Lend some diagnostic advice?

strikinghigh55

strikinghigh55

Well-Known Member
I have 2 plants in isolated separate 5g DWC buckets in a 3x3x6 tent. I'm running a 600w MH light in a 6 inch cool tube 24 hours at about 30 inches from tops of plants. Temps stay between 76 and 78 generally but never above 79. My humidity has been a struggle as I cant seem to get it anywhere above 35%. I have a 4 inch 200 cfm inline fan pulling air out of the tent at the top through a 4 inch carbon filter. I also have a 6 inch 390 cfm inline pulling outside air through ducting and the cool tube. This fan does not exhaust air from the tent but does keep the glass cool to the touch. My strains are: 1 White Cookies (WWxGSC) from Crop King Seeds which is at day 26 from sprout; 1 Pineapple Chunk from Barney's Farm which is at day 22 from sprout. Both feminized. I'm using GH Flora 3 part and GH Calimagic at between 300 and 350 PPM with RO water. Ph has been stable between 5.8 and 6.0. It tends to drift slowly to 6 over the course of a couple of days at which point I use GH PH Down and adjust back down to 5.8. They aren't drinking much at this stage, but I have committed to weekly reservoir changes instead of topping off as I have done in the past. Thus these plants have each had 3 res changes. The first res was just RO water and 100 PPM of CalMag at 5.8 ph. Second res, both had roots in water so they got same dose of CalMag plus 1/8 strength nutes which ended up being around 190 PPM each. They seemed not to like this as I got some burnt tips, so I diluted the nute solutions back down to around 130 PPM. They slowly got back on track but definently were a bit stunted. At the most recent res change (1/29), they both had lots of roots in the water, so i gave them full strength veg nutes and calmag which brings us to current readings between 300 and 350. Now I am seeing splotches on the older leaves which has gotten worse between yesterday and today. I plan to change the both reservoirs tomorrow but am wondering what I should do differently. Anyone have any suggestions or advice? I cant seem to find a diagnosis through my research that fits. The closest thing I could find was maybe spider mites, but I cant find any black specks on bottom of leaves. However, the leaves look similar to pictures of mite eaten leaves. I would greatly appreciate any help! The smaller plant is the Pineapple chunk and the slightly larger is the White cookies. Both are less than 4 inches tall but have 4 and 5 nodes respectively. The White cookies is definitely hurting more but both show similar symptoms.


Edit: Forgot to mention, the White Cookies was topped at 22 days
 

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70's natureboy

70's natureboy

Well-Known Member
I'll have to assume you are talking .5 ppm's and that sounds fine. When I use GH 3 part, I use 1 tbs of each part in a 5 gal (4 gal water) bucket when the plants are that size. That's roughly 3 ml/gal. You should verify your ph with some drops.
 
curious2garden

curious2garden

Well-Known Mod
Staff member
strikinghigh55 said:
I have 2 plants in isolated separate 5g DWC buckets in a 3x3x6 tent. I'm running a 600w MH light in a 6 inch cool tube 24 hours at about 30 inches from tops of plants. Temps stay between 76 and 78 generally but never above 79. My humidity has been a struggle as I cant seem to get it anywhere above 35%. I have a 4 inch 200 cfm inline fan pulling air out of the tent at the top through a 4 inch carbon filter. I also have a 6 inch 390 cfm inline pulling outside air through ducting and the cool tube. This fan does not exhaust air from the tent but does keep the glass cool to the touch. My strains are: 1 White Cookies (WWxGSC) from Crop King Seeds which is at day 26 from sprout; 1 Pineapple Chunk from Barney's Farm which is at day 22 from sprout. Both feminized. I'm using GH Flora 3 part and GH Calimagic at between 300 and 350 PPM with RO water. Ph has been stable between 5.8 and 6.0. It tends to drift slowly to 6 over the course of a couple of days at which point I use GH PH Down and adjust back down to 5.8. They aren't drinking much at this stage, but I have committed to weekly reservoir changes instead of topping off as I have done in the past. Thus these plants have each had 3 res changes. The first res was just RO water and 100 PPM of CalMag at 5.8 ph. Second res, both had roots in water so they got same dose of CalMag plus 1/8 strength nutes which ended up being around 190 PPM each. They seemed not to like this as I got some burnt tips, so I diluted the nute solutions back down to around 130 PPM. They slowly got back on track but definently were a bit stunted. At the most recent res change (1/29), they both had lots of roots in the water, so i gave them full strength veg nutes and calmag which brings us to current readings between 300 and 350. Now I am seeing splotches on the older leaves which has gotten worse between yesterday and today. I plan to change the both reservoirs tomorrow but am wondering what I should do differently. Anyone have any suggestions or advice? I cant seem to find a diagnosis through my research that fits. The closest thing I could find was maybe spider mites, but I cant find any black specks on bottom of leaves. However, the leaves look similar to pictures of mite eaten leaves. I would greatly appreciate any help! The smaller plant is the Pineapple chunk and the slightly larger is the White cookies. Both are less than 4 inches tall but have 4 and 5 nodes respectively. The White cookies is definitely hurting more but both show similar symptoms.


Edit: Forgot to mention, the White Cookies was topped at 22 days
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How are you measuring your pH? For hydro you have to have a meter. Your plant on the right appears to have some thinner white areas on the leaves. Take a good look under those areas with a loupe or magnifying glass. Otherwise your plants look great for three weeks to me.

