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hydroponic DWC Hydroponic problems

B

bvalente

Sorry if this is in the wrong thread, I've been a member here for a little bit researching but haven't come up with anything quite like my problem or as definitive.

Here's the situation: I've been growing Tasmanian habanero and jalapeño in a homemade DWC hydroponic setup for a couple months with a 4 bulb 2ft T5HO structure (I have a 600w LED on the way in a few days). I kept them about 8 inches from the canopy on a 18hr photoperiod. The plants have been doing great. I've been using a 2 part solution for my nutes and micros called EZ-Grow. The habanero has been temperamental and needed some CalMag supplement so I have been accordingly and adjusted to a 4 gallon tank. The pH is checked daily and maintained at 6.0

My problem is with my habanero, it's about to start flowering and all of a sudden is dropping leaves. The leaves up until this point have been dark and growing very well. The root structure has been nice and white and now is tinged. The roots aren't fragile or slimy, just darker color along with darkened leaves. I thought it was possible nutrient burn in case I was careless with measuring so I swapped the bucket out and put in half strength with almost no CalMag. Dropped more leaves a few days later. The leaves it's dropping have dark spots in the leafs and darker veins, some have what looks like to be a little burn.

So yesterday, I cleaned the bucket with bleach thinking it was contaminated water and swapped the air hose. Scrubbed very well and put full strength nutes with half strength CalMag. Today has been better with only two leaves dropped.

Overall the plant has a lot of leaves but now it's about to flower and this is happening I'm a first time grower with these and I'm so close to getting some peppers, now this.

I always try to research before posting (that's why I don't post much)
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Are you using an organic nutrient? That can give it a slight brown tinge, but you said this wasn't observed before. Use 3% h2o2 instead of bleach and also apply the h2o2 to the roots directly or put them in a bowl with some, they will foam a bit. It's possible that you have Pythium or a bad microbe. Add some great white shark micorrhizae to your roots next time or any mycorrizhae formulated for hydro. I had root rot issues and my plants were kinda not growing as fast and they started looking deformed and I cleaned it good and added some mycorrizhae and it made life so much more simple. The mycorrizhae also makes the ph more stable, I honestly check my ph once a week. I'm also gonna start using biothrive which brings alkaline water to the perfect ph for hydro and then you rarely have to check it. Apparently the plant based minerals act as some sort of buffer or something.
 
Matthew_293 said:
Are you using an organic nutrient? That can give it a slight brown tinge, but you said this wasn't observed before. Use 3% h2o2 instead of bleach and also apply the h2o2 to the roots directly or put them in a bowl with some, they will foam a bit. It's possible that you have Pythium or a bad microbe. Add some great white shark micorrhizae to your roots next time or any mycorrizhae formulated for hydro. I had root rot issues and my plants were kinda not growing as fast and they started looking deformed and I cleaned it good and added some mycorrizhae and it made life so much more simple. The mycorrizhae also makes the ph more stable, I honestly check my ph once a week. I'm also gonna start using biothrive which brings alkaline water to the perfect ph for hydro and then you rarely have to check it. Apparently the plant based minerals act as some sort of buffer or something.
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Thanks for the advice, after some research I thought t might be something other than burn so I completely washed everything out and swapped the tubes and stuff to begin it back to normal. We will see within the next few days for improvement or if it gets more sick. Hopefully that's all it needed and it will go away

How much of a 3% should I add to the 4 gallon reservoir and how long should I leave it in before I swap the nutrients out again
I added 1 cup (used google so I hope I'm right) to the nutrient solution and going to let it circulate for 24hrs. Then swap the nutrients again
 
Well I would just eyeball it and switch it out within a day like you said. I'm not sure of the reaction mechanism but I know the h2o2 dissociates or reacts and as time passes there is less concentration. I would also not run h2o2 in the res normally. I'd use it in extreme situations as it kills beneficial microbes. I'd also get some great white shark or whatever micorrhizae you prefer, but great white has a lot of different strains of beneficials. It will keep disease out to a degree. And it helps nutrient uptake. It's pretty neat when you add it to the res and let it run for a few days, your res starts smelling like a dank forest floor haha. It also turns skinny roots into really thick fat white ones and way more hairlike roots growing off the thick ones.

I don't know how to edit as I'm on my phone and im new. Change your res frequently to avoid disease and issues. I also wouldn't use bleach into a fresh water change because you already have Cl in the tap water and that will be fine until it bubbles out. But you'll be fine. Good luck!
 
