4 weeks old, do these look ok? (Droopy leaves)

I posted last week about how I was having a Calcium deficiency and I got that taken care of, so thats what the yellow spotty leaves are from. I corrected that and for about 2 or 3 days they were perfectly healthy

Shortly after that they developed this problem, they are really droopy and their leaves havent grown much, the 2 that are doing the best are the 2 whos roots arnt down into the water yet. All of their roots are growing well still though.

I decided I needed to do something about it, after watching them get worse over the past few days, I went out and got some RO water. I mixed my nutes, GH flora series- .5oz grow, micro, and bloom for 10 gallons of water, I also added 1.0oz Cal Mag, it called for a lot more but I didnt feel comfy with to much since its my first time using it. The PPM is 350, pH is 5.5 and filled my res'. That was just today so we'll see how it goes. Was that the right step? I searched all last night about causes of droopy plants, I think it looks like over watering in soil so I moved the water level in the buckets down, I had it about level with the net pots but I dropped it to about an inch below the bottom of the basket.

The other thing I am thinking might cause it is low humidity, could that be possible?

The system is DWC with the plants in individual buckets

400W Metal Halide 20/4, 18 inches from plants.

GH 3-part Flora series, Cal Mag&RO water (started today)

Fresh Air ventilation, exhausting threw cool tube, fan pointed at plants.

room temps are 80-83 day, 72 night

Res temps are usually around 65-70 but sometimes will start to climb if the furnace is running a lot (grow room is furnace room)

RH is very low, I mean under 10% (again furnace)

pH 5.5, ppm 350

These are Nirvana White Widow Feminized except for one, random dro bagseed. They're 4 weeks old.

the one in the soil looks fine but the hydro looks overwatered....or it could be sum type of nutrient lock out

I am not expert and learning myself, I know with the nutes I am using when then the plant was done veging i was only using my 1/2 or 3/4 strength. I found out if i used stronger it was getting to much and getting leafs like yours. But i was using the pure blend grow and cal mag.

Maybe somebody with more experience than I can answer your questions.

83* and less than 10% humidity could be stressing them. It seems awful extreme. I don't know if that's the problem or not, because I've never had my humidity drop below 33% before. It's possible though, just like when you let a plant get overdry and the leaves droop, maybe the dry climate is sucking the moisture out of the leaves, causing them to droop? Although it does look like an overwatering problem, I've never grown hydro before, so i don't know if it's even possible to 'overwater' hydro.LOL Best of luck.

Oh yeah, if you place some open containers of water around the room, that will raise the humidity some. Might be worth a shot.

Hey killer, calcium def happens at the top of the plant so I dont think thats the problem that u had. Im starting to think root rot or some other disease is causing those spots, and possibly even the drooping if enough root damage is present. Can we get a pic of the roots? And maybe a picture of the bubbling res to see how the air flow is in there?
For 4 week old plants they have been thru some stress, which also opens the door up for disease to attack. With your room temp above 80 during the day and 70 something at night I find it hard to believe the res stays under 70 most of the time, maybe on a concrete floor, but even then, are u sure the thermometer is accurate in there?
How big is the res? air pump? How many air stones?

It may not have been calcium def but what ever it was it was some sort of lock out cause fresh nutes cleared it right up. Could have been Mg toxicisity. I'll go take some pics now. You are right though, they are on a concrete floor, and the res can start to climb above 70 if unchecked but I am able to keep on top of them with ice bottles throughout the day (thanks unemployment) Plus my outside air intake is right next to them so the cold air helps keep it cool. The buckets are 3.5 gallons so there is about 1.5 to 2 gallons of water in them, 1 dual outlet 3 watt air pump per 2 buckets with 1 6 inch stone each. Lots of bubbles.

I thought overwatering to (always heard it was impossible in hydro) which is one of the reasons I lowered the res levels to an inch below the net cup- to provide the roots with more O2.

Yes I'm sure the thermometer is accurate btw.

All roots look white and healthy and continue to grow, only the one in pic 6 looks not as white, and it only has that single tap root with all the fingers off it, its the only one I am worried about most.

At this point would it be beneficial to move them all to soil (my first hydro grow, I have grown in soil all my life and once I got em in there I think I could save them)

I could sacrifice the net pots to not hurt the roots in the move, and I have other uses for the hydroton, so if you think it would save these girls I would be willing to try it.

I dont want to give up on hydro but if thats what it takes to save them then thats what it takes. Atleast get these girls threw this and take clones to try the next run in hydro again without buying new seeds.

serialkiller said:

It may not have been calcium def but what ever it was it was some sort of lock out cause fresh nutes cleared it right up. Could have been Mg toxicisity. I'll go take some pics now. You are right though, they are on a concrete floor, and the res can start to climb above 70 if unchecked but I am able to keep on top of them with ice bottles throughout the day (thanks unemployment) Plus my outside air intake is right next to them so the cold air helps keep it cool. The buckets are 3.5 gallons so there is about 1.5 to 2 gallons of water in them, 1 dual outlet 3 watt air pump per 2 buckets with 1 6 inch stone each. Lots of bubbles.

I thought overwatering to (always heard it was impossible in hydro) which is one of the reasons I lowered the res levels to an inch below the net cup- to provide the roots with more O2.

Yes I'm sure the thermometer is accurate btw.

All roots look white and healthy and continue to grow, only the one in pic 6 looks not as white, and it only has that single tap root with all the fingers off it, its the only one I am worried about most.

At this point would it be beneficial to move them all to soil (my first hydro grow, I have grown in soil all my life and once I got em in there I think I could save them)

I could sacrifice the net pots to not hurt the roots in the move, and I have other uses for the hydroton, so if you think it would save these girls I would be willing to try it.

