New Dwc grower..drooping leaves!!!! Please help

Charles m

Charles m

Member
Please help this is my first DWC grow and i have 5 5galon buckets with airpump and airstones im a 3x3x5 tent with ambient temp at 75-80 and water temp consistantly at around 70 degrees. I use a 300 watt led. I use only calmag and small amount of sensi grow nitrogen. This is week 2 of having them in my dwc system and have the ppms sitting at about 600 also ph stays from 5.5- 6.0...i am experiencing drooping fan leaves on 3 out of 5 plants and until now they have been growing great and rapidly..the netpot are 6" and the roots are pretty well oit of the water..i dropped the water level to where the longest roots are about a half inch in the water and i top feed res water twice a day. Im not sure if its over or underwatering and i dont wamt my sexy ladues to die...any advice would be greatly apreciated
 

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Xs121

Xs121

Well-Known Member
Does the droop happened during lights off and straighten back up after a while during lights on? Do you have a fan to circulate the air?
 
Charles m

Charles m

Member
I have an oscellating fan that makes the plance dance but not too much...there plenty of fresh air blowing in and cycling out... but the issue started yesterday i though maybe it was a mah deficiency because some leave were twisting so i upped the ppm to 600 and they stood up but this morning they were wilting again and the roots seemed fairly wet so i think it could be too much water and not enough oxygen but i wanted some more opinions to better understand simce i am new to dwc...i dropped the water level to where the longest root was about 1/2 inch into the water which places the water about 4 inches or so under the netpot
 
Xs121

Xs121

Well-Known Member
Charles m said:
I have an oscellating fan that makes the plance dance but not too much...there plenty of fresh air blowing in and cycling out... but the issue started yesterday i though maybe it was a mah deficiency because some leave were twisting so i upped the ppm to 600 and they stood up but this morning they were wilting again and the roots seemed fairly wet so i think it could be too much water and not enough oxygen but i wanted some more opinions to better understand simce i am new to dwc...i dropped the water level to where the longest root was about 1/2 inch into the water which places the water about 4 inches or so under the netpot
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Take a picture with the light off and just use your flash, it's hard to see if there's any deficiency at all. Leaves drooping is usually caused by lack of air circulation(poor plant respiration) or due to osmotic pressure (more pronounced during lights off). If you have high RH, movement of water molecules in the plant is restricted as well. All these wont be apparent during photosynthesis (lights on) but at lights off, plant relies on capillary action (osmotic pressure) to transpire.

Now, how good is your air pump? It's also possible that you dont have enough dissolved oxygen for your root thus the over-watering symptom. There is really no such thing as over watering, only lack of dissolved oxygen.
 
Charles m

Charles m

Member
Ok im gonna increase ventillation and check again during lights out and snap a photo. My air pump is pretty good so now the only thing i can think of may be as you said may be circulation. Ive got a 12 inch fan in my tent and i may just need to increase the exhaust fan size...i will post a picture during lights out and see hows they are doing. Thanks a lot for the info
 

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Charles m

Charles m

Member
Ok so should i get the disc air stones im place of the small cylindrical ones? Im just afraid it was recieving too much water but i guess it could be a problem with air circulation
 
Charles m

Charles m

Member
Xs121 said:
Take a picture with the light off and just use your flash, it's hard to see if there's any deficiency at all. Leaves drooping is usually caused by lack of air circulation(poor plant respiration) or due to osmotic pressure (more pronounced during lights off). If you have high RH, movement of water molecules in the plant is restricted as well. All these wont be apparent during photosynthesis (lights on) but at lights off, plant relies on capillary action (osmotic pressure) to transpire.

Now, how good is your air pump? It's also possible that you dont have enough dissolved oxygen for your root thus the over-watering symptom. There is really no such thing as over watering, only lack of dissolved oxygen.
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Im thinking i may need to up the fan speed for a little more circulation and also replace my cylindrical air stones with the disc ones? Lemme know what you think
 
Charles m

Charles m

Member
rkymtnman said:
you don't want too much fan. just enough so they rock back and forth to help strenghten the stems
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Ok thats what i got them doing now. I was pretty sure the circulation was ok because they are getting shaken to death but are dancing quite nicely...im thinking it may be an issue with dissolvable oxygen so im going to switch my airstones to the disc type
 
rkymtnman

rkymtnman

Well-Known Member
Charles m said:
Ok thats what i got them doing now. I was pretty sure the circulation was ok because they are getting shaken to death but are dancing quite nicely...im thinking it may be an issue with dissolvable oxygen so im going to switch my airstones to the disc type
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you want the surface of your water to look like a bubbling cauldron.
 
Jimdamick

Jimdamick

Well-Known Member
Charles m said:
What exactly do you mean by fuller feed regiment? I top feed twice a day with same water from my res..they growth has been amazing, just had this issue i the last 2 days.
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I think he means your PPM is too low.
Forget the top feed shit, that is useless, simply bring your water up to 1000 PPM, and let the roots grow into the water. The roots need to be in the water, don't worry about about "overwatering", the air stones will provide all the oxygen needed.
 
Charles m

Charles m

Member
Jimdamick said:
I think he means your PPM is too low.
Forget the top feed shit, that is useless, simply bring your water up to 1000 PPM, and let the roots grow into the water. The roots need to be in the water, don't worry about about "overwatering", the air stones will provide all the oxygen needed.
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Ok so you dont think 1000 is too high for week 2 of veg?...they are at 650 right now..i am scared to over do it..also im getting the disc airstones to have a wider diamater for the bubbles
 
rkymtnman

rkymtnman

Well-Known Member
for your "proper" ppm, let your meter tell you what to do. each strain and setup is different for every grower.

at 650, does it drop or go up? how fast does it drop or go up?

if at 650 and the next day it's at 450, your nutes are too weak. if the next day, they are at 670, your nutes are too strong.

if they stay at 650, you are right on the money
 
Jimdamick

Jimdamick

Well-Known Member
Charles m said:
Ok so you dont think 1000 is too high for week 2 of veg?...they are at 650 right now..i am scared to over do it..also im getting the disc airstones to have a wider diamater for the bubbles
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I don't think so, but I like an aggressive feeding schedule. (I have seedlings running at 750 now in an ebb and flow) and the droop to me looks like your plants not having enough N.
If you are scared of overfeeding, bring your PPM up slowly, say start at 700, and increase weekly by 100 until you reach 1000, let's say at week 5.
I have never cooked a plant following my method so far, but maybe I have just been lucky.
https://www.420magazine.com/forums/how-to-grow-marijuana/71819-what-ranges-should-i-maintain-my-hydroponic-nutrients-ph-tds-ec-temperature.html
 
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