First time DWC and plants showing deficiencies

Cold$moke said:

Theres your problem

Need to fix them roots


Lose the calmag for now

Mix the 3 part till it hits 450-500

But you gota figure out why you got the rot i think you over did it on the cal mag but not sure

I never add extra cal mag unless i see deficiency thats what your nutrients are for

As to the root issue

Rip off anything that comes off with a easy pull basically whatever comes right off take it right the fuck off

You can either rinse and treat with h202 .

Or use hydroguard or another micro beneficial

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I got some micros but haven't put em in buckets. Only 1 plant had this happen to roots the other 11 has not

Cold$moke said:

The problem is is you are giving it some straight cal mag + the base nutes which have plenty of cal mag haha

Just my oppinons though

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No biggie I got this guys who said those with soft water or running reverse osmosis need to spike their water up to 200 ppm level with Cal mag.

I know when I make clones if I add in some Cal mag the roots develop a heck of a lot faster in my mister than just straight well water. Also a little bit of clorine does wonders as well.

All I want is healthy plants that grow like mad don't care what I run or how I run it. Cal mag or no Cal mag.
I got 3 more that need to go in buckets tonight so I'll def be mixing some nutes up with no Cal mag and pH adjusted with ph down and see how my pH fluctuates.

Cx2H said:

Air pump is probably pulling in bacteria if this is about roots. Sorry man, I didn't read.

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Could add some Mycorrhizae to the water?

Greenthumbskunk said:

No biggie I got this guys who said those with soft water or running reverse osmosis need to spike their water up to 200 ppm level with Cal mag.

I know when I make clones if I add in some Cal mag the roots develop a heck of a lot faster in my mister than just straight well water. Also a little bit of clorine does wonders as well.

All I want is healthy plants that grow like mad don't care what I run or how I run it. Cal mag or no Cal mag.
I got 3 more that need to go in buckets tonight so I'll def be mixing some nutes up with no Cal mag and pH adjusted with ph down and see how my pH fluctuates.

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Thats true

But until it shows a deficiency you should just run with the base nutes but i dont run ro

But still just cause.my starting ppm is 180 am i going to assume without a water test that its cal mag ? No mines mostly iron and calcium

I would use others knowledge as a guide to your own but if their shit doesnt work for you drop it like a bad habbit

Greenthumbskunk said:

Could add some Mycorrhizae to the water?

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Hydroguard, is great or great white or whatever you have.

Checked those roots again today and I added some Mycorrhizae to the water think it was from blue planet??

Anyways I snapped a pic of the roots after around 12 hr's.







I also turned my dehumidifier off. Room temps back down to 77 and water temp was 75.2 at the hottest time of the day.

Also PH keeps rising in the buckets and I added 2 ml of pH down to knock it down to 5.5 prob climb to 6.0 by midnight unless it stabilizes.

I'm wondering if it's the airstone doing it?
I have another bucket with the exact same nutes in it that I feed my plants that are in soil. The pH in the bucket is stable and has been no movement in the number now for 2 days. Maybe a swing of .1 or .2 in a day back and forth but generally stays the same.

Greenthumbskunk said:

Checked those roots again today and I added some Mycorrhizae to the water think it was from blue planet??

Anyways I snapped a pic of the roots after around 12 hr's.

View attachment 4141977 View attachment 4141979





I also turned my dehumidifier off. Room temps back down to 77 and water temp was 75.2 at the hottest time of the day.

Also PH keeps rising in the buckets and I added 2 ml of pH down to knock it down to 5.5 prob climb to 6.0 by midnight unless it stabilizes.

I'm wondering if it's the airstone doing it?
I have another bucket with the exact same nutes in it that I feed my plants that are in soil. The pH in the bucket is stable and has been no movement in the number now for 2 days. Maybe a swing of .1 or .2 in a day back and forth but generally stays the same.

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Looking better.
Airstones add disolved oxygen to the buckets and causes pH to swing up when excessive. Turn down airflow and the pH will swing the other direction. Canna recommends no air if possible and to use a pump in the control bucket to constantly mix the solution. Up to you to research.
5.5 is low and can cause/show sign's of fluctuations.

