Need a mentor for DWC 5 gallon buckets.

With rockwool (and probably other mediums), roots really seem to take off when you have ~120 watts pretty much sitting on top of your plants in early veg. --- big, thick, fuzzy white roots. it seems to make a big difference. Fewer watts than that would probably make it difficult to overcome a lower room temperature. Similarly, more watts further away won't necessarily stimulate root growth like where you've found your sweet spot -- it also seems like you get a feel for what your plants like by feeding them smaller volumes of water three times/day versus watering a lot only once or twice.

Obviously, more watts are needed later on; but overall, it seems like a young plant with thick, fuzzy, white roots is more likely to be a hearty mature plant than one that was just kept alive throughout veg and then blasted with light in bloom. Perhaps that's obvious, it's worth your time to get a feel for optimizing your light(s)' performance.

Billy the Mountain said:

Growth will slow dramatically at 65F, you need to raise your temps by 15+ degrees

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Its been super slow. Plant is extra small. Luckily the temps are picking up to 70-80 this week as spring is finally kicking in

Armyofsprout said:

Its been super slow. Plant is extra small. Luckily the temps are picking up to 70-80 this week as spring is finally kicking in

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maybe think about a heater? if you can keep a constant temp, that would be better for overall growth. and then vice versa, ability to cool it so it doesn't get too hot

rkymtnman said:

maybe think about a heater? if you can keep a constant temp, that would be better for overall growth. and then vice versa, ability to cool it so it doesn't get too hot

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I had one but it was increasing the hell out of my
electric bill so I stopped using it. The temps now are good that we are out of the winter. I have a pretty big place so it’s hard to keep the temps up in winter without using a lot of power. And a 2x2 is too small for me to put a heater in the inside and I wouldn’t want anything to catch on fire. But right now temps are about 75F. Cooling is a little easier to get done though in my case. I also didn’t want it to get too hot and then I get bacteria growth and constantly have to change the res every other day.

I’m just glad to get this far of roots coming out the pots.

Armyofsprout said:

I had one but it was increasing the hell out of my
electric bill so I stopped using it. The temps now are good that we are out of the winter. I have a pretty big place so it’s hard to keep the temps up in winter without using a lot of power. And a 2x2 is too small for me to put a heater in the inside and I wouldn’t want anything to catch on fire. But right now temps are about 75F. Cooling is a little easier to get done though in my case. I also didn’t want it to get too hot and then I get bacteria growth and constantly have to change the res every other day.

I’m just glad to get this far of roots coming out the pots.

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A watt is a watt as far as heat goes, maybe an old 60w incandescent light bulb or something similar.
I've got a mini 200w electric heater that works safely in a tent.

This is what it looks like now. Around a stable 80F now. Think it’s recovering?

Thanks guys, doing well now!

Armyofsprout said:

Thanks guys, doing well now!

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Roots looked great until they hit the water

It sure looks like you got root rot

Billy the Mountain said:

Roots looked great until they hit the water

It sure looks like you got root rot

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I was thinking that too but I’ve been checking on it and I think it’s just microbes from some tribus I added, the liquid is brown. Those fresh roots at the top actually just appeared even after the discoloration and after the microbes. which made me feel a little Better after they showed up. so and the plant has still been completely healthy looking and growing fine. If I put the roots in clean water I think the brown washes off.

the roots were in the before water and didn’t look like that until the next day after I added the tribus. but it seems to be still doing ok and it doesn’t smell or Anything. Which made me feel like it’s just being discolored from that, it’s not really slimy either. So I’ve been trying to monitor it to see if it gets worse or actually is rot.

should I cut those bottom roots off tho?

Armyofsprout said:

I was thinking that too but I’ve been checking on it and I think it’s just microbes from some tribus I added, the liquid is brown. Those fresh roots at the top actually just appeared even after the discoloration and after the microbes. which made me feel a little Better after they showed up. so and the plant has still been completely healthy looking and growing fine. If I put the roots in clean water I think the brown washes off.

the roots were in the before water and didn’t look like that until the next day after I added the tribus. but it seems to be still doing ok and it doesn’t smell or Anything. Which made me feel like it’s just being discolored from that. So I’ve been trying to monitor it to see if it gets worse or actually is rot.

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I hope you're correct and its simply nute stain, but it's the clumping that's disconcerting

Billy the Mountain said:

I hope you're correct and its simply nute stain, but it's the clumping that's disconcerting

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that was concerning me also. Do you think I should cut those parts off?

Armyofsprout said:

that was concerning me also. Do you think I should cut those parts off?

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You could, but more importantly you need to address the conditions which let pythium take hold.

Cooler is better for water temp, >72f gets progressively more risky.

Consider running the buckets sterile with a few ppm of bleach, or beneficial bacteria such as Southern Ag GFF or GH Defguard to out-compete the pythium. There's a plethora of threads regarding both approaches; they both work.

Billy the Mountain said:

You could, but more importantly you need to address the conditions which let pythium take hold.

Cooler is better for water temp, >72f gets progressively more risky.

Consider running the buckets sterile with a few ppm of bleach, or beneficial bacteria such as Southern Ag GFF or GH Defguard to out-compete the pythium. There's a plethora of threads regarding both approaches; they both work.

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i just ordered some southern AG but it won’t be here until Monday. So when using that should I add it to the complete nutrient solution or just start off using it in plain water?

In addition to nute solution

Armyofsprout said:

i just ordered some southern AG but it won’t be here until Monday. So when using that should I add it to the complete nutrient solution or just start off using it in plain water?

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What does the water smell like? If you got the funk you'll know by the smell.

Armyofsprout said:

i just ordered some southern AG but it won’t be here until Monday. So when using that should I add it to the complete nutrient solution or just start off using it in plain water?

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Make sure you add bennies last after phing. If you use pH down especially. Let it mix so it don't kill bennies

Bucsfan80 said:

What does the water smell like? If you got the funk you'll know by the smell.

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No funky smell and no slime. They just seem to be brown and kinda clumping

Armyofsprout said:

No funky smell and no slime. They just seem to be brown and kinda clumping

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Well that's a good sign maybe it's nutes or bennies

Bucsfan80 said:

Well that's a good sign maybe it's nutes or bennies

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False alarm. Everything seems all good, no rot.