Light Brown Spotting and Droop/Curling - RDWC

Hello all! I was hoping to ask a few questions about my rdwc system. I have 4 plants growing, each a different strain. I know this isn't recommended, realized my mistake after germ. The four strains, from best looking to worst, are: Turbulent Juice, Grape Gas Station, Panama Pupil V3, and Dandelion Gum.

They were growing great for a week after transferring to buckets, but now showing a few distressing signals.

Germination: Feb 17

PH - 6.02
PPM - 472
EC - 1.004
Water Temp - 68-74f
Air Temp - 75-80f
Humidity - 46-55%
Nutrients: Fox Farm: Grow Big (1/2 str), Big Bloom (1/2 str), Kangaroots (1/4 str), Microbe Brew (1/4 str); true Cal-Mag (1/2 str); Grower's Recharge (one dose so far); GH PH Up & Down
Lights - 300 true watts HLG QB132 4000K (another 300 watts of QB132 3000K waiting for flower)
Water - Reverse Osmosis
Aeration - 1x 4" airstone per bucket
Environment - 48x48x80 Grow Tent
Ventilation - AC Infinity 6" model with Digital Controller
Type: RDWC 4x 5-gallon buckets, 27-gallon (max) res, with approximately 32 total gallons in the system, currently fed through both bucket supply and drip feeders, 1100gph pump supply, gravity feed return

Image of environment:



--The TJ looks the best, but has a few white-ish lines going on.




--GGS is next largest, but the leaves seem to be curling inward and reach upwards toward the lights at night.




--The PPV3 is the most concerning, showing a TON of small light brown spots on all but new growth, and it's also wilting. Its root system isn't as developed as the first two, either, though it's only slightly smaller.








--The DG got trapped in the seed casing and fell behind the other 3, getting some slight nute burn when given the first supply of nutes. It's difficult to see from the image, but the 3 finger leaves are dark near the tips and get lighter towards the base. I think the others may display this to some degree, as well.



I don't really know what's going on. With my limited knowledge, I'd guess the PPV3 has a manganese deficiency, the GGS seems like lockout, TJ seems to be holding strong, and the DG is just stunted. I thought root rot, but the roots look healthy. I've included images of each plant, with their roots as well, the grow environment, and additional images of the PPV3 spotting issue.

Can anyone give me some advice with what could be my problem? First grow ever, so any advice would be very appreciated. Thank you so much!!!

Your water temps are really pushing it.
Has your ppm changed since your last water change?

fragileassassin said:

Your water temps are really pushing it.

Has your ppm changed since your last water change?

Click to expand...

I haven't changed the water yet, but I did top off the res and added some additional nutes a day ago. I brought the ppm from 270ish to 480ish after the first week of nutes. I was considering flushing the system tonight with RO water and H202 hoping to fix the problem, but thought I'd wait until I got some more experienced opinions. I don't see root rot, so unless it's happening in the hydroton, I figure that can't be it. I also thought the growers recharge, Microbe Brew, and Kangaroots would help protect against it with all their beneficial bacteria.

When I added the second batch of nutes to bring the ppm up, the PH shot up to around 6.9-7 and I had a very, very difficult time bringing it back to 5.8. I had to use maybe 4-5x the amount of PH Down I needed to the first time I added nutes. I was worried this also could have caused problems.

Ditch all the additives and go with just base nutes and calmag at 1ml/litre.4~500 ppm total.Water level just below net pot,no need to top feed.

myke said:

Ditch all the additives and go with just base nutes and calmag at 1ml/litre.4~500 ppm total.Water level just below net pot,no need to top feed.

Click to expand...

Okay, thanks. I'll try that today.

I thought what I'd do is use some FF Sledgehammer in the current solution to eliminate as many residuals as I can, flush with H2O2 to kill off any bacteria, then replace with RO water and add the nutrient solution. Would it be better to use Sledgehammer along with the H2O2 in the same water, Sledgehammer the current water then flush with H2O2, or forget the Sledgehammer and just flush with H2O2 water?

Also, as I showed above, my res temps get a little high. It usually doesn't get above 74f, but I've seen it close to 80f if I keep the door to the grow room closed. I'd say it hovers between 72-74f most of the time if I keep the door open. I don't have a chiller, funds ran out and I couldn't order one. What I've been doing is opening a window in an adjacent room and directing cold air into the windowless grow room with a small fan, allowing the ambient air near the floor to keep the res cool. I have a couple gallon jugs with frozen water in the freezer, but have been hesitant to put one in the res in fear of shocking the roots. If doing this wouldn't be a problem, though, I can keep a rotation going of adding a frozen gallon to the res while freezing 2x gallon jugs in the freezer, then swap out as needed. Any opinions on this?

This is the reason I used the Grower's Recharge, Kangaroots, and Microbe Brew, to try to protect the roots from the higher res temps. I'm out of funds and recently lost my job, so I can't afford more products and need to work with what I've got.

I was also thinking it's possible I had a PH spike which locked out some nutes from the PPv3. The new growth on the plant seems fine and its root system has developed quite a bit over night. I'm wondering if bringing the PH down solved the problem and the plant may come back? The spots are still there, and the leaves that have them are drooping, but as I said, new growth looks fine. Is it possible to hold off with flushing the system until the next scheduled feeding? Since I just added nutrients a couple days ago, it feels like a waste to just dump it all if the problem was PH-related lockout.

Sorry for the long posts. I thought I had done my research, but I'm quickly finding out just how tricky this can be. I'm almost at the point where I want to close off the supply and return lines, remove the res, and manage just 4 connected dwc buckets, or even fill them with coco and go that route. But as I said before, funds are non-existant and I'm limited on resources.

Yes on frozen water bottles. H2o2 with the nutes. No use wasting it on a flush. 1-1.5 ml/gallon.

Hey all! So just wanted to give an update.

Wasn't able to gain a handle on the rot. Kept coming back.

I ended up transplanting them into soil. I didn't know if they'd survive. I was as gentle as I could be with the roots, even had to cut up a couple of the netpot lids and planted pieces with some larger root masses.

Washed the roots in a strong h202 solution, then a weaker one, and then dusting the roots with Fox Farm Happy Frog before putting them in the buckets, which each have 5lbs Kind Soil on the bottom and the rest being Ocean Forest.

I didn't have enough soil to fill the buckets completely, so they were planted anywhere from 4" to 6" deeper than I'd have liked. I've since been top dressing with more Ocean Forest I ordered as they've grown taller, so they're shorter than they could be and are putting energy into developing roots in the new soil.

I also brought the 5th I had started in soil and its light into the 4x4 tent because why not. It was under a "300 watt" Hydrofarm blurple pulling 132w from the wall + a 68w 2700K CFL bulb, 200w total. I figured the addition of the QB boards would be worth the extra LST work later on.

So with that and transplant shock, growth was slow until about 3 or 4 days ago when growth kinda exploded. Been feeding every 3-4 days with 2-3qts each of RO water + Cal-Mag + Real Grower's Recharge, ph'd to 6-6.5 using citric acid crystals.

I don't plan on using anything else through the rest of the grow unless I end up pushing veg an additional 3-4 weeks to make up for the lost growth, then I've got the Dirty Dozen pack I can feed with if it's needed, though I only have a little bit left of Big Bloom and half a thing of Grow Big.

Here they are as of this morning:



Panama Pupil V3:



Turbulent Juice:



Dandelion Gum:



Grape Gas Station:



Fisheye OG (started in soil, for comparison):



And for further comparison, this is where the Panama Pupil was just after transplant on 3/15/20: