dwc newbie looking for advice

18/6, 5 gal dwc, flora duo, GH silica, GH flora blend, GH kool bloom (not yet), RO at 1000 ppm, ph 5.6 to 6.1, month from seed. 600mh
my lower branches/ growth have always been droopy, top new growth vibrant, roots brown/amber anout 2 inches below net pot but nice white healthy roots rest of way down, any ideas as to what bottom plant not happy??

maybe some root rot? what do you use to prevent it?

rkymtnman said:

maybe some root rot? what do you use to prevent it?

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im using a table spoon of hydrogin peroxide every couple of days. my temps are always below 70, so i thought i was safe

ive heard that re-charge is the best for bennies... but cost prohibitive ar $60 a bottle, anyone recommend other bennies at lower cost?

also these are all LA cheese from Supreme Seeds

gxsmit8 said:

ive heard that re-charge is the best for bennies... but cost prohibitive ar $60 a bottle, anyone recommend other bennies at lower cost?

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hydroguard seems like it is popular. don't know about price. i use chlorine in my set up.

that wrinkly look is usually over watering in soil. it is strange looking for sure in dwc.

rkymtnman said:

hydroguard seems like it is popular. don't know about price. i use chlorine in my set up.

that wrinkly look is usually over watering in soil. it is strange looking for sure in dwc.

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i agree, i did miss on my first topping, so i think its from FIM.

lower branching tends to get cut off during lollypopping so i would'nt worry too much on lower branches.
otherwise looks nice and healthy , thumbs up

BlueBlazer00 said:

lower branching tends to get cut off during lollypopping so i would'nt worry too much on lower branches.
otherwise looks nice and healthy , thumbs up

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good point, thinking about starting flower here in couple days, any suggestions? besides the obvious change of photo period. i will slowly transition to bloom nutes and introduce liquid kool bloom and probably some molasses

in DWC overwatering usually means under aerating, what are you bubbling with?

dirtWeevil said:

in DWC overwatering usually means under aerating, what are you bubbling with?

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two airstones, ones from walmart. dont recall the brand, fairly standard

I finally bit the bullet and got the big 8$ cylinder stones off amazon, and a bigger pump, I think the pump was 40$ I haven't had those problems since. That's assuming your issue is aeration related of course

dirtWeevil said:

I finally bit the bullet and got the big 8$ cylinder stones off amazon, and a bigger pump, I think the pump was 40$ I haven't had those problems since. That's assuming your issue is aeration related of course

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i will find out, might go sterile, may go recharge bennies, not sure yet. the root discolor is only where the water doesnt touch rootd, so may fill bucket up higher. im like 3-4" below net pot right now

i end up with mine about 2-3" below the net usually

I say your PPM's are a little high. What is the day to day PPM level flux? She looks nice overall but seems to be a bit small for being a month old. As we know to high of a PPM level can slow things down. Don't be afraid to fill your bucket up. I run my 5 gallon buckets 2" from the rim of the bucket. This whole keeping your solution level below the net pot is a bunch of nonsense IMHO. A higher level makes for a more stable bucket and more room for more roots.

You don't need to do any sort of slow transition from veg to bloom nutes. Just do a bucket change to your bloom nutes. Again no reason for a transition period. I run Hydroguard myself. I give ZERO Fu@KS about bucket temps. My bucket right now is 74 degrees. I never have had root rot. At the start of my grows my buckets run into the low 80's till the plant is large enough where her canopy shades the bucket top. At my local shop Botanicare's Hydroguard is $31.00US a quart.

