Wilting plants in RDWC using LED's

Fractalicious

Fractalicious

Member
IMG_1043.jpgIMG_1047.jpgIMG_1050.jpgAt least half of my girls are seriously wilting. Check out the pic's. I'm using the Under current RDWC system with LED's. Half of the led's are the long bar panel type (80 watts at wall plug x10 and also 12 300w chinese panel lights (3w 8-band 180w actual draw each).

Humidity has been a major problem (over 70%) until I installed a large dehumidifier yesterday. Room is now steady at 50% humidity. I'm using Under Currents own nutrients at a very low 250ppm. PH is 6.2 - 6.3. Room temp is 73 (without all the lights turned on...if I turn them all on, the system temp jumps to over 75. I've ordered a large water chiller that should arrive in a few days. With it installed I think I'll be able to run all lights and keep water temp below 70.

Right now, I'm kind of limping along because I'm new to led's. I've done many HPS grows (that turned out very well). This is my first led grow, and even watching all the youtube videos and educating myself, I'm not sure how powerful these things are.

Am I hitting the plants with too much light? They are currently 36" above canopy. Not enough light? I'm afraid to move them much closer for fear of burning them and making them wilt even more.

Power is a major issue here. I can't just throw on some hps's and rock and roll. The main issue I'm worried about now is the wilting. Not all plants, about half. All were transplanted to the RDWC from EZ-cloner 3 days ago.

The wilting looks like plants that were grown in soil and over-watered, but they have never been in soil. How long should it take the plants to recover from too much humidity (if that's the problem)?

Thank you all!
 
Fractalicious

Fractalicious

Member
Roots were a foot long, so I carefully coiled them in the bottom of the netpot, then hand-filled it with hydroclay to the top of basket. The instructions say put down an inch of clay pebbles first and then put in plant, and then fill to top with hydroclay. I was concerned that may damage roots, so I put the roots directly on bottom of basket with pebbles on top. Water roils and bubbles more than half-way up the pots. So they seem to be getting plenty of water/oxygen.

Helraizer30 - Is this what you mean by "set in good"?


Thanks again!
 
T

tibberous

Well-Known Member
It's not PH.

Two things make plants look like that, root rot and dehydration. Dehydration is pretty obvious (ie: the roots aren't touching the water), so I'm guessing it's the latter.

If it's root rot, the wilted plants will die and more will probably wilt and die. Root rot is generally from too high of water temp, which keeps oxygen from dissolving in the water. Without oxygen the roots die, then rot, which can also cause bad bacteria growth. Shittiest part about root rot is that the first symptom you see (wilting) occurs after the roots are destroyed - you can't fix the plant, and probably can't clone it.

But yeah, root rot is about the worst thing there is. I'd take clones and maybe move the non-wilted plants to something like an E&F, and throw the wilted plants out.
 
Fractalicious

Fractalicious

Member
Yes, the roots are in water. The roots were well over a foot long (spent too much time in the ez-cloner), so I couldn't plant them per Under Current's included instructions. They say plant on a bed of hydroclay (in netpot), then cover with remaining pebbles up to top of basket. I had to coil the roots around the very bottom of basket, because I feared the roots may break from laying on uneven bed of pebbles and then putting more pebbles over them. These are large baskets and a lot of weight.

I realize the correct way is to put clones that just start to root into the baskets, but I was trying to go with the lesser of evils. Now I may have created more problems for myself. I've lowered the water level to just 1/4 inch above bottom of netpot, instructions say to run water level halfway up netpot. I lowered it so they might not drown, but am I shooting myself in the foot for doing so? Won't I later just have to raise it to recommended halfway up? If so, won't that drown them when I raise it back up?

The roots are at the very bottom of the netpots with hydroclay covering them to the top of baskets. The long coiled roots are under about 1/2 inch of water and some are starting to turn slightly brown. As opposed to root rot, it looks like the roots are drowning. 3 of the larger plants do however have explosive roots developing near the top half of the baskets (the part that wasn't submerged).

So what I'm wondering is should I try and dump out the pebbles from the netpots and replant them (the same plant in the same netpot) with 2" of pebbles on bottom, or leave as is and hope, or start a beneficial bacteria tea treatment to help the wilted looking roots recover (some look ok, others don't). It's been 10 days and no new roots at all (other than the 3 bigger plants). If I do nothing, the roots will stay submerged. This strain took 2 weeks to root in ez-clone, so I'd rather not have to replace them.

Plenty of oxygen to roots. Twin 1.7 amp airpumps and a 1.2 amp with large airstones bubbling like crazy in every one of the 24 tubs. View attachment 2439431View attachment 2439432View attachment 2439433
 
ounevinsmoke

ounevinsmoke

Well-Known Member
Roots don't drown as long as the top 1/3 of roots are exposed to air they will be fine. You definatley need a tea for some benes if your roots are brown but if I were you I would just salvage the good looking plants and dump the dead looking ones.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top