Lil help finding out what's wrong with my baby, please?

[Tommygirl]

Hey all. Iâ??m new to growing much of anything, much less weed, so I could use a little help if y'all don't mind. I tried soil and the fraggin' things would not grow for me. 3 months and the little buggers never got more than a couple inches tall, and then mysteriously died. LOL From everything I'd read hydroponics was suposed to be a lot easier. *shrug* It is too, because they're actually growing this time. I'm just suddenly having this little problem and as soon as I find out what it is I'll be able to correct it. *grin*I've got three lovelies growing right now, and they're on an auto feed from a main tub which they sit over. They're still really young, it's been about three and a half weeks since i moved them from the Ziploc that I used for germination and put them into my hydroponics setup so I don't even know the sex yet.

That's not important though. What is important is that the leaves on one of them are curling under and getting yellow spots. I feel sure, from all the reading that I've done, that it's in need on magnesium, and I figure that I can just add it right into the hydro juice. What my real problem is that I don't under stand why it's only one of them showing these signs when they're all on the exact same juice, that is to say that they're sharing the same solution.

A friend suggested that it was because it was the runt of the trio, but in fact, it used to be the mid-sized plant until it started having this problem and now it's become the runt because it's not growing as well and the one that was the runt.

Can anyone advise me why three plants sharing the same solution wouldn't all be in the same state of health? I'd also like to know how much Epsom salt I should add to the 6 gallons of hydro juice. One last thing, do I have to worry about the two that appear healthy winding up getting sick if they donâ??t need more magnesium?

I checked the ph this morning and it's right where the liturature says that it should be, between 6.25 and 6.5.

I've included some pics...the first two are a couple different leaves on the afflicted plant and the third one is what the healthy plants look like...the fourth pic is what my hydro set up looks like.

Tommygirl Reviewed by Tommygirl on 09-11-2006. Lil help finding out what's wrong with my baby, please? Hey all. Iâ??m new to growing much of anything, much less weed, so I could use a little help if y'all don't mind. I tried soil and the fraggin' things would not grow for me. 3 months and the little buggers never got more than a couple inches tall, and then mysteriously died. LOL From everything I'd read hydroponics was suposed to be a lot easier. *shrug* It is too, because they're actually growing this time. I'm just suddenly having this little problem and as soon as I find out what it is I'll Rating: 5

[Bachelorpads]

I will take a shot at what is wrong.

If you used a recommended dosage of nutes when you first put those plants in the 6 gallans 3 weeks ago, I highly doubt it is a nutrient deficiency. I would guess it is an oxygen issue with the roots. I would guess that the water is over 70 degrees and you are using a smaller air pump. Is the one plant that is having the issue in the middle of the tub and the other two on the outside with the air stones directly under them? I would add air, probably double it.

You might as well just do a nutes change though if you think it might be a nute deficiency. That doesn't take much work and should be easy to find out if that is what it is.

[Tommygirl]

Actually, when looking at that pic of the hydro tub, the problem child would be on the front left corner and there's one right behind it that's just fine. The third plant is on the front right corner and is doing the best. The airstone thing is on the right side of the tub.

I changed out the juice about a week and a half ago. I'll be doing it again this thursday or friday. Depends on when I have the time. According to the instructions I'm supposed to change out the solution every two weeks.

I can go check the temp right now to see what it is, but what temp should the solution be?

[Tommygirl]

Right, so it turns out I don't have a thermometer that goes below 100F so I'm guesstamating that the solution temp is around 70 or so, because that's roughly how far below 100 the red line came up to.

Also, an interesting development that I've only thought to mention. The room is begining to smeel of spearment. Has done for about half a week now. Is that normal? A good sign or a bad or?

[Treetops]

Peace:thumbsup:

http://boards.cannabis.com/attachmen...0&d=1121829312

[Tommygirl]

Peace:thumbsup:

http://boards.cannabis.com/attachmen...0&d=1121829312

Ahhhh...now I understand why my ph was too high when everything I'd read told me it should be around 6.5. What I'd been reading was for growing in soil. Yeesh...you'd think I was stoned or something...which I wasn't. I ain't had any bud in months! That's why I'm doing this. I only know one person in this town with connections and he refuses to hook me up:cursing: . Some "friend", eh? So, I'm forced to try an be self sufficient.:thumbsup: Or try to be at any rate.

Thanks, Treetops. That was helpful. Is there a gizmo on the market that'll tell you how strong your juice is? Or is that a...uuuuh...*cough*...pipe dream? *snerk* Please, excuse the pun...couldn't help myself.

[mellogold]

yea drop that ph to 5.8 and after a week of being stunted it will shoot the hell up like a well....weed.

[Tommygirl]

All right...here's what I did.

I just finished breaking it down, cleaning everything and putting it back together with pure(no nutes), ph balanced (between 5.75 and 6) cool tap water. BTW, all three plants are now showing signs of the condition, though in the other two it's only just started.

When I took the top off I found a strange thing. The juice had a mild froth. I know that it shouldn't because the last time I opened it up to change out the juice for fresh there was no sign of anything like that. I don't know what the froth means, unless the juice was fermenting or something like that. Maybe one of you old hands would be able to tell me. I suspect that whatever was causing the froth is a very bad thing for the plants, and was probably aided in growth by light that was getting into the resivoir through the unused growing pots. Whatever it is has surely throughrouly saturated the rockwool cubes my babies are growing in, so I also rinsed the rockwool, rocks, and roots as best as I could. I'm hoping that the rockwool and rocks will completely flushed of the contaminant by the tubes that bring the water up to the plants. I also now have the unused pots covered so that as little light as possible can get in.

I'm going to leave them on plain, ph balanced water until friday, then I'll change the water out. I'm not sure yet if I'll add nutes at that point or not. I supose it will depend on A) how the plants look, and B) what the water looks like. If the water's gungy then I'll probably just clean everything again and go a few more days with plain water.

So...questions...
Have I done right?
Are my plans sound?
WTF was up with the froth?

Any advice at all is welcome. I'd be incredibley grateful for anything anyone's got to say about the situation.

[Treetops]

Sounds good to me....But I would only use half or less of what your Nutes say to use..just to be safe...Good luck...:thumbsup:

[BlackBliss]

I always only use half of the recommended dosages also.....Goodluck.
Peace out,
Bliss.