HELP! Rockwool plants not doing well.

Dear RIU.
I need some advice. I have 8 plants that were in 1x1x1 starter cubes that I recently transferred 6 of those into 4x4x4 larger cubes. The 6 in the 4x4x4 cubes get watered about 15m, 2x a day (the cubes never get light to the touch), drip system, w/ a PH 6.0, adjusted tap water, Lucas GH nutient regimine.

I left the two weakest looking plants in the 1x1x1 cubes, in the bottom of the tray where the water tends to pool just a bit, just to see if they would make a comeback.

Fast forward two-three weeks.

My two 1x1x1 cubes, that are being watered only indirectly are doing great, but the 6 plants in the 4x4x4 cubes are really poor. Lower leaves are brown (some are falling off), tips are brown, leaves are sagging (but not too wilted) and they are a bright green as opposed to a dark green like the 1x1x1's.

Any ideas? I did not soak my rockwool cubes (neither the 1x1x1's or the 4x4x4's), so what I did over the course of several days was flush the larger 4x4x4's with the same water used in the reservoir, checking the PH daily to make sure it wasn't creeping up (I did have to correct it once, but only down about 0.3 to 0.4.

4x4x4 cubes are slightly closer to the lights (40W fl's), but not close enough to really harm them.

Any recommendations? I just am at a loss as to why the little ones are doing great, but the larger 4x4x4's are hanging on for dear life.


Thanks in advance
-Noob Dude

bugmenot said:

Dear RIU.
I need some advice. I have 8 plants that were in 1x1x1 starter cubes that I recently transferred 6 of those into 4x4x4 larger cubes. The 6 in the 4x4x4 cubes get watered about 15m, 2x a day (the cubes never get light to the touch), drip system, w/ a PH 6.0, adjusted tap water, Lucas GH nutient regimine.

I left the two weakest looking plants in the 1x1x1 cubes, in the bottom of the tray where the water tends to pool just a bit, just to see if they would make a comeback.

Fast forward two-three weeks.

My two 1x1x1 cubes, that are being watered only indirectly are doing great, but the 6 plants in the 4x4x4 cubes are really poor. Lower leaves are brown (some are falling off), tips are brown, leaves are sagging (but not too wilted) and they are a bright green as opposed to a dark green like the 1x1x1's.

Any ideas? I did not soak my rockwool cubes (neither the 1x1x1's or the 4x4x4's), so what I did over the course of several days was flush the larger 4x4x4's with the same water used in the reservoir, checking the PH daily to make sure it wasn't creeping up (I did have to correct it once, but only down about 0.3 to 0.4.

4x4x4 cubes are slightly closer to the lights (40W fl's), but not close enough to really harm them.

Any recommendations? I just am at a loss as to why the little ones are doing great, but the larger 4x4x4's are hanging on for dear life.


Thanks in advance
-Noob Dude

Click to expand...

The 4x4 cubes are likely soaked with water. With rockwool you dont need to water that often.

NL right ur over watering

Turn ur drip system in to a flood and drain.

RW is not to be watered that often cuz u are takenig all of the air out of the cube when its saturated with a drip. Get a bag of medium (hydrotun) and place the rock cube on top of the medium. When u flood the meium make shure ur RW cube is 1/2" above flood level so the cube doesnt get soaked. The roots will find there way down to the water in the medium. As long as there is alot of roots cuming out of the cube itself. then u can flood the table till it hit the over flow then shut it off. do this 3 times a day in veg more in flower.

U can use the set up wit pot as i wood prefur. In pots you still have all the roots in side and moveing them around is easyer. When using pots with clones u can use 1" cube and 6" pots of ur medium (hydrotun or sumthing like that) in a flood and drain.

Dont forget to soak ur cubes in H202, Superthrive, and PHed water @ 5.0 for 24hr.
This will keep ur ph stable plus make them sterile. In hydro ur ph should be at 5.8 at all time as close as possible so u dont lock ur plant out from feeding.


PS allways use 35% H202 in ur water @ 1.7ml per liter

Hope this helps just trying to hel buddy

Just to clairify:I already have the bottom of the tray lined with clay pellets.. Check. (Thanks for the advice on the pots, I was planning on moving them into pots as soon as roots appear at the bottom of the RW).

When you say 1/2" above the flood level... Do you mean fill the tray so that the water line is 1/2" down from the top of the RW? Or 1/2" up from the bottom of the RW? (I'm assuming your don't mean 1/2" below the RW altogether)
Do you mean, when there are roots out the bottom that I should change the level of the flood? Wouldn't I just keep it at the same level for the whole veg phase? Also, Wouldn't 3x a day be too much (as already established).

If you could clarify I would greatly appreciate it! I'm already working on the conversion to ebb/flow.

THANKS!
-Noob Dude

When u start flooding make sure u cubes have allot of roots coming out of the cube and bring the water up just under the RW cube. The cube doesnt need to get wet cuz the roots will find there way down to the water. Thats way u only need the water 1/2" below the cube when flooding.