I would advise against running molasses in DWC. I run GH's FLORA 3 part plus, KoolBloom, CalMag and Botanicare's SilicaBlast. My advice is to hold off on the liquid KoolBloom till you have fairly good flower heads formed. A little goes a long way.

thank you very much. average ppms were in 600 range until last rez change, went to fulll nute schedule. ive been adding ro water but ppm still hovering at 1k. makes me believe she is drinking more h20 then nutes

gxsmit8 said:

thank you very much. average ppms were in 600 range until last rez change, went to fulll nute schedule. ive been adding ro water but ppm still hovering at 1k. makes me believe she is drinking more h20 then nutes

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gxsmit8 said:

thank you very much. average ppms were in 600 range until last rez change, went to fulll nute schedule. ive been adding ro water but ppm still hovering at 1k. makes me believe she is drinking more h20 then nutes

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HotBunz said:

I say your PPM's are a little high. What is the day to day PPM level flux? She looks nice overall but seems to be a bit small for being a month old. As we know to high of a PPM level can slow things down. Don't be afraid to fill your bucket up. I run my 5 gallon buckets 2" from the rim of the bucket. This whole keeping your solution level below the net pot is a bunch of nonsense IMHO. A higher level makes for a more stable bucket and more room for more roots.

You don't need to do any sort of slow transition from veg to bloom nutes. Just do a bucket change to your bloom nutes. Again no reason for a transition period. I run Hydroguard myself. I give ZERO Fu@KS about bucket temps. My bucket right now is 74 degrees. I never have had root rot. At the start of my grows my buckets run into the low 80's till the plant is large enough where her canopy shades the bucket top. At my local shop Botanicare's Hydroguard is $31.00US a quart.

I would advise against running molasses in DWC. I run GH's FLORA 3 part plus, KoolBloom, CalMag and Botanicare's SilicaBlast. My advice is to hold off on the liquid KoolBloom till you have fairly good flower heads formed. A little goes a long way.

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also that is 1 month from seed, so like 2 weeks veg

gxsmit8 said:

thank you very much. average ppms were in 600 range until last rez change, went to fulll nute schedule. ive been adding ro water but ppm still hovering at 1k. makes me believe she is drinking more h20 then nutes

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One very important thing with DWC is DO NOT following anyone else's feeding schedule. This means my schedule, Jim Bob's schedule and most importantly the nute manufactures schedule. They mean nothing to you regarding your plant. If you top off your bucket and set your nute 's PPM value at a certain point and tomorrow before you top off again if your PPM level has gone up then yes she is drinking more than she is feeding and you need to lower your base line PPM level. I feel it's better to keep a base line PPM level that always have your PPM level dropping between top offs. A hungry plant is happier than a plant getting food jammed down her throat which bring me to #2 important thing in DWC is that you can't force your plant to eat. She will always drink water but you can't force her to take up more nutes than she wants and when you try to force her with to high of a PPM/E.C. level she will buck back and slow down her growth. If you are adding water and PPM's are still at 1,000 then she is locking herself down with to high a level. My current autoflower plant at 48 days from seed is sucking up 2 gallons of water every 24hrs. I top off and readjust PPM's every 12hrs.

gxsmit8 said:

also that is 1 month from seed, so like 2 weeks veg

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If it's 1 month from seed then you are 1 month of veg. She's growing as soon as she breaks soil surface.

HotBunz said:

One very important thing with DWC is DO NOT following anyone else's feeding schedule. This means my schedule, Jim Bob's schedule and most importantly the nute manufactures schedule. They mean nothing to you regarding your plant. If you top off your bucket and set your nute 's PPM value at a certain point and tomorrow before you top off again if your PPM level has gone up then yes she is drinking more than she is feeding and you need to lower your base line PPM level. I feel it's better to keep a base line PPM level that always have your PPM level dropping between top offs. A hungry plant is happier than a plant getting food jammed down her throat which bring me to #2 important thing in DWC is that you can't force your plant to eat. She will always drink water but you can't force her to take up more nutes than she wants and when you try to force her with to high of a PPM/E.C. level she will buck back and slow down her growth. If you are adding water and PPM's are still at 1,000 then she is locking herself down with to high a level. My current autoflower plant at 48 days from seed is sucking up 2 gallons of water every 24hrs. I top off and readjust PPM's every 12hrs.

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makes sense to me, i added straight water amd am down to 900ppm, see hiw she looks tonight. also raised water level, as the only brown roots is where there is no water