Drooping Leaves in Hydroponic System

J

jamal01

Member
Hey All.

Currently growing 2 plants in the Stealth Hydro system using the Stealth Hydro nutrients, etc, with a 4x4x7 grow tent. One of the plants are showing some droopy leaves, and a bit of yellowing on the lower ones. I have changed my res, and temperatures are at about 21 degrees in the res. PH is at 5.5 ish. Any idea what can becausing these drooping leaves and how to fix them?


Thanks!
 
J

jamal01

Member
Sorry forgot to mention that google searches have led me to believe this is over/under watering. Only thing is I dont see how this applies to a hydroponic setup. Am I supposed to be turning off my pumps for a few hours a day or something?

Attached some pictures as well










thanks everyone
 
xX2FaDeD247Xx

xX2FaDeD247Xx

Well-Known Member
if i didn't know any better i'd say your water level is too high. try letting it stay at least 1cm below the base of the netpot, it's not that you're overwatering the plant, it's more of a drowning effect when the root zone is constantly submerged. and come flowering time you can let the water level drop as much as half to get a nice solid root zone happening! goodluck!
 
J

jamal01

Member
Wow didn't know that, was told I should refill the water up to 6 gallons as the plan drinks it up. Will give this a try; thanks!
 
xX2FaDeD247Xx

xX2FaDeD247Xx

Well-Known Member
haha yeh in veg they're not going to be that thirsty. come flowering time though, most definitely they can drink that much! let us know how you go
 
dopeyG

dopeyG

Well-Known Member
if the leaves want to spring back to their droopy position, it could be a deficiency. I had this problem with soil. I fed some flowering nutes and some cal/mag, and everything perked back up again. You could also have a deficiency due to off ph.
 
AKBud

AKBud

Active Member
Your original post you say your "res temps are 21*", seems a bit COLD to me, and PH should not be "5.5ish"? Should be as close to 5.9 as possible, no "ish".
 
cues

cues

Well-Known Member
Sorry, disagree. 21 is good for res. Keeps nasties away. 5.5 is fine. Maybe a little low but I like to drift pH a bit and go down lower often with no problems.
 
InsaneMJ

InsaneMJ

Well-Known Member
I'd go with ak, 21 degrees is freezing ass water. I've ran hydroponics for 5 years now. If you run the right nutes or teas you won't have a problem with "nasties" and also 5.5 to 6.5 is ideal for hydroponics. I've noticed my strains ten to take to 5.9 the best. With my experience the droop is an overwater issue also can be underwatered but unlikely with hydroponics.
 
cues

cues

Well-Known Member
Then I guess we disagree. IMO, anything over 70f (21c) and we are on the edge of other problems with the res water (slime/green etc).
Not saying you're wrong. Just saying that's the way it works in my case. Partly my fault as I dont keep my res perfect and light-tight. However, dropping temps helps. Not being a prat and doing it right would probably help more though.
 
C

Camnibus

Member
Temp and Ph are fine. They're drooping because they can't uptake enough water. Drop your nutrients by half, they'll respond in a few hours at most.
 
Penyajo

Penyajo

Well-Known Member
21 degrees celcuis is right at 70 degrees Fahrenheit. If you let you res temps drift higher than that you are inviting in algea growth and bad bacteria. Not saying that if you water is over 70 degrees the stuff will grow. I am saying that if your water is above 70 you are giving it a chance to grow. So you are good on the temp. When dealing with hydro your ph will normally rise just a bit after you do a res change. I would always set mine to 5.6 when I would change. But by later that day it would be at 5.8 which is ideal. You haven't mentioned what type of hydro system you are running but I am guessing its a DWC. If its DWC I would drop the water level about a inch and aerate the water a bit more. Hope this helps. STAY HIGH!!!
 
J

jamal01

Member
Hey AK. I call it 5.5ish because I am those PH sticks rather than a digital reader so the measurement is a bit approx. I am going to raise my ph a bit, maybe that will help.

And yup P it is DWC, I do have an airstone in this system.

Possible that it may be over nutrients, hence the leaves problem. I am going to try raising pH, if within 24 hours no improvement I will try reducing the water in the tank. If still no go I will try reducing nutrients. Thanks for all the replies and help! You guys are awesome
 
J

jamal01

Member
Just thought I'd include an update. None of the above mentioned seemed to work (ph increase, water decrease, nutrient reduction), and growth overall seemed slow. A friend then suggested increasing my exhaust fan to 70 cfm from a 50 cfm, and not sure if it was by chance but growth has improved and the leaves are not longer AS droppy (not sure exactly how perky they are supposed to be). I do have some nice tan roots, and there is no more yellowing on the leaves. Some leaves appear yellow because of the lighting in the picture. Would be happy to hear what you guys think =), are they looking half decent for a first timer? (Never planted anything before this)







 
InsaneMJ

InsaneMJ

Well-Known Member
Tan roots aren't a good thing man, you want white roots lol. I'm assuming it could have been a lock up from too much nutes at first and diluting the nutes probably did work, you just didn't know what was working cause you tried 6 things at once.. You can use hydrogen peroxide to help airrate the water be very ccautious if you do use it thou. I used 30 ml to every 30 gal. At 35%. It's very effective if your startin to get pyrethrum(the stuff that turns your roots brown). I've ran hydroponics for a long long time and I've gone threw plenty of issues an problems to get it down. You can run threw my threads if you want, I got a couple up that explain a lot more.
 
J

jamal01

Member
Hey everyone

So keeping nutrients diluted the droopy leaves problem has returned. I used some hydrogen peroxide, my roots are now completely white. The plant with drooping leaves has also got some dark dry spots on some of the leaves. I've attached a picture. What I can seem to grasp is both these plants are in the same reservoir, getting the same water/nutrients, exposed to the same ph, but one is giving me problems and the other is growing beautifully.

The picture of the plant that is not dropping is the one not giving me problems
The picture of the plant that is drooping is the one where I also took pictures of the leaves due to the weird colouration occurring on them



















 
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