What the heck is wrong?

OK, first things first this is my first hydro grow. Got clones that were rooted in soil so I soaked them and carefully removed all dirt and placed then into Rockwool cubes. They all made it through the shock and were happy. Then 2 weeks later the veins began to turn yellow. I suspected ph lockout and checked, it was about 6.5 so I lowered to 6. I did a flush last night and changed the reservoir. Mixed nutes according to bottle. Ph is right at 6 now without needing any ph up or down.



Of the 8 plants I have 4 are doing this all different genetics.

Grow info
Ebb and flow with 40 gallon reservoir running approx 35 gallons. AirPump with stone as well as secondary pump to ensure water is oxygenated.

Using 3 part micro grow and bloom system by cutting edge solutions. With the water change last night I mixed them up full strength.

I don't have a ec meter but my tap water ppm is 215, and after mixing nutes I'm at 1420. From my understanding cutting edge solutions is like using the lucus formula.

I flood the table every 4 hours for 10 minutes. It used to be for 20 minutes, but I noticed the reservoir would empty and the pump would run dry so I changed it.

I've started spraying with distilled water mixed with Epsom salt. I just can't for the life of me figure out what's going on.

I also noticed algae growing on the top of my cubes so I mixed up some diluted peroxide and cleaned the tops, then put black plastic over the top to keep light out.

Add photos in natural light you will get more responses

sunni said:

Add photos in natural light you will get more responses

Click to expand...

I'll get right on that, thanks!

What PPM scale are you on .5 or .7? If youre on .7 then 1400 IMO is way too high. I never break 1000ppm even in late flower.

adower said:

What PPM scale are you on .5 or .7? If youre on .7 then 1400 IMO is way too high. I never break 1000ppm even in late flower.

Click to expand...

I have no idea what scale. I just dipped my pen in and it read 142 10x.

Also the cutting edge solutions faq page says they recommend vegetative up to 2000ppm based upon 0ppm water.

I just set up the same program...difference is,I have 3 part GH...and the bottle shows to use 1tsp per gallon ea.
my ppm reading is @ 300
plants are in perfect condition

I'm wondering if I should just start dumping buckets from my reservoir and refill with the declorinated tap water to bring it down to at least half.

abby182000 said:

I have no idea what scale. I just dipped my pen in and it read 142 10x.

Also the cutting edge solutions faq page says they recommend vegetative up to 2000ppm based upon 0ppm water.

Click to expand...

You should find out what scale your pen is on .5 or .7 . I dont know how anyone can recommend 2000PPM, thats ridiculous.

is that growing on mars looks like needs oxygen...

Lack of zinc? probably ph related. Check your nutrients and see if they have zinc and iron.

Looks like you got lockout for some reason. Especially if your feeding correctly Good luck

Looks like zinc but i'm no plant doctor, I would check your ppm meter for accuracy and then if it is accurate cut the recommended dosage in half, I used bc nutrients by technaflora and would routinely get extremely high ppm numbers when mixed to there recommended dosages. Also Get real water, it could be something in the water fucking with the nutrients . Distilled is best IMO and you will be starting with 0 ppm numbers , Best of luck to you BB

Thanks everyone! I took pics of my tds pen and nutrient bottles. I went to the website manufacturer for my pen and it says the values are based on a 0.5 scale.


Upon inspecting my nutrient bottles, it appears that there is no zinc provided however my process is I fill a rubber maid trash can with water from the hose. I then add an air pump and stone, and let it bubble 1-2 days to remove the chlorine from the water. I then mix nutes and add to the reservoir, since the ph is at 6. Should I have a zinc deficiency if I'm using tap water? Also the plant I have in dirt I have been watering from the water in the reservoir and it looks great!
I've looked at so many pictures of deficiencies and toxicity, but the yellowing of veins, eventually widening and turning the entire leaf yellow is what throws me off. The only pictures I can find that resemble mine, provide no answers.

Here are the pics of the nutrient bottles.



I'm going down in an hour or so and pulling out half of the water in the reservoir and replacing it with the water in the trash can. That should lower my ppm to around 710, which includes the starting ppm of my water. The actual ppm of nutrient mix should only be around 450 or so when I'm finished.

OK so I pulled approx 16 gallons from my reservoir, and replaced it with bubbled out tap water. My ph is still holding at 6 and my ppm went down to 962. Subtract my starting 215 ppm and I'm left with about 750ppm. Should I lower further or wait a couple of days? I'm lower than I was when I did the water change. My ph has never dropped below 5 or gotten higher than 6.5 so I honestly think that the lockout is from too many nutrients even though I mixed according to the seedling guidelines. Before the water change I was reading around 1400ppm. I thought at the time it was low based on the manufacturer recommendations. I'm thinking that if I even make it to flower, I'll keep using half the recommendation. I'm really hoping I don't have to start all over, I had a hard time tracking down clones

What else should, or can I do?

I would stop using the nutes you have minus the gh. Then just use the Lucas formula