Young plants. Whats going wrong?

[Acadete62091]

Hello everyone. I have recently started my first indoor DWC grow. I am just over a week into my grow and my plants have grown fast. Two are random seeds I had laying around and two are feminized white widow. I have noticed over the last few days the leaves are starting to turn lime green. And has seemed to progress the last day or two. I have done a ton of Googleing and reading but cant seem to nail down exactly what it might be.They are being feed the basic general hydroponics trio with hydroguard. My ph sits right around 5.9-6. Ppm around 400. Roots seem white and healthy. Temps are around 71 because I do not have the ability to use a chiller yet. The white widow seem to be doing better but are starting to curl a bit and they are also a day behind in the grow. Any help would be appreciated. Please take it easy on me as I said this is my very first grow. Here are some pictures taken today. Thank guys!

 

[Oldguy71]

Try lowering the water level to a couple inches below the net pot as long as your roots can still reach the nutrient solution. Looks like your water level is a bit high causing low oxygen in the root zone leading to poor nutrient uptake. Maybe calibrate your ph meter to rule that out.

 

[Moe.Red]

I see salt on your hydroton. Are you top watering?

What is your setup? 5 Gal pails? Are the roots well into the water? Since this is seed you will have a tap root but are the others long enough to get to water?

 

[Acadete62091]

Thank you both. I am not top watering i do not think I rinsed my hydroton well enough first go :/. I have ordered more calibration solution for my meter, so in the meantime I will use a vial. I would say the water level being to high as a solid bet because it was fairly high (just touching the bottom of the net pot. The roots have since started reaching deeper so today I did lower the water level a decent amount around a 1" gap. Thanks for the information guys!

 

[Acadete62091]

I see salt on your hydroton. Are you top watering?

What is your setup? 5 Gal pails? Are the roots well into the water? Since this is seed you will have a tap root but are the others long enough to get to water?

Also standard bpa free 5 gallon buckets. Non recirculating. The roots have just reached water so I did lower the water level

 

[CBDfutute4]

Rinse the pis out of other hydroton n swap out what u have in the nets now

just be careful, slow.......n don’t smoke before it

 

[Acadete62091]

Rinse the pis out of other hydroton n swap out what u have in the nets now

just be careful, slow.......n don’t smoke before it

Will do I have plenty more so I will swap out tomorrow. Thank you

 

[Moe.Red]

If you are swapping out, please also make sure there is sufficient hydroton in the pots to block any potential light from reaching the roots. I usually fill mine right to the top.

The key to all this bucket stuff is to get a good root system established. Once that is in place, your life becomes much easier and this stuff grows like a weed, you just gotta get out of it's way.

A couple other considerations -

Do you have good oxygenation in the root zone?
71* is actually pretty low.
Do you monitor RH? Temp and RH relate to VPD (vapor pressure deficit) that dictates how the plants transpire, and how the available nutes run thru the plant. In your case, 75% RH will get the plant juices flowin'

You are doing great, this stuff is fun to learn and your plants will be totally fine. These guys recover from just about anything if you correct what is wrong.

Also, with the nutes and setup you have chosen, running sterile buckets might be a good idea. A tiny bit of H2O2 will keep those roots healthy and white and imporove O2 availability. If there is any browning or slime that grows, keep this in mind. Your nutes are properly chelated so they do not require any help from biologic sources in the water to be accepted by the plant as is. You don't need to know all this stuff yet, but it is fun to learn about how all this works together. The important thing would be to make sure you are not adding anything else that is organic to the pails at this point. Just stick with the simple nute solution you have already in place. I would also put a plan in place for how you will be changing water if you haven't already, and make it easy to do (preferably by flicking a switch) so you don't skimp on maint

What is your water source and start PPM?

Are you able to bring up the temp and RH at all?

 

[Acadete62091]

If you are swapping out, please also make sure there is sufficient hydroton in the pots to block any potential light from reaching the roots. I usually fill mine right to the top.

The key to all this bucket stuff is to get a good root system established. Once that is in place, your life becomes much easier and this stuff grows like a weed, you just gotta get out of it's way.

A couple other considerations -

Do you have good oxygenation in the root zone?
71* is actually pretty low.
Do you monitor RH? Temp and RH relate to VPD (vapor pressure deficit) that dictates how the plants transpire, and how the available nutes run thru the plant. In your case, 75% RH will get the plant juices flowin'

View attachment 1075770
You are doing great, this stuff is fun to learn and your plants will be totally fine. These guys recover from just about anything if you correct what is wrong.

Also, with the nutes and setup you have chosen, running sterile buckets might be a good idea. A tiny bit of H2O2 will keep those roots healthy and white and imporove O2 availability. If there is any browning or slime that grows, keep this in mind. Your nutes are properly chelated so they do not require any help from biologic sources in the water to be accepted by the plant as is. You don't need to know all this stuff yet, but it is fun to learn about how all this works together. The important thing would be to make sure you are not adding anything else that is organic to the pails at this point. Just stick with the simple nute solution you have already in place. I would also put a plan in place for how you will be changing water if you haven't already, and make it easy to do (preferably by flicking a switch) so you don't skimp on maint

What is your water source and start PPM?

