Wilting fan leaves

Hello. Sorry - I don't have a camera to take pics....
I am about 5 weeks through the flowering phase in NFT, everything was going brilliant, vigorous growth , good root structure, nice buds. Suddenly within the last few days a few of the fan leaves have started to droop noticeably. The plants don't appear sick, although these leaves maybe appear darker and slightly smaller than they were.
Another thing I've noticed within the last few days is the plants are drinking considerably less water, even though we have had a slight raise in temp (UK).
Before, I was having to top the tank up by about 10 - 15 litres/day, and now I've suddenly noticed it's going down much slower, haven't needed to add water for about three days now. Strange - I thought this was the phase that they needed most water.
I'm doing NFT, have my pumps on 24/7.
Did a "search" but most of it refers to cuttings.....

Hi m8
Sorry but i can offfer little to help

I am sure good avice will follow tho
And if is only been happening in the last few days,I am sure you be able to fix it without spoiling your harvest...


About the Wilting(u say the leaves are still green?(They aint gone yellow/brown?
Wilting(in my Experience)Normally happens if underwatering(i have never overwatered(but it may happen then aswell))
You sure your water is going(no blocks) where it should?(sorry not sure what ntf is))

If your leaves are just goinging yellow/brown
It is pretty normal in the last few weeks of flower...The feeds we use for flower have less N(The plant dont need much N by then))
So the bigger fan leaves do loose Nitgeron and turn yellow/brown/dead*smileS*

Good luck m8
And apart from scanning over your setup to make sure all is ok,I would not do anything till u get a few good replies...It is likely u could make things worse over the next day or two(if act to rashly))

I be waiting to see what the others say with interest aswell*smileS*(Btw tho do try and hook up a cam for a few shots)

Yes, if you have done a P-K boost, i would suspect that the plant is now suddenly
having to use up the N resources in its own fan leaves.....a change to a slightly yellow
colour and a drooping (as if the plant is trying to "protect" its own buds) is perfectly
normal.....

many vegetable growers continue to add N until the end of flowering in order to
produce bigger fruits and larger plants, but the end result is usually not as tasty or
doesn't burn quite right (i.e. there is a black chunky ash instead of a whitish, delicate
ash).......

one of the hardest parts about flowering is to make the plant use up its own stored
Nitrogen in its own fan leaves.......

so, unless i am completely off the mark here, i think this is a normal occurrence....

Keep us informed and good luck!!!!

kind regards from a guineapig

The only thing that makes me nervous is they arent taking up as much water. . .

possibly look into mildew or things of that sort, and also check your roots and water temp.

ive never used NFT so im unsure of operating temps for the rez, but im sure if its high flow there wouldnt be a chance of pythium growing. . .

but anyhow, check your roots to be safe, but i also agree with guineapig and Tune

good luck and be safe

Love and Light
unika

I'd for sure check rez temp and ppm... this will tell you if nutes are being used at all. Good luck!

guineapig said:

Yes, if you have done a P-K boost, i would suspect that the plant is now suddenly
having to use up the N resources in its own fan leaves.....a change to a slightly yellow
colour and a drooping (as if the plant is trying to "protect" its own buds) is perfectly
normal.....

Click to expand...

It's more the newer fan leaves that are drooping, and only on the plants nearest to the end of the table where the water comes out.
They look healthy although maybe a touch of nute burn (slightly right at the tips) which I will attempt to rectify with a quick flush. Apart from that they are dark green and still feel reasonably cool to the touch, suggesting they are still transpiring, although perhaps not as cool as the ones which aren't drooping.
They haven't gone yellow.

If I didn't know better - I'd say it looked like the effects of heat - but it hasn't really been that warm - was abotu 28'c inside there last night.

Thought maybe it was an over fertilisation of Nitrogen or something - but rather than being a "claw" they are wilting generally - ie from their little stems.

The roots are still there - although perhasp a touch browner thant they were before - I'm not sure whether this is rot or because I'm using canna aqua which has been know to stain the roots brown?

The drinking thing is the most worrying - they don't seem to be drinking even half as much as they were.

I haven't done the pk 13 - 14 yet, was gonna flush for 1 - 2 days then do it. Perhaps this will balance out the Nitrogen levels?

I'll keep you informed as this change has been rather quick.

If I have root rot, what can I do about it? Should I switch the pumps to 15/15 minutes? I thougth on NFT it was impossible to overwater? I am using rockwool cubes.
How do I tell if it's root rot? Why would it "suddenly" have happened like this?

Ok - update, sorry stil no pics. I'd really appreciate some more ideas or input about this before it gets too bad.

ATM I have isolated the problem to be with the two plants that are NEAREST the end where the water gets delivered (NFT) ie they are right by the taps. Also I have just sought some advice from a growshop.

Thigs don't seem to have got remarkably worse, although the fan leaves on these two plants are more or less all affected. There is no yellowing or anything of the leaves, and they still feel reasonably cool to the touch.
They look rather sad now - like weeping willows. Althgouh teh buds and bud leaves don't seem to be affected. Growth seems to have slowed though.

The growshop owner has suggested the beginnings of pythium and advises me later to gently lift one of the cubes up from the spreader mat - if it rips and the roots are all brown I have pythium ,he reckons. Starting from that end of the tank. However if it grips the mat it should be ok = no pythium or the very early stages.

I have to go with this really as I can't think of another explanation for the wilting and sudden drop in uptake of water. Can you?

I have bought a bottle of enzymes, and a "powder" for pythium which has to be measured out in grams. I will add these to the plain water and water very infrequently for now in case it is overwatering/pythium.
The growshop suggested a "gently gently" approach to watering and feeding for now.

I lifted the spreader mat last night and had a look at the roots. Athough slightly brown their cohesion still seems to be there. I always find a light browining of the roots as the weeks go by, though.
However I might have noticed a slight lack of secondary roots - the hairy ones that come out of the first ones at 90'. It looks like a cross between white and brown spaghetti really.

So - You lot got any other ideas you can chuck my way? If it is something that's spreading , I'd like to catch it before it reaches the other four plants.

BTW - temps = 26'c (ambient temps) - dont' see a problem there, and I don't think I've ever had a problem before with pythium doing NFT.......

Tell me what to look out for in terms of pythium/overwatering/over fertilization, please.

Thanks, this is becoming a bit of a mystery, and I need to catch it before it gets worse.

Edit - I have now been looking through the threads on pythium and root rot, and my roots look a lot better than the root rot photos, and my plants aren't deterioating as fast as the ones in the pythium photos or as bad.

edit - er.... bump?

Gonna try foliar spraying some of the wilting ones with ph adjusted water.......

I tested the roots, I really don't think I have pythium. The roots are locked nicely into the spreader mat.

Mystery......