Hydroponic/DWC drooping and wilting

[LardoThePig]

Can anyone help identigy the problem with this gal? She was in a dwc for 2 weeks with her sister and started to droop 3 days ago, unknown strain the res nutes are within parameters along with the ph which is 5.8. The res temp is abit above the optimum at 72F. I have one large airstone it the res and am wondering if she isnt getting enough oxygen because of the water temp. 600 watt metal halide. The root balls of the sisters are the same very light off white color.

 

[ydijadoit]

Hey, Lardo. Just a shot in the dark here. That plant looks like it needs water. With the bucket lid netpot, are you top feeding as well? There are a ton of roots in that hydroton, and without a dripper to keep them wet, you won't get enough moisture in there from bubbling water below.
Hard to tell what other defs you might have there, when it's all wilted, but that's my best guess. Could be root rot, as well, but I can't give it the sniff-test from here!
I'd move her a couple feet out of direct light, to reduce the stress on her, and dip out a couple quarts of solution, and pour it over the hydroton. Do this a couple times, and if she perks up, you need a waterfarm style drip ring in there, pronto.
Hope that helps.

 

[STUNKY]

I'm think root rot . Is the air pump on 24hours? I had the same problem lately when fan went out and temps in resivior got to high..

 

[LardoThePig]

I had a supplemental drip source, not a ring but a drip stake. I was assuming the plant having its root ball in the water would provide more than enough moisture, but had been dripping as a precaution. Can the reservoir temp be the culprit?

 

[LardoThePig]

Yes the air pump is on 24/7 wonder if the single stone was enough for the tub it was in. which is 36 x 24.

 

[ydijadoit]

More air, and get that top feed back on it. Since you HAD a dripper on it, the roots have grown all through the hydroton. With that ten inch netpot, the hydroton is drying out. It can't get enough moisture from the bottom up. Keep the res temps below 70F, with no light leaks. If you have root rot, add regular unscented bleach at 2ml per ten gallons. That's 2ml per TEN gallons, and you should be good.
Sure hope this helps, We've all been there before!
Regards

 

[chileno1978]

Might be root rot did you check the roots?

 

[ydijadoit]

Any updates Lardo? Hoping your girl made it!

 

[LardoThePig]

Hey ydijadoit;
Sadly my girl is doomed, i got a couple of cuttings off her efore she totally wilted. The root ball is still ok from the looks of things, it never did smell of root rot.
My thoughts are that she did not receive enough oxygen in the dwc setup at the root level, and suffocated. the water was warm and I don't think the airstone was enough to supply enough oxygen to the rootball.
I guess I thought because the roots between the plant and the water level ( 6 inches)being exposed to the air would have been enough oxygen for her. However these roots were the consistency of twine and very thick so they may not have provided an adaquate level of oxygen absorption.
I have another similiar dwc setup that thrives and the only difference besides the containers housing them is that the other one has a water pump that delivers 1250 gph turnover versus the one in question that only delivers 960 gph. This is the third plant that has succumbed to this setup, my succesful dwc system has such a high flow of water that I believe inspite of the higher water temperature it is able to oxygenate the system as it has a massive flow rate.
The only other possibility that I wonder about is if the small amount of roots in the netpot not being watered was a factor. I take a 3 inch netpot and put it into a 10 inch net pot after cutting the center out so they should have extended to the water level in my opinion.

 

[LardoThePig]

The only reason the girl was in a 5 gallon system is because I isolated it from the other one because of contamination concerns.

 

[Snype]

Yeah not enough air for them was the problem. You didn't need any drip ring or top feed once the roots reached the solution. My rates of air always = half of the total solution per minute. So If I am using 100 Gallons of solution, I use and air pump rated at 50 Gallons per minutes with air stones distributed in all of my plant buckets. I also always use chlorine at the rate of 0.5 - 1 ppm.

 

[ampdwc]

what should i do

what should i do

hey guys i just started doing dwc and i transfered a plant fomr soil to dwc and first night all was well and then she started wilting so i switched fresh nutrients to try to save and the leaves dies so i cut them off and this is what ios left what did i do wrong and where do i go from here

 

[ampdwc]

ok i have six airstones in a five gallon bucket