Are you able to bring up the temp and RH at all?

Wow. Thank you so much for the information. I forgot about humidity and I did have a monitor but upon inspection of my tent I cant find it to save my life so I will be buying another. I know that it has to be low though. I have not filled the net pots to the brim yet only because it slipped my mind, when I planted them I wanted to get them close to the water and the plants were rather short. That being said I did strategically place them to block all light. I would assume the water is well oxinated, I have one large 6 prong pump and a smaller 2 prong and I have 2 large airstones in each bucket. There seems to be a bit of browning at the top of the roots but im not sure if it is root rot. I will take a picture a bit later once my lights kick back on. I was planning on using a smaller transfer pump to change the water. First change i placed buckets in the tent overnight to bring to temp then mixed my nutrients. My base ppm of my water is around 115 or so and I also forgot to factor this in so they may be hungry. Once again thank you for your insight. Im very excited to learn and get better. Tonight I will be changing out the hydroton with fresh throughly washed hydrotone and try to raise my humidity and see where that takes me. I can say there did seemed to be some improvement overnight after dropping my water levels a bit. I will keep you updated! (Found my humidity guage and its sitting around 65% right now)

 

[Acadete62091]

If you are swapping out, please also make sure there is sufficient hydroton in the pots to block any potential light from reaching the roots. I usually fill mine right to the top.

The key to all this bucket stuff is to get a good root system established. Once that is in place, your life becomes much easier and this stuff grows like a weed, you just gotta get out of it's way.

A couple other considerations -

Do you have good oxygenation in the root zone?
71* is actually pretty low.
Do you monitor RH? Temp and RH relate to VPD (vapor pressure deficit) that dictates how the plants transpire, and how the available nutes run thru the plant. In your case, 75% RH will get the plant juices flowin'

View attachment 1075770
You are doing great, this stuff is fun to learn and your plants will be totally fine. These guys recover from just about anything if you correct what is wrong.

Also, with the nutes and setup you have chosen, running sterile buckets might be a good idea. A tiny bit of H2O2 will keep those roots healthy and white and imporove O2 availability. If there is any browning or slime that grows, keep this in mind. Your nutes are properly chelated so they do not require any help from biologic sources in the water to be accepted by the plant as is. You don't need to know all this stuff yet, but it is fun to learn about how all this works together. The important thing would be to make sure you are not adding anything else that is organic to the pails at this point. Just stick with the simple nute solution you have already in place. I would also put a plan in place for how you will be changing water if you haven't already, and make it easy to do (preferably by flicking a switch) so you don't skimp on maint

What is your water source and start PPM?

Are you able to bring up the temp and RH at all?

Also after checking my roots again, one plant does appear to have the early stages of root rot. Im not sure if that had to do with the water level being so high but I will be taking steps to correct it. Water temp is sitting right around 70.5

 

[Moe.Red]

OK, a couple things.

#1 - roots hate light. those white buckets leak photons. You can make it thru with these, but if this is a long term hobby for you, you will want to switch those out to black. Could also wrap them once with duct tape to block light for now. Better yet, go to the 13 gallon square ones which makes plumbing sooo much easier. PA hydroponics has a good youtube channel that has lots of visuals on plumbing, check out fallponics for what I am talking about, they sell everything too.

#2 - those roots are young and tender. There is a brown ring in your bucket that looks like the old water level. hard to see if that ring matches up with that dark area on the roots, but it kinda looks like it does. I'm not overly concerned, but it is easy to put a little peroxide in and call it good. If there is any pythium fungus or other bad juju in the buckets, it will kill it instantly without harming your plants, just don't overdo it.

#3 - if you do determine this is root rot (brown goes away with H2O2) you now need to do a little cleaning. Think about your hands getting this fungus all over your stuff. You will never get 100% rid of unwanted pests, but you don't want to build colonies of this stuff either by not actively thinking about transfer to your tools and such when dealing with it.

#4 - even if you did nothing and gave these plants exactly what they need, they will likely recover on their own. by that I mean clean, well oxygenated water (yeah, do a water change) and proper environmental conditions.

I'm sure there is more but I don't want to overload you at this point.

 

[Acadete62091]

OK, a couple things.

#1 - roots hate light. those white buckets leak photons. You can make it thru with these, but if this is a long term hobby for you, you will want to switch those out to black. Could also wrap them once with duct tape to block light for now. Better yet, go to the 13 gallon square ones which makes plumbing sooo much easier. PA hydroponics has a good youtube channel that has lots of visuals on plumbing, check out fallponics for what I am talking about, they sell everything too.

#2 - those roots are young and tender. There is a brown ring in your bucket that looks like the old water level. hard to see if that ring matches up with that dark area on the roots, but it kinda looks like it does. I'm not overly concerned, but it is easy to put a little peroxide in and call it good. If there is any pythium fungus or other bad juju in the buckets, it will kill it instantly without harming your plants, just don't overdo it.

#3 - if you do determine this is root rot (brown goes away with H2O2) you now need to do a little cleaning. Think about your hands getting this fungus all over your stuff. You will never get 100% rid of unwanted pests, but you don't want to build colonies of this stuff either by not actively thinking about transfer to your tools and such when dealing with it.

