Help Please, First DWC and I think problem is overwatering

I have a similar set up and i will post pictures later tonight. I have a quick question that might go hand in hand with this guys. I have two 400 HM that are bathing four seedlings in light. My system is a bubbleponics; the one where water is fed right onto the seedling.

I started all the seeds in the system, and they really haven't shown much growth. I feel like I too am over watering the RW cubes.
Is there any good ideas for tearing apart the rockwool to make it more oxygenated?
Could I place the seedlings/ seeds directly in the hydroton?

thanks in advance for the help!

n8wi said:

I have a similar set up and i will post pictures later tonight. I have a quick question that might go hand in hand with this guys. I have two 400 HM that are bathing four seedlings in light. My system is a bubbleponics; the one where water is fed right onto the seedling.

I started all the seeds in the system, and they really haven't shown much growth. I feel like I too am over watering the RW cubes.
Is there any good ideas for tearing apart the rockwool to make it more oxygenated?
Could I place the seedlings/ seeds directly in the hydroton?

thanks in advance for the help!

Click to expand...

Yes man this is probably the most difficult thing with DWC setups. What I would recomend for ya man is instead of starting your seed right in the setup, try just startin in your rockrool cubes outside the setup (if you have a propagation dome and heat mat this works great )
Then once you got a good couple inches of roots commin thru thr rr cube stick it in your system.
Seedlings can go without nutes for the first 2 - 3 wks with no problems so you wont have to worry about that.
Also water your rr with a spray bottle and wait for a while untill its allmost dry. The most common mistake for us newbies is overwatering, I know this and still made the mistake. lol. Also make sure u got a couple of good cfl's or sumtin because I woulda never had this problem if I would of had the correct light from germination to produce long enough roots.

n8wi said:

I have a similar set up and i will post pictures later tonight. I have a quick question that might go hand in hand with this guys. I have two 400 HM that are bathing four seedlings in light. My system is a bubbleponics; the one where water is fed right onto the seedling.

I started all the seeds in the system, and they really haven't shown much growth. I feel like I too am over watering the RW cubes.
Is there any good ideas for tearing apart the rockwool to make it more oxygenated?
Could I place the seedlings/ seeds directly in the hydroton?

thanks in advance for the help!

Click to expand...

to answer your question tho yes you are probably overwatering them as this can slow growth rates. Also your plants leaves would probably be a lil droopy if your overwatering them.
If your very careful you can cut apart a Rapid Rooter (which I recomend greatly over Rockwool) and just take the roots out and put them in hydroton
As with Rockwool I dont think you can
Your best bet would be switch to Rapid Rooter cubes and use a Propagation dome and heat mat for the first 2-3 wks untill a couple inches of roots show

Ok you guys are getting on the right track now ...the main thing to remember is you have to get plenty of oxygen to the roots...I start mine in rapid rooter plugs,and put them in pots with slilca grow rocks [like these better than hydroton] but I have a top drip feed system ,which you can convert to by adding a 175 gpm fountian pump about six feet of tubing and a push in adjustable dripper for each pot . with this system the water drips slowly a few drops per minute ,which keeps your plants watered and still lets them get oxygen . the roots soon grow down into the resevior where the bubblestones keep the water oxygenated...this cuts down on a lot of problems getting started off......what do you guys think........????

i sometimes cut the cubes in 1/2 so the roots make it out quicker... the cubes are really just to add stability to the seedling so it doesn't fall over... i dont know why they dont make rockwool "slabs"

Well guys I was thinking about the issue with my plants. Like I said at first I drowned the plants rapid rooter so the roots werent gettin no oxygen, this caused them to become very droopy. While this was happening I was lowering the lights a lil bit everyday because I didnt know how close to put them. Then the plants leaves started to burn because the lights were so close. By the time they started to burn I had corrected the water level issue and My rapid rooters are stayin perfect now, not soakin wet and not crunchy dry but just moist enough to not dry out.
I also finally got a measure tape to c how close the lights were. lol
way to close, I had them just under 2 feet away from the plants and this was after I had raised them twice....I know.. wow!!
I fixed that issue today and put the light a lil over 3 feet away from tops of plants.

My question is ever since I corrected the water level I have been waiting for them to perk up, but they wern't. Do you think thats because I was burning the leaves with the lights after the water level issue and that was taking away all thier energy to try to heal the droopyness factor? I figured that they were probably trying to heal thier burnt leaves and thats y they werent perkin up yet.

You got a 13w cfl and its 3 ft away from your plant?

Can you say S T R E T C H I N G.

Dude read up I got 2 400 watt HPS with Son Agro bulbs

Well guys thanks for everything!
I think for the first time I am finally startin to see signs of life comming back!
I think they werent recovering from the droopyness (underoxygenated)
because I was burning them with the lights at the same time.
Yesterday I backed the lights off to a lil bit over 3ft away from tops and today is the first time I saw signs of life again.
Luckly the new growth dosent really affected so I hope they r gonna start to take off here once they r fully recovered.

nice...if you see new growth on the top, that means the roots have already grown... they should be down in the water for sure by now...

Yeah the dammage that's been done won't go away but you should see a big improvment in the new growth.....

Well guys there has been much imporvement since the last update. Like you said AutoTek that the original burn damage done to the leaves will not get better. Besides that my roots have finally started to grow thru the pots and down into the water. The very top leaves of the plant are not too bad and are looking better and better. The plants are starting to perk up alot, especially top leaves, and the leaves are regaing thier normal color. If I woulda never lowered my lights to 6" away from tops I would be doing great right now lol!

So all in all it looks like they r gonna recover except for the burnt parts..
So thanks guys!!

No problem dude keep me updated......glad to help.....

Hey baby boy go suck on a dummy you humpty and let us get on with our shit or admin will sack your arse out of heeerrreeeaaaa!

Not to sound mean here, but you can't over water in DWC hydroponics. What the problem is you don't have a good air pump with an airstone pumping 24/7 in your DWC. Also, when starting out your plants you only need to keep the water level even with a net pot and when the roots get established to around 2 inches below the net pot, drop the water level down leaving around 4 inches of airspace between the netpot and water level. If you want it even better get yourself a reservoir (5 gallon bucket, youtunb how to make one).

This thread old as hell