Week 5 of Flower - Not drinking water, leaves yellow and dying

Hello all, you all have been so helpful in my first grow with my other posts I am hoping you can help me with my latest issue. I left for vacation for 8 days and left my 2 girls in the hands of the wife while I was away. after a couple days she called and mentioned that the plants had not drank any water and that the leaves were beginning to turn yellow but not that bad. I came home yesterday to find that my Sativa had lost almost all her leaves in the last week and what was left was quickly yellowing. the indica was less aggressive with the leaf loss but the yellowing was getting worse and brown spots were forming. They also had only drank 3 gallons of water all week when normally they would drink at least 7-10 gallons in that time.

I did a rez change last night, upped my nitrogen a bit as I thought it was nitrogen deficiency but now I am not so sure. my PPM is at 800 and PH is at 6.0. they did not drink any water from last night to this am and the yellowing worsened even into today.

Here are my grow details and pics of plants this am. I had not had any real issues other than a PH problem throughout the grow and the plants looks great when I left. this happened very quickly.

2 plants in DWC (5 Gallon buckets plus a 5 Gal rez)
SCROG
Week 5 of flower started yesterday (changed light to HPS and 12/12 on 2/7/21)
Using GH Flora Trio plus CalMag and Hydroguard
Latest feeding (last night) was the following (per 3 gallon batch)
Micro - 3tsp (15ml), Gro - 3tsp (15ml), Bloom - 4tsp (20ml), CalMag - 1.8tsp (9ml), Hydroguard - 1.5tsp (7.5ml), PH Down - 16ml
PPM: 735 PH: 5.99
600 Watt HPS at 16" above plant canopy
Humidity at canopy stays between 30-45% and Temp ranges from 68 Degrees F at night to 83 Degrees F during lights on


Thanks everyone for you thoughts in advance!

What do the roots look like?

xtsho said:

What do the roots look like?

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Beat me.

That 83 daytime is very concerning if no chiller.

hotrodharley said:

Beat me.

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You're getting slow in your old age.

Cant see roots. no way to lift plants up in the SCROG setup I have. Which has me rethinking my next grow and how I will handle it. The 83 temp is just above the canopy about 8 inches below the light. the ambient room temp is around 73 and the rez water temp stays right around 69-70.

Here’s a thought .... trash the scrog ( already flowering ) and check root level.

Budzbuddha said:

Here’s a thought .... trash the scrog ( already flowering ) and check root level.

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Agree. Shooting in the dark until then.

ok, so I will just cut the screen out and see if I can lift the plants up to get a view of the roots. too bad... lol. took me a long time to make that screen. I will post pics of the roots as soon as I do. Thanks for the direction.

It’s the plants or a stupid string. I am betting it can be corrected and plants saved.

#PlantLivesMatter

phishmanforlife said:

ok, so I will just cut the screen out and see if I can lift the plants up to get a view of the roots. too bad... lol. took me a long time to make that screen. I will post pics of the roots as soon as I do. Thanks for the direction.

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Well the plants seem to just be growing up through it. Not really trained like they should be in a scrog anyway. You didn't use it effectively so it's no loss.

The main thing is the plants.

Also seeing some burnt tips and clawing. You need to dump everything and start with fresh nutrient solution.

Yes, I wasnt implying the string was more valuable then the plant!! It was a stupid thing to say that it was too bad I had to cut it. I have gladly already done away with it and was able to lift my plants to examine the roots. And thank you all for telling me to do so!! My air stones were all clogged even though the water was clean and nothing gross in there. I am betting the air has been off for almost a week and the roots started to turn brown. I put in two new air stones and am getting tons of air to them now. not sure if it is too late for them though. I sure hope not. I attached a pic of the roots on the sativa. the indica looks identical. no dark brown, just all the roots a tan color. there is a slight smell to the roots but not terrible. Is there anything I can do to get these roots back to health?

I am also not sure I understand xtsho stating I didnt do the SCROG right. I trained the plant all the way through the stretch and there are no tops that exceed 8" above the screen which was placed at 8" above the net pot. there are 3 colas on the Sativa that grew way faster than the rest so I trained them to the outside of the screen so that I wasnt forced to move the light with their excessive growth. I also ran out of room on the screen so I had to stop training. I probably could have trained another week but again, ran out of room. at the tallest, these plants are 17-19" tall and have probably around 30-40 bud sites per plant that are all exactly the same height. Please let me know what I could have done different. and I am not trying to be an ass. I read about all this for months before starting, and really tried to do it right so I am a bit baffled that you say I did it wrong. I am ready to absorb as much info as I can so please let me know. Thanks!

I also dump and redo my rez once every week. did it last night.

Those roots look yuck

83°F / 28.3°C is fine as long as RH is below 65% and you have continuous air circulation. I had Temps of 95°F / 35°C outside last summer and plants loved it.

As for your water Temps, I have no idea on that

xtsho said:

Those roots look yuck

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Anything I can do to reverse the root issue? I obviously fixed the air issue and put new stones in. just wondering if there is anything else I can do or if these even have a chance of surviving?

phishmanforlife said:

Anything I can do to reverse the root issue? I obviously fixed the air issue and put new stones in. just wondering if there is anything else I can do or if these even have a chance of surviving?

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I might be different from other people that have grown hydro. But I always ran sterile. 3-4 drops of chlorine bleach per gallon does wonders with inhibiting pathogens that can effect the roots.

I'd change out the water and add 3-4 drops of bleach per gallon of nutrient solution.

Chlorine is used during photosynthesis.

ok thanks, I use Hydroguard with every rez change each week and I was under the impression that protected from any unwanted bacteria. it also says that it can turn the roots a tan color with regular use. will the bleach do something to bring the roots back to health or just ensure the rez water stays free of bad bacteria? also, isnt hydroguard a bacteria? would the bleach kill the good bacteria I am putting in with Hydroguard?

Here is a timelapse of this grow which shows my trianing of the plants. you can also see them start to turn yellow and cruddy starting about a week ago. right when I think the air issue started.

phishmanforlife said:

ok thanks, I use Hydroguard with every rez change each week and I was under the impression that protected from any unwanted bacteria. it also says that it can turn the roots a tan color with regular use. will the bleach do something to bring the roots back to health or just ensure the rez water stays free of bad bacteria? also, isnt hydroguard a bacteria? would the bleach kill the good bacteria I am putting in with Hydroguard?

Here is a timelapse of this grow which shows my trianing of the plants. you can also see them start to turn yellow and cruddy starting about a week ago. right when I think the air issue started.

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I don't know anything about hydroguard but when I was running hydro, flood and drain and DWC I never had any root issues and all I did was use a couple drops of plain old clorox bleach.

It had to be added every few days but it did the job and didn't harm the plants. It kept the bad bacteria away.