Life after nute burn?

Hey, all.

First time growing and I'm using the 2ft cash crop box (don't have much room and need discretion) for hydro set up.

As you can tell from the photos, I had a pretty bad nute burn. Some plants were affected worse than others, which I don't quite understand.

I had to pour out a lot of the water and add new distilled water to get the burn to stop. Now I think there is a nute deficiency. I've sprinkled in a TINY TINY bit of dissolving nutes to see if that springs them back.

My questions are:
1) How fucked are these plants?
2) After you've stopped the nute burning, whats the best thing for your plants to help them recover? I'm talking about the parts that are still green...obviously the brown parts are lost. Should leaves that are primarily brown/burned be trimmed away? Is there a nute burn recovery solution? Some sort of stem cell spread to help the brown parts revitalize?

I've got CO2 booster pumping CO2 into the box...you can see it at the bottom center of photos...hopefully that does something positive.

My plants were looking like champs till this week.

Thanks in advance!

capogrock said:

Hey, all.

First time growing and I'm using the 2ft cash crop box (don't have much room and need discretion) for hydro set up.

As you can tell from the photos, I had a pretty bad nute burn. Some plants were affected worse than others, which I don't quite understand.

I had to pour out a lot of the water and add new distilled water to get the burn to stop. Now I think there is a nute deficiency. I've sprinkled in a TINY TINY bit of dissolving nutes to see if that springs them back.

My questions are:
1) How fucked are these plants?
2) After you've stopped the nute burning, whats the best thing for your plants to help them recover? I'm talking about the parts that are still green...obviously the brown parts are lost. Should leaves that are primarily brown/burned be trimmed away? Is there a nute burn recovery solution? Some sort of stem cell spread to help the brown parts revitalize?

I've got CO2 booster pumping CO2 into the box...you can see it at the bottom center of photos...hopefully that does something positive.

My plants were looking like champs till this week.

Thanks in advance!

Click to expand...

Should I just order some new seeds and start over?

Ouch man. Hurts seeing that. U can lose crops so easy with hydro. Keep up the fight man.

My advice soiless.


Edit: the tops are not effected so they can still make it. But i'm not a hydro man so let someone that knows more chime in. GL Man..

If you correct the problem they will grow out of it. The scorched leaves will never recover but new growth will be fine. Give them time. When they get bigger with nice new growth you can cut off the damaged leaves.

Sent from Northern Colorado.

capogrock said:

Should I just order some new seeds and start over?

Click to expand...

Might as well. It'll take forever for them to come back, if they aren't already dead.

And while you wait for them to come do some research on what went wrong. I believe more than just nute burn is to blame here..

What do the roots look like?

Also don't go looking for a miracle "nute burn recovery solution" because there's no such thing but the hydro store guy WILL sell you one

PS. Save your money.. CO2 is for when the plants are dialed in and growing at their max capacity.

SnaFuu said:

Might as well. It'll take forever for them to come back, if they aren't already dead.

And while you wait for them to come do some research on what went wrong. I believe more than just nute burn is to blame here..

What do the roots look like?

Click to expand...

Well I've been checking the Ph everyday and nutes are the only thing I've added. Why do you think something else could be to blame? I'll take a pic of the roots when I'm home from work...I think they are okay.

I think they got burned so bad cuz there is only a gallon of water in the reservoir. I've ordered a TDS meter and hope it arrives soon.

After you've stopped the nute burning, whats the best thing for your plants to help them recover? I'm talking about the parts that are still green...obviously the brown parts are lost. Should leaves that are primarily brown/burned be trimmed away? Is there a nute burn recovery solution? Some sort of stem cell spread to help the brown parts revitalize?

Click to expand...

All i can say is study, learn. You will run into tons of problems. We are missing to much information to give a proper diagnosis.

-nutes you'er using
- ec,ph,ppm
-room temp
-water temp
-humidity

Like i said, i'm not a hydro man i wouldn't consider my advice the best.

Those plants ARE fucked, however, if they aren't dead, then they WILL recover unless you fuck them up again.

Cannabis is a very, VERY resilient plant, so if you get your nutes and environment right, those little plants will get back on track with the new growth eventually returning to normal. Give em' about 6 weeks of healthy growth and you'd never know they were once fucked up little seedlings.

I'd grow them out, but I grow for myself and don't mind taking time to correct my fuck ups during the grow, but I'm not you.

Keep reading and learning, and do what you think is best.

I am a 'hydro man' and you can't grow six plants in one gallon of water, especially in that cabinet. The water will become too warm quite quickly from the lights and inadequate air exchange, and as the plants drink from that small reserve, the solution very quickly becomes out of tune in terms of pH and nutrient concentration. Larger volume leads to greater stability.

Your plants look like they would have been barely out of the seedling stage when you started applying nutrients so they are burnt, but the rest of your setup is not conducive to success. Start over, consider soil or soilless growing, especially since you have space and stealth constraints.

You said you were checking pH daily. What are you using to adjust pH?

You have no medium in your net pots other than the cubes you started the plants in, so lots of light can enter your reservoir, further complicating your situation when algae gets started. Algae will quickly rob what little solution you have there of oxygen, which is also diminished by high res temperatures. i.e., cooler res temperatures allow higher dissolved oxygen content (your roots need oxygen, not co2).

