Slow Growth and Problems

First grow, like most others I am having issues. The plant has been growing for over 3 months now and to me doesnt seem like its as big as it should be. I am using fox farm nutes in my homemade dwc system. I still haven't gotten a ph/ppm meter yet so dont jump on me for that. but I keep the PH slighlty under 6 based on my strips test. The problems are having are; slow ass growth, there are black specs on some stems, the bottom leaves are starting to wilt and die, and the root systems look all kinds of fudged up. to me at least. any suggestions will be helpful, as i really dunno what to do. the top growth seems to be doing fine im just worried. i dont want my first born to die already.

Light source?
Nutes concentration?
Set up?
Maintenance scedule?
Seed origin/genetics?

And not to be a Debbie downer....but I got my ppm meter for something like $11 off of amazon.....found it...$15.59

its on 12/12 cycle now for about 3 weeks. change nutes every week. the nutes are foxfarm tigerbloom right now and was grow big while in veg. not sure about the seed type, came from a buddy.

i give her about 1 tsp of nutes per gallon of water for feedings

Once you get your pH/PPM meter you'll know what's going on.
Your roots look really bad, for 3 months you should have a decent sized plant. Like your saying.
The nice and bad thing about hydro. If you have one thing out of range you into bad problems.


If you can keep these things in check you won't have any problems.
Keep these things in check, and you won't have problems.

Water- use good water, "Good Water = Good Growing" City water is bad.
pH- 5.1 - 6.1, start low let the solution rebound up to 6.1 before you pH down.
TDS/PPM - Follow the feeding schedule, or go 1/2 strength. @2500 ppm you run into problems
Nutrient Temp- 60F your nutrient solution will have the most oxygen it can contain.
Air Temp. - Low 60's to upper 80's, Anything above/below that you need to address.
Clean your system at every nutrient change.- Clean your system with a Hydrogen peroxide solution.
IMO- don't use bleach, bleach leaves a residue. H2O2 doesn't.

Good Luck on Your Grow

i clean every change. temps are all good except the nutes sit at about 72. i use spring water every time i change the water as well. Im just trying to narrow it down based off visual symptoms. any ideas on to why the roots arent really growing? i thought it should be like hair in the bucket by now.

they're 60w replacement bulbs that use 13watts. CFL's. maybe they arent strong enough? or im not using enough? only have 2 over plant

you need more light, a lot more. that is probably why that thing is stretched out like a scarecrow and growing slow as molasses!

more light it is than. any ideas on roots? and more leaves are starting to die still dont know why

need to lower res temps, get more lights get a fan blowing on it, get it back on 18/6 and spray with neem looks like mites

roots are rotted...look up root rot treatment..


get some dam dir...first time growers with little to no knowledge shouldnt be tampering into hydro..get some exp under your belt with growing and learn...then try more difficult methods.

added more light. made a huuge difference. she is now in 12/12 flowering showing good growth for about 3 weeks. I want to adjust the timer however; would it be okay to do that? BY either cutting a dark period short or a light period short?

MainStrain10 said:

added more light. made a huuge difference. she is now in 12/12 flowering showing good growth for about 3 weeks. I want to adjust the timer however; would it be okay to do that? BY either cutting a dark period short or a light period short?

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I would leave them in dark longer. From what I understand during flower it's the continued 12 straight dark or more the plant needs. When I switch my timer I do it an hour or two a day till it gets to the new schedule I want. This way the plants are still very close to 12/12 and you don't stress them out. At this stage that is the last thing you want because it can cause it to hermie.

thanks thats exactly what i was looking for!

OK so lately I have noticed some pistils turning brown and shriveling up; which to my knowledge means either they were pollinated or burned. shes the only one in there so unless she hermed i doubt she was pollinated. I am hoping that what im looking at is just the calyxes swelling, but please someone tell me if this is what i hope its not (balls). any insight is appreciated.

anyone? i cant tell if these are little ball sacks or not