Cx2H said:

Looking better.
Airstones add disolved oxygen to the buckets and causes pH to swing up when excessive. Turn down airflow and the pH will swing the other direction. Canna recommends no air if possible and to use a pump in the control bucket to constantly mix the solution. Up to you to research.
5.5 is low and can cause/show sign's of fluctuations.

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I always thought each bucket needed an airstone. Otherwise it would be like the Kratky method.

I think its cause canna is going off a flood and drain system which is less critical of an airstone cause it gets aerated as its cycled.


In dwc if you dont have an airstone.....yes it would be like kratky method
....but make sure your water level is set for a kratky grow and not a dwc grow

Well I went out their and checked my buckets and to turn the air off. Checked the pH in all 10 buckets and the first 5 did not need to add any pH. Matter of fact they had some pH drop, just a tad and not much. Gonna leave the air stones going in them and check again tomorrow. They looked great today with lots of new growth and development of some big fat fan leaves.
So I'm gonna leave those be right now.

Do I need to add nutrient mix when they drink some down or just wait till a change out.

Discolored roots need to be examined for slime. If slimy, then the color is algae and needs to be treated and all light leaks have to be plugged (since light causes algae to grow). The brown color might be due to nutrient stain, since the micro of GH has a very dark color to it. The color could also be Pythium root rot (not sure how to fix that one). If your roots look better after mycos, so much the better. 95F is too hot for an indoor grow. You wouldn't want the temp to be more than 75F if possible. 95 will kill plants, and cause high bacteria levels in your water. This isn't root rot necessarily, but the water will stink. It looks like your ppm levels have been too low. When plants are small in DWC, you want to dip cup into the water/fert mix, then replace the plant on the bucket and pour the liquid over the base of the plant several time a day if possible.
Air pumps don't pump bacteria into a hydro grow to be much of a problem.
If your fert has mg and calcium in it, in the micros or any other way, you probably don't have to add more unless you're certain that you need to. I don't know how the rumor of magnesium def being the source of so many discolorations got started, but it really should stop. Just because a plant turns yellow or brown doesn't mean that it's mg deficient. I wish people would stop jumping to that conclusion because mg def looks very specific as yellow spots that show in between the veins. The leaf will yellow over time if the problem isn't fixed, in other words, some magnesium should be given but not to over dose.

polishpollack said:

Discolored roots need to be examined for slime. If slimy, then the color is algae and needs to be treated and all light leaks have to be plugged (since light causes algae to grow). The brown color might be due to nutrient stain, since the micro of GH has a very dark color to it. The color could also be Pythium root rot (not sure how to fix that one). If your roots look better after mycos, so much the better. 95F is too hot for an indoor grow. You wouldn't want the temp to be more than 75F if possible. 95 will kill plants, and cause high bacteria levels in your water. This isn't root rot necessarily, but the water will stink. It looks like your ppm levels have been too low. When plants are small in DWC, you want to dip cup into the water/fert mix, then replace the plant on the bucket and pour the liquid over the base of the plant several time a day if possible.
Air pumps don't pump bacteria into a hydro grow to be much of a problem.
If your fert has mg and calcium in it, in the micros or any other way, you probably don't have to add more unless you're certain that you need to. I don't know how the rumor of magnesium def being the source of so many discolorations got started, but it really should stop. Just because a plant turns yellow or brown doesn't mean that it's mg deficient. I wish people would stop jumping to that conclusion because mg def looks very specific as yellow spots that show in between the veins. The leaf will yellow over time if the problem isn't fixed, in other words, some magnesium should be given but not to over dose.

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Rapid Root from General Hydroponics is very dark colored and turned the water dark when I put it in. Think that is what was on the roots
The grow room is in no way 95 degrees, it's that temp outside in the elements but inside I've got it around 77 with water temps around 75. In the hottest part of the day. Got a little lower now since I've turned off the dehumidifier.

I'm putting in another air-conditioner now so I have to run another run of 220 current to the box.

