TL
R Skip ahead to 'Problem' if you have no interest in the back story. I have wilting plants and have seemingly ruled out several culprits. PPMs, PH, lack of oxygen etc.
Tomorrow my young plants are coming up on three weeks from seed. (Soaked for a few hours and put in rockwool 20 days ago)
Week 1: All three Seedsman seeds popped: One AK-47, One Euphoria CBD, and one Dream Machine (Indica 15%/1%). Had a problem with seed stretch because I kept them under a CFL that was too far away.
Week 2: Transplanted to DWC setup in hydroton, buried deep to help the stems. Did NOT start the re-circulation yet, as they were only needing PH'ed water every few days to keep the rockwool damp. Two of three plants survived, the Dream Machine fell over during transplant and despite being supported its wounds were too severe. Kept under 600 dimmed to 400w for 18/6. Temps around 80, then pretty cold at night 65~72. Tried to control that but its still dead of winter here.
Week 3: Had to go out of town for work so I left them on PH'ed water recirculating with 25% of the suggested General Hydroponics nutrients for seedling week 1, and the bulb dimmed to 300w. I know, I know its bad for the bulb, changes the spectrum etc etc. It was a long shot and I was considering starting over anyways. I came back from the trip and the plants are growing great! The cotlyedons and first two leaves have given away to approx: 4 stems and 8 leaves per plant (plus new growth)
Week 4 (Start of): Last night I did my first reservoir change with 25% of GH recommended nutes for Week 1 of Veg (Grow, Bloom, Micro and CalMag) (Planning to add another 25% if plants dont burn) I am in a 27 gal. container, but 15 gallons fills me up to just below the net pots with an air gap. My tap water is 7.1 PH and 110PPM, after PH and adding the nutrients I was around 5.6 and 358PPM. GH recommends around 1000 and I figured that I would be around 600 once I added the second 25% in a day or two. I am wanting to start slow since ALL that you hear about is Burn and Lockout, and rarely do I see a post about underfeeding in hydro. After the reservoir change I increased the lights to 600W from 300W and tweaked the light height and fan speed so that we would be around 80 deg at the 'canopy'. The humidity was holding around 45% but moved slightly up into the mid-50s during the night.
Problem: I noticed a slight deformation of the largest leaves on the AK-47. The CBD plant was fine last night. So I took a few pictures and figured that I would observe and report. See below:
Granted this was minor, but there is some twisting on the biggest leaves. However I woke up this morning and the temps were in the high 70s, and humidity was about 56%. The leaves that were slightly twisted had now laid down, and all the leaves seemed limp. See below.
I did a quick forum search before posting a post "OMG HELP ME PLEASE MY PLANTS ARE DEAD", and the top culprits of wilting that I came up with are as follows:
R Skip ahead to 'Problem' if you have no interest in the back story. I have wilting plants and have seemingly ruled out several culprits. PPMs, PH, lack of oxygen etc.Tomorrow my young plants are coming up on three weeks from seed. (Soaked for a few hours and put in rockwool 20 days ago)
Week 1: All three Seedsman seeds popped: One AK-47, One Euphoria CBD, and one Dream Machine (Indica 15%/1%). Had a problem with seed stretch because I kept them under a CFL that was too far away.
Week 2: Transplanted to DWC setup in hydroton, buried deep to help the stems. Did NOT start the re-circulation yet, as they were only needing PH'ed water every few days to keep the rockwool damp. Two of three plants survived, the Dream Machine fell over during transplant and despite being supported its wounds were too severe. Kept under 600 dimmed to 400w for 18/6. Temps around 80, then pretty cold at night 65~72. Tried to control that but its still dead of winter here.
Week 3: Had to go out of town for work so I left them on PH'ed water recirculating with 25% of the suggested General Hydroponics nutrients for seedling week 1, and the bulb dimmed to 300w. I know, I know its bad for the bulb, changes the spectrum etc etc. It was a long shot and I was considering starting over anyways. I came back from the trip and the plants are growing great! The cotlyedons and first two leaves have given away to approx: 4 stems and 8 leaves per plant (plus new growth)
Week 4 (Start of): Last night I did my first reservoir change with 25% of GH recommended nutes for Week 1 of Veg (Grow, Bloom, Micro and CalMag) (Planning to add another 25% if plants dont burn) I am in a 27 gal. container, but 15 gallons fills me up to just below the net pots with an air gap. My tap water is 7.1 PH and 110PPM, after PH and adding the nutrients I was around 5.6 and 358PPM. GH recommends around 1000 and I figured that I would be around 600 once I added the second 25% in a day or two. I am wanting to start slow since ALL that you hear about is Burn and Lockout, and rarely do I see a post about underfeeding in hydro. After the reservoir change I increased the lights to 600W from 300W and tweaked the light height and fan speed so that we would be around 80 deg at the 'canopy'. The humidity was holding around 45% but moved slightly up into the mid-50s during the night.
Problem: I noticed a slight deformation of the largest leaves on the AK-47. The CBD plant was fine last night. So I took a few pictures and figured that I would observe and report. See below:
Granted this was minor, but there is some twisting on the biggest leaves. However I woke up this morning and the temps were in the high 70s, and humidity was about 56%. The leaves that were slightly twisted had now laid down, and all the leaves seemed limp. See below.
I did a quick forum search before posting a post "OMG HELP ME PLEASE MY PLANTS ARE DEAD", and the top culprits of wilting that I came up with are as follows:
- PPMs to high / PH out of range: Unless I am missing something big here, I can rule that out. I started towards 5.5 and have trended towards 6.5 but have never been out of that range. My PPMs are currently at 358.
- Too much light: I will agree that I just changed from a dimmable 300w to 600w, but adjusted the light height and fan speed to keep the 'canopy' temps around 80 deg. I have not ruled this one out, but would love to hear from you guy's experience with increasing light to seedlings/young plants.
- Overwatering/Lack of Oxygen: I understand over-watering as it relates to soil is actually a lack of oxygen because the roots are in a H2O saturated medium and cant 'breathe'. As far as hydro is concerned it is a function of dissolved oxygen in the water. I have an air pump with 4 stones in the water which is 2~4x the number of suggested stones, I dont believe that this is the culprit, but am open to suggestions.
- Reservoir temps, I did not even check this until posting this post and they are 76 deg, and I understand that under 70 is the goal here.
- Root problems, the roots are a darker brown near the top. I think that this may be from nutrient dyeing and not mold, but would love to hear thoughts on that. Can provide pics if needed.
- Option C: what are your thoughts??
