Need your help in the worst way! Drooping Leaves. (Full details and pics listed)

I am a total nub, so your patience and help is sincerely appreciated. This is my second grow. First grow got me root rot. (Pretty sure it was with a 24hr a day watering schedule I had what looked like black mold on the clay) For this grow I changed my watering schedule to 15min every four hours (breaks down to 6 x 15min waterings a day) and now my leaves are drooping. I can't figure out if I am over or under watering! Any help/guidance is appreciated! Below are my details.

More details:

2xSour OG Clones (purchased @ LA Wonderland Caregivers)(roots were peeking through the rock wool and looked nice and white.)

2/25 Week 1
6 gallons R/O water
ph 6.0
6 mil root excel (1mil per gal)
24 mil Hydrozyme (4 mil per gal)
30 mil Aquasheild (5 mil per gal)
30 mil Flora GRO (5 mil per gal)
30 mil Flora Micro (5 mil per gal)
30 mil Flora Bloom (5 mil per gal)

I went a little hot on the 25th with the nutrient feeding. I noticed slight nutrient burn on the tips of the fan leaves and slight purpling in the stem only on one side of the very top part of the stem. I think the purple is stress related? I followed the advice of my local hydro shop and flushed with RO water and fed the plant .5 mil per gal of the 3 part gh nutrients as listed below.

2/27
Flush with R/O Water

6 gallons R/O water
ph 6.0
6 mil root excelurator (1mil per gal)
3 mil Flora GRO (.5 mil per gal)
3 mil Flora Micro (.5 mil per gal)
3 mil Flora Bloom (.5 mil per gal)

(Going to move back to 5mil per gal of the general hydroponics 3 part next 3/6? )

2x150 watt hps lights 10 inches from top of plants
4" intake fan
charcoal filter with 4" fan for exhaust
Humidifier
2x general hydroponics powergrower drip systems (each 2.5 gal) connected to 5 gal central water tank
airstones
sunhut 2'x2'X5'.3"

Light cycle: 18/6
Daylight :
temps: 75-81F
Humidity:45-50%
Night time:
Temps:70-74 F
Humidity 56-60

The General Hydroponics instructions for these units says leave the water pump on for 24 hrs a day. For plants that like drier climates it says leave on 30 mins then of an hour during daylight hours then totally shut off during night hours. Both seem excessive but I don't know my ass from my elbow.

it looks alittle drier than what it should be

little k said:

it looks alittle drier than what it should be

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Little K

Thank you so much for your response. That's my feeling exactly, I just don't trust my opinion yet. It helps to hear other peoples opinion like yourself that know a ton more than me. Thank god for this forum. At this point I just don't know what type of watering schedule i should be keeping. 24 hrs on gave me root rot and mold on the clay pellets. I just upped it to 18 hours on and then when the lights go off the pumps go off. If anyone has any suggestios in the meantime I would love to hear from you. I have so much to learn.

You didn't get root rot if you followed directions. You may have burned the roots, but these units are high in aeration and the water is heavily oxygenated. Hardly an environment for root rot. You leave them on for 24 hours a day. If you need to, cover the hydroton with foil. It keeps the light out, preventing algae, and prevents salt build up on the drip ring.

Also, you are raising a plant from seedling to transition to veg under an HPS light? Are you aware that will stretch the nodes?

Serapis said:

You didn't get root rot if you followed directions. You may have burned the roots, but these units are high in aeration and the water is heavily oxygenated. Hardly an environment for root rot. You leave them on for 24 hours a day. If you need to, cover the hydroton with foil. It keeps the light out, preventing algae, and prevents salt build up on the drip ring.

Also, you are raising a plant from seedling to transition to veg under an HPS light? Are you aware that will stretch the nodes?

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Thank you for your response. My first grow I left the water running 24/7 with air stones root excelarator and when it got really bad I used hydrozyme. What looked like black sludge formed on the clay pellets. The roots started smelling really bad and falling apart. If not root rot what would have caused the black sludge on the clay and stinky roots that fell apart when touched?

This time I started out with 15 min of watering every 4 hours. 18/6 light shedule. That seemed to little.
I just changed it to 18hrs lights and water pumps and 6 hours lights off pumps off. So you recommend 24hr pumps on? I just dont want that sludge and awful roots so I am a tad gun shy. Covering the clay pellets will prevent the algae? If so that is perfect and you are my savior.
I bought the clones with the roots peeking through the rock wool under a week ago. I was not aware at all that a hps light stretches the nodes. Is this through all veg? If so when should the HPS light come? is a stretched node reall bad ? If so what would you recommend for light if not hps and when during the cycle would i switch to HPS. Again i sincerely appreciate your time.

