Hey guys, I've made a decision to euthanize the plants, and treat this as a learning experience. The roots at the base of the baskets were a dark brown, approaching black colour, and I was only on my second week of flowering with a very minimal initial investment. I decided to cut my losses and start fresh with a full capacity grow. I'll do a quick write-up as to why and what I've learned.
The most obvious problem I was having was my temperatures. They were all over the place. Cold at night and fuming hot during lights-on day. Even after I ducted the bulb vents out of the room an AC was needed. I did not, however, install the AC until the problem had already set in, so there you have it.
The second problem in my opinion was that I wasn't diligent in cleaning my res properly or cleaning my tools. I didn't buy a shop vac until after my first res change, so a great deal of the left-over gunk from the my vegetative growth was sitting in my res for flowering. I also didnt clean my hands and pH meter, or thermometer every time I used it, and I *may* have had a slight light leak issue from improper coverage of the empty pots... pure speculation but you never know.
My third problem was my additaves. I added liquid carbo load as per the BCNL schedule right away in my first week of flowering, and this I think got things started. I've read that carbo load should only be considered when you've got an excellent root structure to drink it up, or it just floats there and creates problems. I only had about 3-4 plants touching the res this point, and I noticed the 'snot' 3 days after I added the carbo load nute batch. As for the hydrox, I added it too late, and improperly. I should have added it right from the get-go during vegetative growth, but I came in on the flowering after problems had alreadyt set in. Also, I didn't let it sit in a seperate pot of water for 20 minutes before adding it to my res, so it wasn't distributed properly. I'm really starting to consider the old mantra "less is more", and next time around I'm going to start with a very basic Bloom A+B and hydrox solution *at least* until I have some really strong white roots... like I used to have
A final few things I think I did wrong... I used the watering rocker switch a few times to make sure my lines were all running well, but I did it while still in the plants. I didn't think a minute or so of extra watering would hurt too much, but its possible that I helped to over water and possibly drown my roots. I also did just an awful job of balancing my pH. I almost always added too much, occasionally adding WAY too much (bringing it down to 3). I've learned how to dilute it a bit and add slowly, AND to clean my tools before adding, hopefully this will help. Generally, my grow room could be cleaner as well. I'm going to really nail this tomorrow... My entire grow setup is going to get the living hell bleached out of it, and then flushed before my new ladies go in, and my grow room is getting a solid sweep/mop and wipe down.
All in all, cost me about 100$ of clones/nutes/power, and in return, a tremendous amount of knowlege. Thanks for all the tips guys, I hope this experience will help someone else out there, and please stay posted, because I'll be making a new thread with my next grow within the next couple weeks!!
Thanks to all the people who gave me tips about saving my plants!
i'll take some pics next week, and let you know if they need more veg time, or if i've decided to flower.
