Half-dead overnight - dwc

My plants have been doing great, when I went to bed, they were as strong as ever. When I woke up today, I was all sad to see one half dead. I was completely surprised and I have no idea what happened.

Res temps 72* F, 78* ambient, 7.0 ph (has been for a long time), 24/0 photoperiod, good ventilation, CFL lights placed 1 - 2 inches above plants, nutes - no idea... mixed 1/4 nutes in the res water a week ago, water level hasn't dropped noticeably. Roots still look healthy as fuck (to me).

Things I have changed/done differently - Yesterday I planted a new germinated seed in the net cup with the dome. I gave a foliar spray of tap water treated with Top Fin water conditioner http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2752207, and watered the net cups also. This is what I use to treat my tap water, and haven't had any problems so far although admittedly I don't have a chlorine tester to see if it's working.



Trimmed dead shit off. This is the only action I've taken besides my morning routine of putting a new bottle of ice in the res. The thoughts going through my head right now are 1: change the res water... 2: can I save this plant? and 3: if not I should try to take clones and trash the plant.


The other plant seems to be doing fine... but check out this discoloring of the leaves where I fimmed the other day.

Sad to see it hurtin like that, you did good when you clipped the dead matter off. Now you get to hope for a bushy multi-cola plant!

non-dead plant where I fimmed...

You should purchase a PPM meter so you can have accurate reads on your nutrient levels. Also in hydro 7.0 is way too high for your ph you want to shoot for around 5.8.

Yea, all that is on the to-do list... this is budget diy bagseed while I collect everything I need.

Some more thoughts going through my head... this could be because I sprayed them with the lights on yesterday (just read not to do that), a nute deficiency (I've been feeding very diluted nutes I believe), or some funky disease in my res (not running any beneficial bacterias). Although, because the damage was so intense and fast, it would seem that rules out nute or disease problems, which should gradually show symptoms. The leaves were not crispy, and some of the lower smaller ones still had water droplets on them. I guess also the high ph could have finally locked up nutes or whatever happens when your ph is too high.

7.0Ph? Woah lower it a bit mate

something else had to happen. half of a plant doesnt just do that unless it gets broken or damaged, cause that bottom half looks good. if it was ph, nutes, or just about anything else it would be the whole plant. budget or not, a way to monitor and control ph is something you need before you ever start hydro.

Where the plant started to look badly was the stem looking withered or pinched?

I understand my ph is too high, and will fix it. I had some ph down, but it doesn't work or doesn't lower past 7, confirmed by 3 different cheapo ph tests.

Winter Woman said:

Where the plant started to look badly was the stem looking withered or pinched?

Click to expand...

It was withered. The leaves feel soft and limp. Another thing I thought of is, is it possible they got infected from the FIM? I swirled my scissors around in standard rubbing alcohol for 10 seconds or so, then fimmed both plants... no additional care or steps were taken. That was probably 4 or 5 days ago.

















Bottom of undamaged plant... purple stems, I forget what that means or if it's significant.