I dont want to give up on hydro but if thats what it takes to save them then thats what it takes. Atleast get these girls threw this and take clones to try the next run in hydro again without buying new seeds.

Click to expand...

looks like u got root rought or something..and stick a humidifier in ur grow room to get the RH up..u can get a cheap one from luckys or walmart..the VICKS ones work pretty good

jawbrodt said:

83* and less than 10% humidity could be stressing them. It seems awful extreme. I don't know if that's the problem or not, because I've never had my humidity drop below 33% before. It's possible though, just like when you let a plant get overdry and the leaves droop, maybe the dry climate is sucking the moisture out of the leaves, causing them to droop? Although it does look like an overwatering problem, I've never grown hydro before, so i don't know if it's even possible to 'overwater' hydro.LOL Best of luck.

Oh yeah, if you place some open containers of water around the room, that will raise the humidity some. Might be worth a shot.

Click to expand...

u can overwater hydro by having ur water level to high

HomeGrown420baby said:

looks like u got root rot or something..

Click to expand...

whats that mean? Their done for?

HomeGrown420baby said:

u can overwater hydro by having ur water level to high

Click to expand...

I agree, although I'm not a hydro grower, I do know what over watered plants look like, and I'd say that would be the case for you. The fact that you have some leaves yellowing just tells me you've been overwatering them too long, not root rot or ph lockout.

u gotta drop the water level to make ur roots dry out a lil bit and reach out for that water.. when the roots grow ur plant is growing cuz it cant eat the nutrients in the water till the roots find the water sooo ur plant starts reaching for the light..and grows.....i dont know if thats ur problem overwatering or not im not an expert but that would be my guess..that or sometype of nutrient lockout which could be ph or lack of nutrients or to much alot of shit

What kinda air pump do you use? A pump for an aquarium might not be enough oxygen. Looks like only 1 6" stone too? I'd guess it's oxygen deprivation to the roots leading to rot & droopy leaves. Try upgrading to a bigger pump (those double diaphragm ones are expensive (~50) but seems like a must for DWC). Then get 2-3 stones and see if that makes a difference. You can never really have too much air in DWC.

Well guys I gave up on DWC today, I just got done transplanting them all to soil, I think all but 1 should start to come back, one of them had really bad root rot but the rest all had good looking white roots. I also started some new seeds, I had quite a collection, got some OG18, some Kushberry and some LA Confidential all germinating, I will be going back to my old setup, I fit 12 pots in my room and do a ScrOG.

serialkiller said:

Well guys I gave up on DWC today, I just got done transplanting them all to soil, I think all but 1 should start to come back, one of them had really bad root rot but the rest all had good looking white roots. I also started some new seeds, I had quite a collection, got some OG18, some Kushberry and some LA Confidential all germinating, I will be going back to my old setup, I fit 12 pots in my room and do a ScrOG.

Click to expand...

i grew hydro once (DWC) and my GDP loved it and grew like a inch a day at least but i had a sativa in there to that hated it and kinda started looking like yours so i transplanted it to soil and it started doing hella better..so transplanted to soil might be the best thing to do

these are plants i got from a collective/disp. 2 weeks ago, they were doin fine, then my g friend watered them, and the next day they got all droopy, within another 24 hours they look like they are going to die.....

out of 10 , 7 are looking near death ,

the last 3 are starting to droop too.

any ideas why?

was it water , or heat or what?

oh , and one day the light went out. like 2 days before they went droopy. thx.

the light is a 250 metal halide, 18 inches from plant top, and watered like every 4 days. foxfarm soil.

What FF? I'm using happy frog with 2:1 soil : Perelite mixed in. They look pretty fucked, do they have ventilation? What temps? 18" actually seems a little far for a 250 unless there is no ventilation. What was up with the water she used? pH? PPM's? Whats the pH of the runoff?

Mine are all starting to come back after just a day and a half in soil! Leaves are standing back up and the ones that were already in soil are growing, I ended up with 2 that had root rot and they are showing Mg lockout and and Ca tox but I imagine its mostly root rot related and there isnt much I can do, so far 8 out of 9 new seeds have germinated and are in Rapid Rooters.

I'll get some pix later tonight.

serialkiller said:

What FF? I'm using happy frog with 2:1 soilerelite mixed in. They look pretty fucked, do they have ventilation? What temps? 18" actually seems a little far for a 250 unless there is no ventilation. What was up with the water she used? pH? PPM's? Whats the pH of the runoff?

Mine are all starting to come back after just a day and a half in soil! Leaves are standing back up and the ones that were already in soil are growing, I ended up with 2 that had root rot and they are showing Mg lockout and and Ca tox but I imagine its mostly root rot related and there isnt much I can do, so far 8 out of 9 new seeds have germinated and are in Rapid Rooters.

I'll get some pix later tonight.

Click to expand...

80 temp, rh40, ph 7.o, fox farm ocean forest soil,.... i think they were under and then overwatered really... poor things.

oh, maybe cause the temp dropped to 65 degrees for 24 hours cause the light went out. vent is just the open door....no fan right now.

You need a fan, plants with leaves that size need to breath, do the pots have drainage holes?

How long were the lights out 24 hours? I thought you meant just for a little bit. If they were already unhealthy and the that happened that would be really bad. 65 isnt bad at night but they shouldnt be left that cold for long.

Is 7.0 the pH of the water your giving them or the runoff? A lot of times using rockwool in soil will make the runoff lower since the rockwool has low pH, and its right on top for the water to go threw first, it will lower the pH before it even gets to the soil.

Here are pics.

1 2 and 6 are the ones just moved from dro, 3 is the Church clone, 4 is a white widow that has been in soil, 5 is the soil dro bagseed and the last 2 are the rotted ones.

You can see the ones that were sick in dro are recovering after just 2 days in soil.