1st timer, w/Hydroton, could use a little help...

Thank you very much, here is what's going on. I gradually cut the water. Went from 3 hour intervals/15 minute duration to 4 hour intervals/10 minute intervals, then to 5 hour intervals/10 min duration. yesterday I went back to 4 hour intervals and here are some pics from about an hour ago.

The leaves at the bottom are all starting to yellow and are not recovering from the droop. The leaf tips at the top are yellowing just a little bit, right at the tip. A few leaves have some brown spots, maybe 3 or 4 leaves total and 1 or 2 spots on them. The vertical growth seems a little slow, I'm on day 27 from seeds and they're 6 inches tall or so... the space between each new growth on the main stem in really small, and a lot the branches seem to have new growth on them too. Do they need more water?


400w HPS Light is about 20 inches from top of plants.
2 daytime CFL's are 3 or 4 inches away
Temp: Light on-68-77
Light off - 64-70
pH is 5.5-6.0
ppm is 585 (the RO water from the store was 120 to start) DO I need to increase this???
Technaflora nutes - Boost, Grow, Thriva Alive red, MagiCal, Sugar Daddy

Just added Mylar too

i still think u should put the drip tips on and run 24/7. not not to big a fan for that system myself i like dwc/aero.and the bottom leafs that sit on the bottom and touch the clay balls will die as they tend to stay wet and get to much nute build up on them

have u stoped spraying them down like i said?

yep, no more spraying

Only 1 of them really recovered from the droop after today's dark cycle. The rest look a little better but not like normal. They also got droopy a little early today, around 6am they were already looking a little down.

also, i may have done something at the very beginning that could have a hand in this. The hole in the rapid rooter plugs seemed a little shallow once the plants sprouted, I could see the hairy part of the root through the top. When they were 2-3 inches tall, I took another rapid rooter, cut it in half and put it around the stem and on top of the existing plug. About 1 inch of the stem got covered and eventually started rooting into the new piece of rapid rooter...??? Did I read somewhere that this stunts vertical growth???maybe i'm wrong...

I haven't had time to get the tips yet. The hydro store didn't have them.

The light came on an hour before this, they recovered ok.

any kind of shock can stunt/delay growth i take it that when u did this it broke sum of the roots?? i did something like that kindda b4 there was 1 not showing roots so i ripped the plug open but careful not to rip the roots and looked inside and a just left it in the plug and closed it back up and after that it would'nt grow anymore after that so i don't know but i know it's not good to mess with it after it's rooting in the plug

no, i didn't mess with the existing rooter plug or the roots, i just made the rapid rooter plug "longer" by putting another piece on top of it. Essentially, it made the plant an inch shorter, the roots started coming out of the stem that was covered by the new piece.

oh ok i got it, u know it's not good to keep ur stem wet/damp.

how old r they now??