Help - Growth Stopped? Leaves Dying.

I have been studying this site for a about a month now trying to get up to speed and now I need some more help. I have setup my system based on what I learned here and the FAQs etc., but here is the deal.
- 1 125 Watt CFL bulb (using cool 64K at the moment during veg)
- 6 plants in emilys garden hydro
- Hanna pH tester (got EC version on the way, current only does pH)
- Small Fan running
- 1 plant is in rockwoll, the other 5 are in a little foamy stuff (I started them in aero garden and left them in that medium)
- I have attached pics for clarification

My plants were growing OK. The oldest 2 are about 6-7 weeks old and the youngest are about 3 weeks old. In the pics you can see the older ones easily.

Over the last couple weeks, the plants seem to have stopped growing (or slowed dramatically) and the tips on the bigger ones are getting brown and the leaves are having issues. The tallest one is having the most issues (it is the one in rockwoll). I have been trying to deal with the issue based on all the info on the site which is great, but I can not fix. Here is what I have tried and issues
- Thought is was pH. I mix my water to get 5.8 pH and completely replaced my water (have done 3 times in last week). I cant get pH to stabilize. It is fine when I mix and let set overnight, but once the plants are in, it goes up again. I have flushed the rockwoll plant with gobs of water and it may have helped a little, but I cant get it to stay down.
- I have moved the light up and down. At first I thought it was too close, then too far, but I just dont know.
- The one plant is definitely the worst, but my other one that seemed to be awesome is now being affected.
- This is my first try and didnt expect it to go smooth but would like to get at least one decent plant out of it to give me time to grow more.

Please help. I am newbie, but study this forum like crazy to avoid asking dumb questions, but I just can get it right.

Any ideas?

feed distiled water with no nutes till you see better progress get better lights instead of using one 125w buy 4x 40 watt get the daylight bulb and put as close as u can wit the hand method if burns ur hand its gon burn the plant

maybe put 1/4 tsp of epson salt for each gallon of water

i would try that and if it doent help maybe they are not getting enough food?

1/3 tsp of sugar in every gl of water will give them some food they will love

i wouldnt mess around too much with nutes if u dont have a ppm meter stick to the destile water for a couple of days then start feeding little by little but if you got a ppm meter than do a lil research and try w.e u want

Wow, thanks for all the quick help.

I have been giving them floranova grow (7-4-10) nutes. I mix them 1 tsp per gallon and just put the water in the tank. I use pH down to get the pH right before putting in.

So, to make sure I understand. I should stop the nutes and just have them drink distilled water with no nutes and better light and possibly a little epsom salt for a little while to get them going?

hi freddy 747, I'm new to this as well, but I'm pretty sure that your lights need to be right in top of them, like an inch away. You can see in the pics that they are stretching. I would seriously consider getting a stronger light or more of these (don't forget that you may need to add ventilation in top of what you have, if you go with an hps). Also, be very carefull with the nutes, the pics look to me like they got nute burn early on but then you backed off. People say like 1/4 of what they recommend on the label.
Good luck with your grow man!

Unity

you can put flourescents almost right on top of your plants. just make sure there isn't too much heat. keep the ph at 5.8. at this point, i'd be feeding at 1/4 strength or about 200 ppm. i know you don't have a meter yet. just quarter the amount the bottle shows as full strength. the brown tips are tip burn. that's telling you your nute mix is a little hot. tone it down a bit. your plants actually look pretty good. are your plants on top of/resting in the rez? i don't understand where your water/feed is coming from. if it's that container under them that could be your ph problem. they shouldn't be sitting in water/feed, unless you have some sort of bubbler set-up. how many gallons is the rez? if they are sitting in that tub then there's your ph issue. don't give your plants sugar!

The plants are resting in the water/nute solution in the planters with the rock. The system has a bubbler and a line for how high to fill the water. It was part of the whole setup. The bubbler has air blowing constantly through the stone so it is constantly bubbling.

If you have a servere PH problem just try a different nutes. Some nutes create PH overdose. Just a thought.

so it's kind of like a bubbler and all of your plants are in it? if you have that many plants in a small rez then that's your ph problem right there. in a bubbler type situation, each plant should have at least 5 gallons per. they're all eating and drinking from your rez. since it's so small, what they're taking in is causing ph drift. you'll never be able to keep your ph in range that way, and you should never chase ph. you need to increase the rez size.

ya'll dont know anything ph changes goes up and down i'm using micro nutes by GH in a 35 gall bucket and the nute it self has a thing called ph buffer that causes the ph to stay in a 5.2 range just read little more instead of asking and you going to find out that wat you read is the true answer dont listen to no one always research everything research the brand name of ur nutes etc....

and u cant tell by inchs how close to put the light
i say it in the first post do it with ur hand he is using a SINGLE 125 bulb so its hotter than the single piece of crap cfl bulbs just get a 250 watt mh or hps u already wasting 125W

hey lamo, all nutes need to be ph adjusted. i suggest you do some reading yourself.

This is getting interesting, lol but lamafia is correct in a way too. Lamafia, you are right nutes have buffers, like AN will buffer to about 6.0 etc. You have to keep in mind that other additives will raise your ph, for example Protect (silicone), will raise it to about 9.5, and that's with ro water. Also, ph will move always up or down in hydro, I even want that, cause different nutes, addetives will uptake at a different ph. Mine will raise from 5.4 to 6.1 in a 24 hour period, and then I bring it down again. I never need ph up (exept when I fuck up with ph down,lol.

Unity

hey unity! sure there are buffers, but i've never been able to just add nutes and the ph be where it's supposed to be. funny you mention protekt, that's what i use for ph up. i don't use a lot of supplements, but i try and supplement ph up and down with supplements. i still have to use some though.

Growbot said:

hey unity! sure there are buffers, but i've never been able to just add nutes and the ph be where it's supposed to be. funny you mention protekt, that's what i use for ph up. i don't use a lot of supplements, but i try and supplement ph up and down with supplements. i still have to use some though.

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Yeah, I'm with you on the nutes, I've never been able to get them right without adjusting in the end.

Unity

unity said:

. Mine will raise from 5.4 to 6.1 in a 24 hour period, and then I bring it down again. I never need ph up (exept when I fuck up with ph down,lol.

Unity

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I am glad to here this since it is exactly what I see. I got rid of the 2 crappy plants to let the 4 good ones get better (works better with my light anyway), moved the light much closer, mixed a lower nute/water mixture, and then adjusted the pH to 5.4 and let it sit and stabilize at 5.4. Then, I put the plants in and and checked it again in about 1/2 hour and it was still good. Then, I checked it just now (about 24 hours later) and it was up to 6.2. I guess I will continue to adjust it down each day.

The plants are doing better already. I dont know how people did this before the internet.

freddie747 said:

I am glad to here this since it is exactly what I see. I got rid of the 2 crappy plants to let the 4 good ones get better (works better with my light anyway), moved the light much closer, mixed a lower nute/water mixture, and then adjusted the pH to 5.4 and let it sit and stabilize at 5.4. Then, I put the plants in and and checked it again in about 1/2 hour and it was still good. Then, I checked it just now (about 24 hours later) and it was up to 6.2. I guess I will continue to adjust it down each day.

The plants are doing better already. I dont know how people did this before the internet.

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Cool man, Im glad to hear they are allready improoving!! (I hope mine will too)

Thank God, ah, I mean Al Gore for the internet, cause without it I would be f'd

Best of luck mate!

Unity