DWC major issues, someone please help me salvage this baby

Sick Plants & Problems
#1

I’m at day 21 flower. I have had this kind of issue almost all troughout the veg til today and i am out of ideas what to do.

Current settings:

*Ph 5.5 (Ph keeps going down fast even after multiple tries to pump it to 6.5). Prior to this week I was using 50/50 tap water / RO with added epsom salt and then the PH was more stable @ 6-6.5 range. This week took out epsom salt to test if it made a difference. Not really.

*Ppm 880

*Temps 24C

*Humidity 50%

*Using MegaCrop with some added epsom salt.

*Using LED-s and DWC

*Base water 50/50% RO/Tap that comes to 100ppm (my tap water is 200ppm)

What i have tried so far:

*Using different nutrients

*Increasing Calcium with Canna Mono Ca

*Increasing Magnesium with epson salt

*Increasing both Calcium and Magnesium with AN Calmag

*Foliar feeding with AN Calmag

*Foliar feeding with epson salt.

*Lower ppm (gradually building it up)

*Higher ppm

*Flushing

*Using tap water as a base(200ppm)

*Using RO water for base(0ppm)

Just 2 days ago bought a more powerful air pump because seems like roots problem. So far it has not made a big difference.

Current theory:

Maybe this strain is very sensible to nutes and this is just nute burn? The strain is Matterhorn CBG and it is known to be unstable genetics. Should I try flush it for 24 hours then put 500-600ppm? Few weeks ago we did a flush and it stopped the spotting but it started to get worse again in 3-4 days after resuming to 600-700ppm.

Does anyone have any other ideas what should i do or try. When i first noticed this kind of problem at the early stages of the veg i though it could be magnesium or calcium issue so i started experimenting with both them, but i havnt made anything better, sometimes maybe even worse. Could my water just contain something bad? I noticed my water filters are really old and I am replacing them today. Could this be the root of the issue or not likely?

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#2

What do your roots look like? roots go plant goes is my belief. Sounds like you’ve done a lot and sometimes we just need to give the plant some time to recover.

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#3

:thinking: The leaves do look like calcium deficiency…

To second Hydro-420, what do your roots look like? Are you running a sterile res? What are you using at what dosage to sterilize? if not are you using beneficial bacteria? Basically, If the roots are brown and smell bad, that’d be your issue for sure. If they have a spicy smell you’re likely good there.

If the roots are good, what are your ppm’s doing daily? Going down? Going up? If they’re going up and the PH is going down, its either too hot for the plant or its totally out of balance, regardless, she’s not eating. If they’re going down WITH the PH dropping, she’s at least eating.

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#4

OP, if your PH is going down, and your PPM is Going Up … this means your nutrient solution is too strong for your plants.

…you do not need to flush. Just adjust the ppm to 450-550 range and let them adjust.

Also set PH to 5.8 and keep it there. (It may go up slowly which is good, or it may stay stable which is perfect.)

Your pictures won’t load, so I’m answering with the text only… try uploading your pics directly to the forum. :slight_smile:

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#5

Hello @VLRevolution, welcome to the site.

For me Megacrop (v2) isn’t very PH stable, I have to adjust PH every watering. It always needs a bit of extra calmag and/or epsom under LEDs. 6.5 is too high for DWC.

Yes the leaves look funky and they wont get better, but the buds are building ok so don’t stress, the plant isn’t dying. You should still get a nice harvest.

I would try to pick one strategy and try to stick with it until harvest. Changing too many variables too fast or over reacting will always lead to problems.

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#6

Im gonna guess its too much salt build up are you using a flushing agent? If not then the salt will still be on the roots keeping them from feeding. Also is there amy kind of mucus or browning on the roots? If so dont use chemicals to fix once you add peroxide you have to keep adring wvery day as it kills good with bad bacteria, bacilus will eat any Pythium and make your roots beautiful white with a sheen. Also ive seen this happen from people trying to figure out the problem and making too many changes without giving it time to show if you managed the problem. Also i would get away from any all on one feeding as it will make specific nutrient adjustments impossible since toxicity of one could show up as a deficiency in another through cohesion lockout here is a chart that shows it
resourcesmulders-chart~2
In dwc we cant really get away from salt based fert but we can try and keep salt levels low
Good luck and much love in the garden

#7

Just looked up mega crop and it has far too much potash for cannabis bro and as the chart shows potash will cal and mag and vice versa. I think its your fert choice brotha

#8

? Megacrop works just fine, if anything, it has a bit too much nitrogen for flower but not heard of too much potash… Then there’s threads like this and others where many have had good luck with it.

