Let's play name the issues

[FourPlants]

4 site RDWC
PH 5.6
Running Gringo Rasta Nutrient Line - Currently Running a 2:1 ratio of Lickety Split 2-1-6 and Super Sonic Plant Tonic 5-0-1
Cal Mag
Tap Water 110 PPM
Total PPM 450

Sterile System runningH202

Room Temp 76 Humidity 60
Lights - 680 Watt Growers Choice ROI LED
About 41 days from seed

I did a res change 48 hours ago and the plant is showing some signs of unhappiness. This was my first res change and I went from running just Lickety Split and the Cal Mag to running the 2:1 ratio above. I have my ideas but of course being a new grower second guess myself

So instead of making quick decisions and causing bigger issues I come to the Farm knowing you great people will get me straight.

As always, thanks in advance

 

[mancorn]

As long as we ban the first person who says cal/Mag I’m game.

 

[freezeland2]

First reservoir change after almost 6 weeks? Do folks normally go that long between changes in a rwdc? When I was running an ebb & flow changing the reservoir weekly was a standard thing for me. I can only imagine what my plants roots would have looked like after that long in the same old water. Other than that I have no advice as I have no rwdc experience.

 

[Oldchucky]

Look for bugs

 

[FourPlants]

First reservoir change after almost 6 weeks? Do folks normally go that long between changes in a rwdc? When I was running an ebb & flow changing the reservoir weekly was a standard thing for me. I can only imagine what my plants roots would have looked like after that long in the same old water. Other than that I have no advice as I have no rwdc experience.

I honestly don't know what others do. Roots are stained but do not feel like slime. Plants seemed to put on some good size in that time.

Look for bugs

I had a few small brown spots leading up to res change I suspected to be a pest issue. Unfortunately I have yet to pick up a loupe or microscope. I did spray Neem Oil two days ago

 

[Dirtbag]

I'd want to see those roots, that's a bit long before a res change. Besides the risk of root rot etc, the nutrients can become imbalanced if any certain nutrients are used less and build up. That can throw everything out of balance and lead to numerous deficiencies.

But I'm not a DWC grower so take my advice for what it's worth.

 

[FourPlants]

I'd want to see those roots, that's a bit long before a res change. Besides the risk of root rot etc, the nutrients can become imbalanced if any certain nutrients are used less and build up. That can throw everything out of balance and lead to numerous deficiencies.

But I'm not a DWC grower so take my advice for what it's worth.

 

[Dirtbag]

View attachment 1156076

@Aqua Man is your friend here although he has been busy lately and not here as often. They do look stained, not really what I'd want to see but again I'm not a DWC guy.

 

[FourPlants]

I was personally leaning towards pest issues as I had a few small brown spots a small tear or two which is why I applied the neem oil which was before the res change. I think then the res change put my K out whack when I changed the ratio leading to the discoloration on a couple of tips and some leaf edges.

 

[Lilolme]

Bubble buckets really need a weekly change to get rid of the waste products, consider a couple days plain water to give em a little flush?

 

[FourPlants]

Absolutely will reduce the need for frequency of top off and res changes. Also will provide a more stable ph and ppm. But will use more nutrients.

Do a water change based on add backs. Once you have added back the volume of water equal to the ACTUAL water volume of the system. Then do a water change. In early stages you may go 3 weeks or more without a changeout and mid flower maybe once a week. This helps cut back on unnecessary water changes. The reason is the less they take up the less change in nutrients ratios. So you can just steer the res with top ups to get your ppm and ph and your adding back proper ratios so each top up help bring the ratios back towards balanced and if you change the res after your add back equal the volume then you should never have an issue with ratios going to far out as to create an issue and like I said in the earlier stages you save a lot of wasted water changes.

While I know many people do change out water weekly, it is not always needed. That being said I am not saying my issues aren't root rot related or an imbalanced nutrient ratio.

Did manage to catch a pest on one of my leaves as right before catching some sleep last night.

