Help - My Plants Are Dying

[westmich]

God, I never thought I would have to post a message like this, but I am at a loss.

 

I have been growing my plants in a DIY hydro unit (check my galleries) with little or no problems since late last year. The hydro unit consists of two posts hooked to a shared reservoir with three plants on each side. The pump sprays water onto the roots and runs back into the reservoir.

 

About a month ago I had one of these going just fine three weeks into flower with three Afghan on one side and three OG Kush on the other. The Afghan in the back started to die. It simply looked like it was wilting. If it were in dirt you would think it was way overdue for a drink of water. No spots or discolorations or bugs or anything that I can see from the outside. I checked to make sure the sprayer wasn't clogged or something. I ended up dumping and flushing the whole system with no avail. The plant just kept wilting until it was dead. I pulled it from the unit and figured that was the end. Instead, a few days later, the Afghan at the front of the post began the same wilting and dying. Not the plant next to it, but at the other end of the post. Within a week, that plant was dead and the middle one was dying and within a few days it was dead. All the Afghan dead on one side and the OG on the other side are still growing strong.

 

That was a couple of weeks ago and now I got another Afghan dying. It is in a different unit in a different room with at least a month or more separating when the clones were taken. Just one out of the six, but if it is starting the whole process again and I loss all six plants, me and my patients will be screwed.

 

The only other thing I can think of is that the Afghan is a clone of a clone of a clone... I have been running it for a year and I am not sure how long it was run before that. I have heard clones can sputter out, but I have also heard that was a wives-tale.

[affordablemimeds]

Have you ever heard of the late season blight. Hits plants in flower, not just mari plants, but your entire vegtable, tomatoes etc. it is sorta selective on which its kills. I read an article not too long ago that this would be a big problem this year with the heat and humidity.

Might want to get more info on this.

[herb green]

Can you get em into some dirt ???

 

ORGANICS FOR BEGINNERS-BURN ONE

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=53792

 

Go organic dude!

 

Just put em in some fox farm regular and use that as a base check the burn one bongaloid guano recipe for amendents and just add water... forget about ph and kick back for the rest of the summer

 

Peace!

 

~HG

[dank.Frank]

Heya....what I am seeing in them is they look over watered. Or simply like there is too much humidity in the room....

 

Your leaves aren't burning....and they aren't underfed, so it can not be a nutrient issue. They really just look to wet...

 

Clone of a clone of a clone...should not matter as long as each time you take a cut, you are doing so from a very healthy plant. And even then the clone cannot digress. Not really. What you are speaking of is called "epigenetic drift". Meaning the plant "changes" due to an environmental condition present over a given period of time. While you plant is going to start growing differently, it is only b/c of the environment it has been exposed to. It is allowing the gene traits that will thrive best under such conditions to be expressed. THIS IS NOT PERMANENT. No actual change has been made on the molecular level, so the plant is still technically EXACTLY the same. You just have to put her in absolutely perfect conditions for a period of time that allows the proper gene expressions to be present once again. Clone of a clone of a clone...does not matter, as long as you keep your plants healthy...and even one that wains a bit...should by all means be able to be conditioned back to its true self.

 

Truly an amazing plant we grow...

 

 

 

dank.Frank

[LongHairBri]

Heya....what I am seeing in them is they look over watered. Or simply like there is too much humidity in the room....

 

Your leaves aren't burning....and they aren't underfed, so it can not be a nutrient issue. They really just look to wet...

 

Clone of a clone of a clone...should not matter as long as each time you take a cut, you are doing so from a very healthy plant. And even then the clone cannot digress. Not really. What you are speaking of is called "epigenetic drift". Meaning the plant "changes" due to an environmental condition present over a given period of time. While you plant is going to start growing differently, it is only b/c of the environment it has been exposed to. It is allowing the gene traits that will thrive best under such conditions to be expressed. THIS IS NOT PERMANENT. No actual change has been made on the molecular level, so the plant is still technically EXACTLY the same. You just have to put her in absolutely perfect conditions for a period of time that allows the proper gene expressions to be present once again. Clone of a clone of a clone...does not matter, as long as you keep your plants healthy...and even one that wains a bit...should by all means be able to be conditioned back to its true self.