What causes the Brown rust spots on the leaves? I know my problem now was too high of PH. In soil I would just add a little lime when I would get spots.

https://www.growweedeasy.com/calcium-deficiency-cannabis this is identical to what was on my leaves.


As far as my ppm levels go, my plants are now drinking water and growing well with good color. My ppm's are rising has increased by 80 ppm. That tells me the plants do not need that high of ppm yet just need to add some more water in for now. When ppm's start lowering I'll know that I need to start upping my ppm's.
Well that is my understanding how dwc works

If I'm watering my plants in soil my ppm will be pretty low. Like around 180 or so. If I use plain water mostly in my watering then when I do use nutes I'll get it around 800-1200 depends on if it is a sativa or indica dominant plant and how big it is.
I have had some 15' tall sativa's that would burn the leaves if I used 800ppm.

One other thing I'm gonna change is stop using the 3 part series of general hydroponics. It is a rip off.

I've bought Jack's, ultrasol and masterblend and I was very successful in growing some monster plants in dirt. Don't see why masterblend cannot be used in DWC.
All general hydroponics does is take like a spoonful of the same salts and puts in in some water and you buy it. Buying mostly all water. Charge you 25 bucks that has probably .25 cents of nutes in it.

Greenthumbskunk said:

Rapid Root from General Hydroponics is very dark colored and turned the water dark when I put it in. Think that is what was on the roots
The grow room is in no way 95 degrees, it's that temp outside in the elements but inside I've got it around 77 with water temps around 75. In the hottest part of the day. Got a little lower now since I've turned off the dehumidifier.

I'm putting in another air-conditioner now so I have to run another run of 220 current to the box.

What causes the Brown rust spots on the leaves? I know my problem now was too high of PH. In soil I would just add a little lime when I would get spots.

https://www.growweedeasy.com/calcium-deficiency-cannabis this is identical to what was on my leaves.


As far as my ppm levels go, my plants are now drinking water and growing well with good color. My ppm's are rising has increased by 80 ppm. That tells me the plants do not need that high of ppm yet just need to add some more water in for now. When ppm's start lowering I'll know that I need to start upping my ppm's.
Well that is my understanding how dwc works

If I'm watering my plants in soil my ppm will be pretty low. Like around 180 or so. If I use plain water mostly in my watering then when I do use nutes I'll get it around 800-1200 depends on if it is a sativa or indica dominant plant and how big it is.
I have had some 15' tall sativa's that would burn the leaves if I used 800ppm.

One other thing I'm gonna change is stop using the 3 part series of general hydroponics. It is a rip off.

I've bought Jack's, ultrasol and masterblend and I was very successful in growing some monster plants in dirt. Don't see why masterblend cannot be used in DWC.
All general hydroponics does is take like a spoonful of the same salts and puts in in some water and you buy it. Buying mostly all water. Charge you 25 bucks that has probably .25 cents of nutes in it.

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The brown spots.
Its like soil. If ph is too low, calcium is unavailable.
Is the ph in your bucket under ph6?
Still adding calmag too? If its lockout calmag just makes it worse.
Calmag is like putting a Band-Aid on a wound that needs stitching. Its a temporary fix. But doesn't stop the problem.

Tim1987 said:

The brown spots.
Its like soil. If ph is too low, calcium is unavailable.
Is the ph in your bucket under ph6?
Still adding calmag too? If its lockout calmag just makes it worse.
Calmag is like putting a Band-Aid on a wound that needs stitching. Its a temporary fix. But doesn't stop the problem.

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I only put in calmag when I first mixed the nutes. Not since then though. PH would climb to around 7 after a little over 24 hrs.

Now the PH is stable in all my buckets. Took several days of continually adding PH down to knock it down to 5.8
No clue why it was climbing every day.
I've read aot of posts over the last week from people voicing the same problems. Some people have problems and some don't. Some think it is the clay pebbles but others said it was pH neutral. Some thought it was the oxygen making the PH rise

Seems most of em are guys running reverse osmosis water or extremely soft water like myself. I think it's the water reacting with the nutes and takes several rounds of PH down to stabilize the PH.

