[PeaceLoveUnity]

Hello Green Circle, THCtalk member from the States here. Posting this here because I've had this problem for a few days now and the talk went down in my time of need. I was convinced it would clear up the same day like underwatered plants normally do. Guessing it's some other issue and would love more experienced advice.

 

Hydroponic Grow. This is my first grow of any sort. I did window grow some bag seeds for about a month just to get used to watering and such. I've six plants from feminized seeds (2 Lemon Kush, 2 Cheese, 1 Pineapple Express, 1 Incredible Bulk) Because of my foolishness I can't tell you whether the plant in question is a Lemon Kush or a Cheese (mixed em up transferring them into their buckets).

plant age:  12 days since it germinated on the 27th of June. This wasn't growing in a system for the first five days of its life.

 

pot size: 3 inch In diameter net pots, sitting in a 5gal bucket with 12 Liters of *bubbling* water. No air stones, just tubes pumping bubbles.

Air temps:23-27 C
Res temps:23-26 C
Humidity: Stays around 45-50%

Lighting type: 4 foot, 4 bulb T5HO. I believe 54 watts a bulb. Supposedly 20k lumens. I keep it 6.5 inches from the tops of the leaves. There's a fan to clear the hot air. Passes the so-called "back of the hand" test.

Ph level: tap water used to feed is consistently a pH 6.9 or 7. The plant in question has lived its life so far with a pH of ~5.6 for the most part, although it did drift to 6.65 at one point. I'm using citric acid to lower the pH of the tap water when necessary.

EC: no nutrients added as of yet. Background EC is 0.1 (75 ppm)

Size of groom: 1.5x1.5x2 meters

anything else: its rockwool dried out for like half a day until I noticed, because the air tube wasn't lined up enough with the plant to splash the net pot with bubbles. I've hand watered since then, but the plant hasn't recovered at all. Plants stem is sturdy, but It's the runt out of the group, and it has a bit of a bend in its stem because of how it germinated.

 

I'm confused because every other plant has been kept in identical conditions, and is doing great. Lots of visible root growth with leaves nice and green. They look happy. This one looks depressed as hell.

 

My best guess is it went too long without water and was stunted, that's the only anomaly I'm aware of. But I feel I'm missing something.

 

I've attached pictures and converted from my stupid imperial measurement system to make things easier. thanks for any help!

Attached Files

•  Number 4.PNG   664.86KB   1 downloads
•  Setup.PNG   583.88KB   0 downloads

[mrs beef]

hi and welcome

[captain beefheart]

mmmmmmmmmm  poossibly ewe banged it in the bubbler to early....id av vegged it a tad longer than 5 days in the rockwool cubes,i find ewe really need a good root on a plant when running water,when a ran nft id make sure they had load of roots coming out before putting them in the trays,or possibly ph fluctuation as ewe said they were @ 5.6.....now ya running it @ 6.9 ?   tbh with water all factors must be bang on 24/7 to achieve the desired results.....GET 1 THING OUTTA SYNC AND ITS FOOKED FROM THE OFF !!! or a duff bean

[PeaceLoveUnity]

mmmmmmmmmm  poossibly ewe banged it in the bubbler to early....id av vegged it a tad longer than 5 days in the rockwool cubes,i find ewe really need a good root on a plant when running water,when a ran nft id make sure they had load of roots coming out before putting them in the trays,or possibly ph fluctuation as ewe said they were @ 5.6.....now ya running it @ 6.9 ?   tbh with water all factors must be bang on 24/7 to achieve the desired results.....GET 1 THING OUTTA SYNC AND ITS FOOKED FROM THE OFF !!! or a duff bean

 

Thanks for the response.. the pH did drift upwards as I was seeing how long my pH down stayed steady for, but all the other plants experienced the same (and more severe) fluctuations and are doing terrific... I was under the impression that a drift in that 1 point range wouldn't be catastrophic.you might be right about the duff bean! Or perhaps she was a tad too sensitive to pH fluctuation compared to her sisters. What little roots she had didn't take the lack of water well, although they are recovering ever so slightly (new white growth). You're probably right on that count as well!

 

much appreciated,

[Sprink]

Yeah I'd say it's a weak seedling if the others are OK. Would have recovered by now otherwise.

 

Agree with Beefy about vegging for longer when you're growing in water. That doesn't seem to have been the problem, but worth considering

[mellowed]

Res temps are way to high which means a lot less disolved oxygen in the water.
I get this prob everytime when the pump i use for fluming gets bunged up with roots so stops the water flow which stops the d.o held in the water.

[Sprink]

Oh I didn't see the res temps...

 

That's why I stopped doing pure hydro, it's a magnet for root rot as well. Bloody freezer blocks!!

[PeaceLoveUnity]

Yeah I'd say it's a weak seedling if the others are OK. Would have recovered by now otherwise.

 

Agree with Beefy about vegging for longer when you're growing in water. That doesn't seem to have been the problem, but worth considering

Didn't know that's something to do, thought I was making a mistake by waiting for so long after they germinated

 

Res temps are way to high which means a lot less disolved oxygen in the water.
I get this prob everytime when the pump i use for fluming gets bunged up with roots so stops the water flow which stops the d.o held in the water.

noted! I've some frozen bottles of water that I'm going to put in the reservoirs to try and lower the temp. The pump runs very hot and of course transfers it to the water. this is what I get for buying a cheap pump on ebay I can also cool the room with an air conditioner, just didn't want to run one.

 

Because of the heat from the pump I have it turning off every hour for half an hour, then back on for an hour.

 

my plants would have an easier time If I managed to run the pump 24/7 while keeping their reservoirs cool? because the increased DO will let their roots grow faster, correct?

 

 

many thanks for the responses all, I have work to do.

[mellowed]

Are you using an air pump or water pump mate?
Defo run the pump 24/7 to keep the d.o at the max possible for now but it wont be much. The cooler the water then the more d.o it can hold. Over 22c then its very little an the roots are being oxygen starved an will not grow much. 18c -22c is the place to be

Also a black container will suck up the heat so cover it up with white plastic if possible an stand it on the floor if its concrete or stand it on feet an blow a fan at the side of the container if the floor is insulated.

[PeaceLoveUnity]

I'm using an air pump, just took it off the timer so it can be on all the time. Would you say an air stone is necessary or no?

 

Word the buckets have shiny white lids, but I had to cover it all with black 2 mil plastic so the algae wouldn't grow gotta get on covering that black plastic with some white plastic now, cause you're right it definitely gets hotter.

 

wondering if I can successfully cool it down that much, I don't think the water bottles can be much of a permanent fix.