What's wrong with my babies?

First time grow..

5 germinated seeds planted February 22nd in rockwool within the hydroton (more info on grow here.. https://www.rollitup.org/t/first-dwc-attempt-few-questions.861579/ )


Here is what they look like. The cotyldon leaves are pretty much gone!? So soon? Should I start easing them with some nutrients? They look really droopy. Maybe I need bigger/better air stones? Here, take a look.

The best looking one has a big root sticking out of the net pot already... the others haven't showed anything.

My seeds came with free food for 2 weeks but not yours ...?
just ensure that their tap root actually in your water solution ...any yellowing on the main leaf tips add the smallest pinch of nutes to your rez...

I stress about 1-3% of your rez if that

They don't need any nutes.

They're probably not getting any water unless your rez is bubbling up.

Yes they need water is all, all appears to be okay. False alarm

I've lost two plants so far. I raised the water level after posting this and that helped I think but was probably too late.

Anyways, this is what I have left and I have a feeling I'm about to lose another one. What am I doing wrong? I let the ph swing up to high 6s a few times earlier on but I've been adjusting it daily for 4 days now

Really confused what I'm doing wrong. Could this happen if the tap roots weren't placed in rockwool cube properly? Only the one with the yellow leaves has 3 little white roots showing out the bottom whereas the others haven't.

Looks like my plants when I started.

Things improved a lot for me when I gave them some nutrients. And waited till plants had a good root mass before transferred into buckets. Things improved tremendously when I ditched rockwool completely.

I give .1EC nutrients from start.

Im gonna try this no nutrients on some bag seeds and see if what everyone says is true. Ill document my results.

Chucking seeds in water now. 5 in one aerocloner. 5 in another of some bagseed given to me from another grower I know. One will be given nutrients and the other none till this third real set everyone mentions in regards to delaying nutrients.

I changed res and gave 2 of the 3 about 1/3rd of full strength lucas formula using GH maxi grow...

Do you think they will make it? These weren't feminized seeds so my opportunities for at least one female are shrinking by the plant!

1/3rd strength is way too much at this point and any seedling. Your plants look very stressed out and need to be treated with care.

What is the resulting strength you're going off of? This is relevant information. So to avoid confusion. Just say nutrients in terms of EC.

How moist is the rockwool and how far up in the pot is it and what sized air pump?

I have a cheap tds pen. (TDS-3) It is reading about 350 ppm with the nutes. I don't think it shows EC. My tap water is about 100 ppm...

The plant with the most leaves seems to be enjoying the nutes. The rockwool was pretty dry on the worse looking one yesterday so I spooned up some water to top feed. It doesn't look any better.

I have 5" net pots and put about an inch of hydroton in the bottom before putting cubes on top. Originally I started with the water RIGHT below the net pots as everything I read said it would be fine/splash up to water the seedling... I think I ran the water too low for first week or so.

Air pump is pondmaster ap-40, 40 lpm should be good for 3-5 buckets eh?

Had the same thing before!!!
I see you planted your seeds straight into your DWC. I did the same thing.
I would usually leave them for longer in the germinator, using a rooting hormone in the first rock wool cube. Once the roots pop through the 2nd cube, I put them in the DWC system- by which time the roots are growing very quickly.
As you're now in your grow room and not the germinator, the lack of humidity etc will make them pretty slow to take. They will come tho, just have to patient.

The problems is that you planted them in Cocoa Puffs and not a plant growing medium. Common mistake.

CC Dobbs said:

The problems is that you planted them in Cocoa Puffs and not a plant growing medium. Common mistake.

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I'm confused..just had a closer look and WHAT the hell are those things?! I thought they were clay pebbles?!

They are clay pebbles.

Quick update for anybody interested....

The best looking one has responded very well to the nutrients and daily care.... She's really getting me excited for the grow! I was beginning to get down on myself... It sucks to spend so much time on something and have it all go so wrong... but I'm learning!

The 2nd one has really perked up in the last couple of days and has new green leafs on top so I'm hopeful it will make it as well.

The 3rd, and last Blue Snowdog that I germinated... well, it doesn't look good.

Next time, I will let the roots start poking out of rockwool before I transfer to DWC... is that what you guys suggest? I will be converting one bucket lid into holding clones and rethinking some closet space.

I will be preparing some Heisenberg Tea this evening... I decided this seemed best route after looking at all of the options. My res has been 72-76 F

Definitely only move a plant to the buckets if its healthy and has the whole bottom of rw covered in roots. Should take a couple weeks at most to get to that point.

I put eniugh clay pebbles in the bottom of pot so i can still see water bubbling up then id transfer the cube and fill around the cube. Top feed until roots come out the bottom.

Or just make an aero system and ditch the RW. Much easier.

firsttimeARE said:

Definitely only move a plant to the buckets if its healthy and has the whole bottom of rw covered in roots. Should take a couple weeks at most to get to that point.

I put eniugh clay pebbles in the bottom of pot so i can still see water bubbling up then id transfer the cube and fill around the cube. Top feed until roots come out the bottom.

Or just make an aero system and ditch the RW. Much easier.

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Rockwool is pretty terrible... lol...

Vumar said:

Rockwool is pretty terrible... lol...

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Right I hate that shit. Ditched it a year ago and havent looked back

I get better clone rates with RW compared to peat moss /shrug.

MrWhi7e said:

I have a cheap tds pen. (TDS-3) It is reading about 350 ppm with the nutes. I don't think it shows EC. My tap water is about 100 ppm...

The plant with the most leaves seems to be enjoying the nutes. The rockwool was pretty dry on the worse looking one yesterday so I spooned up some water to top feed. It doesn't look any better.

I have 5" net pots and put about an inch of hydroton in the bottom before putting cubes on top. Originally I started with the water RIGHT below the net pots as everything I read said it would be fine/splash up to water the seedling... I think I ran the water too low for first week or so.

Air pump is pondmaster ap-40, 40 lpm should be good for 3-5 buckets eh?

Click to expand...

Your plant is undernourished. You should really get your EC between 1.2-1.4 straight from the beginning. Do not start off in DWC with plain water. Seriously, just start off with EC of 1.2 next time and you will see how much healthier the plants are from the start..

Thinking you should use plain water for seedlings in DWC is probably the #1 noob mistake.

#2 biggest dwc noob mistake is listening to other people when they suggest you starve your babies!