Please help - Is this the start of root-rot?...

...or am I worrying too much?

I'm running a flood and drain system that floods every 3 hours. Lights are 20/4. I'm running Ionic grow at 1.6EC/5.7pH. I first thought this might be nutrient burn as I recently increased from 1.4EC, but it doesn't seem to be appearing on new growth.

Can anyone help or advise? Is this a deficiency or could it possibly be root-rot? The plants don't appear to be wilting at all and their growth is still good. The downside is that I'm growing in the tropics, the room and reservoir temp is around 27C.

I also did a full reservoir change about a week ago. I just read somewhere that you should just top up the reservoir for the first month to allow the roots to be established and protected with good bacteria. Have I made a massive error?

I'm just wondering what to do next? Shall I buy a couple of air-stones/pumps and start oxygenating my reservoir water?

Is it OK for me to lift the inner pots out of the larger pots to inspect the roots?

Cheers,
J.

Almost looks like pH lockout to me.

Interesting. I was sick earlier this week and couldn't check the plants for 3 days. When I checked the pH had risen to 6.3. This is the only time it had wavered. Normally I check every day and keep it at 5.7. Shall I try increasing it a bit to 5.9?

5.7 looks a bit low. You may be locking out P or Mg. Try 5.7 or 5.9 and see if that helps.

OK Great. Thank you.

Well the roots look great, thank god.




I've been reading online it maybe the nutrient solution. There's reports of this brand (Ionic) having issues with plants and deficiencies (magnesium, calcium) Unfortunately I'm using well water and could only get the soft water version. I'll try shop around for the hard water version.

Will also run my PH at 5.9-6.0 for a week or two and see if that helps.