Plants not looking good

[SuperHemp]

Hi I've recently transplanted some plants from a bubble cloner to an ebb/flow setup and they're not doing very well after the transplant. One clone died on me already possible i killed her by not being very gentle with her roots.

In the beginning i thought it was overwatering and/or transplant shock since they hung and the leaves were clawed so i changed the watering from every two hours to every three hours and they've perked up but they're looking pretty sick. Since they kinda looked deficient and my ec was dropping i bumped the ec up from 1.0 to about 1.5 but now they're looking worse. I dumped most the water out and replaced with fresh and they're now seeing 1.0 ec again.
They looked good in the bubbler with weak cfl light at ec 0.8.

Bad HPS tint in pics i tried to mend it the best i could but I'm no photographer, sorry..

400watt HPS
Canopy temp 25 degrees C
Water temp 20.5 degrees C
Humidity (rh) 20%
Watering frequency: every three hours
Growing medium: Hydroton, 1gal pots
Nutes: GHE FloraNova Bloom @ ec 1.0 ph 6.1
Strains are hazexskunk and hazexww hybrids and indi dom polyhybrids (afghan/nl/skunk)..

 

[RetroGrow]

Any slime in your bubble cloner?

 

[SuperHemp]

Any slime in your bubble cloner?

Hmm no slime really, and roots looked good on transplant.. plants grew very fast and looked great in the bubble cloner. They've been in the E&F for 3 days now. I think they're looking a little better after i lowered the ec a bit. I hope it's not root slime or whatever..

 

[ItsGrowTime]

Your rh is way low. 20% is near desert conditions and the plants stomata have all but closed up entirely, which prevents transpiration and slows growth. Ph is a little high for younger plants too. Try bringing rh up to 50% and drop ph to 5.5. Around 1.0EC is fine for young plants. Having said all that, some leaf yellowing is normal very early in a clone's life, especially if you damaged some roots either during transplant or the roots were very small. Young plants use up the resources in the leaves to jump start root growth. What you are seeing *may* be just the plant regrowing new roots from its leaves.

 

[SuperHemp]

Your rh is way low. 20% is near desert conditions and the plants stomata have all but closed up entirely, which prevents transpiration and slows growth. Ph is a little high for younger plants too. Try bringing rh up to 50% and drop ph to 5.5. Around 1.0EC is fine for young plants. Having said all that, some leaf yellowing is normal very early in a clone's life, especially if you damaged some roots either during transplant or the roots were very small. Young plants use up the resources in the leaves to jump start root growth. What you are seeing *may* be just the plant regrowing new roots from its leaves.

I don't know how i should bring the rh up, any suggestions? I really cannot afford a humidifier right now and the last one i had barely did anything to raise the RH it was up barely one point. The air is very dry here in the winter. I could try ph 5.5 but i need to use ridiculous amounts of ph down to get that far down these nutes kinda stabilize themselves around ph 6.1 it seems.

 

[RetroGrow]

A humidifier would do the trick, if the area is enclosed. If the area is open and you have circulation throughout the house it would be difficult. You can mist your plants. It can even be automated with a pump and some misters, but that sounds like a project. Open pans filled with water in the immediate area will raise the RH, but it sure sounds like a humidifier is your best bet, you just can't humidify the whole house with it. Area has to be enclosed.

 

[ItsGrowTime]

Drench a bath towel, wring it out so it's not dripping wet then hang it up near the plants somehow or have a fan blow on it. This should give you a good rh bump but you'll have to keep doing it until the plants are big enough to add rh to the room on their own.

 

[SuperHemp]

Okay I'll try the towel trick.. I'll try to get a humidifier next time i get a paycheck should be a week or so. Classic humidifiers use like 300 watts though and i can't really push this circuit much farther than i already have so I'll need one of those 30-40w ultrasound ones, are they any good?

 

[SuperHemp]

 

[hazy]

maybe you should up the nutes a bit

 

[bh420]

You water every 3 hours.... So that is 8 times in a 24 hour cycle? Maybe I misread something... idk. I am new to growing myself, but that itself seems like way too much. I'm running a couple 400watt ebb and flow tables, and I flood 3 times for 15min in a day (vegging table) and twice for 15min a day (flower table).

Also, where are you growing at?? 20% Humidty just seems crazy to me, since most homes keep an average of like 30-50%... and thats with no moisture being put into the air by flood tables!

Anyways man good luck with the grow!

 

[SuperHemp]

maybe you should up the nutes a bit

You think so? I'll try to up ec slowly if i can get the humidity up a bit.

You water every 3 hours.... So that is 8 times in a 24 hour cycle? Maybe I misread something... idk. I am new to growing myself, but that itself seems like way too much. I'm running a couple 400watt ebb and flow tables, and I flood 3 times for 15min in a day (vegging table) and twice for 15min a day (flower table).

Also, where are you growing at?? 20% Humidty just seems crazy to me, since most homes keep an average of like 30-50%... and thats with no moisture being put into the air by flood tables!

Anyways man good luck with the grow!

Yes every three hours, and no watering during lights off (i run lights 20/4). Various internet advice claims you can set&forget watering at every two hours if you use grorox, for me the plants were kinda droopy (and one even died). I bet every two hours works well once roots start filling the pot. The watering calculator on this well-reputed webpage says to water every two hours too if i fill in my data.