When u switch over to pots u can hand water them by hand for a couple of days till so all the medium get wet enough for the roots to seek. But make shure not to soak the cube when u water.

RW cube absorb allot of water and only need a lil water if u are using only RW. Using RW with a medium u dont need to get the cube wet cuz if will soak up too much water and then ur back too over watering.

When useing the flood method u leave the flood level the same thru the whole cycle. the flood level should cum up to 1/2" below the cubes the roots will find there way down to the water only if there poping out of the cube. U dont even need 4" cube when useing pots cuz they soak too much water and harder to fit in a small pot unless u have a large space. for pots

Watering 3x a day is commun with hydrotun cuz it holds allot of air. As long as u dont get the cube wet then 3x is a good start. In flower u might be watering more often.

Get that flood and drain setup going. All u need is hydrotun, pots, 1" RW cube, and ur phed water and ur rock'n & roll'n. once u go to flood & drain you will never go back to the drip system again. Less work more fun

Hope this helps hommie,

i hate backwash from flooding, get DWC or bubbleponics with a 15-min incremental timer BAM you're done!

Ahh.. I was still visualizing my 4x4x4 cubes in your description. My misunderstanding.

I wonder if I can remove the 1x1's from the 4x4's without really hurting the plants? I suppose it cannot hurt them worst than they already are. What I will probably do is hand water them until they make a comeback, then carefully cut them out of the 4x4 cubes. Whattayathink?

Thanks for the H202 tip. I never even read about using it before, will definitely give it a try.

THANKS!!!!!!

If I use 6" pots; can I leave them in those pots for the duration - veg and flower?
Also, I plan on keeping 2 ladies; they're also good for 6" pots for their lifetime?
Thanks in advance!

-------------------

Nevermind, 6" will do it. Just looked at a couple other threads, they all agree lighting is often more important than pot size.

Yup 6" pots will be just fine but dont go any smaller they may get root bound.

35% H202 @ 1.7ml to 1 liter of water every 3 days. Once u use it you'll never stop. Its add so much O2 to the roots plus keeps all they phathogens out of ur roots. evey body likes clean fresh white roots.

I finished the conversion. You're right, its sweet. I managed to do it without flooding my place either (knock on wood). I couldn't stand trying to position those drip lines anyway.
Ill update in a couple days and let you know how the move went. About 3 of the 6 in the 4x4x4's were able to cut out of the cube without breaking the taproot. I'm only looking for 2 girls out of the 5 total that are likely to survive; the odds are still in my favor.
Thanks for the advice; I'm gonna try to find some 35% H2O2 tomorrow.
Regards

bugmenot said:

I finished the conversion. You're right, its sweet. I managed to do it without flooding my place either (knock on wood). I couldn't stand trying to position those drip lines anyway.
Ill update in a couple days and let you know how the move went. About 3 of the 6 in the 4x4x4's were able to cut out of the cube without breaking the taproot. I'm only looking for 2 girls out of the 5 total that are likely to survive; the odds are still in my favor.
Thanks for the advice; I'm gonna try to find some 35% H2O2 tomorrow.
Regards

Click to expand...

Sweet bro Im glad to here the good news.

I just started sum new seeds (White Rhino) from Green House. All female seeds (i hope) but keep me posted on ur grow.

Keep up the hard work.

Styl!st07 said:

Yup 6" pots will be just fine but dont go any smaller they may get root bound.

35% H202 @ 1.7ml to 1 liter of water every 3 days. Once u use it you'll never stop. Its add so much O2 to the roots plus keeps all they phathogens out of ur roots. evey body likes clean fresh white roots.

Click to expand...

did you know that hydrozyme works well too, especialyl with organic nutes. It won't kill the helpful bacteria in organic as h202 does

has anyone tried this befoRe?

Good news, 6 made it; they all went into shock (they took some time before any new growth) but they've all survived this long (1-2 weeks), so its likely that they'll continue to do what they do best.

Bad news, still having a little difficulty with browning/crispy tips, that are yellow, lower on the plants, affecting the first two to three nodes, across the board. The upper leaves are not drooping and look great, and the rockwool tops of the 1x1x1's in the pots are staying dry to the touch, even right after watering.

I haven't yet tried the H2O2 (maybe I should make this a priority). Any suggestions? Should I wait another week or two to make sure that its all new growth and not remnants of being shocked from transplanting?

All I know is, I'm ready for some explosive growth, because its been a long time in the works - I was clearly retarding growth by overwatering before, then retarded it again by transplanting/damaging the roots, and thus shocking the plants.

BTW, watering about 20m, twice daily. 24/0 day/night. Lucas schedule, GH nutes.

Thanks as always.

Your ph should be 5.5 to 5.8 in a soiless setup. If its above or below that range the plant won't absorb all the nutrients...don't know if anyone told you that already. 6.0-6.3 is for growing in soil.

Its just below 6.0, however I'm using a dye ph tester, not an electronic meter. (I know its time to upgrade)