One thing that I saw is the PH increasing kept decreasing over time. For example the PH would climb to 7 the first several times after adding PH down back to 5.8 . Then it would only increase to 6.8 then add in pH down back to 5.8 then next day it would be 6.5 then pH it again back to 5.8 then next day it would be 6.2 etc. Finally it holds steady at 5.8

Why is it doing this? Got me but I don't like it lol.
Gonna put 3 more plants in buckets though in next day or so. Will be shortly before the bigger plants are gonna be moved to 30 gal containers. Got my air fixed with another air-conditioner 18,500 btu added.

Thinking about on these next 3 plants of using masterblend/calcium nitrate/ Epsom salt combo general hydroponics is a serious ripoff. This was my first time using it and in no way blaming if for pH rise but for what you buy money wise and what you get is lunacy.

I'm in farm country and of course in a corn crop, soybeans, wheat etc you buy fertz by the tons and of course lime. Lime is around 15-25 bucks a ton depending on where you live. Dry fertilizer depending on your mix is around 200-450 a ton.
The liquid fertilizer you buy for cannibus is made from the same salts but in different formulations. What shocked me about general Hydroponics is how watered down it is. I was thinking it would be like 1 ml instead of 12 for example.

Anybody can buy their own salts and mix their own nutes themselves. Of course urea based nitrogen is useless in water as it needs a buffer like soil to convert it to a usable nitrogen source for plants. So buy nitrates instead which doesn't need it.
You can buy micros just anything really.

It is a little easier mixing water with water instead of powder but I can mix a lb or 2 of dry fertilizer in a 5 gal containers with spout and write down the mix ratio of what the ppm would be in a gal or 3 gal of water.

Off soap box lol

In this video on how to mix hydro nutes he says if using reverse osmosis water add Cal mag to reach 250-300 ppm. Start at 19:15 in video to hear him. Lots of guys say to do this even if using micros

I personally wouldnt buy into it.
How does adding more calmag affect osmosis, any more than base nutrient?
Why?

They say its a must have, for coco coir too. But getting rid of calmag was the best thing i did with coir.
My tap water is way under 0.2ec.

How does calmag affect osmotic pressure more than the nutrient?
Please explain why?

Osmotic pressure is what makes plants stand tall and straight.
It's actually in the case of plants, ions charging the water.
It starts at the roots.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osmosis

My question is.
What difference does calmag make, to the charge in the water? As opposed to nutrient a+b for example.

Calcium is a pH buffer. It will raise pH.
Greenthumb, You're playing the pH game, fighting it and thinking it needs to be a special number. How about stop doing that, focus more on the ppm and keep that where you want it and see what happens.

polishpollack said:

Calcium is a pH buffer. It will raise pH.
Greenthumb, You're playing the pH game, fighting it and thinking it needs to be a special number. How about stop doing that, focus more on the ppm and keep that where you want it and see what happens.

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I've been doing some figuring the last day on nutes. I'm gonna have to buy some more GH or go with something else.
From my figuring if you mix out nutes to 600 ppm in the rez then a masterblend nutrient mix will be 6.6x more than if you use general hydroponics nutes for the same price invested in the nutrients.
If I go with the masterblend I'm gonna leave out the calmag because it needs Epsom salts instead.

I will be money ahead and I'm very familiar with dry nutes anyways since that is what I use in my soil grows.

Gonna have to build a system of totes connected to a common Reservoir. I will be using 13-30 gallon totes connected by a 2-inch pipe maybe something smaller? With a pump continuously pumping the solution from the end of the line back to the main rez tank.
Do you guys just put the bubblers in the main tank or do you keep oxygen going to every tote? Prob end up buying a water chiller, so I can increase temps a few degrees to increase growth but keep the roots 68 degrees. Now they are steady at 72.2 degrees and room is at 71.
Plants growing very well right now. My best roots come from a seed I started in a cup of soil instead of grodan. It has a huge amount compared to the rest.
Worried about roots clogging up drain holes in those totes. So I'm probably gonna use paint strainers to keep roots from clogging em up