Matthew_293 said:
Well I would just eyeball it and switch it out within a day like you said. I'm not sure of the reaction mechanism but I know the h2o2 dissociates or reacts and as time passes there is less concentration. I would also not run h2o2 in the res normally. I'd use it in extreme situations as it kills beneficial microbes. I'd also get some great white shark or whatever micorrhizae you prefer, but great white has a lot of different strains of beneficials. It will keep disease out to a degree. And it helps nutrient uptake. It's pretty neat when you add it to the res and let it run for a few days, your res starts smelling like a dank forest floor haha. It also turns skinny roots into really thick fat white ones and way more hairlike roots growing off the thick ones.
I don't know how to edit as I'm on my phone and im new. But I also wouldn't use bleach into a fresh water change because you already have Cl in the tap water and that will be fine until it bubbles out. But you'll be fine. Good luck!
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Thanks for the help! Everything has been going well up until this point :( They were growing fine until a week or so ago, it started dropping a couple leaves, I didn't think anything of it at the time until a few days later more dropped, and then a couple more. I checked the roots and noticed they were darker than normal. So I switched to 1/2 strength for 2 days and it didn't help any, so yesterday I switched back to full strength with 1/2 CalMag incase it was nutrient block but no results either. So just 10 minutes ago, I added 1/2 pint of 3% hydrogen peroxide to the reservoir (same one with the nutes in it) and going to let it circulate for a day. Tomorrow night I'll switch back to 3/4 strength nutrients for a week and let it recover. I will also add some Great White as you mentioned, hopefully that will clear everything up now and in the future.
 
I have a 600W Full Spectrum LED grow light getting here Thursday I am pretty excited about. This is my first time growing so I am pretty excited for these habaneros, my jalapeños are growing just fine so far even though they're only about 6 weeks old.
 
bvalente said:
Thanks for the advice, after some research I thought t might be something other than burn so I completely washed everything out and swapped the tubes and stuff to begin it back to normal. We will see within the next few days for improvement or if it gets more sick. Hopefully that's all it needed and it will go away How much of a 3% should I add to the 4 gallon reservoir and how long should I leave it in before I swap the nutrients out again
I added 1 cup (used google so I hope I'm right) to the nutrient solution and going to let it circulate for 24hrs. Then swap the nutrients again
Click to expand...
 
How to mix and apply Hydrogen Peroxide in Gardening - needs to be topped up daily, 1/2 the original amount added IIRC.
 
Some nutrients can stain roots a light orange/brown/red colour re:Maxi. Unsure on this particular brand.
 
 
How to mix and apply Hydrogen Peroxide in Gardening - needs to be topped up daily, 1/2 the original amount added IIRC.
 
Some nutrients can stain roots a light orange/brown/red colour re:Maxi. Unsure on this particular brand.


Thanks for the help!! I added a cup to the reservoir last night and going to check on them when I get home, if no ill effects, I'll add the rest of the pint to it and let it circulate longer.
 
I'm not a Hydro person but the spots on your leaves don't look like nutrient burn, they look like too close to the light burn to me. Like maybe they grew too close before you reset the light height. Speaking of burn, what is your ambient temperature? Flower and leaf drop is common if plants get above 85 degrees F for extended periods of time. Also, not uncommon for young plants to drop first round of flowers either.
You don't mention it but are the roots kept in complete darkness? Lot's of buckets and other containers are actually translucent, allowing some light through and will affect the roots coloration and uptake ability.
In any case, good luck with your growing.
 
I'm not a Hydro person but the spots on your leaves don't look like nutrient burn, they look like too close to the light burn to me. Like maybe they grew too close before you reset the light height. Speaking of burn, what is your ambient temperature? Flower and leaf drop is common if plants get above 85 degrees F for extended periods of time. Also, not uncommon for young plants to drop first round of flowers either.
You don't mention it but are the roots kept in complete darkness? Lot's of buckets and other containers are actually translucent, allowing some light through and will affect the roots coloration and uptake ability.
In any case, good luck with your growing.


Thanks for the input, the ambient temperature is in my basement and that ranges from 62-70 degrees. The plants are generally about 8 inches from the light but when my LED comes in, I will be placing them 18 inches from the canopy. I was suspecting possible heat damage so I have backed the light up. The bucket/basket and everything are all black or very dark gray, I put that into account when making it. No light is getting into the reservoir but still into account either nutrient burn from not measuring to an exact because I was getting comfortable measuring it out or possible something in the water. If either is the case, I added h2o2 to the water and flush the system out for 24hrs, backed the light up to 10" from the canopy, and put the new nutrients back to 3/4 strength for a week and then resume full strength.
 
You can't keep adding hydrogen peroxide to your solution everyday. If you do you will kill the microbes that you are trying to inoculate the roots with. But otherwise good luck
 
You can't keep adding hydrogen peroxide to your solution everyday. If you do you will kill the microbes that you are trying to inoculate the roots with. But otherwise good luck


For the new batch with microbes there is no h2o2
 
I did DWC for years without great results.  The plants would grow very big but the flowers would fall off and the leaves would end up falling off.
 
I think chilies should not be DWC, its hard to get enough oxygen for the plant, I had two air pumps running and that still didn't seem to be enough. I switched to a system more like NFT pumping water for 15mins every couple of hours and have had much better results.  Produced alot more chilies and the plant itself was much healthier and bigger!
 
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Those plants look great!! Do you have any tips to make one at home myself? My only issue now is some pH balancing quite a bit but adding the Great White hopefully will help the roots and the plant. I got them under a 600w LEDA now
 
my tip is to run water through expanded clay onto the roots once every hour or so.  Dont have the roots sitting in water.  Even two air pumps wasn't enough to keep it oxygenated enough for the plant to hold onto chilies.
 
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