 

Truly an amazing plant we grow...

 

 

 

dank.Frank

 

agreed. looks like over more than under watering. I don't see leaves dropping off or any yellowing. ferts look good, no burnt tips. thats why I don't like that type of system. VERY TOUCHY and plants can out grow the system quickly. you could put an air stone in feeding trough under each plant station, the aeration will help. my guess is the roots are drowning

[Jipo]

Can you get em into some dirt ???

 

ORGANICS FOR BEGINNERS-BURN ONE

http://www.icmag.com...ead.php?t=53792

 

Go organic dude!

 

Just put em in some fox farm regular and use that as a base check the burn one bongaloid guano recipe for amendents and just add water... forget about ph and kick back for the rest of the summer

 

Peace!

 

~HG

 

Dirt won't fix this, it has nothing to do with the medium. If he transplanted right now he would probably make the situation much worse due to additional stress on the plant.

 

Heya....what I am seeing in them is they look over watered. Or simply like there is too much humidity in the room....

 

Your leaves aren't burning....and they aren't underfed, so it can not be a nutrient issue. They really just look to wet...

 

Clone of a clone of a clone...should not matter as long as each time you take a cut, you are doing so from a very healthy plant. And even then the clone cannot digress. Not really. What you are speaking of is called "epigenetic drift". Meaning the plant "changes" due to an environmental condition present over a given period of time. While you plant is going to start growing differently, it is only b/c of the environment it has been exposed to. It is allowing the gene traits that will thrive best under such conditions to be expressed. THIS IS NOT PERMANENT. No actual change has been made on the molecular level, so the plant is still technically EXACTLY the same. You just have to put her in absolutely perfect conditions for a period of time that allows the proper gene expressions to be present once again. Clone of a clone of a clone...does not matter, as long as you keep your plants healthy...and even one that wains a bit...should by all means be able to be conditioned back to its true self.

 

Truly an amazing plant we grow...

 

 

 

dank.Frank

 

Dank you're spot on. Glad to see some more knowledge on the board. Welcome!

[boroboro]

Is your water temp OK?

 

How do the roots look?

 

How much water stays in the rails / tubes? Systems I've seen like this have a tilt to the rails so that water runs out quickly back to the res.

[kenzie1051]

What kind of cycle if any do you have your pumps on? ive personally never done aeroponics and i used to think the misters were supposed to run 24/7 but i see that people who've been using that kind of set up for a long time run there pumps on a cycle timer like 1 minute on 3 minutes off... or something of that nature.. so the roots can have a minute to breath.

 

Hope you figure it out, nothing sucks more then not knowing where you went wrong. once you figure it out though you'll never let yourself have the same problem and you'll have learned a valuable lesson. problems are wonderful learning experiences.

 

Good luck

[westmich]

Thanks for the feedback. I am attributing it to a couple of factors for now and doing my best to rectify the situation and keeping my fingers crossed it doesn't happen again.

 

The first is a stressful environment. 1) It is getting too hot in my grow space (mid 80's), 2) I have been lax in my daily duties and routine flushing, 3) I was running the veg plants without a timer (which had been working since the Winter months). I picked up a new A/C unit and bigger vent fan for the lights in the flower room and a "cooler" for the veg room. Just need to stay on top of my daily Ph/PPM/plant inspections and flush the solution more often.

 

The second factor is that I added ZHO, a new root inuculant from Botanicare, within a few days prior to this happening. I am not saying that did it for sure so (please don't sue me), but it is only the three units I added it to had these problems and it was within a week or less of adding it that I noticed it. I was thinking of adding peroxide to the solution in a flush, but I wasn't sure if that would be best. I have throughly flushed with water and added new nutrient solution for now.

