Plants Drooping With Diy Uc Rdwc

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polloraro

13
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Hi all, I've grown in soil for the last year and a half and now gone to RDCW.

I'm having a kinda surprise issue. Everything has gone very well until the water change.

My current setup:
UC Epicenter with 5 gal res. using tap water.
4 13gal buckets with air stone in each (~65 gal total system) ~900gph air.
Water chiller, 68 - 70 degrees F
Air Temps 75 - 80 degrees F
RH: 60-70%
pH 5.8 - 6.0
EC 0.2 - 0.3 (veg) - 0.5/0.6 (currently)
UC's nute schedule

4 Plants:
2 Cannatonic CBD
2 Sour Diesel

I was switching them to flower and did a majority water change(90%+) and added 300ml UC Roots then pH'd to 5.7. Water temp was ~74 and falling for about 4 hours after the water change.

24 hours later:
Added 120 ml Bloom A
Added 120 ml Bloom B
pH'd again to 5.7

Found pH to be 6.7 and one Cannatonic CBD to be fully wilted and the other mostly wilted.

Plants drooping with diy uc rdwc


The two Sour Diesel seem to be fine, though, maybe a little wilted.
Plants drooping with diy uc rdwc 2


Began bringing down the pH to 5.7 over a couple hours & added CalMagic. pH is now 5.7 in system and res is 5.8.

Roots (both Cannatonic CBD in pics): slightly yellow. The Sour Diesel roots look the same
Plants drooping with diy uc rdwc 3
Plants drooping with diy uc rdwc 4



Any help to save the CBD strains would be greatly appreciated.
 
Plants drooping with diy uc rdwc 5
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polloraro

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So, I went and talked to my local experts.

After explaining the last few days, they seem to think it might be the chlorine in the tap water. Coupled with the difficulty of growing the Cannatonic CBD strain they feel the plants might have been shocked.

I've added a bit more CalMag and a dechlorinator to burn off the chlorine faster.

Here's hoping...
 
mellowd

mellowd

15
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Im no expert in hydro by any means, and I dont want to just straight up guess, but I theorize maybe they are possibly just in a lot of shock from the water change. There were probs microbes and nutrients it was used to in the old water. It doesnt look yellow from the pictures it just looks shocked to me. Other than the dropping, it looks healthy(green). I would be careful feeding it so much. Right now it doesn't look permanently damaged, no yellowing or burning, but feeding it too much will burn it. These plants r pretty resilient on their own and i always say less is more. I would just let it be the next day or 2 and go back to your veg schedule until its healthy again, u dont want to waste any bloom time while its sick. good luck hope they get better.
 
NGA

NGA

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I've seen many crops wilt after flush, they usually rebound fairly quick ,not sure of your lighting turn them down if you can
 
Aqua Man

Aqua Man

26,480
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Im no expert in hydro by any means, and I dont want to just straight up guess, but I theorize maybe they are possibly just in a lot of shock from the water change. There were probs microbes and nutrients it was used to in the old water. It doesnt look yellow from the pictures it just looks shocked to me. Other than the dropping, it looks healthy(green). I would be careful feeding it so much. Right now it doesn't look permanently damaged, no yellowing or burning, but feeding it too much will burn it. These plants r pretty resilient on their own and i always say less is more. I would just let it be the next day or 2 and go back to your veg schedule until its healthy again, u dont want to waste any bloom time while its sick. good luck hope they get better.
UC roots kills bacteria so it wasn't a change microbes nor would it have such an acute effect. You can shock plants with water temp changes but i doubt that was the sole case either. I would guess as stated it was due to some shock and mostly chlorine as stated. When using dechlorinator they are not created equal some only remove chlorine and that's no good if your water supply has chloromines in it as the bond between clorine and ammonia is strong. So first check your supply to see if it has chloromines. If it does I would use seachem prime its not as cheap as others but goes a long way one cap per 50 galons of water. It works by breaking the bond of the chlormine separating the chlorine from the ammonia allowing it to degass from the water and leaving the ammonia in the water for your plants to use. Simply bubbling water will not get rid of chloromines as I stated the bond is strong and can last weeks after its out of your tap even under agitation.

I could absolutely be wrong but that is my guess. @heisenbubble is the guru of DWC maybe he can see something I don't

Added: a large sudden change in PH can also cause shock

If i were a betting man I bet he will tell ya ditch the UC roots and go with hydrogaurd, :)
 
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polloraro

13
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Hey all,

Thanks for the advice. I really appreciate it. Here's an update for those following my saga.

