Here is my quick history. Have grown soil/soiless for 5 years. Went to Hydro Ebb and flow in hydroton two years ago with great success and never looked back. Has ALWAYS gone without a hitch. That is untill the last 3-4 months
Plants are put into flower looking just fine. Problems become obvious at the 2 week mark very obvious by 3 weeks. The plants show ZERO defeciency. They remain nice and green, stretch like normal. Leaves look perfect, no curling no discoloring at all. Problem; 30-50% of the plants get stunted budwise. They dont exhibit any hairs and the bud itself is maybe 25% of the other plants that are ok.
Sometimes a few will come out of it enough to grow but will end up with 30-40% of the yield. Generally though I have to just toss out all that hard work and leave the ones that are ok. It is a VERY puzzling problem.
Same strains on the same trays taken from the same mothers. One will have the problem and the other will not. Seems very random. Can also be from cuttings I got from a club so it rulse out the mothers and or genetics being an issue. I thought maybe it was an issue with one of my vegging trays so I labeled my last round and took plants from all 3 veg trays and put them to bloom. Again some of all 3 trays are stunted.
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Where it gets very interesting is I put in 10 plants I bought from a club that were already ready to bloom and swaped them from soil to hydroton and they never saw my vegging trays. They are ALL 100% normal. This tells me it is 100% something to do with the veg peroid an NOT the bloom trays that have the issue , whatever that issue may be. FYI I also tried totally different nutes then I had used the last two years on all three trays and the problem still happens at random. I tried using the best possible combo of nutes and it made ZERO difference. They all have seperate lighting and seperate air sources too.
I seem to have ruled out lighting, air, nutrients, genetics, the bloom trays and about any other thing I can think of. I am so frustrated I am ready to go back to soil honestly but hate the idea of that with SOG
. I have LOVED hydro until now.
Setup is SOG 4X4, 3X6 and 4X8 trays for bloom and a seperate 4X4, 3X3 and 2X3 for vegging. 75 and 110 gallon reservoirs. Water is changed out weekly. I use 35% H202 every 2-3 days as I always have. I check and adjust PH with quality PH and PPM meters. I even bought extra meters to make sure one wasnt off and causig a problem.
I am now 100% sure it is all happening in the veg state/trays and has nothing to do with the bloom trays which really helps to narrow this down. Has been a long tough road to figure this issue out and I am at my wits end. Maybe one of you guys can help me figure this out. I will gladly fork over $100 via paypal to anyone who actually helps me get this problem resolved.
One thing I will add that is probably an important part of this puzzle. Few months before this problem came up I took the advice of a friend and started add hydroton to both my bloom beds but also to my vegging trays. I put 4 inch net pots into beds of hydroton to give me more plants and flexiblity. I then toss them into 5 inch pots right as they go to bloom. I didnt used to do this. I am wondering if it is something being passed around to the plants from the build up of dirt etc. I used the same hydroton in the veg trays for probably a good 4-5 months. I see no signs of root rot but perhaps I bred some other nasty in there ? Roots look good but clearly SOMETHING is going on ...... About 3-4 weeks ago I removed all the plants and hydroton. Cleaned ther heck out of the trays and started over BUT I put the same plants back in the trays. so if it going from plant to plant I just put the problem back in the tray I guess. Still having the issue so clearly I didnt get rid of whatever the hell this problem is
Tried doing heavier doses of H202 and even low doses (5 PPM) of chlorine to try and kill nasties. All to no avail.
I am happy that I know the bloom trays are ok and feel I can lick this problem despite wanting to throw in the towel many times. Fresh minds can often times help a lot.
PLEASE HELP !!!
Peace
P.S. I know people likem pics but honestly they wont tell you anything, the stunted plants look 100% happy they just have little to no hairs and the buds are tiny the plants look super happy otherwise.
