Im losing my kush plants!! Possible PH or deficiency?

[Yes4Prop215]

HYDROPONICS/Rockwool surrounded by hydroton clay

How long has this problem been going on?
2 weeks

Are you growing in a PVC grow tent? (example: Hydrohut or any other non brand tents)
No

What system are you running? (DWC? Ebb flow? Aero? Water Farm? Flood Tables? and so on...)
Hand water 2x a day in flood tables.

What STRAIN are you growing?
Bubba Kush and OG kush

What was the establishing technique? (Were the seed or clone?)
Grown from clones

What is the age of your plants?
at least 5 weeks

How long have they been in there mixture they are in now?(coco,soiless etc..)
They have been in rockwool since birth, but transfered to hydroton 3 weeks ago, been in flower for 3 weeks


What substrate/medium are you using?(Hydroton, RockWool etc.)
rockwool cubes / hydroton (50% / 50% ish)

What is the Water temperature?
never above room temp, so never above 70F

What color are your roots? White? Brown? Are your roots slimy?
white; no

What Nutrient's are you using?(If growing soiless)
Two part General Hydroponics LUCAS FORMULA + Florablend organic tea + cal/mag supplement

How often are you feeding?
hand watered 2 times a day with 50% strengh solution


What is the TDS/EC/PPM you are using?
No idea, i hand water by the gallon, i get a gallon of RO water from Arrowhead, add in 8ml of Micro, 16ml of Bloom, 5ml of Florablend, 5ml of CalMag, then i dilute this mixture with more RO water to about 50% strengh because i dont want to nute burn them. I PH balance this mixture to 5.5-5.8

What is the pH?
I water with 5.5-5.8 but i have a feeling the PH IN THE GROWING MEDIUM IS RISING??

Are you sure your calibration is correct on your equiptment?
yes i use an electronic PH meter


How often do you clean your system:
Flushed yesterday and today with 5.7 balanced RO water

What size bulb are you using?
400W HPS


What is your RH Factor(Relative Humidity)?
40%

What is the canopy temperature?
about 70

What is the Day/Night Temp? (Include flucutaion range)
night goes down to 60

What is the current Air Flow? (cfm etc.)
sealed room with exhaust leading to roof, intake through open door and two oscilating fans

Is the fan blowing directly at plants?
no bouncing off wall

Is your water HARD or SOFT? What water are you using?
not sure, i use Arrowhead RO water, which is normally around 7.0 PH, then i add nutes and it usually goes down to the 4.5 area, then i balance by using PH up or down or by adding RO water to bring the PH back up

Has plant been recently pruned, cloned off of or pinched
no

Have any pest chemicals been used? If so, What and When?
yes, sprayed with fungicide 2 weeks ago because we saw some powder mildew. Neem oil and Chrysthathum was sprayed on the hydroton

Are plant's infected with pest's
yes, we have a pretty bad fungus knat problem, but we are killing LOTS of them.

I think it is either a PH problem or maybe the fungus knats? My roomate thinks its Zinc deficiency.

 

[HindukushMaster]

ph and zinc . lower the ph a bit it looks exactly like ph/zinc issues

 

[libby]

You gotta get r1d of the pests f1rst.

 

[irieeyes808]

hey man take a look in my gallery I have a similar issue. I tried to post pictures here but wouldn't let me for some reason? I am having these issues on my bubbas. Hey did yours stretch out much after throwing them into flower?

 

[Yes4Prop215]

Naw but they really stretched hard during veg, she was so big we were about to make her a mother plant, but with signs of powder mildew we are deciding to just flower now she we can chop her in two months and begin a fresh slate.

For flower she did grow a bit, but it seems she has stopped growing.

I am flushing hardcore right now with RO water and a veg solution that is supplemented with soluble zinc.

 

[Yes4Prop215]

Also i think we hit the fungus knats pretty hard, they have been getting neem oiled for a while now, plus at least 50 dropped out of the buckets dead the other day, any fungus knats we see are usually dead already.

 

[Yes4Prop215]

well we have been flushing them heavily and i havent really seen any progress.

 

[dongle69]

Lucas formula is meant to be full strength.
I also think you need to water more than 2x a day.

 

[Weedhound]

Lucas formula is meant to be full strength.
I also think you need to water more than 2x a day.

if you have flushed and fixed your pest problem then i would agree with this. They do look hungry......but that could just be bug damage. If you did a LOT of flushing however, you may have rinsed all the good nutes out. Have you fed since your flushing?

did you pretreat your hydroton? Otherwise check and adjust your ph SEVERAL times a day to keep it in check. It need to be monitored constantly, not just when you first add solution......especially with new hydroton.

Good luck.

 

[Yes4Prop215]

Quick question, when i flush with 5.8 and i measure the runoff, its 6.3!! how do i keep this PH down??

 

[Yes4Prop215]

ALso, i heard kush is sensitive to nutes, so thats why i am not using full strengh, should i switch over to full strengh and forget the flushing???

 

[Yes4Prop215]

Guys i really need your help! I am on the verge of just chopping these and starting over, they are heavily infested with fungus gnats and i am having all sorts of problems with PH and nutrient problems.. ARGH. Makes me wish i went soil instead of hydroponics, these kush are so sensitive.

 

[ReeferRon]

If I was you I would let them flower. Your to far in to quit now. Some yield will be lost but those plants still have the potential of giving you some nice buds.

