Plant looking droopy and slightly discolored, lack of Phosphorus? Or what?

[mr_up]

Hi all,

Thanks for taking the time to look at my plant. I'm a first time grower just trying to figure stuff out and really appreciate all the help.

This is day 2 of week 2. Week 1 she looked pretty nice. Now she's very droopy and some leaves are looking discolored. I'm using a homemade DWC with General Hydroponics 3 part Keep It Simple nutrients.

One root is sticking out the bottom of the netpot about 4 inches. 2 other roots near the middle of the netpot are emerging.


1. Are you growing from seed or clones?
From a clone, bought at the local club.

2. How old are your plants?
Don't know how old it was before I got it, it is on week 2 day 2 with me.

3. How tall are your plants?
About 10 inches.

4. What type of hydro system are you using?
DWC

5. What brand/type of nutrients are you using?
General Hydroponics, here is the recommended feeding schedule:


6. What is the Ph of your nutrient solution?
About 5.5 I think. Using pH drops to test while my pH meter arrives in the mail.

7. What is the PPM/EC of your tap water?
Using RO water with 80 PPM before I add anything.

8. What is the PPM/EC of your nutrient solution?
Donno, waiting on meter to come in the mail ;).

9. What is the temperature of your nutrient solution?
<70 degrees F

12. Do you foliar feed or spray your plants with anything?
Have been pouring a little nutrient solution from the reservoir over the plant infrequently.

13. What kind of lights do you use and how many watts combined? (HPS, MH, fluorescent, halogen, incandescent "plant lights")
4 CFL lights, 3 6500K and 1 2700K. Each are '100W equivalents.'

14. How close are your lights to the plants?
between 4 inches to 7 inches. I move them further away when I leave the house for the day, then back in closer when I'm home and sleeping. [lights are on 24 hours in veg cycle].

15. What size is your grow space in square feet?
about 3 sq. ft.

16. What is the temperature and humidity in your grow space?
Between 80-90 degrees F and 30%-55%

17. Have you noticed any insect activity in your grow space?
No.

18. How much experience do you have growing?
None.

 

[Seamaiden]

There's an imbalance going on there, plant is too light a shade of green, yet tips are burned, curling and clawing downward, yet necrotic margins and leaf tips curled upward. I think you really need that meter (pH). That temperature in combination with that RH isn't so great, either, temps need to come down if possible, or bring RH up just a bit, 50%+ or so.

The rest I won't try to advise you on, because you're growing in Hydroton using a method that I have not yet used--DWC. I can only say what I see wrong, not very well how to correct it. Also, I rarely feed according to a schedule/recipe, so I'm pretty useless in that department as well.

I can always BUMP. :)

 

[Texas Kid]

PH seems a little low to me, 6.0 is the best place to shoot for and if it floats a little back and forth from there your OK. If your using dropper style/pool test ph tester you lookin for what we call "High Life yellow" or about the same color as a Miller High Life Beer

The temp and humidity combo is suspect, and I wouldn't pour your nutrient solution from the res directly over your plants, less heat and more humidity.

PPM and nute concentration may also be an issue, to much food with a little ph lockout makes it tough on the little guys. When you get your meter and see what it is you can adjust accordingly but my guess is that it is way high.

Do you have a big airstone in your DWC bucket? what are the water levels in the bucket? does it touch the netpot, totally envelope the netpot, not touch the netpot at all, etc..

Tex

 

[mr_up]

That temperature in combination with that RH isn't so great, either, temps need to come down if possible, or bring RH up just a bit, 50%+ or so.

Ok I guess I can ditch the second set of CFLs then. She was doing fine with just 2 bulbs before I got carried away lol. I'll also set a small saucer of water next to her to help humidity. Humidity fluctuates wildly here from 50%+ during the day to 20% at night so hopefully a saucer of water will help make it a bit more consistant.

PH seems a little low to me, 6.0 is the best place to shoot for and if it floats a little back and forth from there your OK. If your using dropper style/pool test ph tester you lookin for what we call "High Life yellow" or about the same color as a Miller High Life Beer

Noted. I have GH brand pH Down but no pH up, is there anything I can use instead of buying another $11 bottle of supplies?

The temp and humidity combo is suspect, and I wouldn't pour your nutrient solution from the res directly over your plants, less heat and more humidity.

Ya, I guess I was trying to push too much light in a small area. I'll go back to just 2 100W equiv. CFLs and a home-made LED panel for accent.

PPM and nute concentration may also be an issue, to much food with a little ph lockout makes it tough on the little guys. When you get your meter and see what it is you can adjust accordingly but my guess is that it is way high.

