A little help needed - New to DWC and having troubles figuring this out

Redvirgo · May 20, 2015

DWC Meds said:
Hello, How is everyone?

I'm having some issues and am really unsure how to deal with them.. These are my first 2 DWC plants, I am following the "Useless" feeding schedule (I'll throw a link in at the bottom incase you aren't familiar).

Heres the rundown: My plants have been doing great till about 4-5 days ago, I started noticing the lower leaves yellowing with dark spots on them, its progressively getting worse, first it was only on the plant to the right, now its showing on both plants. I am really confused... looks like potassium difficiency if I followed the "Diagnose your plants" websites properly.

Also, I believe I have root rot, but I have done everything in my power to prevent it, very confused.

My Set up:
- 1 plant / 5 gal bucket - Hydroton+General Hydroponics Nutes. Currently On Week 2 of Useless Schedule: 10ml Grow / 5ml Micro / 3ml Bloom per gallon of water - Currently @ 850PPM

-I adjusted the ph to 5.5 a day after water change, right now its sitting at 5.9-6.2 (variance between buckets), I use GH PH Down for lowering PH. I change my buckets water every 2 weeks at the latest, sometimes even earlier.

-I am running 2 air stones per bucket running off of one 971GPH commercial air pump. I've been told by the guy at the hydro shop that hes run much more on less, can this be confirmed? do I need more air? It looks like its majorly boiling in there. Whats the optimal amount of air for a 5 gal bucket dwc?

-I add 2ml of 32% H2O2 per gallon of water - this is 8-10ml per bucket, each 3-4 days when I recheck PH. Bottle says I can add up to 3ml per gallon but was afraid, as with most nutrients, they tell you to use alot.

-Temps stay at 70 or below pretty constantly, I'm told 68 is best, right nwo its at 69.1 degrees.

I was told that GH Micro and especially GH Floricious would stain my roots (I used it once and freaked once I saw the brown roots, never to use floricious again) so now I will only use the 3 part, bloom/grow/micro. I believe this is more than staining though, theres a swampy smell, even though I've followed all the rules! What am I doing wrong?

To me the problems look like potassium difficiency, as its the only place where I've heard of Red stems+spotted yellowing leaves with brown necrosis spots. I was told potassium difficiency is rare in hydro... so I'm literally stumped and at the mercy of rollitup. Maybe root rot is my only problem I dont know, Total noob here.

I was also considering adding Cal-mag to my regimen, would this be necessary?

Please tell me what this is and how to fix it! Save my precious ladies! haha Thank you so much! Here's the pics.

Link to Useless Formula Instructions: http://forum.growkin...74#.VVY88vlViqk

I can't give you much of my opinion as I am too an amateur at this hydo game. What I can do is show you what I use and do.

I am current following the nute schedule all the way on the right by ph imbalance using the 3 part GH nutes and it is working great. I believe that nute schedule you are following is using way too much grow formula. The Lucas formula calls for 7.5ml micro/15ml bloom 0 grow for each gallon of water. I've researched many things to do with h202 and nothing I've come across suggests that it will solve or even prevent the potential problem of root rot. I decided to use GH florablend vegan plant booster (liquid compost tea) to add those benificial bacteria to my system to protect the roots and hopefully provide the best environment for them by keeping all the bad away. So far so good.

Water changes every 14 to 21 days and still smells like clean water/ neutral. No bugs or pests. Air temp lights on 74 to 84, water temp 73 to 75. Lights off air 70 - 72, water 69-73.

I have only had a few issues arise and I believe they were my errors to learn from and not because of the schedule I'm following. Dropping in ph down through an empty net pot area and right into/onto roots in the res. Kepping the ph too low/ afraid to add too much, ph was kept between 5 and 5.5/ thought that it would naturally rise, it did not. Rusty, burnt, yellow, brown, and red spots on some leaves. I think that I was locking out nutes because of the ph imbalance. Those have been my only bad experiences thus far and the girls are looking good and growing great. I am going to switch to the Lucas formula for flowering and next crop I'm going to use it throughout the whole grow. I have only heard and seen great things with using that tea recipe you are now using.

Here is the site that explains the nutrient schedule more in depth.
http://www.angelfire.com/cantina/fourtwenty/articles/profiles.htm

Check out my grow here.
http://rollitup.org/t/holy-grail-69-bubbleponics-run.868722/

A little help needed - New to DWC and having troubles figuring this out

Redvirgo

Active Member