In conclusion, sorry. I think you could grow two plants in that rig, if you switch to some other technique than hydro. If it makes you feel any better, my first plunge into hydroponics was one step up from what you have done (and bought) and it was a complete fiasco, pretty much for all the reasons I've outlined above. Best of luck.

shnkrmn said:

I am a 'hydro man' and you can't grow six plants in one gallon of water, especially in that cabinet. The water will become too warm quite quickly from the lights and inadequate air exchange, and as the plants drink from that small reserve, the solution very quickly becomes out of tune in terms of pH and nutrient concentration. Larger volume leads to greater stability.

Your plants look like they would have been barely out of the seedling stage when you started applying nutrients so they are burnt, but the rest of your setup is not conducive to success. Start over, consider soil or soilless growing, especially since you have space and stealth constraints.

You said you were checking pH daily. What are you using to adjust pH?

You have no medium in your net pots other than the cubes you started the plants in, so lots of light can enter your reservoir, further complicating your situation when algae gets started. Algae will quickly rob what little solution you have there of oxygen, which is also diminished by high res temperatures. i.e., cooler res temperatures allow higher dissolved oxygen content (your roots need oxygen, not co2).

In conclusion, sorry. I think you could grow two plants in that rig, if you switch to some other technique than hydro. If it makes you feel any better, my first plunge into hydroponics was one step up from what you have done (and bought) and it was a complete fiasco, pretty much for all the reasons I've outlined above. Best of luck.

Click to expand...

Thanks, shnkrmn.

As for the air exchange the box has a pretty substantial air intake area and the exhaust space is equipped with a respectable fan. I don't notice heat or temperature change when opening the box. With that being said, I ordered a dual thermostat/humidistat for the box but it's not arrived yet.

I've attached a couple photos of the roots and a photo of the plants today...in the background you can see my Ph test solution, Ph adjusting solution (1 of 2), and my nutes (Moon Dust all in one 19-8-13).

What should I use as filler around the coco coir? I like being able to see them as I know the water level is low when the begin to dry out. FYI, I have two air stones in the reservoir.

As general update, when I looked at the plants today they seemed worse, not better, after adding a tiny bit of nutes last night. I say they look worse because yesterday the top leaves weren't so droopy. My experience in Bonsai Trees tells me that A) negative response is still a response, so they are still alive...and B) any nutes are bad for these plants right now. When plants are stressed nutes will only stress them more.

Consequently, I dumped out the water and replaced it with fresh distilled water. Either this will finish them off or salvage them. Two of the plants were noticeably more vigorous than the others. If I can save the plants I will consider reducing to the two good plants rather than the 5 I have now.

One other bit of info, the Ph fluctuates (always higher) daily, like you said it would. Sadly, today that was barely the case...a sign these little guys are on their last leg.

Any thought on trimming off the burnt leaves to help reduce the amount of work the plant has to do? Good chance I will do this before bed if I don't hear back.

Thanks for all your help!

-capogrock

The roots are growing only from the bottom of your netpots because they won't grow out of the sides where they would be exposed to light and too much air. Most folks use a little hydroton, both to fill the space and block out light. Then the roots can grow outward and you have a dense mass instead of a stringy rope.

Start over. Those plants aren't anything special. Start new beans, if you straighten out your issues new plants will be well past these in no time. But wait longer than the third set of full leaves before you feed them. Tap water, not distilled, until they are as big as these were. And feed less than last time, reruns are boring as is the sick feeling of screwing up!

Lastly, again, consider soil. Good luck!

shnkrmn said:

The roots are growing only from the bottom of your netpots because they won't grow out of the sides where they would be exposed to light and too much air. Most folks use a little hydroton, both to fill the space and block out light. Then the roots can grow outward and you have a dense mass instead of a stringy rope.

Start over. Those plants aren't anything special. Start new beans, if you straighten out your issues new plants will be well past these in no time. But wait longer than the third set of full leaves before you feed them. Tap water, not distilled, until they are as big as these were. And feed less than last time, reruns are boring as is the sick feeling of screwing up!

Lastly, again, consider soil. Good luck!

Click to expand...

Thanks! I cant figure out how to just send you a message so I'll just post some final questions here.

I'm happy to consider soil, but I'm about $550 in to this project...so whatever I grow is gonna be in that damn box. (One day I'll have my own house...until then!) I can see why you don't like the box...it's simply too small.

Any how, I've attached a pic of the reservoir. Keep in mind the box itself is about 2ft tall. If I filled that reservoir with soiless could I do 2-3 plants that would make it through a harvest? Do autoflower strains need to be re-planted after a harvest?...I'm thinking autoflower is the way to go since I hear they tend to be more compact.

Finally, though soil may be preferable, could I grow 2-3 plants through a harvest in my current hydro system, assuming I don't botch this again? I read that hydro tend to have bigger buds, which I thought was good since I have a small space.

Thanks again...really appreciate the help.

Right. The box is small, but you can make it work. It's the dinky hydro setup you've got that simply isn't sufficient.

No. Hydro doesn't grow bigger buds. Lots of soil growers get way more than I do. Whatever your method, skill is paramount. The learning curve is less steep with soil and I would think autoflowers are best for the space you have.

I wouldn't try to fill that tub with soil and try to grow. You'll have to punch holes in the bottom for drainage and drainage still won't be good.. Just buy two or three two gallon pots. Use that tub as a catch tray.