Hi everyone,

I need urgent help. My plants have been slightly leaning the past 2 days. I woke up this morning and I see this...what's wrong with them? Why is the little one on the left leaning so much? I did rotate them last night so they're facing the other way from the light as to try and get them to straighten up.

I still have the original res water I filled about a week ago. The pH this morning was 6.2. I added a very very small amount of nutes when I filled the container 6 days ago and none since then. They were fine so I know it's not from too many nutes. The roots actually look great underneath, they're all long enough already to reach the water's surface, but the leaves drooping really bothers me. Please help!!

Journal 004.jpg

Journal 005.jpg

Also I'm getting my nutrient meter tonight. What should the PPM/EC/EF be at for plants 7-8 days old? Am I undernuting? Help appreciated!

Temperature is normal btw, 75F/50% humidity...they're under a 125W 6500 spectrum CFL. Is my light too close?

Your in a stealth hydro kit right?

for seven day old plants, less than 1/4 strength. Guess you wouldn't be able to tell what it is anyway. VV

I think its the shoddy stealth hydro kit. They are underbuilt in my honest opinion.

Its probably that they only give you 1 4" airstone in the kit and underpower it with a shitty pump.

You really need to get a bigger air pump that will handle multiple stones. Those things don't put out enough air.

Also what lights you got on that.

it has nothing to do with the air stone and air pump that they send you. the stone and air pimp only saturate the liquid with oxygen. the bigger air pump= more oxygen because it pumps more air into the water that you are using. But you can do the same thing by keeping less liquid int the reservoir to keep saturated with oxygen.
the only reason a bigger stone and pump would help his setup would be if his roots were not getting enough oxygen. he said they are getting great growth so that must not be a problem. the tops of his plants are having problems and not the construction of the hydro setup.

they're under a 125W 6500 spectrum CFL. Is my light too close?
NO. cfls should almost be touching the plants in order to be effective......when i was using mine for my first grow i let them touch the plants once they were a foot high and it didnt cause me any problems.
your plants are just seedlings now. I personally dont see anything wrong with them for being in the seedling stage. all of my seedlings have been wily weak little creatures untill they grow the set of leaves with multiple fingers on it. after they tdo that, My plants REFUSE to die. the only plant i have had die because of miscare was due to overwatering.
dont worry about them so much, let em just grow.
besides some stresses are supposed to make a plant stronger in the end so if something goes a little wrong dont worry so much

I disagree completely the stealth hydro kits are a pile of poo!!!! The reason is leafs are droopy is because of overwatering, the only way that happens in a dwc kit is because there isn't enough oxygen. My seedlings never look like that in any type of medium.

Nongreenthumb, sorry but you might be wrong.

Not pictured is a new air pump that I bought, it has dual outputs and there are TWO 10" air stones in the res. Check out my journal. The water surface is just burbling (i don't know if that's a word) with air. The SH are very good, you really should check out Roseman's log before crapping SH so much. They might be expensive, that is true, but the components are EXACTLY what anyone would use to build their own, the light is a custom $120, 125W 6500 spectrum CFL which i bought separately.

I really think it might be undernuting or overnuting....can anyone please tell me what the Nute levels should be at this stage? In PPM, CL or CF....my meter's coming today.

I'll try to bring the light even closer, i'm just afraid to dry them up....overwatering here is not possible since it's ....well.....hydro.


Thanks for replies...just came home for a bit, they're looking a tiny bit better....the one in the back looks very healthy and straight, just the front 2 that bother me....why're they so crooked and the bigger one's leaves are a bit wilty...


I think i might be overly concerned with them....they're my first.

If the systems are so great how come you had to spend more on it to make it do the job it was intended for.

I have no opinion of roseman either seeing as he actually works for stealth hydroponics.

Its fact that stealth hydroponics systems are rubbish and over priced. You may get similar parts in them as if you made your own. You just don't get enough. I haven't seen anything on their website that is worth what they charge.

I'm just sorry that you got done.

okay i see what you are saying now. that could be a possibility. i have never used any dwc system that I have not manufactured myself just because they charge to much for the crap when its SOOOO easy to make. I mean the difference in parts cost and store bought kits is like 75%markup. but the only labor is really cuttting and glueing. seriously all my kits are built only tools are razor knife and caulk.

5- 6" airstones or bubble curtians,
tupperware tub
2- double outlet airpumps
splitters
airhose
netcups
spray paint

should be more than enough for 4 plants return that thing take $80max and buy this stuff. Ill tell you how to put it all together.

nongreenthumb,

I respect your comments and in no way am I saying that SH is the best or that it's not overpriced. It is! But noone can say that it is not a real system or that it's in any way worse than airogarden crap and they managed to get some unexpected results even with that.

I'm afraid this thread is turning into a flame of SH system and it's really a question about how much nutes I should be using and what might be wrong with the plants, to which I've got no answer yet.

Granted I could've built a system just like this, there's no magic involved, but I was completely new and knew nothing about putting a system like that together. Right now the system is perfectly functional, the variables or things which might be bad have nothing to do with the system, they are: water quality, level of nutrient solution, temperature, humidity, etc.

I've covered everything so far except water quality and nutrient level for an 8 day old plant. If you could please give a recommendation on that, it would be greatly appreciated.

Roseman might work for SH but his plants are what? Photoshopped?! Also there's another person darkchild who's helping me and he doesn't work for SH and his plants look great, he's on his 3rd grow with this same exact system with no modification.

I'll change my res today but it would really be helpful to know what the water ppm level should be. Thanks.