Tap Root REALLY long,Help a hydro noob

So this is my first grow. I have a GH waterfarm drip system. Just growing 1 plant to start. Everything was sweet. Its now 2 1/2 weeks from seed.Last night the leaves started drooping @ the ends and thought i was overwatering. I unplugged the drip over night(usually drips 1/2 hour on 2 hours off)Woke up no change.Started today first feeding. Kept it lite only 1/3 strength. Using GH flora 3 part, H&G drip kleen, GH up & down. Tap water ph starts around 5.5 climbs to 7.0 in like 3-4 days. ppm have no clue....not that advanced yet! temp 77 f , RH flucuates between 40 and 55% plant was started in rapid rooter plug. When I emptied the bucket I removed the inner tub and the taproot is no joke like 18 inches long. Theres also alot of shorter roots coming out of the holes but none nearly as long. Is normal for a young plant to have roots this long? If the taproot is in the water do i still run the drip? or just the airstone in the resevoir?(I added 1) Oh yeah...lights are 12 cfl 100 watt equivilent. 6 veg bulbs 6 flower bulbs. Their on 24/7 cause my basement is COLD. Any help would be awesome!

yes keep your drip system on, what is your water temps in your res?
and you say your PH goes from 5.5 to 7.0 in three days? that in my
opion is alot of ph movment, how about some pics? and what color
is your root? is there any slime or discolored lookng anything in your
res?

Hey hellraizer!
I will try for pics asap....when I say my ph rises that much thats when I was feeding with plain ph'd water. Today was her first feeding of nutes so I'm not sure how it will flucuate now.The rez temp is around 70 f. The roots look white with no signs of slime or anything. I forgot to say these are bubblelicious fem seeds from nirvana. The leaves also seem to be a light green. All the other pics i see of plants their so dark green! And you say to still have the drip go...is my time of half hour on 2 hours off good? And the rapid rooter plug seems pretty moist...should I let it dry out first? Give me a few and I'll try 2 get pics

This might be a dumb question but are these water farms using dirt? Or another form of medium......are you using a grow medium like lava rocks or anything like that....did you rinse the grow medium before putting the rapid rooter into it? I only ask because I battled Ph issues until i realized I hadnt flushed my medium.

I love how everyones so helpfull! K...im gonna try to post some pics...if it dont work tell me how to do it. The waterfarm I'm using has hydroton. And after all the research I did you better belive I flushed the CRAP out of these. I basically dedicated a whole weekend to washing them. If the pics work you'll see how much of a dick I am....When I changed the water today i got some drops on the plant so I kinda gave it a gentle little flick with my finger and I broke one of the leaves! All my issues started before that though.

What nutes are you using?

General Hydroponics 3 part flora series. Got a couple more pics of the taproot. Dont know if they will be helpfull.
Besides the long ass taproot there are probably 15 to 20 other roots barely popping out of the drainage holes.

roots look fine bud.. your res temp is a tiny bit high. Ive always been told not to go over 72F the way to keep your res temps down is take a couple small water bottles and freeze em. Put a frozen water bottle in your rez every day..... switching it out every day. Before going in depth with whats wrong you want to start with the basics. Get your rez temps down and pick up a ppm pen. You can get one for cheap like 20 bucks. Oh and one more thing.... are you using the nute strength THEY recommend?

No...I basicaly cut it in a third. For this feeding and my rez size they say I should have added 1.5 teaspoons....I only put in .5 teaspoon.
How about the plant itself...does it look ok? I'm tryin not to panic about the grow but it doesnt work. And is it normal for the taproot to be this long for only 2 1/2 weeks from seed?

You are doing all the right things bud..... your plant looks fine to me. The Ph swing could be because youre using tap water. Most people say to use RO water..... i personally use tap but i went to the water company and found out what was in my tap water. I can see what looks like salt build up already around your feeding ring. When in doubt empty the res and start over. Another suggestion could be try using the lucas formula.

Also you WANT a huge tap root........ expect a monster with a root already forming that big dude.

OK so I'm not sure why I put rez temp was 70....and I just dubble checked its 67f. Still need to be lower?
I also might have wasted my money but I bought the stuff for 1 of those DIY Co2 generators. I have the tube dumping on top of the plant...not sure if it will work but it was only 10 bucks.
Anything else you can think of would be glady excepted!

now you getting me excited!

your rez temp at 67 is PERFECT. CO2 I dont have a clue.... ive never used it. Just keep your Ph in check, top off your res when needed, and change your res every week. Seeing as you dont have a ppm meter its proly safer to just change your res every week. Ph is key here though dude...... you get your Ph out of whack and youll kill your plant. 5.8 and 6.3 ive found is the sweet spot for me. And dont over nute and you will have a BEAST.

you need to move to a feeding plan for starters I would use the lucas formula. your using the same nutes as me,
this is the starting nute program veg is G/M/B 0/5/10 5ML per gal and 10ML per gal
your ph is wack due to using just water with nutes it will stablize as long as you can
keep the water temps down. high temps will leed you to alot of problems.

I really dont mean to be a total pain but I dont understand the whole topping off the rez. My rez holds 2.5 gallons. Lets say today my ph is 5.8. Hypothetically if tommorow it soaked up .5 gallons and the ph is 6.5. Do I pull all the water out of the rez and add more water and ph and nutes?? Just adjust the level missing? Cant grasp this method and I know the ppm meter would help but I have to buy everything online and I wouldnt be able to get it that quick.

jannabana69631 said:

I really dont mean to be a total pain but I dont understand the whole topping off the rez. My rez holds 2.5 gallons. Lets say today my ph is 5.8. Hypothetically if tommorow it soaked up .5 gallons and the ph is 6.5. Do I pull all the water out of the rez and add more water and ph and nutes?? Just adjust the level missing? Cant grasp this method and I know the ppm meter would help but I have to buy everything online and I wouldnt be able to get it that quick.

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just add water then nutes if needed. then PH water to 5.8 alway PH last.
dont dump the water unless you need to, I do every 10 to 14 days

you need to get a PPM pen a good one I like is a blue labs truncheon pen

Not a pain at all dude...... I put a line where the bottom of my net pot is, I dont know how the water farm works but with my bubble bucket I just check the Ph every morning...adjust as needed and "top off" the res with plain Ph'd water..... when the water level drops, due to the plant sucking it up and evaporation, I just simply add back the water that was lost. Every week on the day I dump the whole res and make a new batch of nutes and water and repeat until she is ready to chop.

hellraizer30 said:

just add water then nutes if needed then PH water to 5.8 alway PH last.

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but is there a way to tell if you need nutes without a ppm meter?

iPACKEDthisBOWL4TWO said:

Not a pain at all dude...... I put a line where the bottom of my net pot is, I dont know how the water farm works but with my bubble bucket I just check the Ph every morning...adjust as needed and "top off" the res..... when the water level drops, due to the plant sucking it up and evaporation, I just simply add back the water that was lost. Every week on the day I dump the whole res and make a new batch of nutes and water and repeat until she is ready to chop.

Click to expand...

when you say you add water that was lost...plain water ph'd water?