Where do I want my PPMs at now, and do I gradually raise them as time goes on? My meters won't be arriving for about a week, but I can take a sample of my nute solution to the local hydro store and they will tell me the PPMs. They are very helpful since I bought all my stuff from them.

Do you have a big airstone in your DWC bucket? what are the water levels in the bucket? does it touch the netpot, totally envelope the netpot, not touch the netpot at all, etc..

2 6" airstones on a dual outlet 4.5LPM pump. Now the water level is right at the bottom of the netpot, last week had the water level halfway up the netpot. I see 3 roots starting to come out of the netpot now.


Thanks Tex and Seamaiden so much for the advice so far!

Mr_uP

 

[Chronic Monster]

Looks like the plant is touching the cfls in a couple pictures as well might want to move the lights an inch or two..

 

[Texas Kid]

600-700ppm around there for that size and setup i would think

Tex

 

[mr_up]

Cal-Mag

Ok, moved the light above the plant about 6 inches, just using 1 reflector with 2 CFLs in it.

PPM and nute concentration may also be an issue, to much food with a little ph lockout makes it tough on the little guys. When you get your meter and see what it is you can adjust accordingly but my guess is that it is way high.

I forgot about this earlier, but I'm using RO water and adding Botanicare Cal-Mag. My tap water at home was very impure as I understand it [300 PPM before I added anything to it]. So the guy at the hydro store recommended using RO water and adding Cal-Mag to it. I asked him how much to add per gallon and he looked at the bottle for what seemed like too long, then just said "5ml per gallon." When I looked back at the label it didn't specify how many ml per gallon, just PPMs. Is 5 ml per gallon too much with the other General Hydroponics Keep It Simple 3 part [micro, grow, bloom]? I'm trying to understand the PPM thing but it is hard without a meter.

Thanks again everyone.

 

[mr_up]

So I just took a sample of nutrient solution from the reservoir into the hydro store for a PPM reading. It was at 570, which the guy said seems very low. The guy said I wasn't using enough Cal-Mag, and suggested 10 mL per Gal. I adjusted it now so we'll see how that works out. Also thinking about adding more nutes, but trying to resist. I know that nutrient burn is the most common thing for newbs to mess up with.

So, now the nutrient solution in the DWC has 10 mL/Gal Cal-Mag, 2.5 mL/Gal FloraGro, 1.75 mL/Gal FloraMicro, and 1.75 mL/Gal FloraBloom. Probably a light nutrient mix but at least I won't burn it, right?

Thanks again,

Mr_uP

 

[Texas Kid]

I would bump your Grow/bloom/micro up to 7-10ml per gallon and leave the calmag right where it is at with about 5-7ml per gallon. At least your not to high which is good, it is easy to add and a bitch to take away..

Tex

 

[mastacheeser]

i thought i saw the begining of a p.m. prob til i read back through and saw this

12. Do you foliar feed or spray your plants with anything?
Have been pouring a little nutrient solution from the reservoir over the plant infrequently.

this would be my guess as to your burning, especially if its done with the lights on

 

[wobbly goblin]

just in case you are unaware
you need to mix your micros into the water first

fwiw

 

[alstotter]

I'm not a professional but a hobbyist like your self , when I run into these situations I do absolutely nothing for 3-4 days in hopes the plant will absorb the water only ; drying my medium . I then would flush with ph adjusted RO water only. I flush twice the container volume. If the plant stays "wet" and is not absorb water nor getting any better , I flush earlier like the second or third day.

I personally believe you are killing your young plant with "love"

My personal advice (worth nothing) is to forget about your new love for the next few days and see what happens. FWIW

 

[mr_up]

I would bump your Grow/bloom/micro up to 7-10ml per gallon and leave the calmag right where it is at with about 5-7ml per gallon. At least your not to high which is good, it is easy to add and a bitch to take away..

7-10 mL per gallon each? Sorry to be so newb at this, this is literally the first thing I've ever tried to grow. Never done a cactus, succulent, tomato, nothing 'till now. I'll add nutes up to about 7 mL/Gal for each of the 3 parts tonight. Thanks again for the continued support.

i thought i saw the begining of a p.m. prob til i read back through and saw this
...
tried to quote myself saying I pour some nute solution from the res over the plant
...
this would be my guess as to your burning, especially if its done with the lights on

Well, yes, I did indeed pour that over the plant with the lights on...
So now I want to go flush the plant by pouring RO water all over it lol.
Any way to remedy this? Or just wait and don't do it again?

just in case you are unaware
you need to mix your micros into the water first

Wait, what? I need to put the FloraMicro in the solution FIRST???


Thanks so much guys, I really appreciate your time and effort on my problem!

Thanks,

Mr_uP