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#9

Ive seen plenty of success with it… In soil. In dwc if you dont drasticly lower the amount of nutes it causes major ph swings. Do a quick search and youll find that this happens quite a bit. More often then not the problem with ph stability is fixed by changing fert brands. Not saying im absolutly right by all means. Im just trying to give him suggestions on a path forward instead of trying to discredit others. Also that thread is moderated by the company that makes it so i dont really find it too credible.

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#10

I can get behind those statements. I’ve only used it sparingly in DWC myself and while it worked completely fine, the ph does swing a bit. I prefer maxibloom, or the MC 2-Part or jacks.

I was just wanting to clarify your statement ^^

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#11

Lol all good dude. I get a lil overzealous sometimes and word things bad. Ive gone through soooooo many various nutes and i never really noticed a differance in quality of buds. Usually its stuff like this thread so i just stay with the tried and true gh for dwc since its cheap and effective. With soil NO absolutely NO salts pure organic and youll have amazing tasting buds. Just my experience. And i run both simultaneously in both flower tents to do comparative experiments under exact conditions. Usually one in each of each strain to know which flowers better under which circumstances.

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#12

Loose the Dwc and switch to organic flood and drain, nft or simple organic soil. Hydro produces sub par herb, the biggest and best buds always are organic, plus organic is idiot proof.

#13

I recommend botanicare nutrients. They produce a quality product with utmost ease.

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#14

I love organic buds. Dwc gets a bad rap cause most people are sub par growers it takes alot of attention to detail but done right can produce buds that are top notch and delicious. Most try to flush like soil… Bad. Also most like to save money and use peroxide or god forbid bleach for root issues… Way bad. Soil is pretty idiot proof. But if you dont wanna put in the effort the best organics wont help your crop.

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#15

Hydroguard is amazing… Complete root control

#16

Have you used their sweets line… Ive heard conflicting things about it

#17

heh, hydroguard gives me instant root rot, literally overnight. Roots covered in snotty slime. Wasted half a bottle over two months and never got anywhere. I have to run sterile with my tap water. Pure Calcium Hypochlorite, got a whole bottle off amazon for like $10, enough to run DWC for the next like 40 years. No root issues after that.

I also believe you can get just as good of herb from dwc as you can in soil, it just needs a lot of work and attention. I prefer my DWC herb 99% of the time. Soil gives a slightly more complex smell/flavor but nothing major imo, it’s just waaaaay easier/less time consuming.

I was spending a solid hour every. single. day. in flower while i was doing DWC. Organic Soil I can go away for like a week at a time and its fine. Just struggling on when to amend the soil, and with what, as a 3 gallon pot of super soil is throwing deficiencies for me after ~1.5months.

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#18

Hydroguard has done wonders for me but its sparing 1/3 reg dose without any probs even when my water temps get to +90°… Id like to try that calcium hypochlorite ill look into it. And yes time consuming, im a hermit that loves to play in my garden so i usually spend a few hrs with them everyday anyway even with my soil.

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#19

I tried some super soil but wasnt really impressed with it. Woth soil i prefer some good ol organic amendments and add organic ferts as needed.
Ive heard that adding just a lil loam layer a few centimeters thick in between your roots and up pot soil helps with nute burn on transplant but half way through sounds like you may have hit a concentrated spot part way through the soil. Maybe try to mix a lil loam into your next go as a trial idk lol grain of salt and all that jazz.
Good luck and much love in the garden

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#20

We swapped out the dirty filter in the water line and this changes ppm of our tap water from 200>160.

Our plan of action is now:
We did a Foliar spray (3ml/1L) AN Sensi Cal-Mag) just before lights went out today.

We also did a res change and are currently flushing for the next 12 hours with 160 tap water PHed to 5.9 (altogether 180ppm).
Then tomorrow when lights come on we are going to do a res change with the following paramterers:
we take our 160 ppm tap water and add cal-mag until 250ppm. Then add another 350ppm worth of mega crop 1 part. This brings the total to 600ppm. PH to 5.8. We are making this solution tonight and let it sit overnight.

Fingers crossed that it will bounce back now! I will keep you guys updated.

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