DWC Problems

This is my first attempt at growing in anything other then coco coir and so far it doesn't seem to be going too well.

One seedling is covered in well rust spots maybe? another has burnt tips and the 3rd is very light green even though they've all received the same EC nutrients.

Here are 2 pics:

Any ideas would be very much appreciated cuz I'm already down on this grow and don't have a whole lot of faith at the moment.

yeah they are shocked by the light imo .. a recurrent problem when people start with tiny seedlings/cuttings
that happened to me when i was putting rooted cutting directly under the final lamp .. now i put it very high

is that a hps ? wattage and current distance ?

kingromano said:

yeah they are shocked by the light imo .. a recurrent problem when people start with tiny seedlings/cuttings
that happened to me when i was putting rooted cutting directly under the final lamp .. now i put it very high

is that a hps ? wattage and current distance ?

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It's a 240w LED (a good LED, this one specifically: https://gn.uk/led-grow-lights/gn-telos-8 ). It's at the absolute top of my grow space, but unfortunately my grow tent is pretty small (2'x4x'5') so I only have 5 feet of vertical room.

I have a CFL fixture thingy I made my last grow for my seedlings, I can try putting that in there instead for now, but would light stress lead to all the rust spots on 2 of them? I just noticed the picture did not capture very well what these spots look like I will try and get better pics if I can with my phone. I'm not 100% convinced light is the problem though but I will try putting a weaker light in there anyways, thanks. Any other suggestions appreciated I will try and take better pics

Other info I forgot to add is that I am using tap water (~350ppm), 1/4 strength sensi grow (1ml/L) pH 5.8. If I'm forgetting other info just ask.

Here are a bit better pics:

at this stage plants are very sensitive and they need little light to develop roots
i dont know leds but 240w looks pretty strong
similar to 400hps i guess ?
i would put the cfl over them and see them recover

K, you need to explain what the hell is going on in This system. Show some more detailed pics and explain why this plastic sheeting shit is.

Get the plastic off. Stem rot will happen if too much moisture is trapped around the stems.

I start my little ones in 300ppm nutes and work up as they get growing.

I also use something like a turkey baster to suck up some nutes and feed from the top twice a day until they get roots in the soup which should be an inch below the net pots letting the popping bubbles from the airstones keep things wet.

Good luck!

kingromano said:

i would put the cfl over them and see them recover

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That too. Seedlings need much less light than vegging plants as do cuttings when making clones.

You should be uploading pics directly to the site and not using 3rd party hosting. Preferably not 8MB pics too so if using your phone for pics dial down the resolution a bit.

Airwalker16 said:

K, you need to explain what the hell is going on in This system. Show some more detailed pics and explain why this plastic sheeting shit is.

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They are 12 gallon bins whose lids are those ones that fold in, in other words there was no other way to secure them from light leaking then to just pull 2 garbage bags around the bins. The plastic sheeting shit is just 2 garbage bags that were required to prevent light from getting into the bins.

There are 2 airstones in each bin, one is a cheap 12" strip one and the other is a more expensive round airstone. Other then that there is a drain port at the bottom which has tubing attached so I can gauge the water level, a fill hole I cut in the lid (which I'm still working on best ways to seal it from light) and holes in the side of the bins for the tubing and a couple of sensors I will be using with my arduino to monitor (and eventually automate) water temp, EC, pH.

I can cut it off around the net pots, I thought making as small a hole as possible would just help keep light out but I never thought about stem rot.

This is all completely new to me, I've never done anything in water like this, so please go easy on me. I'm sure i've screwed shit up but just trying my best with my DIY and limited budget (i'm disabled and unemployed, money is hard to come by, hence why i'm growing my medicine instead of buying it).

I upload to imgur so that I have all of my images archived in one place should I need them again, does it really matter?

Also I chose these bins because they are sturdy and they are the only ones that I could find that would fit my grow footprint maximally.

guitarguy10 said:

They are 12 gallon bins whose lids are those ones that fold in, in other words there was no other way to secure them from light leaking then to just pull 2 garbage bags around the bins. The plastic sheeting shit is just 2 garbage bags that were required to prevent light from getting into the bins.

There are 2 airstones in each bin, one is a cheap 12" strip one and the other is a more expensive round airstone. Other then that there is a drain port at the bottom which has tubing attached so I can gauge the water level, a fill hole I cut in the lid (which I'm still working on best ways to seal it from light) and holes in the side of the bins for the tubing and a couple of sensors I will be using with my arduino to monitor (and eventually automate) water temp, EC, pH.

