Droopy leaves in DWC...

[phattybudz]

A few weeks into veg, my leaves are drooping on two kids in DWC w/lucas formula 800ppm, ph 5.8-6, air temp 65-75, water temp 65-75 (was rising to about 78, but I'm throwing a bottle of ice in there now so I think it will cool down to about 60 or 65.) The water level is just barely above the netpots, should I lower it to an inch below?

I'm thinking it's either overwatering, underwatering, and/or temp problems. I also had some fungus gnats, but I don't think very many. I'm going to get some gnatrol on monday or maybe even tomorrow, and I was thinking about getting hydroguard, even though my roots are looking healthy and white so far...

 

[Berry_Coughin']

hrmmmm....

those buckets are pretty deep on waterfarms..... if you are just under the netpot ....

are you doing any top feeding....if no, my guess is underwater'd.... put a dripper on that thing, or flood it... that's what it was made to do....

hope ya figure it out...

 

[MynameStitch]

Ya, I agree with Berry, you don't want the water levels that close, you want them few inches below the netpots.....

You keep the water levels that high, you risk keeping the medium the plant is in too wet, like rockwool/rapid rooters or rockwool slabs.

Any pests will cause problems, they compete for food with the plants so you want to get rid of them.

Are your plants in rockwool under the hydroton or no?
Either way, the water level needs to bring it down.

 

[phattybudz]

Yeah, they are in rockwool with about a 3 inch layer of hydroton at the bottom. I lowered the water so it's level with the bottom of the netpot. I should lower it more then, about an inch below the bottom of the netpot?

I'm not doing any top-feeding, I have drippers I could be using but someone said I didn't need them for DWC... if you think I should use those, how often should I have them on?

 

[Berry_Coughin']

lower the water level of the bucket and hook the drippers.... I dunno if the rockwool will retain too much water... but with water farms I never get the water level in the bottom bucket very high, then use the airpump dripper to top feed recirculate....

 

[phattybudz]

Ok, water is an inch below netpots, and I'm gonna go get gnatrol/hydroguard/tubing for my drippers... How much should I run the drippers though???

 

[Berry_Coughin']

??how much as in duration?

When I ran waterfarms I ran them 24hrs...but I wasn't in rockwool....

with the rockwool I'm really not sure as that will have some water holding properties that need to be addressed...

 

[phattybudz]

Yep... a friend told me 15 mins every 3 hours, but I really have no idea... I guess if I water them like that and they get worse I'll know it's overwatering?

 

[phattybudz]

Well, they look pretty much the same after lowering the water level to 1 inch below netpots, and turning on drippers... any ideas? Should I drop the water level a little more?

 

[Ziggaro]

its probably overwatering
but i believe it could be due high temps in water, since hotter water holds less oxygen
have you measured the temp of the water since applying the ice?

 

[phattybudz]

with the ice it goes down to like 65 then gradually comes back up to 73.3 right now (6 hours after putting ice in,) and I'm not sure what it's going to get to overnight if I don't toss in more ice, I guess I will.. but can't I shock the roots by getting it too cold? They have been at good temp for a while and the drooping is not going away, so I'm leaning towards overwatering, I'm thinking I'm going to drop the water level a bit more and take off the drippers on the drooping ones, see what happens.

*edit* I touched the rockwool of both droopers and it feels moist...so yeah let's see how they do without water for a day or two

 

[MynameStitch]

Why are you adding ice? THat is A BAD idea, not only does it water down the nutrient level, but it also adds water and messes with the pH.

You want to add a few 2 liter bottles and rotate them, have some in the freezer and take 2 or 3 put them in there if you have a res and after they melt put those in the fridge and remove the others from the friedge that are already frozen and put back in the res.

65 is not too cold dude; but that is the lowest you want the temp to go
If you keep the water level up a little bit, but not too high, the bubbles will pop closely and keep the area wet if the plants root system is not too small.
.

 

[phattybudz]

h that's what I meant by ice, sorry I wasn't specific... I think I fixed the red temp issue though, ive got a 6 inch fan blowing on the rez so its evaporating quicker but its 5-6 degrees cooler. I'll leave the water line an inch below the rez and leave the drippers off on the 2 droopers for now unless you guys tell me otherwise.

thanks!

 

[phattybudz]

Ok got home and checked the babies... my evaporating fan is working (rez temp = 71.4 when air temp = 76,) but the ph is jumping from 5.8 to 6.1 in 8 hours... so I'm not sure whether it's worth it to keep that going or find another solution.

They are still drooping though... nothing else has changed, still 1 inch below netpots and no drippers... hopefully it takes a day or two for them to dry out if they are indeed overwatered?

 

[MynameStitch]

If your pH is rising, you have a TDS meter? When plants remove nutes from the res the pH will rise, so you adjust by adding more nutes if it went down; if you keep the PPMs stable and the pH is still not where it needs to be then you need to use pH down and adjust it with that, rather than using nutes to adjust it and risk burning your plants.

 

[phattybudz]

Yeah, my ppms are stable, my ph is rising and im using ph down

 

[MynameStitch]

Do you have any root rot or roots are brown by any chance?
Sounds like the plants are not taking in nutes, there should always be a decrease in PPMs everyday when the plants are taking nutes out........

 

[phattybudz]

4/6 have broken through the bottom of the netpot (3-4 long strings in the biggest one,) and are pretty white. I can take a picture if you'd like, the other 2/6 haven't broken through the bottom of the netpot yet. 1 of those 2 is a drooper, the other is healthy looking.

*edit* The ppms may have dropped a LITTLE, they're 884 and I think they were a little over 9 before..

 

[tenfeetofganja]

lower the water level of the bucket and hook the drippers.... I dunno if the rockwool will retain too much water... but with water farms I never get the water level in the bottom bucket very high, then use the airpump dripper to top feed recirculate....

i set the RockWool up so that roots get waterd. but RW does not. that way plant is always quencing water and RW does not get algae or mold.

 

[MynameStitch]

Can you take an updated picture of the plant and roots if you can please
Sounds like your nute uptake may be a little too high dude.......