Do you use hydroton/grorox and water that seldom? If it works for you, I'll try it. My table floods in 2.5 minutes though so i only flood for three minutes, and it drains in about six. Water bad, air good..

I live just south of the polar circle, so it's pretty dry around here in the winter. My flood table doesn't put that much moisture in the air, I've covered it with panda foil and duct tape to keep light out of the water. There should be some water evaporating out of the pots but it's not much ... I didn't cover the pots just the cracks between them.

 

[theHIGHlander]

i aint no hydro guy, but ive had plants in coco go like that (in theory coco is a form of hydro)
to me thay look hungry.......


keep it green
highlander

 

[bh420]

Yeah I am using Hydroton as the medium in my setup. Dang, that Arctic air sounds like a real pain in the ass. What my research lead me to believe in terms of watering, was that if the roots stay wet for too long it can be detrimental in the long run. This is why I picked doing a 15min flood cycle a few times daily, so it can circulate lots of water around, while giving the plants plenty of time to dry up before their next hit. It sounds like maybe change your watering up, and figure out a way to add humidity (even if its a cheap ass, low power humidifier). Knock out those 2 things and I bet your ladies pick their heads up in no time!
Also my trays are approximately 60 liters, and my reservoirs are about 130 liters. The pumps I'm using do around 150GPH. For me the 3 time daily watering schedule works awesome w/ this setup. I see you said that your not watering them when lights are off, that is a good choice. As for that calculator... I'm not too sure about it. I have read lots of posts where people use a very similar water schedule, which makes me question the calculator. The way I see it, more water circulation can be nothing but beneficial. So flooding for a long period of time and causing a decent amount of water to be exchanged through the system.. reducing particle build up's and mixing air up into it. I am still learning though, so I too could be unaware of something as far as watering goes. All I know is what is working for me

Good luck

 

[Kindman69]

I would foliar feed them asap, they are mg deficient. Over watering hydroton is almost impossible
Good luck!
Kind

 

[SuperHemp]

Okay so I've hung up a bath towel or two but it doesn't affect rh in the least, maybe up 2%. I've also upped the ec to about 1.3 and I'm gonna lower the ph below 6. It seems to drift up to 6.1 again steadily though, I'll have to wait a bit and see how it goes. New growth on side shoots look good

 

[SuperHemp]

Yeah I am using Hydroton as the medium in my setup. Dang, that Arctic air sounds like a real pain in the ass. What my research lead me to believe in terms of watering, was that if the roots stay wet for too long it can be detrimental in the long run. This is why I picked doing a 15min flood cycle a few times daily, so it can circulate lots of water around, while giving the plants plenty of time to dry up before their next hit. It sounds like maybe change your watering up, and figure out a way to add humidity (even if its a cheap ass, low power humidifier). Knock out those 2 things and I bet your ladies pick their heads up in no time!
Also my trays are approximately 60 liters, and my reservoirs are about 130 liters. The pumps I'm using do around 150GPH. For me the 3 time daily watering schedule works awesome w/ this setup. I see you said that your not watering them when lights are off, that is a good choice. As for that calculator... I'm not too sure about it. I have read lots of posts where people use a very similar water schedule, which makes me question the calculator. The way I see it, more water circulation can be nothing but beneficial. So flooding for a long period of time and causing a decent amount of water to be exchanged through the system.. reducing particle build up's and mixing air up into it. I am still learning though, so I too could be unaware of something as far as watering goes. All I know is what is working for me

Good luck

I run a circulation pump 24/7 in the tub. I have to, or the temp will drop below 18 degrees c (64.5f), so i use it mostly as a small water heater It also as you say keeps the water from going stale and makes adding nutrients and adjusting ph a breeze since i don't have to stir manually. Pumping water out is also easy, just unplug the pump, pull it up, plug a hose on it and put it back in It also aerates the water through surface movement.

I don't know but as long as i run the circ pump i doubt flooding them for longer than necessary can be beneficial. I have about 30 seconds of flooding after it has reached the overflow drain though. Not that i don't believe you, but I'd like a second input on this before i change the flood cycle length

I would foliar feed them asap, they are mg deficient. Over watering hydroton is almost impossible
Good luck!
Kind

I could spray them with a bit of epsom salts, i have that laying around.. I'll give it a shot later. ph/ec of foliar spray? I could spray with floranova too.

 

[bh420]

Yeah, your watering may actually be fine. I mean after all, wouldn't over watering make the leaves really droopy? From your pics, your leaves don't look droopy. Seem's like the other comments about giving them food will be right on the money. Hope to hear they are better in a few days after some feeding!

Later

 

[SuperHemp]

Yeah, your watering may actually be fine. I mean after all, wouldn't over watering make the leaves really droopy? From your pics, your leaves don't look droopy. Seem's like the other comments about giving them food will be right on the money. Hope to hear they are better in a few days after some feeding!

Later

Yes I've upped the ec a bit and lowered the ph to 5.2-5.3 we'll see how it goes. Don't mind the HID tint in the pics too much the plant in the top left corner really looks lush green not sick green, the others are a bit worse.

 

[bh420]

Yeah those aren't looking too bad. Reddish stems on the leaves and the yellowish patches on the leaves are usually signs of a Potassium deficiency.