure white, looking extremely good, plants are perking up nicely, looking happy just wanna make sure that this is prolly just the transition to the dwc. Lower leaves did look a bit dark but they get more lush as they go up the plant

 

[FennarioMike]

Those plants look happy. Keep it up!