F
floriangrower
- 1
- 1
Hey guys,
I really could need some advice. This is my third attempt on DWC (first 3 plants died of too little water, next 2 of drowning in too much water). Currently, I have 3 Autos in my DIY DWC setup. Two of them are two weeks old, and the third one is the survivor of the second attempt, which is about 3 weeks old. I know that they look horrible, but I don't know what I am doing wrong. I grew them in rock wool until they developed some roots and then planted them into the DWC system. From there on, the first week, I top feed them by hand until the roots poked out of the system. I have an air gap around 2" to the net pots. The system holds about 20 gallons and the air pump pumps around 10 gallons/minute of air into the nutrient solution. I start giving them a 1:1:1 ratio of GHE TriPart as soon as they developed clear deficiencies for the yellowing of the first leaves and of course the plant in the middle. I also added about 1 ppm of sodium hypochlorite into, which is far below the value that some others recommend in this forum. The nutrient solution smells fine and the roots seem ok. My problem is that the plants look very unhealthy and also have an extremely slow growth. I have done a lot of research about DWC before I started, but it seems like this does not cope with my lack of experience. I am using a BlueLab EC-pen and my PH-meter is calibrated and should work fine. Would you guys start over or try to save them since they are autoflower? Do you spot anything that could have caused these issues?
The hydroton looks moist because I sprayed them a little with tap water.
1. Are you growing from seed or clones? Seed (420FastBuds Autoflower)
2. How old are your plants? 14 Days (one plant 21 days) from seed
3. How tall are your plants? 1–2 inches
4. What type of hydro system are you using? DWC
5. What brand/type of nutrients are you using? GHE TriPart for Hardwater which is around 2 years old but still looks the same as when I bought it and has no signs of crystallization, also there is no expiry date on the bottles (I still don't think this is the issue here but correct me if I am wrong)
6. What is the Ph of your nutrient solution? 5.9
7. What is the PPM/EC of your tap water? 150 ppm (700 scale) / 0.2-0.3 EC
8. What is the PPM/EC of your nutrient solution? 260 ppm (700 scale)
9. What is the temperature of your nutrient solution? 68-70 °F
10. Does your PPM/EC show a rise or fall when you do your daily PPM check? No
11. Does your pH show a rise or fall when you do your daily check? No
12. Do you foliar feed or spray your plants with anything? Only once with tap water
13. What kind of lights do you use and how many watts combined? LEDs 100-150 Watts (Mars Hydro SP 3000 @ 50%)
14. How close are your lights to the plants? Around 10" as you can see in the picture
15. What size is your grow space in square feet? 4 feet x 2 feet = 8 square feet
16. What is the temperature and humidity in your grow space? 75 °F and around 55-60%
17. Have you noticed any insect activity in your grow space? No
18. How much experience do you have growing? Around 8-10 grows all in soil
I really could need some advice. This is my third attempt on DWC (first 3 plants died of too little water, next 2 of drowning in too much water). Currently, I have 3 Autos in my DIY DWC setup. Two of them are two weeks old, and the third one is the survivor of the second attempt, which is about 3 weeks old. I know that they look horrible, but I don't know what I am doing wrong. I grew them in rock wool until they developed some roots and then planted them into the DWC system. From there on, the first week, I top feed them by hand until the roots poked out of the system. I have an air gap around 2" to the net pots. The system holds about 20 gallons and the air pump pumps around 10 gallons/minute of air into the nutrient solution. I start giving them a 1:1:1 ratio of GHE TriPart as soon as they developed clear deficiencies for the yellowing of the first leaves and of course the plant in the middle. I also added about 1 ppm of sodium hypochlorite into, which is far below the value that some others recommend in this forum. The nutrient solution smells fine and the roots seem ok. My problem is that the plants look very unhealthy and also have an extremely slow growth. I have done a lot of research about DWC before I started, but it seems like this does not cope with my lack of experience. I am using a BlueLab EC-pen and my PH-meter is calibrated and should work fine. Would you guys start over or try to save them since they are autoflower? Do you spot anything that could have caused these issues?
The hydroton looks moist because I sprayed them a little with tap water.
1. Are you growing from seed or clones? Seed (420FastBuds Autoflower)
2. How old are your plants? 14 Days (one plant 21 days) from seed
3. How tall are your plants? 1–2 inches
4. What type of hydro system are you using? DWC
5. What brand/type of nutrients are you using? GHE TriPart for Hardwater which is around 2 years old but still looks the same as when I bought it and has no signs of crystallization, also there is no expiry date on the bottles (I still don't think this is the issue here but correct me if I am wrong)
6. What is the Ph of your nutrient solution? 5.9
7. What is the PPM/EC of your tap water? 150 ppm (700 scale) / 0.2-0.3 EC
8. What is the PPM/EC of your nutrient solution? 260 ppm (700 scale)
9. What is the temperature of your nutrient solution? 68-70 °F
10. Does your PPM/EC show a rise or fall when you do your daily PPM check? No
11. Does your pH show a rise or fall when you do your daily check? No
12. Do you foliar feed or spray your plants with anything? Only once with tap water
13. What kind of lights do you use and how many watts combined? LEDs 100-150 Watts (Mars Hydro SP 3000 @ 50%)
14. How close are your lights to the plants? Around 10" as you can see in the picture
15. What size is your grow space in square feet? 4 feet x 2 feet = 8 square feet
16. What is the temperature and humidity in your grow space? 75 °F and around 55-60%
17. Have you noticed any insect activity in your grow space? No
18. How much experience do you have growing? Around 8-10 grows all in soil
