Am I doing anything right? White spots on leaves, drooping, yellow holes..

Okay so let me start by saying that this is my first DWC grow. I did a couple of soil grows and had decent results, thought I'd step it up a notch and try DWC. So I have 4 plants that came from some seeds I got out of a bag of decent mids I bought. I have 4 200w (equivalent) CFLs above them. They're in a 27 gallon tub with 1 4 inch airstone and one 10" airstones. They've been growing since Christmas. I did my soil grows on 12/12 light cycle from seedling. On this DWC attempt, i ran 18/6 for the first 3 weeks and then swiitched them to 12/12, as I have limited space at this time. As far as nutes, im using Cutting Edge Solutions Micro and Bloom, about half of the recommended amount. I've got droopy leaves, some white spots on one the plants, and on the others i have holes that have yellow edges, almost like they were burnt with a magnifying glass. I never spray the leaves with water, so the light magnifying a water droplet is highly unlikely. I've read countless threads trying to diagnose my problems myself and what i've come up with is that perhaps i need more airstones, and maybe I should just switch to advanced nutrients and follow the feeding directions on one of the thousands of threads on here, as that seems to be the nutrient of choice for most of you on here. Any input would be GREATLY appreciated.

Oooooo bud those stopped growing a while ago. Whyd you wait so long for help?

looks like a few problems.... Not enough oxygen is causing the droopiness. Either not enough air getting pumped to the roots, or they are being suffocated by slime and other pathogens in the water. Are you running any bennes or sterile products to keep the water "healthy"?

also the leaves look like they're being eaten by a pest, likely spider mites.

I agree, more airstones

Hmm, I don't see marks of spider mites, unless I am just missing something. I would definitely put another 10" or two 4" air stones. What temps do you have running in there?

more airstones, or lower temps which will what is probably root rot suffocating your plants, or both. If you decide to use beneficial microbes you will have to use them the entire grow

SnaFuu said:

Oooooo bud those stopped growing a while ago. Whyd you wait so long for help?

looks like a few problems.... Not enough oxygen is causing the droopiness. Either not enough air getting pumped to the roots, or they are being suffocated by slime and other pathogens in the water. Are you running any bennes or sterile products to keep the water "healthy"?

also the leaves look like they're being eaten by a pest, likely spider mites.

Click to expand...

I haven't put anything in the water to keep it "healthy", just the nutrients. I haven't really had the money to do anything else. I'll have funds beginning of next week, hopefully it is not too late. The white spots are in the 2nd picture on the leaf in the center. Spidermites? Really? FML.

Also, the water temp gets to be 66 at the highest, and 59 at the lowest. I dont have a PH meter to test the PH. The roots are white, so i don't suspect root rot...

ph 5.0 ? and water under 70f prefer 65 to 60f ?

Just checked again and took some more pictures. Lower growth of one of the plants has some rust looking bronze stuff on it.. not sure if it is all related or all different problems..

You should really budget everything out and do enough research from the beginning that you don't run into this issue..I don't do dwc and even I know you have to treat the water..you should know everything you will have to buy from the beginning..you should have stayed in soil because now you have wasted what money you did spend and Idk why your looking at dwc as "a step up"anyway.....well next time better planning, good luck man

Edit..looked at pics they are still small and if roots are white you don't have a huge problem you can save it just thought it was alot worst from reading

Thanks for the input Kermit, I honestly thought I did enough research.. must be too much medicine

What do you suggest I do Kermit?

Oh ok since the roots are still white... And your temps are <70f...
you need more air. That's it as far as the droopiness.

but if your roots are white and you got rust spots that's something different. Maybe your ph is way off causing lockout of ca/mg.

do you have any pics of the roots?

All males guys They showed sex this morning. I'll spend a little more money before i attempt hydro again, but at least I have 2 females in soil right now. My plan is to buy the stuff I need before cloning the females, then attempting round 2. Thanks for all the input guys!

Rust spots are usually the beginning of calcium deficiency and its much easier to get in hydro than soil...I suggest you switch back to soil lol...I don't grow hydro so i'm not much help. although the growth rate can be faster, its more precise more room for error

Lol just read your last post glad to see you have a fallback plan and are just playing around with lining the hydro until you get the hang..its a whole different ballgame

Make one of these for the bottom of your tank. jsut use safety pin to punch a hole every 1/2 inch too 1 inch. test it. those are stainless steel washers to hold it down. i can have 1 air line feeding it or 2. this is my clone machine setup well the bottom part.

love and peace all