Trouble with Part of my Aeroponic Crop

lordjin

lordjin

Well-Known Member
vespa8910 said:
Thanks lordjin,

Yea, we are having a real hard time figuring out what's up.

We do know that the water was basically unfiltered for the first 3.5 weeks.

We also know that we probably had our nutrients overclocked, too early in vegetative growth.

The sickly plants seem to have persistant yellowing. I have read that the root lockout is very hard to reverse and that the stunting might be just the way it is.

On the healthier plants, there are some slight brown spots, but not many. Growth is great.

We have started transition to flower.

We flushed the system and based on the General Hydroponics' nutrient calculator, we added our nutrients, which ended up being 1000 ppm. (with Proper RO water)

Since doing this, day before yesterday, our PPM has dropped to about 940, but we have stopped our reservoir auto refill and we haven't done any nutrient replenishment. It has gone down 3 inches in our reservoir. I would suppose that our ppm was dropping so much faster before, because the water was being replaced. Not sure if that is good or bad.

I feel like we might have done damage to the plants, in the first 3 weeks and they just aren't bouncing back. Most of the stunted plants look much more green, but they are growing growing slowly.

Let me ask this: We keep smelling what we think is chlorine. I know the filter is working now, but is there any way that it still might not be filtering chlorine?
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You want to do your best to keep all your levels constant... that means water level, temp, ppm level, and ph. When your res level drops, you need to refill to exactly where it was before. And when the ppm drops from 1000 to 940, you gotta get it back up to 1000 right away, and repeat procedure daily. Other types of hydro like straight dwc or nft move at a slightly slower pace, so they're a bit more forgiving in this area. Spraying your roots is such an active method, you really need to stay on top of things day to day.

That chlorine smell is baffling to me as well. I know that the filter manufacturers suggest letting a solution of 20-15% bleach to water mix sit in the empty cannisters when cleaning, but there should absolutely be NO chlorine smell in your filtered water! Does your tap smell of chlorine straight out the faucet?

How have your ph readings been throughout all of this?
 
V

vespa8910

Member
lordjin said:
You want to do your best to keep all your levels constant... that means water level, temp, ppm level, and ph. When your res level drops, you need to refill to exactly where it was before. And when the ppm drops from 1000 to 940, you gotta get it back up to 1000 right away, and repeat procedure daily. Other types of hydro like straight dwc or nft move at a slightly slower pace, so they're a bit more forgiving in this area. Spraying your roots is such an active method, you really need to stay on top of things day to day.

That chlorine smell is baffling to me as well. I know that the filter manufacturers suggest letting a solution of 20-15% bleach to water mix sit in the empty cannisters when cleaning, but there should absolutely be NO chlorine smell in your filtered water! Does your tap smell of chlorine straight out the faucet?

How have your ph readings been throughout all of this?
Click to expand...

Regarding refilling the reservoir, my buddy was finding it much easier to maintain the ph and ppm, not refilling.

What are the problems which can arise from not topping off the water?
 
lordjin

lordjin

Well-Known Member
vespa8910 said:
Regarding refilling the reservoir, my buddy was finding it much easier to maintain the ph and ppm, not refilling.

What are the problems which can arise from not topping off the water?
Click to expand...
If you don't maintain a constant fluid level, the nutrient salts will build up as the concentration rises due simply to the fact that there is less water to contain the remaining solids after plant absorption. This can potentially wreak havoc on your plants... causing overfert which can lead to a lockout which then leads to deficiency. I guess you could call it 50/50 since it's hurting only half your crop. But since you report that your ppm is falling as your water level drops, there's something a little different going on here. Here's my best guess:

Since you're reporting drastic ppm drops along with your res level falling, I would venture to say that your stock of stronger, healthy plants are hogging the nutes and water. If your sick plants were by themselves, your ppm would probably rise as your water level drops. So you have uneven distribution of nutes and water. In short, it's very important to top your res.

Can you post pictures of reservoir setup and how you have your return or waste going depending on which type you're running? I think I'd just have a better idea of things if I saw clearly how your system is put together.
 
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