Help! Why are all my clones dying!?

macman69x · Sep 27, 2010

Hey guys-

Steady lurker here, I don't post very often but I'm in the middle of a huge dilemma and I have no idea what's wrong.

My clones are all taken from healthy mother plants, there's no bugs.

-I use a mixture of Canna Coco / Foxfarm Light Warrior for my medium.

-My nutes are Foxfarm growbig at 1 tablespoon/gal AND 1ml/gal of H&G Roots Exceleurator. pH is at 6.0

Right now I'm feeding about once every 3 days. It's hot in socal but this problem began way before the heat went up.

I'm a simple guy, I don't like to complicate things, and I've been using this system for a year with no troubles.

I've got no idea what to do but I'd like to hang on to these. Please help me diagnose!

macman69x · Sep 27, 2010

bumpitybumpbump

macman69x · Sep 27, 2010

neeeeeeeeeed help

jawbrodt · Sep 27, 2010

Have you been using the exact same methods for the last year, without issues? IDK, but the first pic looks like some kind of disease, or fungus attack. That's just one pssiblity, as I'm unsure, and unable to diagnose for certain, right now. Looks like there could be fertburn going on, but of you've been feeding 'em that mix, for a year, then that's not the problem. Hmm....

macman69x · Sep 27, 2010

Yeah, same mix for some time now. I'm thinking a nute burn too (maybe the coco or light warrior was compromised), Flushed with water tonight. We'll see tomorrow morning?

jawbrodt · Sep 27, 2010

1 tbsp per gallon? That sounds like a pretty strong mixture. I hope it's not full strength? Anyway,..I think your going to right route, with flushing them, giving the medium a fresh start.

N!pples · Sep 27, 2010

U need a humidity dome!

d r0cK · Sep 28, 2010

where are you getting your water from? looks to be the same problem i have been having. I have been able to solve this problem by getting a r.o. water system. the ppm of my tap before was 430. now my ppm for my feed water is 3. You might want to try raising your ph to 6.5. Check the ph charts in the forums here, you will see that 6.5 will allow for everything to be absorbed by your roots through the soil.

i got the r.o. system from lowes for 149.99, took about 2 hours to hook up, 24 hours to purge and then crystal pure water. you could also just get one of those pur or brita water filter jugs ($20) but it will take a while to get enough water filtered to feed all your plants.

as far as humidity, that could also be your problem, but i too live in socal and all i use is Root-tech, put the clone in a piece of rockwool, the rockwool then into a party cup with foxfarm happyfrog soil and throw em under some cfl's with a fan oscillating on them. From the last 2 runs, 15/16 clones took the first round and 7/8 took the second round and that's without a proper humidity dome. try foliar feeding them with ph'd water often to keep the humidity up, especially with this hot ass heat wave we got going on right now.

hope this helps a little. good luck.

macman69x · Sep 28, 2010

jawbrodt said:
1 tbsp per gallon? That sounds like a pretty strong mixture. I hope it's not full strength? Anyway,..I think your going to right route, with flushing them, giving the medium a fresh start.

That's what's recommended, 2-3 tsp. 3 tsp= 1 tbsp.

To make matters worse when I was pHing my water last night I dropped my meter into the water and now it's fucked. Gotta wait another hour for the hydro shop to open. What a bummer

macman69x · Sep 28, 2010

d r0cK said:
where are you getting your water from? looks to be the same problem i have been having. I have been able to solve this problem by getting a r.o. water system. the ppm of my tap before was 430. now my ppm for my feed water is 3. You might want to try raising your ph to 6.5. Check the ph charts in the forums here, you will see that 6.5 will allow for everything to be absorbed by your roots through the soil.

i got the r.o. system from lowes for 149.99, took about 2 hours to hook up, 24 hours to purge and then crystal pure water. you could also just get one of those pur or brita water filter jugs ($20) but it will take a while to get enough water filtered to feed all your plants.

as far as humidity, that could also be your problem, but i too live in socal and all i use is Root-tech, put the clone in a piece of rockwool, the rockwool then into a party cup with foxfarm happyfrog soil and throw em under some cfl's with a fan oscillating on them. From the last 2 runs, 15/16 clones took the first round and 7/8 took the second round and that's without a proper humidity dome. try foliar feeding them with ph'd water often to keep the humidity up, especially with this hot ass heat wave we got going on right now.

hope this helps a little. good luck.

Thanks for the tips. I'm gonna Brita a bunch of water or just go and fill up a 5 gallon at the market. Kind of weird that the water all of a sudden could be the issue. I'll definitely try raising the pH a bit though. Maybe start at 6.2 and gradually raise it.

