rDWC getting worse

I posted this on another site and did not get much input, hoping I'll have better luck here. 1 post is my repost then an update.

Jan 14th;

Hey all complete hydro newb here. This is my first grow and I did a supper stupid thing. I started in soil and then transplanted to hydro (clones, to 4 inch pot till well rooted, then into rDWC).

Obviously (form what I know now) the roots died, and started to regrow. Then I had the Root Riot plugs too wet and some of the new roots got rot. I've add hydroguard and they are growing roots back again, but they have been stunted for about 10-12 days.

Since this is my first grow I been considering continuing it, just to keep cutting my teeth perfecting my processes. On the other hand I feel it could be a waste of time and product to continue with my subpar start. I started to cut them for clones, and that's when I noticed they all had decent new rot growth (1 or 2 long root steams with small feeders starting) so, now I'm conflicted.

Any thoughts appreciated. Thanks!


1. Are you growing from seed or clones? clones
2. How old are your plants? 2 months
3. How tall are your plants? 12/18
4. What type of hydro system are you using? rDWC (smaller r since it is a very small pump)
5. What brand/type of nutrients are you using? Fox farm Gro big hydro, microbrew, hydroguard,
6. What is the Ph of your nutrient solution? 6.1 (keep around 6)
7. What is the PPM/EC of your tap water? use RO 9/350
8. What is the PPM/EC of your nutrient solution? 600/1300
9. What is the temperature of your nutrient solution? 68
10. Does your PPM/EC show a rise or fall when you do your daily PPM check? Falls
11. Does your pH show a rise or fall when you do your daily check? usually falls but today it went up
12. Do you foliar feed or spray your plants with anything? No
13. What kind of lights do you use and how many watts combined? (HPS, MH, fluorescent, halogen, incandescent "plant lights") LED Spiderfarmer 4000
14. How close are your lights to the plants? couple feet
15. What size is your grow space in square feet? 400 (half used for veggies)
16. What is the temperature and humidity in your grow space? 76/50
17. Have you noticed any insect activity in your grow space? gnats
18. How much experience do you have growing? Hydro none, cannabis very little

So I thought it was Cal deficiency and added Senisi Cal Mag Extra. Things got worse and plant got super droopy, so I flushed with 20 gallons of RO 6.0ph water to bring ppm down to 400. After another 12 hours and a spray of just RO water they still look like crap (and getting worse).

Do I need to take ppm down or jack it back up? Roots look fine, nice and white. Some plants have few and some many.

For tracking my stats now are

ph - 6.25
ppm - 480
ec -770
air temp - 76
water temp - 66
water level - static

The plants seemed to have responded well to yesterdays spray, so I did it again this morning. After turning the lights all the way down (25%) I sprayed them down with 1/4 gallon of RO water. I'll leave the lights at 25% until they dry, and then go up to 50%. I left them at 50% all day yesterday and they seemed to do better at that level.

If anyone has thoughts I'd love to hear them, otherwise I'll use this as my daily journal to track the progress.

ph - 6.15 (-0.1)
ppm - 482 (+2)
ec - 774 (+4)
air temp - 72 (lights just came on)
water temp - 66
water level - static (this is my biggest concern 9 plants and no water loss?!)

Taken just before spraying.

looks like overfeeding led to tip burn led to nute lockout to me.

Yeah, after reading tons I am thinking the same. Should I take ppm down more, or continue with RO spary until they start to drink? or get a flush chem?

i'd flush for min 12hrs with plain water then start back on even lighter nutes.

rkymtnman said:

flush for min 12hrs with plain water

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Thanks
On it! RO is going get a workout

Roots look so so, as there probably stained from the dirt.

Only tip imho is stay away from anything organic .

Just creates issues in my rdwc.

What are your relative humidity? I would get the temps up to about 80-85 with LED.

Mr. Mohaskey said:

What are your relative humidity?

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Normally around 50%, but right now it's like 90% do to the spraying. I'll turn the intake/exhaust fans temp up, but right now it's down to 70 with lights at 35% (slowly increasing to 50% after spraying)

35+ gallons later the ladies are bathing in 28ppm clean water.

coralreefer999 said:

35+ gallons later the ladies are bathing in 28ppm clean water

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measure your ppms after 6hours and then 12hours. i'll bet they are much, much higher

rkymtnman said:

measure your ppms after 6hours and then 12hours

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Will do!

For a baseline we're at...

ph - 6.01
ppm - 42 (after letting it mix in for an hour)
ec - 153
air temp - 70 (light at 40%)
water temp - 64
water level - flush/refill

Can you get your air temps higher? When i switched to LED my growth was stunted and had problems as i was low 70's. Got the temps up to 80-85 and a lot of issues went away.

ok close to 6 hr check in.

ph - 6.18 (+.17)
ppm - 108 (+66)
ec - 185 (+35)
air temp - 71 (+1) (light at 50%)
water temp - 65.5 (+1.5)
water level - static

Mr. Mohaskey said:

Can you get your air temps higher?

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Once I can turn the light back up w/out the burn it will quickly increase. Otherwise it would be a pain (space heater) and low humidity. Hopefully I can keep adding light/heat each day and cut fan run times. When lights were at 100% 80s were not a problem.

EDIT: and plants look much better thank you @rkymtnman

I have to use a space heater to supplement, especially in the winter. Less than ideal, but your plants will thank you for it.

about 18hours from flush.

ph - 6.06 (-.12)
ppm - 85 (-23) Surprising I was expecting them to leech more nuts.
ec - 180 (-5)
air temp - 70 (-1) (light at 50%) adding space heater to bring up to 80. Ladies get more heat than the house!
humidity - 90%
water temp - 66 (+.5)
water level - static

EDIT: added humidity to stats for tracking

coralreefer999 said:

Surprising I was expecting them to leech more nuts

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me too.

but your water level is static? they should start drinking after the flush.

rkymtnman said:

but your water level is static?

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Unfortunately correct. My res is a a Rubbermaid 20 gallon storage bucket with 2 pumps and two air stones. If they are drinking it's not enough to make a noticeable change.

coralreefer999 said:

humidity - 90%

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can you drop it to like 60%?