first-time hydro not lookin good

[Grow it and roll it!]

Hey all, I'm trying hydroponics for the first time, and everything was looking good at first, but now it looks deformed, and nitrogen dificient. I'm using Fox farms Grow Big, a little SuperThrive, and I have Fox Farms Tiger Bloom ready when it needs it. I'm using 2 CFL's, one is 100watt and the other is 150. The 100 is blue spectrum, and the 150 is red spectrum.. The lighting schedule is a little screwy, but always at least more than 12 hours. The roots have a new tint of brown, but only a tint.
Thanks in advance,
GIARI

 

[Roseman]

What kind of grow cup is that?
It is suppose to be like a NET, with lots of holes in it. It is supposed to be all holes.
Can you make more holes in it? They may be slightly over-fed but they still look OK to me. They look good.

AND I can almost see light thru the lid of the tank. Is the lid thick enough? you can't let LIGHT in on the roots, or you'll get algae, pithium, root rot!

 

[smokeybandit22]

I agree about the light getting through. maturing roots hat elight-block it out. also adda couple drops of h202 to your res.
what ph r u running?

 

[Grow it and roll it!]

Well you see, its a dixie cup haha.. But I can definately put more holes in it, and the media is perlite. The lid is semi-transparent, so I'll cover it in mylar to reflect it instead. Glad to hear you think they're overfed, that means they'll recover and I'll go a lil easier on the nutes. Thanks Roseman! Also, may I say that I checked out your grow journals and I'm very impressed! Its so cool the way you multi-stalk like that!

 

[Grow it and roll it!]

Thanks Smokey, I'll definately add some h202 to it all. I'm not sure what the ph is yet, tryin to get my hands on a probe. I'll check it with these strips I have and get back.

 

[koolhand77]

how close is the water to the cup? Is that perlite MG brand? Did you wash it off before use? what r the water temps? And definetly make sure there is no light getting in there. that was my first thought before I looked at your pics.

 

[koolhand77]

make your ph is at 5.5 if you don't have a probe I just use the GH test kit

 

[Grow it and roll it!]

koolhand, the water is right at the bottom of the cup, maybe a little lower than it with the bubbles touching the bottom of the cup. The perlite was generic, not from mg. I honestly don't know if I rinsed off the perlite before I used it or not, but I have a feeling I did. I'm not sure what the temp of the water is, but it feels cold to the touch. Also, it smells weird in the res tank. It probably always does haha, but when I opened it I got a "wiff" of almost mold or something. Thanks for all the input!

 

[koolhand77]

Definetly might want to get a heater for the water I use a stealth heater I keep the temp at 69 degrees all the time. Add some h2o2 to your res don't need much that smell is coming from the roots your starting to get root rought probably because that cover is letting in light. I was having the sam problems it has to be real dark in there. you could also do a flush but knowing what your ph is number one. When I was veg mode I checked my ph everyday and balenced when needed.

 

[Roseman]

Dixie cups ????
Wow! Now I've seen it all.
Get your lights close and make more holes in the cups for the roots to escape.

Next time, try a plastic cup and cut hundreds of slits in it..

 

[koolhand77]

I also used a plastic cup and got a soldering Iron and burt tons of holes in it. real easy super quick just do it in a we fentilated room.

 

[Grow it and roll it!]

Thats so funny koolhand, I was just thinking of doing the same thing with my soldering iron! I took the plant out to check on the roots and stuff, there are a ton of holes in it as is, and the roots look much better. I covered the top in 2 layers of ducttape and a final top layer of mylar, so now no light should get to the roots. The only problem I have now is that the temp is constantly over 80.. which is too high and causing heat stress..... I have two fans blowing, but I'm gonna have to come up with something else.. I need to find a way to get cool air circulated in there. The first 2 pics are of the plant, and the last 2 are the grow set up.. Any advice or comments?
Thanks for everything so far, everyone has been extremely helpful!

 

[koolhand77]

I have read you want to use your fans from the bottom of the plant not from the top. if you move one of the breeze fans down to inside the bubbler that will move the air around and then maybe postion the other on the light to cool the ballest down.
80 is not to bad I had my room at a constant 84 this past summer it wasen't too bad. Those brown spots on the leaves are from too much light getting to the roots you will notice a huge change in growth now. you using anynutes? it's definetly time feed them bitches.

