Two plants, two problems

I am a first time grower but jumped right into hydroponics as I have a tendency to try the coolest stuff first. I have two straight forward DWC system with two 5 gallon buckets with two air stones each. I add frozen water bottles in the morning and evening and have been monitoring the temp with it varying between 21-24 C usually. The air temp is generally between 23-28 and the humidity is around 30-40% depending on the time of day. I have been keeping the ph around 5.9 or so but when I first noticed the color change in the cotton candy (bigger plant) I let it drift up a bit as calcium and magnesium absorb at 6.1 or so and now it rests between 6 and 6.3. My plants are in week 5 (though you wouldn't be able to tell looking at the small one XD) from being put in the root plugs and they both sprouted after maybe 3-4 days. I have one 600W LED light with both the bloom and veg switch on and I raised it from 14" to 28" in case it was causing light burn. I can't seem to figure out what is causing this issue and I really don't want it to worsen. I have been increasing the ppm from my taps resting 170 ppm to 800ppm over the course of 5 weeks and I have done two reservoir changes. I am using the general hydroponics flora trio and I have added a tbs of Epsom salt to see if that might help. Any responses would be greatly appreciated! Smaller plant is auto UK cheese and the larger plant is auto Candy Cane.

Mr. Biochem said:

I am a first time grower but jumped right into hydroponics as I have a tendency to try the coolest stuff first. I have two straight forward DWC system with two 5 gallon buckets with two air stones each. I add frozen water bottles in the morning and evening and have been monitoring the temp with it varying between 21-24 C usually. The air temp is generally between 23-28 and the humidity is around 30-40% depending on the time of day. I have been keeping the ph around 5.9 or so but when I first noticed the color change in the cotton candy (bigger plant) I let it drift up a bit as calcium and magnesium absorb at 6.1 or so and now it rests between 6 and 6.3. My plants are in week 5 (though you wouldn't be able to tell looking at the small one XD) from being put in the root plugs and they both sprouted after maybe 3-4 days. I have one 600W LED light with both the bloom and veg switch on and I raised it from 14" to 28" in case it was causing light burn. I can't seem to figure out what is causing this issue and I really don't want it to worsen. I have been increasing the ppm from my taps resting 170 ppm to 800ppm over the course of 5 weeks and I have done two reservoir changes. I am using the general hydroponics flora trio and I have added a tbs of Epsom salt to see if that might help. Any responses would be greatly appreciated! Smaller plant is auto UK cheese and the larger plant is auto Candy Cane.

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What size air pump are you using? Looks like very few bubbles in the one pic. My air pump will make so many it fizzes and creates a haze in the bucket so to speak

Lordhooha said:

What size air pump are you using? Looks like very few bubbles in the one pic. My air pump will make so many it fizzes and creates a haze in the bucket so to speak

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It is a 6 watt pump and I have two air stones in each bucket.

Here are some better photos.

Mr. Biochem said:

It is a 6 watt pump and I have two air stones in each bucket.

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I feel like that's your issue it's a 15 liter per min pump giving you barely 7.5 liters per. Bare min you want at least 10 liters per bucket or 10 watts per bucket. A better bet would be a 20 wattish pump.

I agree with lord hooha. Your root mass looks weird for a dwc. Different parts of the roots preform different functions. The thicker roots transport nutrients to the plants and the fine hairs absorb them. Your root mass is mostly transport or cord roots which probably means that there isn't enough oxygen present to stimulate the fine root hair growth.
Also are you touching the roots,how often does your ph increase ,and how long does it take for your plant to drink ?

Dwc root masses can get massive tho

About two weeks ago I did a reservoir change and the roots had wrapped themselves around my air hose so I touched them in order to get the plant out of the bucket. My pH increases very slowly, I usually start it at around 5.7 and it drifts to 6.0 over the course of 7 days, with small increases between when I measure in the morning and at night. My plant goes through very small amounts of water, the ppm stays fairly constant at 950 which to me says that it uses nutes at the same rate it does water, but I only top off the water every three days if that as it drops so slowly. I also have a bunch of new roots forming for the last 3 days, like they just popped out of nowhere (see pic).

Mr. Biochem said:

About two weeks ago I did a reservoir change and the roots had wrapped themselves around my air hose so I touched them in order to get the plant out of the bucket. My pH increases very slowly, I usually start it at around 5.7 and it drifts to 6.0 over the course of 7 days, with small increases between when I measure in the morning and at night. My plant goes through very small amounts of water, the ppm stays fairly constant at 950 which to me says that it uses nutes at the same rate it does water, but I only top off the water every three days if that as it drops so slowly. I also have a bunch of new roots forming for the last 3 days, like they just popped out of nowhere (see pic).

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Ok plant roots are super sensitive and shouldn't be touched or deranged at all. Some plant don't care. Some plants will go into shock and Damn near die. I think touching the roots may have played a part. I want you to do a few things for me. I want u to find a thick black plastic bag and cover the bucket. I see that you covers the top but it looks like light can still seep in. If you get rid of it your ph should stop moving up. Next I want you to lower your ppm I think you should try 700-750. If they start to drink more then you've got pay dirt and you can save a little on nutes. If the show deficiency they put it back to where u had it.

What a flat plant, its flat as a fuckin pancake. Hardly any roots and no stems. Try a different strain next time

After 50 DWC grows I can attest that touching your roots or hacking them off doesn't hurt the plants one bit and I used to use smaller air pumps than your and got great results. I would use conc sulfuric acid to drop my pH to 5.2 and in 3 days it would rise to around 6.3. Top up with RO water, add a bit of nutes to get the ppm back up to where I wanted it, then a few drops of acid to drop the pH to the lower 5 range again. I use pH Perfect nutes now so never bother checking pH.

You should try getting your pH down like mine and see if that helps.





Those were grown with single 12" airstones and little Elite aquarium air pumps that likely put out half the air yours does so I doubt its lack of oxygen in your case. I now use 2 stones per tub and plan to set up an 8x4 grow space to run 4 tubs with two plants each ScroG style and recently bought an 8 outlet commercial piston driven air pump to run two stones in each.

When I reveg DWC plants I hack the roots off about 3" below the net pots and by the time the plant revegges there are tons of new roots so roots are as tough as the plants and not dainty little princess that need special coddling to survive.

When I repot plants I grow in soilless I saw off the bottom inch of the rootball to get rid of the long roots and force them to branch out and fill the pot from top to bottom with fine feeder roots. I up-pot at least 3X from clone or seedling and do it each time.



Good luck!

So here are some updates, I got rid of my one airstone that was clogged and made it so the tube bubbles directly into the water, I adjusted the pH so it stays at 5.8 religiously rather than drifting to 6.2 then get put down and I started foliage misting with a little Epsom salt. Both plants are looking healthier but now the roots are showing some weird and troubling things. Two leaves are showing dark brown spots and the roots have this white gunk on them and I have no idea what it is, I might try making Heiseinberg's tea since weekly res changes with bleach and adding small amounts of H202 seem to be doing nothing. The bigger plant needs about a gallon of water added every two or three days now so it is at least using the water, and I have been putting a bag over the hydroton to stop any light leaks.