First things first.....You got to get rid of the pest. Do the research...it's WAR, they must die. Be tenacious as they are.

Then give the plants a nice flushing with clean pure h2o. Top pour it over them. Give their root mass a good rinse. Then start fresh with new water and nutes about 1/4 strength working up to more as plants show need.

Dont give up cause it's difficult. If you do you will never be a quality grower. These hardships are all apart of cultivating this wonderful plant. Take them in stride, learn from your mistakes, and continue pressing on! Good luck I hope it works out for you.

 

[Pirate]

OK. First I would say your gonna go back to soil and forever bash Hydro when never actually using real hydro. Its not the "hydro set up causing the problems Bro........Its the grower. (disrespect not intended):smile: I wouldn't consider your method hydro just because your using rockwool and rocks. If you tried a real flood and drain or other hydro system........you'd see what I mean. FAR easier than soil, far more controllable and gives FAR superior results. (others will debate that I'm sure) Saying you don't like Corvettes without actually driving one would be the same thing. Anyway, give a true hydro set up a whirl and you just might become a believer in its ability. However, If all your ever gonna do is a couple plants now and then........Then go dirt. The cost to set up hydro can be ridiculous.

Now on to the problems: I would suggest doing away with the rockwool in the future. It is extremely PH unstable and will always give you problems even after you condition it. If your set on using cubes.......use the coco version. I stopped using rockwool and many problems went away.

As mentioned.....You really need to up the nute strength. These plants are starving. I would run my PH around 5.8 to 6. Your PPMs should be in the 1300 range for plants at this stage. (they won't burn) At this point your gonna start to see a Mag def if you don't up the PH. Look at a PH chart and you'll see what I mean. Mag becomes unavailable below 5.8. You mentioned your PH being around 5.5 and someone said to lower it. If you do.........your headed for disaster. UP IT. Water every 3 hours when lights are on and one time when lights are off.

You mentioned you have no idea what your solution strength is? A meter will prevent similar problems if the future. If your checking your PH with drops or strips.........forget it. They are very unreliable. I've tested strips and drops against several meters and they were OFF every time.

Get yourself some "Montery Garden Spray" (with Spinosad) and the bugs will be gone overnight. It can also be use in the watering jug to kill larvea.

Hope that helps a little.

Don't give up !!

 

[Yes4Prop215]

Wow pirate and reefer awesome advice.

I use an electronic PH meter that is very accurate, but i dont have a PPM meter.

ANd yes, i hate these god damn rockwool cubes, i think that might be the problem, one of the rockwool cubes seems to be rotting too, it doesnt help that my roomate planted the rockwool too high up so parts of it are exposed to light <--- this is a problem right??

ANd yes, about the fungus gnats, i really believe these guys are killing my plants. I really want a solution that i can pour deep into the grow medium that will kill it, i will go check out that spinosad you mentioned. I assume i dilute the pesticide to 1/4 in PH balanced RO water?

 

[Yes4Prop215]

For the time being, i am using rockwool cubes, any ideas how to properly balance these guys?

Like i said, i water with 5.8 solution, and my runoff is 6.3, so my rockwool cubes PH are definately kind of high, and that is probably what is locking out the nutrients, and along with the fungus gnats, that is straight starving my plant.

 

[Maxwell Murder]

looks like you have a nice tray you should get the res goin and feed more often, if it was me i would feed every 2 hours during light. i've been told that "go gnats" is a newer product that will get rid of your fungus gnats (and root afids). i would get the yellow sticky traps, cut them into 4 pieces and put them upside down right on top your rocks (sticky side down) this will catch a bunch of em. gnatrol is another product (larvacide) that will kill the larva but i didn't notice it doing much for the mature bastards.

 

[Yes4Prop215]

yea, i wanted to set up the pump system and everything, but my freakin roomate and co-grower insists on hand watering them.

Not only that, we only water like twice a day during the light, WITH NO RUNOFF!!

He doesnt want to water more because we have been told by the hydro shop and other forums (marijuanapassion eek what a joke of a forum) that we should not water too much because it will make the medium soggy.

I knew we were not watering enough. I am gonna switch up the schedule.

How much solution should each plant get/ per feeding?

Right now they get about a cup or two per feeding, and like i said runoff is minimal, maybe 10%. The good news is that my runoff for my first hydro grow is a steady 5.9, but my kush plants are showing a 6.3 runoff.

 

[Maxwell Murder]

i used rockwool blocks before in drip and they had to be soaked in pH5.0 (or something low it been a while) water over night then drained really well before use to correct the pH. i don't know what you can do now -still tho your nutes are goin in at 5.7 and commin out at 6.3,, i could live with that. oh but you might see it when you get that res goin, hint hint.

 

[Pirate]

If you didn't condition the rockwool BEFORE use.......there is not much you can do now. I wasn't saying to get rid of them on this grow. Just suggesting you try another method. Rock wool is OLD technology. There are far better options available today.

Anyway, to be honest I do not know what you can do about this grow and the rockwool. DEFINETLY listen to Maxwell Murder though and set up a flood and drain. This will help stabilize the rockwool since it will be getting a lower PH ed watering every couple hours. But you will need to stay on top of the REZ PH because the rockwool will constantly change it. If you can stabilize it at 6.......you'll be fine. I run my WHOLE set up at 6.0 all the time.

You'll get it. Hang in there.