Help with brown/yellow leaves on baby, please.

Below is a pic of my relatively young plant. It is growing in a rockwool (where I sprouted it) in a hydroponic type set up, in a net cup in a enclosed container with a bubbler. Originally I used spring water, but not too long ago I switched to using old fish tank water, I figured since it had lots of nitrates it would be good for it. And it seems to be great, for awhile. But now you can see it has some issues in the picture. So yesterday I poured out the water and put spring water back in.

I figure its either nutrient lockout via water having too much nitrates, Ca/Mg deficiency, or maybe the young plant is burned by too much light - those are three very bright (true 100w, not 100w equivalent) full-spectrum LEDs shining right down on it as shown in the pic (I actually moved them a side a bit so it would be a little less bright).

Any thoughts?

Thanks!!!

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Can we see some pics of the roots and the whole system where your net pot sits as you havent got any clay pebbles or anything around the rapid router so looks like your roots could be exposed to light? You need your system to not have any light leaks in the res.

There is not really much to show in that regarding MrGreenFingers99, under that net cup there is only water and more water. I have both clay pebbles and expanded shale, should I fill up the container with those, then add water? Should I used distilled water to to and ward off any nutrient lock as well?

Thanks!

I am finding it hard to picture your system, is it DWC? I've been battling root rot myself over the past week or so and that's what my leaves looked like, are you able to see the roots at all?

Edit - oh I see it now in the 2nd picture lol, I dont think you will be able to do a whole grow like this or are you going to transport to something bigger?

But yeah fill that net pot up with clay pebbles so light cant get through the holes and into the water

throw that silly reservoir in the garbage. and put some hydroton under the rockwool cube and then fill in the whole thing.

Thank you MRGreenFingers 99 and rkymtnman! Here is my thoughts on what I should do.

Got it MrGreenFingers, I can do that. My thinking was that I would just transfer the net pot to a similar type set-up in a 5 gallon bucket when the plant grew big enough. Its in a 3" net pot, would I need to move it to a bigger net pot? 6"?

rkymtnman, are you saying to throw the old fish foot container its in in the trash? But why, don't I need some container? Or are you saying to take the rockwool out of the net pot, throw the net pot away, and just set the plant in the rock wool its in in that container filled with hydroton?

One thing - if the roots get into the hydroton, and I later need to move it to a bigger bucket, won't that make it very difficult move it as the roots might break off with the hydroton weighing them down?

Thanks!

By the way, to make sure it is not nutrient lockout, I take it I should also empty all the water out and filled it with distilled water, and leave it that way at least for a few days?

Thanks!

OGHomeslice said:

rkymtnman, are you saying to throw the old fish foot container its in in the trash? But why, don't I need some container? Or are you saying to take the rockwool out of the net pot, throw the net pot away, and just set the plant in the rock wool its in in that container filled with hydroton?

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yes, exactly. throw that "res" in the trash. get a 5 gallon black bucket at a minimum. a bigger container is better if you have the space.

the net pot is fine. what you want to do is take out the rockwool gently, add about 1 to 2 inches of hydroton at the bottom, put the rockwool back in and fill in the rest of the netpot with more hydroton.

and do you have a pH and EC meter? get them if you want to do this right.

Thanks rkymtnman! I do have pH strips, and what is an EC meter? I have to find it, but I have some measuring device to measure total dissolved solids in the water. Is that what an EC meter does? pH I should be looking for like 5.5 to 6 correct, and total dissolved solids what number (if that is what it measured)?

I've replaced the water with pure distilled water, which I read, because it absorbes carbon dioxide from the air, has a pH or around 5.8 generally, so I would think that should be perfect for the time being. And since its distilled it should have zero dissolved solids correct?

My plan is to let the net cup sit in the distilled water for a least a couple days with no ferts at all. Then maybe just add VERY DILUTE amount of ferts, maybe like 1/8th the recommended dose. Thoughts?

And question - isn't growing weed in a pure (deepwater) hydroponic solution, with a bubbler, without hydroton, expanded shale, etc. a valid way to do it? I watched tons of youtube videos with people doing it. I would have thought hydroton, shale, or other media would not do much if its soaking in water at all times anyways, I thought those were to hold some water when you were doing stuff like flood-n-drain systems and what not. But I'm new so I'm all ears, and I really appreciate the help guys!

So, I put some hydtroton on the top of the net cup as Greenfingers suggested, and also put black tape around its base to make sure no light is getting in that way.

And fyi rkymtnman, I will get it moved to a 5 gallon, or bigger if I can find it, bucket soon, but want my girl not to notice it to the longest extent possible. Pic below.

Also found my meter - its a TDS meter, a picture of it is below. What is the desired goal, and what is the absolutely worst one should allow it to get before plant takes massive harm? Thanks!

Yeah a tds meter is basically the same as an EC meter, if you want to convert tds to EC you take the tds reading and divide it by 500.

The sooner you get that girl into a 5 gallon bucket the better as I still think you have probably got some root issues going on or it's a problem with PH.

What is your thinking behind starting them in that container? Mine go straight into there final bucket as soon as I see the taproot come through the rockwool cube, this girl is 2 1/2 weeks old from sprout

MrGreenFingers99 said:

Yeah a tds meter is basically the same as an EC meter, if you want to convert tds to EC you take the tds reading and divide it by 500.

The sooner you get that girl into a 5 gallon bucket the better as I still think you have probably got some root issues going on or it's a problem with PH.

