Plants not looking good, first Hyrdo crop...

Bezy

Active Member
Well I've grown organically in pots for a while with some success but have tired of the mess, smell and clean up, so I recent switched a little over a week ago to Hydro with my home made Ebb and Flow unit, but I digress...
Ever since I have switched my plants from hand feeding in perlite (They were potted clones I cleaned off and put into perlite) to the new hyrdo set up they have seemed droopy and the lower leaves look as if they are dieing (Yellow and brown spots). Anyways, here's the specs;
- 1000w MH with HyrdoFarm vented hood, I just raised it hoping to keep the plants cooler as they having been around 80-85 degrees with the light on
- 5 Plants in coca cubes covered with expanded clay in 5" net pots
- 10 gal upper flood reservoir with 14 gal lower nute/water reservoir
- 2 air stones for aeration
- pH is a constant 6.0
- Was watering 4x 15 min daily, reduced to 3 as I thought they looked over watered - but now I just backed it down to 2x a day
- I have it flooding to about 50-75% of the height of the net pots
- Using Gen Hydro Flora nutes and I mixed according to instructions but may have mixed two of them together before I put in the reservoir which I realize now thats a no-no

Even though the leaves are looking questionable the roots seem to be doing fine and have gained a lot of mass in just over a weeks time.
Anyways, check out the pic, sorry I couldnt get a better one something in my grow room is jacking up the camera on my phone.

Thanks in advance
Bezy
 

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Bezy

Active Member
Yea they do have a little bit of a leathery look and feel to them, I know what strong healthy plants look like and these aren't that. To test the over watering theory I poured solution into each pot and when I came back later they looked more droopy. The medium looked pretty wet around the roots when I checked it this morning, even hours after its scheduled watering, so now I switched it to 2 times per day (12am & 12 pm, light cycle starts at 6pm and runs to 12pm) @ 15min each and I'll see how they fair over the next few days. It just seems like my grow room is hot and the humidity so low (under 20%) they would suck the water up, but you never know.
Also, my flood reservoir is dark, covered and has some standing water in the bottom which the roots cant reach yet, but could this humid environment mean I need to water less? I guess time will tell.

Thanks in advance
Bezy
 

Bezy

Active Member
They looked worse with the 2 times per day so I bumped the water schedule up to 4 times per day evenly spread out and they are looking way better! Although the pH is at around 5.0-5.5 now so high pH might have been the prob all along.
 

Bezy

Active Member
Well, 1 ml of bleach per gal and regular cleaning (Every two weeks) with a water bleach spray and a good scrubbing have cured my problems, thanks for the help! I actually have nice white roots that have ventured past their net pots, and I'll be harvesting 3 plants within a week.
I looks like I was over watering as well, I reduced from 4x per day to 3x a day and now only 2x a day for 15 min each is working good for me. And I was over feeding, I switched to the lucas meathod of 8ml Micro and 16ml of Bloom per Gal and I top off the res every 2-3 days.
So I guess what ever works for you works, this works for me!
 
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