 

[FourPlants]

Tried to get some better pictures of roots. Dosed H202 again. Planning on reapplying neem oil. 3 days sound sufficient or should I give it more time. Lights go out in 1.5 hours so that would be my application window

 

[Dirtbag]

While I know many people do change out water weekly, it is not always needed. That being said I am not saying my issues aren't root rot related or an imbalanced nutrient ratio.

Did manage to catch a pest on one of my leaves as right before catching some sleep last night.

View attachment 1156158

Hard to tell the scale but looks like a type of leaf hopper or possibly cicada. For sure don't want those in the grow.

And yeah again looking at the roots, I wish I could be of more help. I've never grown exposed roots so someone else would have a better tuned eye for evaluating those. But they do look a bit dark.

 

[FourPlants]

Hard to tell the scale but looks like a type of leaf hopper or possibly cicada. For sure don't want those in the grow.

And yeah again looking at the roots, I wish I could be of more help. I've never grown exposed roots so someone else would have a better tuned eye for evaluating those. But they do look a bit dark.

Leafhopper is what I was leaning towards after looking at photos of different pest until my eyes were crossed. It was pretty small, that photo was zoomed in sitting on my res lid, you can see the grooves in the plastic in that photo. 2-3 mm long at most.

 

[Dirtbag]

Leafhopper is what I was leaning towards after looking at photos of different pest until my eyes were crossed. It was pretty small, that photo was zoomed in sitting on my res lid, you can see the grooves in the plastic in that photo. 2-3 mm long at most.

Lead hopper then for sure. They can be a disease vector. How did that get into the room? Lol

 

[Lilolme]

While I know many people do change out water weekly, it is not always needed. That being said I am not saying my issues aren't root rot related or an imbalanced nutrient ratio.

Did manage to catch a pest on one of my leaves as right before catching some sleep last night.

View attachment 1156158

I changed mine often cause it was easy and I kept the ppm pretty low it seemed to like 650ppm so I liked to keep a fresh batch on board, I had a 17 gallon reservoir capacity that really helped maintain the ph and took longer for the temp to rise

 

[FourPlants]

Lead hopper then for sure. They can be a disease vector. How did that get into the room? Lol

It’s in the garage so I’m sure plenty of ways for them to get in. Guess I need to build some filter boxes or something for my passive air intakes for the tent, well and probably stop running it as passive.

 

[Og_punkgenetics]

As long as we ban the first person who says cal/Mag I’m game.

Cal mag is the duct tape of cannabis apparently lol

 

[FourPlants]

I'm not calling it solved just yet but here is my working theory. In the first days of my grow I made a mistake with my homemade diffuser for my light app and was measuring my light at probably 30-40% of what it actually should have been and burned one of the plants. Kind of humbled me and I went with a less is more approach and was content to stick with the results I was getting with my early veg blend. I feel my earlier assumption of a minor pest problem is correct, but I feel @Dirtbag was on the right path with nutrient imbalance by running the res as long as I did.

I think I was depleting N in the days leading up to res change and I was misreading the some of the early signs thinking it was the pest. I actually wanted to change my res a few days earlier but wanted to test the Neem Oil on a single leaf and then apply it before I changed out the solution. I didn't want to have to many issues to troubleshoot at once (this is funny in retrospect). I think I then shocked them a little when I switched the res out leading to a couple of burnt tips on new growth.

I feel right now they are looking better, will post some pictures in the morning.

Oh to clarify what actions I actually took for posterity sake. The first morning after the res change I noticed the PPM rise a little but thought perhaps I wasn't as careful brining my system up to my desired feed rate so I immediately diluted back down to my target. When I noticed the burnt tips and issues I again did a slight dilution of the mix and actually bumped CalMag by 10 PPM just to be safe even if it is the duct tape of cannabis growing. Also ran the H202 at a little higher concertation than normal. Other than that just being patient and making sure not to do anything rash

 

[Dirtbag]

Other than that just being patient and making sure not to do anything rash

That's the most important part right there. I think youre on the right track.