Humidity is definitely not the problem, these clones are almost a month into the medium, they shouldn't need it that humid.

Thanks everyone!

Luger187 · Sep 28, 2010

macman69x said:
That's what's recommended, 2-3 tsp. 3 tsp= 1 tbsp.

To make matters worse when I was pHing my water last night I dropped my meter into the water and now it's fucked. Gotta wait another hour for the hydro shop to open. What a bummer

based off this post, id say its too much nutes. do u feed that Tbls/gal every 3 days? or do u do nutes, plain water, nutes, plain water, etc?

d r0cK · Sep 28, 2010

I switched to a r.o. system because like you out of nowhere after 2 grows using regular tap water they took a turn for the worse. for me it was about 3-4 weeks into flowering when it started and would just hurt each harvest. flushing didnt help, more nutes didnt help neither did less nutes. i have found that the high mineral and metal content in the tap water is what has caused all my problems from the beginning. store bought water will get expensive real quick dont forget. i have seen other r.o. systems online for about $100. this crazy ass socal water is unreliable ESPECIALLY if you are in the I.E.. I had better luck with the tap in San Diego but it was still high in content and I always bought r.o. water from the water store, 5 gallons at a time.

for nutes i stay with the recommended dosage or just under and have minimal problems. are these all the same strain that you have been growing all year? different strains will require more or less nutrients than others.

jawbrodt · Sep 28, 2010

macman69x said:
That's what's recommended, 2-3 tsp. 3 tsp= 1 tbsp.

To make matters worse when I was pHing my water last night I dropped my meter into the water and now it's fucked. Gotta wait another hour for the hydro shop to open. What a bummer

Recommended for what? Seedings? Early Veg? Late veg? Etc...? What the fert people fail to tell you, is that an 6" plant, will only need a fraction of what a 2' plant will need.(for example) That would be like force-feeding a 3 year old child, 3 cheeseburgers per meal, then expecting them to eat 3 cheeseburgers, at every meal, for the rest of their life, even if they grow to be 6' 6", and 300 pounds. See my point? That child is going to have major problems, to say the least.lol You can't force-feed a plant, just as you wouldn't want to force-feed a human. It's very important to start out weak, then work your way up, as they require.

jawbrodt · Sep 28, 2010

^P.S. I realize that there looks to be other problems, like your water quality. I just wanted to make sure you understood that manufacturer recommendations for feeding, aren't very reliable. It's impossible, because there's too many variations, in grows. Those are basically, best case scenario guidelines. Once you're behind that pace, you are likely overfeeding.

bonjo78 · Sep 28, 2010

rusty water pipes maybe ? rust is good now and then but too often lead to problems similiar as ur youngsters , if u leave in an old house or the pipes have gone rust due to poor quality i would be letting water run for a min to clear up and i would be drinking only bottled water !

macman69x · Sep 28, 2010

jawbrodt said:
^P.S. I realize that there looks to be other problems, like your water quality. I just wanted to make sure you understood that manufacturer recommendations for feeding, aren't very reliable. It's impossible, because there's too many variations, in grows. Those are basically, best case scenario guidelines. Once you're behind that pace, you are likely overfeeding.

Yeah, I see all your points. I'm gonna decrease strength and start feeding every other watering. I've never had this issue in a year's worth of growing with exactly this formula (to think, I've never had this problem, ever, even with other formulas).

I've got no problem going to the water store, its .25/gal, so I think Im gonna start using their filtered water. However, I've had no problems with my flower...

It's just so confusing that all of a sudden things take a turn for the worse.

Looks like decreasing nute strength is the smartest thing to do.

psychoticalyez · Sep 28, 2010

I think your problem is that you are nuteing them at all this early for the first month i always give mine only water once they are rooted and then slowly at low dosages start introducing nutrients.

hoagtech · Sep 28, 2010

I kinda thought it was my hormones, clonex solution, airstones, improper cutting. It turns out i just needed to buy a humidity dome. Their cheap and they work, agree with whoever mentioned that first

jawbrodt · Sep 28, 2010

hoagtech said:
I kinda thought it was my hormones, clonex solution, airstones, improper cutting. It turns out i just needed to buy a humidity dome. Their cheap and they work, agree with whoever mentioned that first

Sorry, I was under the impression that they already had roots.

jawbrodt · Sep 28, 2010

P.S. I'm pretty sure they do, which means the humidity dome isn't going to help. :wink:

Help! Why are all my clones dying!?

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