#4 - even if you did nothing and gave these plants exactly what they need, they will likely recover on their own. by that I mean clean, well oxygenated water (yeah, do a water change) and proper environmental conditions.

I'm sure there is more but I don't want to overload you at this point.

Awesome. The buckets are white but I did tape them with black duct tape to block any light. I did notice the ring and that was my first thought but today it did appear a bit slimy. Just gonna ride it out and keep my nutes and ph in check and see what happens. None of the buckets have any smell either

 

[Flexnerb]

Also standard bpa free 5 gallon buckets. Non recirculating. The roots have just reached water so I did lower the water level

"Bpa" free 5 gal bucket....lol

Bpa actually helps roots elongate....thats a fact! Bad for your balls but good for the roots..

I would asume white buckets grow algae easier too..nvm u taped them...nice!

 

[Acadete62091]

So quick update for anyone following along. I think my ph meter is off. The last few days o have adjusting my ph using a vile with drops and my plants really seem to be reacting well and growing fast. My question now is when should I top these girls? And when would it be a good time to remove those big fan leaves? The two larger ones are 2-3 days ahead of the smaller 2. Thanks!

 

[Moe.Red]

looking good!

At this stage I would only remove the wilted looking leaves that are touching the ground. You need as many square inches of photosynthesis and respiration as you can muster right now as it builds roots. Let it be a weed for a bit and get bigger before you pull out the machete.

Also, you need a little stalk development. Internodal spacing is really tight right now because they are babies. Also means they are getting good light.

If you don't have any air movement, I'd add a little fan to keep from getting a micro climate around the leaves. Gotta keep that air fresh for best growth.

 

[Acadete62091]

looking good!

At this stage I would only remove the wilted looking leaves that are touching the ground. You need as many square inches of photosynthesis and respiration as you can muster right now as it builds roots. Let it be a weed for a bit and get bigger before you pull out the machete.

Also, you need a little stalk development. Internodal spacing is really tight right now because they are babies. Also means they are getting good light.

If you don't have any air movement, I'd add a little fan to keep from getting a micro climate around the leaves. Gotta keep that air fresh for best growth.

Your the man! I have a fan going constantly to disperse the heat (I live in the northeast and my basement is cold) and to build some stock strength. But I figured they would need some more time before I started chopping them up lol.

 

[Acadete62091]

So now I'm at the two week mark. The plants seem to be doing well. Unfortunately I have a bit of root rot or algae that I'm almost positive cane from a contaminated instrument that I failed to fully sanitize. I used it in 3 of the plants and all 3 had the same growth. I have been using hydroguard, but now I'm running a sterile reservoir for one plant to see how it reacts. The other two plants have much less growth than this one pictured and seem to be under control. So as for now I completely sealed off the top to block any potential light leaks with foil tape and I have added another air pump and stones to bring more oxygen. Wish me luck!

 

[Moe.Red]

I always love seeing how fast these ladies grow.

Can you get a water temp measurement? You have done such a good job blocking light, I'm a little worried your water is being well insulated and temp is rising. High water temps can cause issues with roots like this. H2O2 is the band-aid at that point, not the root cause (pun intended)

You are doing a really good job of keeping the plants short and internodal spacing tight, this is a great way to grow if you want to flower in this space but do not have a tall tent. Those are going to be bushy as hell. You will have lots of room for mistakes as you figure out the whole training / trimming stuff.

PS - any smell from the roots? Maybe smell like a fish tank?

 

[Acadete62091]

I always love seeing how fast these ladies grow.

Can you get a water temp measurement? You have done such a good job blocking light, I'm a little worried your water is being well insulated and temp is rising. High water temps can cause issues with roots like this. H2O2 is the band-aid at that point, not the root cause (pun intended)

You are doing a really good job of keeping the plants short and internodal spacing tight, this is a great way to grow if you want to flower in this space but do not have a tall tent. Those are going to be bushy as hell. You will have lots of room for mistakes as you figure out the whole training / trimming stuff.

PS - any smell from the roots? Maybe smell like a fish tank?

My Temps are 70.5-71 but I haven't got a reading above that yet. I also just added this extra protection. It was tad stinky but all three plants seem to be doing well. That plant is completely clear of all brown slime and the other 2 seem to be improving or at the very least not getting any worse. But thanks! I only have 6.5ft of head room so I am going to be trying to keep them short so they don't grow to high. But the back two will most likely be topped today or tomorrow with the others to follow closely after. Then going to try some low stress training. And see where I end up. Going to start flower I think 2 weeks from today. Once again thank you for your input your advice has helped me alot so far!

 

[Acadete62091]

Update.
So after treating the root rot with h2o2 for a few days the plant seemed to be getting better. Onky for the root rot to come back worse. 4 days ago I did another reservoir change and switched back to just hydroguard, hoping for the best but expecting the worse. Well things are looking much better! The plant is definitely behind the others but roots have been looking better each day and the plant has returned to its normal growth rate and is showing good signs of new and fast growth. Fingers crossed this keeps up.