I am gonna do what you say because you seem to really know what you are talking about. I will cover the clay with foil and bump the drip ot 24hr on. If you can give me a better for option for the lighting that would rule. you are awsome . Thank you!!

I have 6 waterfarms now, and I haven't had that problem. Number one, I don't use any root excellerators or zymes at all. The only thing I give my plants is Flora Nova Bloom and Drip Clean to keep the salts from binding. I also add 5ml of H2O2 (35%) every 4-5 days to keep any bacteria at bay. This is controversial for some people, but I believe it keeps my reservoirs' water clear. Make sure you are changing the res every two weeks until the plant is taking in a gallon or more of water per day. I have two farms under a ScrOG right now that consume about 3 gallons per day combined while in flowering.

By covering the hydroton with foil, you are blocking light from reaching nutrient rich water, which will prevent algae blooms on top and down below. As for light, I leave mine on 24 hours in veg, as the plants don't need dark in veg and it hastens the time to flowering. Good luck...

p.s., I'm honored you asked me to be a friend on RIU, but I customarily reject automatically anyone that joined recently, so it was nothing personal. Hit me up again when you have 100 posts if you still feel the same way.

I use bloom throughout my grows

PetFlora said:

Not that this should cause droop, although..... it seems like you are using Bloom too soon. hth

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Did you put the plants straight into the sytem once the roots had come through the first rockwool cubes.If you did this is where the prob lies,i would have left them in the next size cube up and wait till the clones or seedlings show a good few roots showing through the cubes.This can often be the case with all hydroponic growers who have not been doing it for long,the bigger the roots the more chance of a good healthy plant.Either that or the plants are not getting enougth water pictures of the root system would have helped but only you will know what the roots are like.This is the problem with clay pebbles i like to put the odd bit of rock wool into the pots with the clay balls,by doing this there always is abit of moisture in the pots........................tyke

Serapis said:

I have 6 waterfarms now, and I haven't had that problem. Number one, I don't use any root excellerators or zymes at all. The only thing I give my plants is Flora Nova Bloom and Drip Clean to keep the salts from binding. I also add 5ml of H2O2 (35%) every 4-5 days to keep any bacteria at bay. This is controversial for some people, but I believe it keeps my reservoirs' water clear. Make sure you are changing the res every two weeks until the plant is taking in a gallon or more of water per day. I have two farms under a ScrOG right now that consume about 3 gallons per day combined while in flowering.

By covering the hydroton with foil, you are blocking light from reaching nutrient rich water, which will prevent algae blooms on top and down below. As for light, I leave mine on 24 hours in veg, as the plants don't need dark in veg and it hastens the time to flowering. Good luck...

p.s., I'm honored you asked me to be a friend on RIU, but I customarily reject automatically anyone that joined recently, so it was nothing personal. Hit me up again when you have 100 posts if you still feel the same way.

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You are being super helpful. No offence taken at all. I totally get not not taking a friend request from a new guy. Well I will keep posting. If you see anything that can use a little expert knowledge, if you could continue to help a guy out that would be greatly greatly appreciated. That being said I will try again when the posts get to 100.

Here a little update. I added a water chiller to my set up. Best $350 I have spent in a long time. keeping the root zone at 68 degrees F coupled with the root excelorator, cutting out the hygrozyme and aquasheild,made all the difference in the world . The base of the stem got to 1.25 in in diameter They were doing so well in fact that one of them got a little out of control vertically . 3 days into flower I tried to slightly bend the top part of the stem down. Needless to say that was a mistake. I broke off five inches off the main stem. I ended up cleaning it up with an even cut using sterile scissors because i figured it was the best option. There kinda wasn't any going back once the stem snapped off. So at this point unfortunately I ended up inadvertently topping the plant 3 days into flowering. I hope I didn't F things up too bad. As I have been told, I think it will slow flowering. At least I hope thats all that happens. I know it will probably decrease yields. Hopefully the overall excellent health of the plant before the mishap will mitigate the illl effects. I will let it go a week or two longer in flower depending on what the bud growth looks like at the end of the normal cycle.