stopped growth and droopy in bubble bucket?

Hey guys. I have a ch9 vinatge 2006 plant going in a 5 gallon bucket. Last night I checked in on it and the biggest leaves are drooping now. Color is still good. I also noticed the stems are purple/red. Genetics or lockout? I did pull the lid off and noticed a bit of slime on the may roots which I gently cleaned away and re ph'd the water and changed it out. Also backed the nutes off a bit. Roots look mostly white and some a very light brown. Could also be my eyes under the hps. The plant is about 4 weeks old today. Using lucas formula 5/10 half strength plan on switching to the full hps 8/16 strength when it's not so bummed out.
Using hydroton medium.
Ph 5.5 did have some fluctuation being away at work on some hotter days lately. Room temp stays around mid to low 70s a couple swings here and there but nothing too drastic. Ppm is 145 out of the tap and then after half strength 5/10 formula about 350 +/-. Light schedule is 20/4. Switching to 18/6 tonight probably.
I can and will post pictures when I'm off but just wanted to get some input in the mean time. Also when should I be switching from 1/4 to 1/2 to full on the nutes. Like I said. I will be able to post pictures later but wanted to start the idea train rolling.
Thanks for any info. This community has become an invaluable resourse and I thanks everyone for their advice and input!
 

Spittn4cash

Well-Known Member
Holy cow! Im having the same exact issue with wilting plants.

Im growing in hydro - plants are going on 4 weeks vegging, on 20/4 and using the lucas method...same as you! My plants roots were white/light brown..(same as yours!) But I watered them with fresh water + H2O2 to combat any possible root rot/slime. Only difference is I'm using a 400wMH, and I'm using hempy buckets.

I've been reading up on this for the past few hours...some people say it can be due to the light cycle (20/4) because some plants need longer dark periods. Some people say it can be due to not enough air circulation, so just add a fan to your room. Others are saying its due to a lack of oxygen to the roots, so add an airstone.

But no one has reported back with results/possible solutions.

Did you see any improvement switching the light cycle from 20/4 to 18/6?
Does your grow room have proper air circulation? Do you have enough fans?
How many airstones are in your bucket?
What is the temperature of your water?
In order to help diagnose your purple stem issues, can you post a pic?

-Cash
 
hey man sorry for not seeing this until now. last night i sprayed my roots down for like 10 minutes and also pulled out anything that looked like it was any sort of slime out of the root mass coming out of the net pot. cleaned EVERYTHING out real good. boiled my stones. put it all back together and then let it flush for a few hours. added back 2.5/5 gh solution ph'd my water and added a decent amount of 3% H2O2 i still haven't switched to 18/6 as i've seen vast improvements in the passed 24 hours or so. I do have descent circulation. nothing high grade but i have a vent down low and s small 50 cfm fan 300 cf an hour is a full room exchange for me and it seems fine for now until we get warmer weather out here and i invest in a bigger exhaust fan. i only have one fan in my room. it moves air accross the plant and up into the exhaust fan. two airstones in the res. don't know water temp as i couldn't find a thermometer when i went out tonight after work but it did feel warmish when i got back so i did another res change just to be on the safe side. it's so weird we're suffering from the same things and almost the same setup! haha. what i just described worked for me so i'd try it out and see if there's any improvement. the stems seem to be lightening up as well. i still can't tell if it's genetics or just because they're still so small and can be seen. i've heard of that as well. i'll post a picture tomorrow when i'm off and you can give me your input!
 

Spittn4cash

Well-Known Member
hey man sorry for not seeing this until now. last night i sprayed my roots down for like 10 minutes and also pulled out anything that looked like it was any sort of slime out of the root mass coming out of the net pot. cleaned EVERYTHING out real good. boiled my stones. put it all back together and then let it flush for a few hours. added back 2.5/5 gh solution ph'd my water and added a decent amount of 3% H2O2 i still haven't switched to 18/6 as i've seen vast improvements in the passed 24 hours or so. I do have descent circulation. nothing high grade but i have a vent down low and s small 50 cfm fan 300 cf an hour is a full room exchange for me and it seems fine for now until we get warmer weather out here and i invest in a bigger exhaust fan. i only have one fan in my room. it moves air accross the plant and up into the exhaust fan. two airstones in the res. don't know water temp as i couldn't find a thermometer when i went out tonight after work but it did feel warmish when i got back so i did another res change just to be on the safe side. it's so weird we're suffering from the same things and almost the same setup! haha. what i just described worked for me so i'd try it out and see if there's any improvement. the stems seem to be lightening up as well. i still can't tell if it's genetics or just because they're still so small and can be seen. i've heard of that as well. i'll post a picture tomorrow when i'm off and you can give me your input!
Hey, Thanks for replying!

