Why do my seedlings keep ending up like this? (photo)

justanotherbozo said:

...yeah, i understand where you're coming from but putting your active hydro experiment on hold....

Click to expand...

I appreciate you taking the time to give me friendly advice, but I'm just trying to troubleshoot a seedling having problems rather than debate my bad choices (my mother's always happy to do that hahaha).

So can you tell me what's wrong with it? Deficient in something? Too high ppm?

...yeah, i wasn't trying to debate your 'bad choices' bro, i was only suggesting that maybe you might try a simpler approach until you gain some experience, to save you some frustration.

...and i don't know which of the many variables might be out of whack in your world, just looking at your plants i'd say at the very least they look hungry but i don't know if that's because you're not feeding enough or if there is another issue causing lockout, one thing i would suggest is that you lower your ph to between 5.2 and 5.8 but your numbers aren't so high that that would be your problem, it could very well be more a matter of what the temperature of your nutrient solution is, if it's too warm that can cause all manner of problems.

...my point is that there are many variables that can cause DWC to fail and nailing down why based on a few pics is extremely difficult.

...especially for a lazy old fuck like me that abandoned DWC several years ago in favor of a simpler, less intensive, less stressful, less failure prone approach to achieve my desired goals.

...btw, there are many excellent threads detailing how to run DWC in the hydro sub-forum and if you mean to continue with the technique i would strongly suggest that you go hunting down some of those threads where i believe you will find your answers as well as answers to questions you don't have the experience to know to ask. ...this is a much faster and more reliable way to learn than just asking questions and waiting for answers which too often will conflict, and without experience you have no way of evaluating those answers to help you decide which might be helpful and which is just wrong.

...anyway, i do wish you well, if i didn't i'd not have wasted so much of my time.

peace, bozo

moshli said:

Ganoderma - just to add.. looking at your Hooked on Ponics thread... The photo on Day 9... especially plants 1, 7 , 11... it's exactly the same issue. The leaf curling and spotting/yellowing in exactly the same way.
[URL=https://www.icmag.com/ic/attachment.php?attachmentid=444046&thumb=1]View Image[/URL]

Click to expand...

20 seedlings take in more nutrients then one seedling does. Then once they get so many leave they just start sucking down the nutrients. All those mouths eating up the nutrients will deplete some nutrients when the solution is at lower levels and those lower levels of nutrients are more prone to ph swings. Then with those seedlings under a 1k light, they needed a higher nutrient level much sooner, thus the the way they looked. But yours has been needing more nutrients for a longer duration of time due to the amount of yellowing across the whole seedling.

Your 2nd dairy supplements are just that, 2nd dairy additives to your nutrients. Any 2nd dairy nutrients/supplements is normally no more then 1/4 to 1/3 of the total nutrients added in, is normal for my garden.

justanotherbozo said:

just looking at your plants i'd say at the very least they look hungry

Click to expand...

Thanks boss, that helps, honestly!

And FWIW I do totally agree with what you say.. but I have a plant in a bucket (and another just sprouting in another bucket) and I'm not transplanting these or throwing them away.
I started two plants previously that I made some mistakes with. I "savlaged" those plants into fabric pots with coco... they're flowering but heavily stunted. I corrected those mistakes and wanted to try again. I'm frustrated, even annoyed with myself. Because I was torn between trying DWC again or just going for coco. I decided to try DWC again.

Just so you know where I'm coming from. If I don't manage these two, I'm putting the buckets away.

I would ditch the tap water go with ro water. I have been growing for 8 years and I wouldn't want to run such a complicated hydroponic system. I would try a round or two in soil. Get a handle on producing quality pot. Autos are ok, but they don't produce the quality most of us desire. Even when grown perfectly they won't be comparable to quality photoperiod strains. If you have endless time and money keep chugging along with what you are doing, eventually you will succeed or get feed up with throwing money at it.

I am not trying to hurt your feelings, but if you ask for help and ignore the advice you get, most people will eventually ignore you. No reason to help people who won't listen. Buy some soil and some good seeds and give it a try. What do you have to lose? Your failing now.

Ganoderma said:

...But yours has been needing more nutrients for a longer duration of time due to the amount of yellowing across the whole seedling....

Click to expand...

Thanks Ganoderma, that really helps. I was just reading my notes and there was a high ph swing 10 days ago - maybe that caused a lockout and it's taken this long to appear.

packerfan79 said:

I am not trying to hurt your feelings, but if you ask for help and ignore the advice you get, most people will eventually ignore you. No reason to help people who won't listen.

Click to expand...

Jesus... at no point did I ask "Should I use DWC for my first grow?"
That wasn't the help I asked for. I just asked what might be wrong with the plant.

It's hungry. Maybe due to pH lockout, maybe warm water, maybe pythium, or slime. Or maybe simply not enough nutes. It's DWC and that introduces a lot of factors, I get it. But the bottom line is it's hungry.

moshli said:

Jesus... at no point did I ask "Should I use DWC for my first grow?"
That wasn't the help I asked for. I just asked what might be wrong with the plant.

It's hungry. Maybe due to pH lockout, maybe warm water, maybe pythium, or slime. Or maybe simply not enough nutes. It's DWC and that introduces a lot of factors, I get it. But the bottom line is it's hungry.

Click to expand...

Then feed em!! It's cool man you don't have to get mad about it. I did the same thing when I started. I thought I would spend a small fortune on a hydro system, and grow pounds of dank. I actually made it to harvest my first round, it was crap bud. I traded my hydro system for more lights and crushed it on my second run(in soil). I had verified genetics which helped tremendously.

packerfan79 said:

Then feed em!! It's cool man you don't have to get mad about it. I did the same thing when I started. I thought I would spend a small fortune on a hydro system, and grow pounds of dank. I actually made it to harvest my first round, it was crap bud. I traded my hydro system for more lights and crushed it on my second run(in soil). I had verified genetics which helped tremendously.

Click to expand...

I will add more nutes! Ppm wasn't falling, so I thought it was alright.
Thanks for sharing your experience with me man, I take it on board I swear!

Idk what's so complicated about killing dwc especially if you're running store bought nutes. It's like a computer, give it the right inputs and it will do what you want, unless you're running some Windows me genetics.

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned pathogens, this is a huge consideration in DWC especially if your water temps go above 70 or your root crown is getting too wet.

Keep the water an inch under your pot and hand water for now as others have said. Keep your water temps at 64-68 with ice bottles or whatever. Dial ph/ppm's and it'll work bro

toastyghostie said:

Idk what's so complicated about killing dwc especially if you're running store bought nutes. It's like a computer, give it the right inputs and it will do what you want, unless you're running some Windows me genetics.

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned pathogens, this is a huge consideration in DWC especially if your water temps go above 70 or your root crown is getting too wet.

Keep the water an inch under your pot and hand water for now as others have said. Keep your water temps at 64-68 with ice bottles or whatever. Dial ph/ppm's and it'll work bro

Click to expand...

Thanks man, I'm on top of all that! Turns out I was putting way too little nutes. Everyone always says to not use the full dose on the GH Flora Series... dial it back to half, maybe quarter of the application instructions. I found out 10 minutes ago that in Europe they package it with much weaker instructions. Much weaker.. 4 or 5 times weaker. Take a look. http://www.eurohydro.com/publicatio...ries/Feeding-Charts/CHART-FLORA-SERIES-EN.pdf

So here I have been putting in quarter doses following instructions which are about a quarter of the doses on the US instructions.

Well anyway, I got there in the end. It's been starving. And now we know why. Thanks for not telling me to giveup though bro, your words are encouraging.