 

[Grow it and roll it!]

Ok awesome, I'll move the fans to the bottom, one pointing at the light source. Glad to hear that high temps aren't necessarily killers.. I'm glad the growth will pick up, I'm using 1 tsp per gallon Foxfarms Grow big, 1 drop of Superthrive per gallon, 1 "cap full" of h202 (Each cap is far less than 1 tsp) and just a taste of Foxfarms Tiger Bloom. By taste, I mean hardly any because its so strong. I moved the lights up a little bit too, seems as though the leaves were showing heat stress.. getting crispy and new growth appearing minutely bleached. I also have another fan on now blowing air into the whole container. Thanks for all the help!
GIARI

 

[Consciousness420]

whats the ph and the feeding schedule? it may be that the plants are being overfed.. see those red stems and spotting? possible nute burn.. roots look fine to me.. only if they are dark brown do you have root rot.. I would ease up on the nutes. .. and.. who said high temps are ok?! heresy!! if temps are going over 80 degrees that is just the sample of the air that the therm detected, imagine the actual cellular wall temps while being under direct light?! probably 95 degrees which will break down the cellular walls slowly and cause these 'burns'.. get it down to 72-74 deg and the plant will feel a lot better! . good luck!

 

[Grow it and roll it!]

Conscienceness, Thanks for the feedback! I don't know what the ph is unfortunately.. I know thats a major thing.. but I don't have a way to monitor it right now. The feeding schedule is that I clean out the res tank like once a week, probably less now that the light cant penetrate through as easily, then refill it with the correct measurements of nutes. I thought it might be overfed too, but I'm following the Fox farms directions almost to a "T", 1 tsp per gal. My temps are much better now that I took koolhands advice and moved the fans lower, +rep!, so the temps are now around 75 with the lights on, 70 with them off.. Honestly I already saw new growth versus earlier today, so something must be right!
Thanks again all!
GIARI

 

[koolhand77]

whats the ph and the feeding schedule? it may be that the plants are being overfed.. see those red stems and spotting? possible nute burn.. roots look fine to me.. only if they are dark brown do you have root rot.. I would ease up on the nutes. .. and.. who said high temps are ok?! heresy!! if temps are going over 80 degrees that is just the sample of the air that the therm detected, imagine the actual cellular wall temps while being under direct light?! probably 95 degrees which will break down the cellular walls slowly and cause these 'burns'.. get it down to 72-74 deg and the plant will feel a lot better! . good luck!

I understand that we are trying to conrol the enviroment that these plants live to the BEST of our ability. Somtimes due to restrictions we are not always capable to follow everything to a T. Now having your temps around 80 degres is not gonna kill your plant. my plants grew all summer long under 80 to 84 degre heats and they loved it. What about if your growing outside? You can't control the heat and what it does in the summer out there. There have been days in the mid 90's where I live and I'm sure the MJ plants that were outside sufferd alittle bit they were just fine. If You want 72 to 74 degrees outside growing where I live there is only 2 times during the year early spring and begining of fall. So the flucuation between 75 and 85 is not a troubling issue in my book. with that said i'm glad the fans are helping and just strive for the best.
That super trive might be over doing it. How big is your res? I have only herd people using that in soil grows. I could be way off and am I learing somthing new, but I know that shit is powerfull.

 

[Grow it and roll it!]

Well my last grow was soil so I still had some superthrive left over. My res tank is approx. 3 gallons, and with the superthrive they said to put one drop per gallon. Therefore, I put 3 drops in my res tank. I remember reading that superthrive helps to prevent shock and provides vitamins and minerals that most of the time are lacking, so I figured what the hell, why not!? lol.

 

[koolhand77]

sounds good im sure. try cutting that out till you have total confirmation that it can be used in hydro setup. Soil is much diffrent you have run off. I have to head to the hydro store some time this month I can ask them I will get back to you on that... lol knocking it out won't do you any harm. just help at this point till we you get rolling.

 

[Grow it and roll it!]

Alright cool, I wont add it after my next flush. Thanks for askin, you don't have to do that! I appreciate it New growth is forming, but I think the roots are still a little brown...