After flushing with fresh pH'd water + 5ml of 3% peroxide per gallon, I'm also starting to see some improvements. I definitely think it was a problem with the roots (possibly beginnings of root rot??)

I haven't chopped off any parts of the roots because they aren't that brown..hopefully it wont get to that point. And I probably wont give them nutes again until I see more signs of recovery.

Sounds like you're on your way!! Please keep me updated with your progress.

Thanks again, you've been helpful!

-Cash
 

Spittn4cash

Well-Known Member
Hey wavingnotdrowning, how's it going?

Are things getting better? Did they make a full recovery?



Quick update:

My plants have improved, but not much over the last 48 hrs. I'm getting a ton of new bright green growth, and the plants are stretching but the old leaves don't seem to be perking up that much, still droopy.

Root stunting:
Brown roots still look the same, slightly more brown.... I am seeing some fuzzy bright white roots popping out of my cubes, so thats exciting!

I just placed an order for Advanced Nutrients "Sensizym", its supposed to decompose the old roots and turn them into helpful plant food. It also prevents further root rot, man I sure wish I had this from the beginning! But if I would have trimmed off the 'dead' roots and forced the plants to grow new roots, then it may have slowed down the healing process, so I may have lucked out by not trimming the old roots off.

The plan:
-The Sensizym will be here tuesday, until then Im going to feed them plain tap water, not going to adjust pH or add anything...just plain tap water.
-I'm also going to spray them down every few hours to see if it makes a difference. Since the plant's can't use the roots right now, they should be able to absorb water through their leaves.
-In about a week, I'm going to top my plants and use the tops to make clones. I plan on using the clones as mothers, and then flowering the plants that are having issues if/once they recover.

I'll continue to keep you updated on the progress, I hope you do the same. Hit me back and let me know whats up!

Thanks,
-Cash
 
Again. Sorry for the late reply. It's been almost a week haha! After the wash, flush and change of nutes. I raised my light a fair amount and everything seems back to normal. I also did switch to 18/6 which seemed to make a difference in growth and sag/droop of the plant. All i've been doing is every time I do a res change or it gets too hot if i'm away is switch the water out and add more 3% h202 when i do my change. Water. Nutes. H202. Ph. Everything seems a lot better. I've gotten new white growth and some of the good fuzz. Haven't seen the slime come back so something is working right for me. Let me know how the sensizym works out! It just eats the old stuff and that's that? I bet I can pick some of that up at a local shop. I do have some brown root going on. But like you. Nothing that looks too terribly bad. Not good but not bad haha. Sounds like we both got the beginning of root rot but at least we caught it before it became detrimental. This grow has been a learning process for me as I've never had a bigger space to work with and I've had to deal with some trial and error. At least the first test was with a free bean. I just sprouted some new ones last week to try and go for a bigger run this time. I'm excited to see the outcome after what I've learned with my new stuff and room. Hope everything is going good for you cash!
 

Spittn4cash

Well-Known Member
Hey WND! I'm glad that things are getting better for you..it sounds like you made some positive changes and have a great plan of attack! 18/6 seems like the sweet spot, I'm going to have to give that a try.

Everything is awesome with my plants. They've resumed growth, and the roots have exploded! The SensiZym helped a lot, but I think cleaning out the system with bleach, and flushing with 3% H2O2 is what saved my plants. The SensiZym has caused my roots to explode - it's unreal! After I used the SensiZym some of the brown roots started growing white tips again and the leaves perked up again. I also picked up some AquaShield which is beneficial bacteria, it's supposed to prevent root rot from coming back and help with the brown slime. If you can get some SensiZym and AquaShield, I highly recommend it.

I'm glad that things are turning around for you. Great job!! i hope you post some pics when they make a full recovery, and some of the new sprouts. I'm gonna start a grow journal in a few days, stop by when you get a chance. Thanks again!

-Cash
 
Good to hear man! I will most definitely be getting some of that then! I've heard people swear by it but never had to try anything besides a little 3% in smaller setups. I'll probably hit the hydro store later today or tomorrow just to have it on hand incase and to prevent any future weirdness haha. I'll definitely be stopping by to check out the new grow as well. We both saved ourselves! Go us! haha
 
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