Weak points at trunk of plant stem

I'm having issues with these General Hydroponics Waterfarm setup. Every single plant in the setup has developed weak points at the base of each steam above the roots right where the top of the hydroton rocks stops. I"m pretty certain it's due to moisture as I can feel them and they are wet, and also turned a light brown in color while the rest of the stem is green. The stalk also is very wide at the base, then where the browning occurs it's about half as thick then a few inches up it's thick again. This has caused two of them to fall over from being top heavy and not enough support at the base.

I was considering using something to cover the stalk of the plant maybe? LIke some kind of clear plastic and some string to tie it off?

If any of you have any idea on what's happening i'd appreciate some feedback = )

Also, I've also been running an aeroflo system without any issues using the same nute solution, same clones etc so i'm pretty confident it's something to do with the way the system is setup and getting too much moisture?

Thanks!

it sounds like stem rot, possibly root rot. It is a good idea to cover the area up, but you should also look into hydroguard which helps prevent mold and h2o2 which does the same. You should look into that asap before it gets any worse!

I already use the following: BC Series Nutes, Hydroguard, Hygrozyme, Sweet (berry), and KoolBloom (liquid, during flower only), and H202 everytime I add nutes. I take apart my equiptment every month and half or so to clean it out completely and make sure there's no issue with salt buildup or any problems that might come with being dirty.

The temps are ok in the res about 78*F, and the room itself is about 72/73*F.

I've checked the roots and they are very white in color, and I believe root rot will turn them into a dark brown/orange color? I have tried the netpod covers before, and had an issue with the stalk of the plant outgrowing the premade hole. I was considering something like using pandapaper to cover it but I don't want to run into any kind of rot with the tops of the buckets not getting fresh air.

I have two systems in 1 room, and the plants in the aeroflo are thriving nicely, while the ones in the hydrofarms all seem to have this same issue with the stalk rotting, is this a serious flaw in the system or is there something I'm doing wrong? I had an air pump going to each bucket before, but decided to use 3 pumps for all 8 buckets to decrease flow in hopes that maybe I was just letting it get too moiste?

Is a small flow of drops enough to keep the plants (a month into veg, 34" tall) moiste enough, and give them all the nutes they need? Some of them have roots already growing into the lower chamber of the buckets, but some are still not out of the top compartment yet.

Thanks, I appreciate the input.

Nobody else uses the hydrofarm buckets?

I use the Water/Aqua farms quite a lot a easy fix is to pull the ring out of the tee and just let the nutrient pump out of the tee.

Heath

I like that idea, but will the water distribute enough throughout the rocks to get to the main rootmass?

I've taken the 8 buckets from 8 pumps and changed them to 2 dual head pumps with t connectors and it seems to have restricted the flow a bit and created less "splash" as the areas I was worrying about are now dry. Although they are still weaker, I'm hoping they can repair themselves.

Thanks!

From where the nutrient solution hits the hydroton it flows downwards and outwards in a pyramid shape I have found that it is better to have more flow than less as obviously if the flow is too restricted you wont get the pyramid effect for the roots to grow into.

I have just completed a tree grow in some heavily modded Aquafarms which simply use an open ended pipe as a feed in a recirculating system. It should give you an idea of what is possible in these systems.

https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/101347-critical-mass-tree-grow-x.html



Heath

Good Fucking God.

That's an insane grow. I've had my girls vegging for 4.5 under 2x 600w and 3x 400 w and they've turned into pretty big freaks as well. I'm definitely not giving up on the hydrofarm buckets as they seem to have promise, I think I just need to learn the ins and outs as they're a bit more finiky than my aeroflo system.

I'm curious how you dealt with the worry of mould? Do you just have rediculous air circulation or are there some other means of prevention? That's something that's been worrying me in the back of my head as my trees have gotten pretty dense, and haven't even started forming buds yet as they're at the begining of week 3 flower.

Thanks!

Also, how much did those two plants yield like that? Are they in reference to your signature?

Ya got to stick them down deep in the net pots ... I had that problem in an Aerogarden

Hey man I had stem rot it's fixable but it's a pain in the ass. I scraped the infected area with a sterilized razor blade, scraped back down to good stalk, applied peroxide heavily, and then covered the exposed surface with cloning gel, worked out fine. I love the buckets I only run the drippers about 12 hours a day at diffrent intervals and I use a fan blowing directly across the stalks hope it helps man

If you are going to grow trees you need to have good air circulation and you also need to keep your Relative humidity at approx 50 to 60%. Silicon can help prevent bud rot and also keeping the temps at lights off similar to lights on temps.

The trees should weigh in excess of 40 Oz each.


Heath

Wow, that's pretty nuts. I have really good air circulation as i've built cages around my girls and they don't move much. I had a few tiny areas of mould before, but I think that was due to poor air circulation. I also had my temps going from 69 when off to 79/80 when on so that could have attributed too. When you say silicon can help prevent bud rot, how is silicon applied and where can I get some?

In reguards to the waterfarm buckets, i've got the bottom 1/3 of the plant trimmed off and "lollipopped" with a fan blowing across the tops of the buckets. I like your idea with the cloning gel, i'm definitely going to give that a go.