Edited to add: Add at least a 4 hour sleep cycle
 
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NrthrnMichigan

NrthrnMichigan

Well-Known Member
I agree with C2G to have at least a 4 hour dark/sleep cycle and the use of ph/ec or ppm meter...personally Id' go with 18/6. Just curious as to why you are using RO? I was using RO because my tap water was not pleasant to consume but the r/o made my rez unstable with huge ph swings while using GH. I fought with and struggled with the r/o for a couple of harvests. Then decided to use my tap water...though I thought it was undrinkable my plants actually thrived with it and I had no more huge ph swings.
 
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strikinghigh55

strikinghigh55

Well-Known Member
I have a digital Ph meter and PPM meter. I calibrate my ph meter with the 3 point calibration solutions about once every 4 days. I considered using tap water, but it comes out of the faucet at around 375 PPM. I'm most concerned with the chlorine in the tap water. I suppose I could give it a try after removing the chlorine. That would eliminate my need for the calmag, correct? I will take all the advice to add a dark cycle and switch to an 18/6 cycle. Anyone have tips for removing chlorine/chloramines from municipal water that doesn't take 24 hours?
 
NrthrnMichigan

NrthrnMichigan

Well-Known Member
strikinghigh55 said:
I have a digital Ph meter and PPM meter. I calibrate my ph meter with the 3 point calibration solutions about once every 4 days. I considered using tap water, but it comes out of the faucet at around 375 PPM. I'm most concerned with the chlorine in the tap water. I suppose I could give it a try after removing the chlorine. That would eliminate my need for the calmag, correct? I will take all the advice to add a dark cycle and switch to an 18/6 cycle. Anyone have tips for removing chlorine/chloramines from municipal water that doesn't take 24 hours?
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I purchased an $8.00 aquarium pump at wally's, ran an air stone for a couple of hours in a separate rez filled with tap water before the weekly nutrient rez change. Using tap water should eliminate the use a cal/mag supplement.
The air pump you are currently using is exactly what I used for my first run..then upgraded to this pump and I'm still running it 10 years later with no issuesgeneral_hydroponics_dual_diaphragm_air_pump_-_free_shipping.jpg Its the GH dual diaphragm...it is a bit pricey but like I said...Its' still running 10 years later. The roots will thank you for upgrading with explosive growth due to the increase of air!
 
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strikinghigh55

strikinghigh55

Well-Known Member
NrthrnMichigan said:
I purchased an $8.00 aquarium pump at wally's, ran an air stone for a couple of hours in a separate rez filled with tap water before the weekly nutrient rez change. Using tap water should eliminate the use a cal/mag supplement.
The air pump you are currently using is exactly what I used for my first run..then upgraded to this pump and I'm still running it 10 years later with no issuesView attachment 4470244 Its the GH dual diaphragm...it is a bit pricey but like I said...Its' still running 10 years later. The roots will thank you for upgrading with explosive growth due to the increase of air!
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I've had my eye on that pump for a while :D and I DO need to upgrade soon so I will end up getting that pump. Especially hearing that it has some longevity. How long do you reccomend running the air pump in the tap water to ensure that it is safe for the plants? I have a second air pump that I can dedicate to the cause but was hoping to get my res change done today as my problem seems to be getting worse.
 
curious2garden

curious2garden

Well-Known Mod
Staff member
strikinghigh55 said:
I have a digital Ph meter and PPM meter. I calibrate my ph meter with the 3 point calibration solutions about once every 4 days. I considered using tap water, but it comes out of the faucet at around 375 PPM. I'm most concerned with the chlorine in the tap water. I suppose I could give it a try after removing the chlorine. That would eliminate my need for the calmag, correct? I will take all the advice to add a dark cycle and switch to an 18/6 cycle. Anyone have tips for removing chlorine/chloramines from municipal water that doesn't take 24 hours?
Click to expand...
Chlorine in water is a bonus when running hydro. Saves you adding calcium hypochlorite. Chloramine is the one they say you should remove. To remove it you need sodium thiosulfate or an RO system. I'm sure you can Google the instructions on the net for sodium thiosulfates use. It's commonly used in aquariums.
 
Aussieaceae

Aussieaceae

Well-Known Member
Looking at your numbers, are you sure you're not underfeeding them?
A plant looking that way screams more fertilizer to me. But it can be deceiving.
If you're using RO and the ppm reading is near zero, I find it hard to believe that it's your water.

100ppm after calmag, 300 - 350ppm after base nutrient. Apparently made things worse when you tried cutting back on base nutrient?
Have you considered it might be out of balance?
Maybe worth trying an increase in ppm, using the base nutrient. Say to a total 400-450ppm and see how they respond to it?
You can always thin it back out with RO, if they don't like it.

No extra calmag. You already have about a 30% ratio in your water and that's more than enough already imvho.
 
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NrthrnMichigan

NrthrnMichigan

Well-Known Member
strikinghigh55 said:
I've had my eye on that pump for a while :D and I DO need to upgrade soon so I will end up getting that pump. Especially hearing that it has some longevity. How long do you reccomend running the air pump in the tap water to ensure that it is safe for the plants? I have a second air pump that I can dedicate to the cause but was hoping to get my res change done today as my problem seems to be getting worse.
Click to expand...
I have to agree with C2G again...with the chlorine issue and dwc. I started growing in coco 2 years ago and that is when I started de-chlorinating my tap water before feeding.
Another bonus with the dual diaphragm/ I would run 2 lines to each bucket, so of course that would mean 2 air stones per bucket as well. I would have to say that you can never have too much air in dwc. Here are a couple pics of some of my dwc grows.20160817_224955.jpg20180320_105515[1001].jpg
 
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