[westmich]

Can you get em into some dirt ???

 

ORGANICS FOR BEGINNERS-BURN ONE

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=53792

 

Go organic dude!

 

Just put em in some fox farm regular and use that as a base check the burn one bongaloid guano recipe for amendents and just add water... forget about ph and kick back for the rest of the summer

 

Peace!

 

~HG

 

1) No, I can't put everything into dirt. I have several sets of plants at different stages in the veg/flower cycle. It would be a huge setback and guarenteed loss of some plants getting pulled out of the hydro and into dirt.

 

2) What makes you think I am not organic? Soil vs hydro and organic vs non-organic are two completly separate things. You can grow in soil and not be organic and you can grow in hydro and be completly organic or vice versa. Or are you suggesting the plastic is imparting some sort of voodoo into the plant in the same way the Amish don't believe in using a steel plow?

 

3) I have grown in dirt with over-priced, hydro store bought soil and the cheap stuff from Menards. I have also grown in a variety of hydro setups. Hands-down, active hydro systems are superior in every measurable way to soil. If I switched over to pricey bag soil, my plant count would go up, labor would go up, expenses would go, and yield would go down. My price to my patients would have to go up in order to provide the same level of service. This isn't a theory, I have worked it both ways.

[westmich]

P.S. Herb

 

I clicked on your link and the article gives you two receipeis for SOIL-LESS mixes. If that is what you are running then I say welcome to the world of hydro, my friend. Take it one step further and go with an active system.

[TheGanz]

how are the plants?

[noctuanlreef]

i'm late to chime in but it seems like you are running areoponics.. have you been checking your nozzels... i know people were saying overwatering but that looked like under to me.. generally happens in aeroponic systems if you don't check nozzels every few days. 2 of the 4 nozzels will clog and one side will dry out ... unless you are running 24/7 watering its hard to over water aeroponics.

[noctuanlreef]

if you use a timer that has a 15 min settings turn the pumps on 15 of 30-45 ..... if you are flooding it a good rule of thumb is flood 6 times a day in short 15-30min burst.

[budpuffer]

something you can do right now that i don't think would hurt is add some super thrive.i use it all the time and i've never had a problem with my plants,its supposed to help sick plants and couldn't hurt...i hope it clears up for you...zb

[drtarzanmd]

i'm late to chime in but it seems like you are running areoponics.. have you been checking your nozzels... i know people were saying overwatering but that looked like under to me.. generally happens in aeroponic systems if you don't check nozzels every few days. 2 of the 4 nozzels will clog and one side will dry out ... unless you are running 24/7 watering its hard to over water aeroponics.

 

Thats what I'm thinking Too...

 

I just had to go through that ...

 

My room got 100 degrees

and what I'm looking at is your plants got too Hot...

They look like the same thing ?

 

I could be wrong , but that what i think ....

I flush mine for 3 days straight and they came back to Life ...

[westmich]

Well, I ended up losing about half my plants which really, really sucks. It also sucks because I was in the process of trying to launch some of my hydro equipment for other patients and caregivers. It's a hard sell to make when you have dying plants.

 

The problem boils down to root rot. 1) It has been way too hot. This allowed the nutrient water to heat up to 80 degrees or hotter and stay there. 2) I had a timer that was stuck on providing no "air gaps" where the roots can breath. 3) I added a root inoculate just prior to all of this happening.

 

I dropped about $400 on A/C and I may end up buying a water chiller. I will rebuild and come back that much stronger. Thanks for the help.

[budpuffer]

i had a case of root rot on an outside grow years ago,i found out too late that you can treat it with hydrogen peroxide,just something to keep in mind if it should happen again,,i don't know if it'd work with hydro sys...sorry you lost your plants,but at least you got a handle on it....zb