i have a couple of plants in a "bubbleponics" container therefore i have a 6 gallon container that i fill up with water and add nutrients to. inside is the bubble maker and a water pump that circulates the water nutrient solution to the base of the plants on the lid. the plants r in these little baskets with little rocks. and i am using a 400wt hps light. the plants started flowering about 5 or 6 weeks ago. they were looking great buds popping out all over the place the plants were in the grow state for a while before i changed the light to 12 hours. and they branched out like crazy and all the branches are full of buds. my friend and i were talking an i ended up cutting off a bunch of the big leaves that had a red streak on the stem "so they could concentrate on making bigger buds". i now think that that was a stupid idea. but they were doing good for a bout 3 weeks. now for some reason all the little leaves that are near and in the buds that were full of little crystals are turning brown and seem to be dying. but more so on one plant than the other. the bigger one. for some reason. and i also accidentally broke a few branches trying to empty out my container and clean. so i tied them up and the rest of the branches that were getting heavy and starting to sag here are some pics please help me figure out what to do and they are getting worse
Help!! Don't know what is going on with my plants
- Thread starter moondoog
- Start date
what is e.c i dont have anything to measure ppm(parts per million??) but these plants are drinking up my water fast so i really dont know if i should keep adding water or just let it drink it up until the water is to low for the water pump and then ad more nutrients and new water? its only 2 plants and they drink 6 gallons in about 7 or 8 days but that has kinda slowed down because they seam stunned not doing much of anything for the last 3 weeks i just got a new airstone because when i was cleaning the tank a few weeks ago it broke. something else that might be a problem is the baskets i have are to small for this plant the big one root mass has completely filled the basket and pushed most of the rocks out and consumed the rest. the roots look like a chiea pet coming out the the basket holes
Jonus
Well-Known Member
Its one of those things with hydro, you can take a guess at the ppm's but if you get it wrong the plants will hurt badly. So unless you are a good guesser it would pay to buy a ppm meter and take control of the nutrient strength. When nutrient is too strong then roots go into shock and stop uptaking pretty much everything. pH is another thing you need to get on to with hydroponics. a pH of 5.8 and and about 400-600ppm of nutrients during veg raising that to 900 and onward for flowering.
i bought this kit bubbleponics but it never said anything about e.c. what does that stand for exactly? and where can i buy a ppm meter i have been trying to keep the ph just on the slightly acidic side i think around 6.1 or 6.2 i dont have the chart and i cant remember exactly. something else i am having a problem with and i guess that might be where the ppm might help is the plants were drinking the 6 gallon water solution up 5 or 6 days before i was supposed to change the solution my brother is taking care of them while i am offshore i definitely think they r in shock. what can i do to get them out of shock?? i posted a new thread with a better general idea of whats been happening called This is my first grow did i kill my plants? Pics and i put a poll question on it to. and i have more pics up check it out tell me what u think. thanks for the help so far
Jonus
Well-Known Member
E.C stands for electrical conductivity. Its a method of testing how much nutrient is in water by testing how well small amounts of electricity are conducted through water. This is then converted into an EC scale and a parts per million scale. That way you can test your water and if the parts per million (PPM) is over a certain level then you will need to add water to lower the PPM, which means weaken the nutrient strength.
It takes the guess work out of how much nutrient should be in the bubblponic unit.
So if during veg the recommended dose is 400 parts per million, then you add in your nutrient, test it with the PPM meter, and if it reads 300ppm then you need to add more nutrient, test it again until it tests 400ppm.
Hydroponic stores will sell them
a pH of 6 is adequate, but with a digital pH meter you can guarantee it is 6.0 rather than matching a color chart which gives you a general reading of 'about' 6.
When roots go into shock, the plant pretty much ceases to uptake nutrient and water.
Get a ppm meter and reload your nutrient tank with a ppm of 400 for now, then leave them drinking that for a week until you see them begin to guzzle water again, thats the sign they are uptaking nutrients.
Also check the health of the roots. Look out for dark slimy areas of roots. When it comes to hydroponics, the roots are the better indicator at times than the leaves, this is because in soil it is difficult to guage how healthy roots are because they are buried in soil. In hydro they are exposed.