For those curious, I have 600w adjustable LED COB lights. I turned them down to about 20% when all this started and they're about 24-30 inches above the canopy.

Below is a pic of the droopy one I just took. This is about 24 hours after adding the declorinator and some minor adjustments. (I've actually been taking a pic about every 12 hours and kept them in veg light schedule. The other 3 are going to be HUGE after this, but I hope to save the droopy lady.

The original image I took for the OP. Notice the main stem at the top.
IMG 20180723 101611


Now the image from just now. (she was pretty much horizontal 12 hours ago) I'm cautiously optimistic she'll recover. Notice the main stem again, she's trying to stand back up. I also noticed some leaves have turned back up towards the light and are looking healthy.

IMG 20180724 222357
 
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polloraro

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Checked on her this morning. Seems to be recovering. Hopefully she'll strand up straight today.

IMG 20180725 074404
 
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polloraro

13
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So, the latest update to the saga. They're just waking up as I time my lights with off-peak electricity prices.

She's rough, really rough and stunted, but she pulled through. I couldn't wait any longer to switch to flower as I was already in veg for 5.5 weeks. As you can see, I'm going to have HUGE plants...

Here she is, lots of new growth and she's trying to catch up.
IMG 20180802 230429


Here's her and the other Cannatonic CBD
IMG 20180802 230436


And all four as of tonight. (two on right is Sour Diesel)
IMG 20180802 230456
 
NGA

NGA

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Do you flush those plants when you change your water or just change out water
 
NGA

NGA

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Really that's not what I would do ,did they wilt after the 24 hour ,or when you introduced your nutes
 
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polloraro

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I'm pretty sure we figured out it was a combination of pH(slight) and chlorine shock(major).

I've not really found much in the way of directions on how to do water change outs... I'd be interested in how others do/recommend.
 
NGA

NGA

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I've been doing this for a very long time ,my system is built with flushing in mind,I grow only 6 plants nowadays,I flush my plants once a week or less my system will run on less than 10 gallons but normally run it 15-20 gallon ,when I flush I drain to wast from my res take a garden hose an flush down through my medium which is hydroton 3-4 minutes each plant let drain fill with nutes that where made 24 hrs a head of time ,I don't have problems did when I start 30 plus years ago, When you run you plants on water for 24 hrs with no nutes that's not good your gonna shock them, hope this helps
 
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polloraro

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Well, I'm pretty much officially out of room under my lights.
RDWC is crazy. I'm a couple weeks into flower now and I'm in awe of this system.
Pic is of the wilted lady, now fully bounced back and kicking butt though she's still the smallest one but still bigger than any previous plant I've grown.
IMG 20180821 014656
 
H

heisen

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I've been doing this for a very long time ,my system is built with flushing in mind,I grow only 6 plants nowadays,I flush my plants once a week or less my system will run on less than 10 gallons but normally run it 15-20 gallon ,when I flush I drain to wast from my res take a garden hose an flush down through my medium which is hydroton 3-4 minutes each plant let drain fill with nutes that where made 24 hrs a head of time ,I don't have problems did when I start 30 plus years ago, When you run you plants on water for 24 hrs with no nutes that's not good your gonna shock them, hope this helps
Last thing anyone should do is flush tap water with a high ph after a system drain.ph shock will kill roots faster than anything.
Homie had chlorine TOX for sure.ive seen h202 do the same exact thing
 
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polloraro

13
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She took a while to bounce back after figuring out the clorine issue and fixing it.

Then they went apeshit growing. I just hope they're finished stretching, I'm almost out of vertical space too...

This was supposed to be a small trial run... lol
 
NGA

NGA

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Last thing anyone should do is flush tap water with a high ph after a system drain.ph shock will kill roots faster than anything.
Homie had chlorine TOX for sure.ive seen h202 do the same exact thing
So hundreds of people are wrong to flush this way lmao that's crazy, what does ph shock look like ,
 
H

heisen

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So hundreds of people are wrong to flush this way lmao that's crazy, what does ph shock look like ,
I guess current culture are a bunch of dummys and stress the importance of not ph shocking your roots.they even stress on raising the ph very slowly.
Millions of people ear at McDonalds also but it doesnt mean they sell a good hamburger.
Just cause a bunch of people do something dont mean it's worth a damn.
You can shock your roots all you want.do it however you see fit.
 
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