RDWC - nuts strength

I am having an issue... Each time I put the ladies in the rdwc, they simply stall for a week... 6 days now, roots are coming out of the net pot but a lot of them are yellowing.

According to Current Culture, we should start first week at 100 ppm (500 scale) but if there's not a lot of roots, isn't better to jump a bit the ppm? Like 250-300 since they also drink less.

Any input welcome! I'm puzzled as wtf is going on each time I move them into the system. All green and growing in the cloner and stall and yellowing once in the system.

I do dim light at 600 watts, 7 ft from the clones. Temp 72-74 humidity 65-75.

Are you top-feeding the new sets?
I run Jacks 3-2-1 in my RDWC system at full strength from the start.
My ec is usually at 1.5-1.6 throughout the run.
Pics of the plants and your system will help.

GBAUTO said:

Are you top-feeding the new sets?
I run Jacks 3-2-1 in my RDWC system at full strength from the start.
My ec is usually at 1.5-1.6 throughout the run.
Pics of the plants and your system will help.

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I'm not topfeeding. The clays are getting enough moisture , well I think... As for the ec, I can't run pass .8 .9 ec else I am burning them, even in full flowering. As for pictures, I will take some later.

My experience is that the plants respond much better if I top feed them till they get roots hanging.
I think the reason they are not happy is because they are starving.

GBAUTO said:

My experience is that the plants respond much better if I top feed them till they get roots hanging.
I think the reason they are not happy is because they are starving.

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Starving as not top feeding them or nutrient's strength not high enough?

I will do a topfeeding system for next run... Or now if I have time to buy everything asap

I just use a cup and pour it over the net till roots drop.

GBAUTO said:

I just use a cup and pour it over the net till roots drop.

Click to expand...

Few times a day? I'm too lazy... Ahah going to setup an irrigation system for automation )

I find that once a day is sufficient.

What it sounds like the roots are drying that means low water level or not enough air bubbles break that water tension

Start the res at 100-200ppm and wait for it to start dropping. That shows that the plant is now taking more nutes than water so the mix is getting weaker.
Go up50% and wait for it to start dropping again. Repeat as needed.
Always wait for the drop then go up 50% and you'll garunteed to stay in the sweet spot.
It makes the ph behave itself properly too.
Should rise from 5.5 to 6.5 over the course of a week meaning you shouldn't ever need to adjust it out with top up or res changing.
They can only absorb roughly 100ppm per week of veg.

There was another guy running current culture rdwc around here in a commercial facility. He also ran really low ppm. He said his buckets had some kinda super air stones or some such thing. If your running the standard buckets I think the feed chart runs a lil higher ppm. I don't know I can't imagine plants are happy with only 100ppm. When I ran dwc stand alone buckets I always started at 400-500 ppm and worked my way up.

mista32 said:

What it sounds like the roots are drying that means low water level or not enough air bubbles break that water tension

Click to expand...

Yeah, I will add an auto-topfeeding next run They finally took off! Getting greener each days.

EvilScotsm@n said:

Start the res at 100-200ppm and wait for it to start dropping. That shows that the plant is now taking more nutes than water so the mix is getting weaker.
Go up50% and wait for it to start dropping again. Repeat as needed.
Always wait for the drop then go up 50% and you'll garunteed to stay in the sweet spot.
It makes the ph behave itself properly too.
Should rise from 5.5 to 6.5 over the course of a week meaning you shouldn't ever need to adjust it out with top up or res changing.
They can only absorb roughly 100ppm per week of veg.

Click to expand...

100 ppm per week of veg? even at week 3? At first, yeah maybe, but week 2-3, they eat like crazy in my environment.

But yeah, I usually start like this... X ppm and wait for it to drop a bit then raise a bit higher...

Apalchen said:

There was another guy running current culture rdwc around here in a commercial facility. He also ran really low ppm. He said his buckets had some kinda super air stones or some such thing. If your running the standard buckets I think the feed chart runs a lil higher ppm. I don't know I can't imagine plants are happy with only 100ppm. When I ran dwc stand alone buckets I always started at 400-500 ppm and worked my way up.

Click to expand...

I top at max 425-450 ppm, if I go over this, I simply burn them... They are drinking around 1 gallon each every 24 hours... So I can't top 800-1000-1200 ppm... It's ok at 100 ppm when you start. But really need to top feed them next run.. Already anxious to restart just to see how it goes with topfeeding ahah

Have2 said:

100 ppm per week of veg? even at week 3? At first, yeah maybe, but week 2-3, they eat like crazy in my environment.

But yeah, I usually start like this... X ppm and wait for it to drop a bit then raise a bit higher...

Click to expand...

Lol I meant as in Week1 100ppm, week 3 300ppm, week5 500ppm.
No point wasting nutes. I've done pounders that barely went over 1000.
In coco I never have to go over 700 but I keep those to about 5oz

I'd say your nute schedule is too weak. I'm a light feeder but I start my baby clonees in DWC buckets at .5 ec and never go over 1.2 ec in mid flower.

70's natureboy said:

I'd say your nute schedule is too weak. I'm a light feeder but I start my baby clonees in DWC buckets at .5 ec and never go over 1.2 ec in mid flower.

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What is your light/temp/rh/co2/air pump/water volume for a single dwc buckets?

Have2 said:

What is your light/temp/rh/co2/air pump/water volume for a single dwc buckets?

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2-4 600 HPS, lights on temps 75-80, rh 50-60%, no co2, basic air pumps 4 outlet I forget the name, 5 gal dwc buckets or 13-20 gal totes, Lucas Formula. I always do side by sides with different nutes, now I'm in a lazy stretch and Lucas is just easier for me; it's not exactly Lucas it's Floranova 3-5 ml/gal ph rock stable.