Stem Malfunction

Hey everyone, I'm into my third week of my first grow in an Aerogarden and my stems have these brown rings around them and they are kind of deteriorating. Here are some pics of what I'm talking about:

This is the AG setup


This is one of the stems


There were two sets of big five bladed leaves on each of them that I had to prune off due to some nute burn from the plants not liking the AG nutes so I switched them to some nutes from Humboldt Nutrients. They seem to be responding to them favorably, just waiting for them to get over the shock of having to prune them and do a total flush of the roots and everything.

Any ideas on what could have made the stems do that? I'm still just a noob with the intricacies of this whole growing thing. Any input is greatly appreciated.

No idea but looks fatal !!!
why am i here .......? oh yeah , i like your little clone light =)

That is rot, It has moved up or something, there should be some Styrofoam there to prevent that from happening again.

MuntantLizzard said:

That is rot, It has moved up or something, there should be some Styrofoam there to prevent that from happening again.

Click to expand...

Styrofoam... like growing from the stem? there is some white stuff growing from the stems. Is that what you mean?

Get a few drops of calcium chloride liquid. wipe it around the brown calcium deficient areas. This will directly supply calcium ions to that region.

I get mine from the DampRID I use to control humidity.

pro grow said:

Get a few drops of calcium chloride liquid. wipe it around the brown calcium deficient areas. This will directly supply calcium ions to that region.

I get mine from the DampRID I use to control humidity.

Click to expand...

I'll give that a try, thanks Mr. Grow who is a pro

Here's an update on the fatal stem malfunction. One plant died from the rot... sad day. But my other plant is pretty healthy now. Hopefully it's a girl!

I also made a mylar reflector:

I make a styrofoam puck and stick the plant in it, it caps off the moist area and rot never happens., you could clone that plant if you didnt throw it away!

Yeah, I saw how lurkmaster did his little aeroponics setup, I wasn't sure what you meant the first time you mentioned styrofoam. But now I know, thanks Liz