I can cut it off around the net pots, I thought making as small a hole as possible would just help keep light out but I never thought about stem rot.

This is all completely new to me, I've never done anything in water like this, so please go easy on me. I'm sure i've screwed shit up but just trying my best with my DIY and limited budget (i'm disabled and unemployed, money is hard to come by).

I upload to imgur so that I have all of my images archived in one place should I need them again, does it really matter?

Click to expand...

Go to home depot or Walmart probably has it as well, and buy a can of Black RustOLeum brand spray paint. There's a specific kind they make that "Bonds To Plastic!" and use that on the TOP of your lids to block out any light. Avoid doing the underside of the lid where it stays wet all the time.
Before you paint them though, it really does make a huge difference if you take a few moments and give the surface you're going to paint a nice sanding down. Nothing crazy, but a good once over with some 800 grit or so makes that paint stick 1,000X better..if you decide to skip the sanding, you'll find your job flaking and scratching off very easily. So do it right the first time and be done with it.
Also, do 2 coats for good measure.
This will completely light proof them.

As for your "fill holes", easiest remedy would be to buy a kneeling pad. Sometimes called gardening pads, or whathave you. It's a good neoprene like foam similar to what cloning collars are made from.
Cut a circle, or whatever other shape you ended up doing, out of it to fit nice n' snug in your hole you made.

Here's a link to one. It does have texture on it but it doesn't really matter. It's $5


Or if you wanna look yourself and decide, here's a link to the search. They start to ship within the U.S. and not just China around page 6, if you sort it to be "lowest price + shipping".

anything that small should just be under t5s until they are nice and stronger because I just use 21watts for my clones and that's just barely weak enough because my cutting are 3 times as big as yours atleast but move that black sheet because u can get some nasty stem problems with having to much moisture at the stem good way to get rot that light for the little babies is way to much because I had a c99xbb go in my led room after being transplanted and wow she didn't like the leds at all I gave her 2 extra weeks under 21 watts of t5 came back beautifully those leds can hurt baby plants like those just give them less light manes

They are the hinged like interlocking lid bins, these ones in specific:

That's why I just covered the whole thing, there's not really a great way to cover all those cracks other then garbage bags (which btw a bin can fit inside one garbage bag like almost perfectly tight).

I will look into that airwalker, I think that truck bed lining paint shit might work too. But in any case that would have to wait until my next grow because uh I can't really take them apart now that they are running with plants in them. Also I literally have just under $3 in the bank until I get disability support at the end of this month, so I'm pretty much stuck with what I've got for now.

guitarguy10 said:

They are the hinged like interlocking lid bins, these ones in specific:

12 Gal. Heavy Duty Flip-Top Storage Bin in Grey 236475 - The Home Depot

The 12 Gal. Flip Tote features a strong and reliable construction, making it impact resistant. Metal hinges interlock for stacking strength and security. This heavy-duty tote is ideal for storage, distribution

www.homedepot.com

That's why I just covered the whole thing, there's not really a great way to cover all those cracks other then garbage bags (which btw a bin can fit inside one garbage bag like almost perfectly tight).

I will look into that airwalker, I think that truck bed lining paint shit might work too. But in any case that would have to wait until my next grow because uh I can't really take them apart now that they are running with plants in them. Also I literally have just under $3 in the bank until I get disability support at the end of this month, so I'm pretty much stuck with what I've got for now.

Click to expand...

Well I added a bit to my post so re-read it if you care. Lol

Airwalker16 said:

Well I added a bit to my post so re-read it if you care. Lol

Click to expand...

lol of course I care, that's why I'm asking for help .

Thanks I will look into that cuz so far all I've been able to think of are like the sink drain plugs or whatever and right now my solution is uh, not ideal ... as I am currently covering the fill holes with a PS4 game haha.

I've used Rubbermaid tubs since '01 for DWC and never painted or covered the lids and had no problems and they sat under HID lights as soon as they had roots in the water. Went and rented a hole saw from the local tool rental place. 50 tubs worth of growing at least from the start.

12 hole SoG style lid for an auto flower experiment I did sprouting the seeds right in the net pots that has some screened Promix HP mixed in so the roots had a path to follow to the bottom. Worked pretty good. Note extra 2" hole for access that I kept covered with the used top from a 5gal water jug or a large dial thermometer to keep an eye on temps.



I keep my tubs on wheeled dollies so they're easy to move around especially when doing a ScroG. DIY chiller keeping the nute temps where I want them around 65 - 68F. 50L tubs all loaded up are a little out of my back's pay scale.



Some of the plants can get pretty big as can their colas.