Sick girl~

My Early Girl is a little sick. I'm having a hard-time pin-pointing this though. I've looked through the guides and I'm just not sure. Shes in a 6x6x6 rockwool (pre-conitioned with Europonic RW conditioner) cube, in a 2 gallon smart pot with hydroton. Stick to the smaller cubes, these blow IMO. She's about 3 weeks since seedling, under a 400w MH lamp. It seems to start from the bottom of my plants and slowly work its way up. Also, usually starts at the tips or serrated edges and progresses inward. It could be

a)deficiency
b)ph problem
c)nute burn
d)wind burn

Here are some pics to help


I'll try to pre-answer my questions to the best of my knowledge.

a)Possible, rez EC is 1.0 (~700ppm) but I'm erroring safer then sorry, I had definite over nutrient problems with my other girls. (she is a little younger and was not affected)

b)Also possible, My rez Ph is steady around 5.5 (kept slightly low to deal with rockwool ph). My runoff ph is about 6.5 when flushed with 6.0 water.

c)doubtful because only running 700ppm. Runoff from a few of my other plants was as high as 1.5 EC (1050ppm) when flushed with .35 EC (250ppm), tap water.

d)also possible, I have a box fan set to low blowing across the tray to combat temps. I'm a closet grower so I've had to battle temps a little along the way. Check out my sig journal for more info on setup.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can make her happier.

Throw some hydrogen peroxcide in your solution, looks like there feet are a lil too wet. the extra oxygen to the roots will help the plant uptake its nutrients and reduce the nute salts residue and make it more usable. overall they don't look really bad. but its definatley the roots that need your attention.

FrostyTHEgrowmaN said:

Throw some hydrogen peroxcide in your solution, looks like there feet are a lil too wet. the extra oxygen to the roots will help the plant uptake its nutrients and reduce the nute salts residue and make it more usable. overall they don't look really bad. but its definatley the roots that need your attention.

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I can only find 3% right now, and Al B recommends 17ml/l for this stregnth. 56 liter rez, so 952 ml. That's about a whole 2 dollar bottle every 3-4 days Does this sound ok? I might start at half of that and see how it goes.

It looks like a nute deficiency to me, possibly phosporous. I'm not an Ebb and Flow expert, so bear that in mind...

There are several things that could be causing a nute deficiency. First off, the relatively high run-off pH might be worrisome...a pH above 6.5 can cause a P lockout. So I would attack that problem first. You already know about the Rockwool pH...if you pH-adjusted the Rockwool and rinsed it out REALLY well (to remove the dolomite dust) then it seems as though the Rockwool should be pretty nuetral by now. Is there a lot of white, dust-like build-up on the top of the Rockwool cubes? If so, this could be indicative of the dolomite leaching out and perhaps you need to rinse the cubes better in the future. If it's not the Rockwool causing the pH problem, then the next thing I would look for is root rot or anaerobic bacterial infestation. What does your res water smell like? Any slime on the sides of reservoir or tray? If you're using an air stone in the res, is the water foaming (a brownish foam on top of the water)? If so, then yeah, definitely start an H2O2 regimen at full strength (so long as you're not using organic nutes). If the roots are good, then I would say the pH rise might be telling you that the plants need more nutes, and I would up the concentration to about 1.2 EC and see if the pH stabilizes at a lower level.

The roots could also be water-logged and not able to take up nutes (or not flooded often enough and not getting enough nutes). That's probably the hardest thing to get right with E & F, the flood cycle. Too often and the roots don't get enough oxygen; too little and the roots don't get enough water/nutrients. Do your leaves start to droop after flooding, then recover before the next flood, or vice-versa (droop before flood, recover after)? If so, your cycle might be wrong. Again, I'm not an E & F expert so if you think this might be the problem then I would research or seek out an expert to determine the right cycle for your particular situation. Also, how high up the Rockwool cube do you flood?

It could also be that the plant just isn't getting enough nutes. I assume this is the only one showing this problem so far? Is this plant ahead of the others in the sense that it is showing pre-flowers? Are you growing mixed-strains? It may be that this particular plant needs more P at this particular stage of growth, especially if it is starting to flower, and you may need to up the nutes or switch to flower nutes. That's a problem that can occur if you're growing different strains or have plants at different stages of growth in the same reservoir...it's hard to meet one plant's needs without over-nuting another.

Anyways, these are just some things to consider...hope it helps!

Thanks for all your insight, + rep for sure.

I too am thinking it maybe p deficiency. My Ionic nutes are only 3-1-5 and my bloom is only 3-2-6. Would you recommend something with more p? My other option is to buy a bottle of the boost, which is 0-5-6 I believe.

I try to follow al b. and place my cubes 1/2 inch above the flood line but admittedly it's not perfect. The 1/2" pitch on my table is making it a little difficult to get them sorted ideally for both flood height and light positioning. I stick my finger down to feel the cubes every now and them, some seem dry while others fairly moist. Having 4" and 6" cubes is only adding insult to injury.

Ideas? Thanks again.

Here's a zip with my excel file of notes, may help you understand what I've been doing.

Pics in a couple days, but the bottom leaves are yellowing more. Hope it stops in the next day or two.

Bottom leaves completely dying. So it was, green w/ burned edges, fading to bright yellow, followed by death from the outward edges in. Anyone with enough experiance able to pinpoint the nute I'm missing. Pretty sure it's p or k.

Just flushed it with water phd to 6.0 and .4 EC. My runoff was 1.16EC & 6.25 on ph. Is this constant ph rising a sign they need more nutes?

150 views on only 2 comments If I haven't provided enough info ask plz.

It's slowly progressing upwards . The droop is because these were taken after 18 hours of light. Hope these pics shed some light, starting to feel like no 1 knows...

Someguy15 said:

bumpppppppppppp

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Runoff after flush was 1.2, is she still hungry? or burn? Ahhhh!

Someguy15 said:

Runoff after flush was 1.2, is she still hungry? or burn? Ahhhh!

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I've since raised nutes to 1.7EC and the decay seems to be stopping. Started out burning my plants, then went to light I think. Doh

How are the roots looking? can you take a picture of them? One time I had some plants fighting over oxygen in the same rez, but the plant locked-out. adding an extra air stone or two never hurts.

Tell us a bit about how you are feeding, how many times a day? etc