Help with RDWC establishing roots

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SmanMo

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What is your PH at? I keep mine really close to 6.8 I check it every feeding. That looks like nute lock out to me. Everything is there, just at a range outside what the plant can use/pickup.
 
Cashmeh

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Overfeeding it. You can't fix old bad growth so ignore or cut off all those yellow leafs. I know it's over fed due to how dark green the new leafs are, plus they are droopy. Way too much N.

Other than that it seems as if your on track. Only worry about new growth. You want it to be light green.. Not dark green. I'd say your roots are finnaly pulling up food, which they were lacking due to lack of top feeding. But now since they pull it up, and it's too strong, they grow slow.

Your ppms should be slowly dropping. If your at 500ppms it will be at 490 the next day, if it increases to 505 even your way overfeeding.

The salt buildup will only cause an issue if light is blasting on top of the pebbles causing extensive evaporation leaving nutrients behind. If he covers them, and submerged netpot, he won't get salt buildup, least nothing that will matter.

Anyways its getting better and that's all that matters.

Remember, it's impossible to underfeed in hydro. You either feed it, don't feed it, or over feed it. Make sure your ppms are lowering.
 
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I'll lower the ppms back down 300 today. I'm use to growing in coco, you really have to hit the coco hard with nutes the first week or you get cal/mag def. This is completely opposite of what I normally do.
 
Cashmeh

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Way to high ph for sure. I run 5.6 and it floats up to 5.9 and I drop back down to 5.6.

Hydro uses a far lower ph. So yea fix that and lower ur ppms and ur golden.
 
smokedareefer

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Way to high ph for sure. I run 5.6 and it floats up to 5.9 and I drop back down to 5.6. Hydro uses a far lower ph. So yea fix that and lower ur ppms and ur golden.
Smanmo was giving advice to run at 6.8 and i was commenting to that advice, which I considered bad advice for rdwc system
I believe login said he's running at 5.8
 
smokedareefer

smokedareefer

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I'll lower the ppms back down 300 today. I'm use to growing in coco, you really have to hit the coco hard with nutes the first week or you get cal/mag def. This is completely opposite of what I normally do.
What makes up your ppm's? Are you adding calmag etc
 
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What is your PH at? I keep mine really close to 6.8 I check it every feeding. That looks like nute lock out to me. Everything is there, just at a range outside what the plant can use/pickup.
I set ph at 5.8 and let it swing to 6.5. I have bluelab ph doser I can use to keep it at a specific ph. Or is it better to let the ph swing like I'm doing now?
What makes up your ppm's? Are you adding calmag etc
No cal/mag just part A and B nutes with protek for silica.
 
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Day 12
Ppms are still at 300.
Ph 5.8
Orp 350
Water 68f
Air 78 f
Co2 500 ppm
Lights at 20%
Plants showing very little groth.


Am I doing somthing worng?
 
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Cashmeh

Cashmeh

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I think it could be one or more of multiple issues, but im not quite sure which one.

It looks like it wants to grow fast, but cannot pull up nutrients fast enough. The long roots without fishbones seem like the plants hunting for a lack of nutrient, yet at one point you do have some good fishbone roots and previously your new growth looked decent, just heavy. I also think you turned your lights up too much recently. Normally it would have been fine, but since you have issues, they cant keep up.

If it were my grow, if you dont want to go to flora trio with calmag, which I can assure you would fix your problem, but if you dont want to, you will need to go find grow diaries of people who use your nutrients. Study what they did, perhaps call your suppliers and send them some pictures.

You need @Aqua Man or @Dirtbag to tell you the exact deffeciencies these plants are having, im not skilled enough yet. I just know it has to be nutrient uptake. I mean your using CO2 and they are in a good hydrosystem, they need more of something.
 
PK1

PK1

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To me it looks like a phosphorus deficiency but then again wait to see what @Dirtbag or @Aqua Man say
I use this chart to find out the deficiencies
1plant deffeciency
.
 
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I'm using Jack's hydro 5-12-26 and jacks calcium nitrate boost. I cant imagine them needing more phosphorus, cal/mag than what's already in the Jack's.
 
PK1

PK1

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I sent Aquaman a message a few days ago haven't heard back.
aquaman is busy and has been having issues getting online. Im sure @Dirtbag will respond when he sees this.
I've read good articles about Jack nutrients.. I haven't used them myself yet but have heard good things about it.
5-12-26 NPK definitely has a lot of ((k) potassium in there. You need more nitrogen in the mix.

Lets see if dirtbag confirms :)
 
Dirtbag

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I can try an offer some advice but I haven't ever grown In DWC. And I'll be honest I'm not sure what is going on here.

Jack's is good food, are you mixing the Cal nitrate first and then the rest? Are you adding alkalinity to the RO water first before adding nutrients? I've had issues running pure RO in the past if you don't add some alkaline minerals to it first to buffer. If you're mixing things correctly I highly doubt the nutrients are your problem here.

I'd lower your ph to 5.5-5.7, and go with about 350-400ppm, but again I'm somewhat ignorant to DWC's SOP's.
To me the lack of secondary roots is suspect, and if I had to guess I would say that they were too dry in the hydroton so just shot straight down looking for water. It won't grow secondary or capillary roots if there is nothing to eat. Top watering the clay balls would have likely helped.
But I suspect that is also the cause of the nutrient deficiencies. The plant was probably starving in the clay balls without frequent top waterings. Once those roots are in the water for a few days I bet things will turn around pretty quickly.
You should remove any yellowed or dead growth so you can more easily monitor the progression of symptoms, and focus on what the new growth is doing.

Also, keep light levels low until they recover by either dialing them down or raising them up high.
 
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