DWC plant diagnosis help required (big post)

Wastei said:

I would keep it simple and ditch the beneficials. Sterility is the key. Mineral based nutrients is already in readily available form and don't have to be broken down by bacteria. I don't like to second guess what's actually in the medium.

I just don't see the benefits of using beneficials in hydro. You will have more cleaning to do between runs and live systems has more variables to consider and are more prone to issues along the way.

Personally I use Calcium hypochlorite (Poolshock) every third day @ 1ppm. Tried the live route but saw no real benefits. I choose stability and ease of use over anything else.

That being said people have great success either way running sterile systems and live ones. It's just more work with live systems. How much spacing do you have between the water level and the netpots? Read that you ran pretty high levels. Lower the water level a bit and water by hand 2x a day til you have roots reaching the water level. Wish you all the best of luck bud, hope everything get sorted!

Click to expand...

rob333 said:

alll ya gunna get from him is (Not helpful for what I am asking but thanks for coming out) at the end of the day his over thinking thinks

Click to expand...

70's natureboy said:

I would keep it simple and just check the ec of the distilled water after adding cal mag. If the ph drops in the nute mix then I would add a little more cal mag next time (or just add a little more to the rez). Once you are dialed in then you can just mix it up without checking anything and your ph will be pretty stable. I run the 3 part GH at 1 1 1 the first few weeks then switch to Lucas Formula. Now I have gravitated to FloraNova and use the Floranova grow through the first couple weeks of flower before switching to Floranova bloom. I get less leaf fade this way.

Click to expand...

rob333 said:

alll ya gunna get from him is (Not helpful for what I am asking but thanks for coming out) at the end of the day his over thinking thinks

Click to expand...

Wastei said:

I'm not following. Did you start the thread? You're giving out sub par advices IMO. There's no reason what so ever to use rockwool cubes in DWC. You're just creating an environment prone to overwatering.

I guide my roots (clones) through the netpots and fill them up with leca/hydroton. For seeds I would much rather use peat moss pellet in DWC. Nowadays I start new seeds straight in a neoprene puck in HPA.

Click to expand...

Wastei said:

I'm not following. Did you start the thread? You're giving out sub par advices IMO. There's no reason what so ever to use rockwool cubes in DWC. You're just creating an environment prone to overwatering.

I guide my roots (clones) through the netpots and fill them up with leca/hydroton. For seeds I would much rather use peat moss pellet in DWC. Nowadays I start new seeds straight in a neoprene puck in HPA.

Click to expand...

Wastei said:

I'm not following. Did you start the thread? You're giving out sub par advices IMO. There's no reason what so ever to use rockwool cubes in DWC. You're just creating an environment prone to overwatering.

I guide my roots (clones) through the netpots and fill them up with leca/hydroton. For seeds I would much rather use peat moss pellet in DWC. Nowadays I start new seeds straight in a neoprene puck in HPA.

Click to expand...

HoodooX said:

Here are the roots recently. The brown staining is from the GH trio (this is a common effect I've read) and also the beneficial bacteria seems to be concentrated mostly at the top. There is absolutely no smell, no scum,no slime, no dead roots, no diseased anything that I can detect. I have weeks of pictures of the roots that had stagnated, no new offshoots and the ball wasn't forming properly. I didn't recognize it for what it was but now that I've upped the Cal-Mag conc. the roots immediately started developing again. I have people on other sites telling me I am over-feeding but I think I've critically under-fed, if anything, as we've discovered through our conversation.

Click to expand...

HoodooX said:

Here are the roots recently. The brown staining is from the GH trio (this is a common effect I've read) and also the beneficial bacteria seems to be concentrated mostly at the top. There is absolutely no smell, no scum,no slime, no dead roots, no diseased anything that I can detect. I have weeks of pictures of the roots that had stagnated, no new offshoots and the ball wasn't forming properly. I didn't recognize it for what it was but now that I've upped the Cal-Mag conc. the roots immediately started developing again. I have people on other sites telling me I am over-feeding but I think I've critically under-fed, if anything, as we've discovered through our conversation.

Click to expand...

rob333 said:

is that roots xl making ya water brown or the nutes

Click to expand...

HoodooX said:

the rockwool is only in play at the very beginning, the rockwool gets nowhere near the water at any point, there's no fear of overwatering. it's not sitting in water. my roots touch the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket while sitting in a typical 5 gallon lid net cup/pot. seems like a pretty common practice.

Click to expand...

MrGreenFingers99 said:

Hey OP, IMO your EC is to high for this point in the grow, they are about 4 weeks old right?

I like to keep PH between 5.8-6.2 anything else I have found to be a little to high or a little to low although if it drifts out of that range for a short period no worries but once you have your feed at the correct EC your PH should stabilise, I like my EC to be slightly dropping but most people at this point see a slight drop and think I can feed more, this is wrong unless there is a major drop, now if it drops everyday over the course of 3 or 4 days then by all means raise it but give it time to see a pattern.

Also calibrate your PH meter regularly!

Here is a pic of my current grow, EC has never been above 1.8 and 0.4 of that is my tap water so only 1.4 of feed although I only have to feed calmag at 50% as tap covers the rest.

View attachment 4584936

Click to expand...

HoodooX said:

Thanks for adding this. I think we figured out through the thread that I screwed myself by tinkering with the feeding schedule. I definitely shocked the plants early in life with 500 ppm immediately after seedling. I was also drastically under-feeding calcium/magnesium because I use pure water and only adding 25% of the recommended dosage when I was supposed to use 100% initially, then decrease Cal/Mag as the concentration of Trio increases (since they have cal/mag as well). I fucked up early on but my plants are back to making roots. No more leaf curl on plant 01. I keep forgetting that plant 02 is 5 days younger than plant 01 but I've been giving same nutrients. I've been dumb but it's my first time! I now run the 2nd plant slightly lower and it's finally eating and drinking properly!!!!!!!! Thanks to all commenters even if you just talked shit. I will post pics in a few weeks.

Click to expand...