What is your thinking behind starting them in that container? Mine go straight into there final bucket as soon as I see the taproot come through the rockwool cube, this girl is 2 1/2 weeks old from sprout

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yeah, i agree. he should get it out of that tiny res quickly. it would be almost impossible to keep the pH steady of like a liter or so of water.

OGHomeslice said:

What is the desired goal

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for a plant that size, you probably need 100 to 250 ppm as a guess. more towards the 100

Thanks MrGreenFingers and rkymtnman! My only rationale for keeping it in that smaller container was to make it less noticeable to my girl - I keep it next to the aquarium and she is less likely to focus on it and start asking questions than if I had it in a big 5 gallon bucket. But I will buy a 5 gallon bucket this weekend and make the switch!

I used the TDS meter in the distilled water my plant is now in and it was literally 5. That compares to 386 for the aquarium right next to it. So I think it proves that stuff really was distilled and pure!

I tested the PH as well, and per my PH strips it looked to be right around 6. This comports this link which says even though distilled water is 7 right after distilling, it quickly drops to around 5.8 due to carbon dioxide it absorbs from the air:


So below is a picture of the res with the 3 lights very close, one RIGHT above it. These are true 100w (not the incandescent bulb "equivalent" rating, true 100w supposedly, full spectrum). Could those be doing any damage as too much bright? I used the light meter app on my phone to try and measure their brightness, it is kind of crummy, could be anywhere from 10,000 lx to 40,000 lx right where the leaves are situated. I would guess that is OK, and it seems ok as the top, newer leaves, closest to the light, seem to be the ones without abnormalities, but thought I would ask to make sure.

Any reason I cannot use the fert below, which I bought at Wal-Mart, to get the TDS up to 100 or so after a couple of days?

MrGreenFingers, that plant looks AWESOME, and is probably about the same age as my much smaller one lol. How did you germinate it, using what kind of water, etc.? I have two seeds that I think did not germinate, going to try again with a couple more. I think I need to use just distilled water, put a little in a container to a level of say 1/4th inch, set the rockwool with the seeds in them (with a small piece of rockwool pulled off and stuck over the hole to keep out light) in the container and let it absorb the water up (without crushing the rockwool). but the container on a heat pad, and put under a light (a weak light is ok at this point). Any issues with that approach?

Thanks!






By the way, I got that fert with the lower nitrates because I can get all the nitrates I want and them some from my aquariums, figured I can over time use mostly old aquarium water and supplement a little with this as needed for the phosphates and potassium. Thanks!!!

Hey OG, I keep germination pretty simple, I soak a rockwool cube in a solution of tap water and root stim ph'd to 5.8 for 24 hours, I then place the seed in the rockwool and cover with a corner of the cube, i then place the cube in a tupaware box put the lid on, wrap the box in a towel and place on a router for heat, the seeds normally sprout within 3 days and then they go straight into my system.

In terms of the fert, if you want something simple like that then I would suggest either megacrop or Jack's hydro which are canna specific nutes, I cant really comment on the tomato fert as never used it.

I guess you need to work out what you want from your grows, if you are just having a bit of fun with it then continue with what your doing but if you want to grow some really good weed then I think you need to do quite a bit of research but the good news is, your in the right place!

Thanks MrGreenFingers! Yea, I've got a ton of research to do, but learning is half the fun.

So your way is kind of the way I was doing it, just less professional. When you use tap water, do you use dechlorinator, or don't bother? I'll have to get a root stim (and preferred?), and loot at getting megacrop or Jack's hydro. I read somewhere that said that to germinate the seeds the ideal temperature is "warm" and "room temperature", but then it said the ideal temp is like 64 to 72F, which is below room temp (like 74F). So f my room is 74F, should I still be putting it on a heating pad (or like a router in your case, on top of fridge, etc.). And so until they sprout you do not have ANY light shining on them, perfectly dark place?

Thanks!!!

Dang, just looked at the plant again, looking much worse since I changed out the water for distilled water. You can see the leaves below are now yellow. So maybe it was NOT nutrient lockout, but it was missing some needed things. Just added just a little bit of that tomato fert to the water, gonna add just a bit of fish tank water to get some nitrates in particular in there as well.

OGHomeslice said:

Thanks MrGreenFingers! Yea, I've got a ton of research to do, but learning is half the fun.

So your way is kind of the way I was doing it, just less professional. When you use tap water, do you use dechlorinator, or don't bother? I'll have to get a root stim (and preferred?), and loot at getting megacrop or Jack's hydro. I read somewhere that said that to germinate the seeds the ideal temperature is "warm" and "room temperature", but then it said the ideal temp is like 64 to 72F, which is below room temp (like 74F). So f my room is 74F, should I still be putting it on a heating pad (or like a router in your case, on top of fridge, etc.). And so until they sprout you do not have ANY light shining on them, perfectly dark place?

Thanks!!!

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Yes the way you are doing it seems fine to me, I personally dont put them under my lights until they have emerged from the rockwool cube, you definitely want some heat also as the heat will cause humidity in the tupaware box with the lid on!

In terms of dechlorinating, I used to just leave the water out for 24 hours but I live in an apartment so dont really have room to leave buckets out so I did a little research and now I use pure vitamin C (Ascorbic acid) as this apparently cleans chlorine and Chlorimines from the water, I only need to add 0.1 grams to clean 5 gallons of water so the 1kg bag I bought for £8 will last me a few years and you only need to leave it 20 minutes for the chemical reaction to take place before adding your nutrients.