Droopy leaves (flood & drain)

Hey all. I am currently in day 6, started with rooted clones. My ppm was 540 to start and is now 730 from all the ph down I've added. The light is a 1000W hps. Started the light 4 feet above the canopy, and yesterday just lowered it to 3 feet.

Now it seems like all the plants have a slight droop to them on the lower fan leaves, some plants more than others. One of them is a runt and hasn't really grown at all, but the rest of the plants have taken off vertically, each one has added about 3-6 inches so far. But the leaves on every plant seem to be droopy. I am watering 3 times a day, once when the light comes on, then 6 hours later, then 6 hours later. Why are my plants looking so droopy? They're all getting a good level of water when it's feeding time, definitely enough to soak the roots.

A couple times when they got fed, it was with sup-par pH water, because my pH fluctuates every hour it seems, so once they got 6.4, once they got 7, etc. But for the most part they've been getting it at 5.4-6.2. Any help would be much appreciated, thanks.

runt: big girl: canopy:

need more water!!!
those roots look crunchy and dry right before a watering? i bet they do..
everyones setup varies, but i would water way more often...
How long are they watered for during your flood? I used 15 minutes on, 45 min off in a similar system. i ran this 24 hours a day.

my plants would start to droop after about 2 hours without water..

Ok well that's way different from what anyone else has told me. I thought most people flooded 3-4 times a day. I'm flooding 3 times a day, for 5 minutes (can't flood longer than that cause the pump runs dry). I was told that drinking time didn't matter as long as they got water. So you're flooding 24 times a day?! That's unlike anything I've ever heard.

You need more water in your reservoir if the pump is running dry! It should have enough water to run constantly and then some.

Are you using rockwool cubes or just hydroton?

I also run my water 24/7. Seems to work out great however doing a different system but in the same ballpark.

low pressure areo/DWC is not the same as flood and drain.

OP, It could be not enough water or too much water, if the medium is wet and you are flooding again, it's probably too much water. for young plants only water when they are dry(er) ..good luck JR

Edit: i just looked close at the pics and everything look good, smoke one and chill, they look fine

I think your nutes are too strong. 700 ppm seeems too high to me, I'd be feeding more in the 300-500ppm range for that stage, I start with 0 ppm water though (i'm guessing you use tap by all the ph down yer using?). If your ppms are climbing everyday before adding ph down, its too high.

Also watering 3 times doesn't seem like enough IMO, I flood 6 times/day in straight hydroton (no starter cubes). I'm guessing 3 times/day is more suited for rockwool in hydroton, is that what you got? If so how high does the water level come up on the rockwool?

Most of the plants are in coco peat, except for one that's in rockwool (can't help what the clone store had). I checked the coco peat about 4 hours after a watering, and it felt pretty wet, so maybe I am watering too often?

Stonetech, I am using fox farm, and the feeding schedule says to use 700-850 ppm for clones, then 1100 for veg.

sexbobomb said:

Most of the plants are in coco peat, except for one that's in rockwool (can't help what the clone store had). I checked the coco peat about 4 hours after a watering, and it felt pretty wet, so maybe I am watering too often?

Stonetech, I am using fox farm, and the feeding schedule says to use 700-850 ppm for clones, then 1100 for veg.

Click to expand...

You can't always go by the recommendations. Let yer plants tell you how much. If your ppm is climbing on its own your over feeding, if its decreasing you can add more (little bit at a time,) if it stays constant your dialed in.

If your peat is soaked then you need to lift the plants a little higher in the pots, how high depends on how established yer roots are. The bottom 2/3 of your roots should be submerged when you flood.

The ppm is climbing because I've added about 100mL of ph down in the last 6 days.

So if my roots are all getting wet when watering, that's bad? Cause I can't really avoid that, the water levels vary in my tray due to the slope.

If the peat/rockwool is soaked thats bad, it means the upper roots aren't getting enough oxygen. The upper roots (the top 1/3 of the rootmass) absorb most of the oxygen for the plant, if your soaking the cubes/pellets it may show signs of overwatering, even though the lower roots are fine. You need to adjust the level of each plant individually in its own pot so the flood level is not soaking the top 1/3 of the rootmass.

I noticed that you are using planters in your flood table.

My vote is you are under feeding: here's why:

If you try this flood calculator you'll notice that they want you to figure out how much liquid your medium and media holds. The greater this mass.(by mass I mean the "Mass" of the water contained in the Media/Medium)...the less often you flood.

You seem to have very little media/medium--which could suggest you need to water more often than someone who say....Has a full bed of hydroton. This ive noticed from just screwing around with this calculator.

Anyways...give this calculator a shot...see what it says:

http://www.angelfire.com/cantina/fourtwenty/articles/eftips.htm
(you must scroll down the page to see the calculator)

Cool calculator, +rep

Are you on an 18/6 lighting right now? I have an Ebb & Gro setup with hydroton, and I flooded twice per light cycle...once 30 minutes after lights on, and again 9 hours later. I had some roughed up bareroot clones, and it took them about 10 days to snap out of it and start growing. You can tell if they are not getting enough water by the way the leaves react. The leaves droop all over the plant, they lose their shiny sheen, and they also twist to expose as little of their photosynthesizing surface to the light. Overwatering seems to create a gradual droop starting from the bottom of the plant. It is tough though, because the symptoms look very similar. Hang in there, and dont be too reactionary. Those plants still look great. Cut your watering back to twice per day (not when the lights are off), and just keep an eye on them. If symptoms get worse, adjust the other way. If they get better, then you figured it out!

Thanks Ferredoxin, I must be overwatering, because all the plants are droopy at the bottom but look normal up top. I just checked my coco cubes and they're still wet from the watering 5 hours ago, so I'm gonna start on your schedule with twice a day.

Some of the best advice on setting flood duration/height I have found on RIU. Straight forward and simple!
1 rep+ for Ferredoxin, Tee Five and also the rest of you.

FR