My plants are making me depressed

[castaway]

Well I am having trouble sleeping and my days are blue. I have put so much time money and effort into growing and I am still coming up short just when I think things are good my plants take a drastic turn for the worst. Honestly its burning me out. Im hoping you guys can help.

I have 2 4x4 flood tubs w 25 gal reservoirs using botanicare pro grow, liquid karma, and zone root enchancer. I took my clones in 3 inch rockwool blocks and put the blocks in 4 gal of hydroton and placed a dripper over the block w clone. Im running 2 1000 watts w one mh bulb and one hps bulb. I put them in the buckets on the 11th of oct and started around 700-800 ppm. They seemed be doing good and put on some good growth for the first 8-11 days. I did a res change and bumped up ppm to 900-1000. I then did a foliar with the grow and karma and fulvic. Things got worse from here. So my purple kush started showing signs first. They started bleaching out leaving green veins and twisting foliage. Then rust colored spots began forming until the leaf is lost. Very purple stems. This same problem has now occured in my hindu skunk. So for the last 8-10 days they have really stunted and started bleaching. I have been watering more and bumped up to 1 per hour for 10 min. 4 days ago I flushed all the buckets with plain water. then I drip plain water ph 6 for 24 hours. I have added 100 ppm each day and Im at 600 ppm in the kush tub and 700 in the hindu tub. I thought they had a salt build up and were locking out but I dont know now.
So Im bummed and losing faith in my ability, no to mention losing money.
What do you guys think? What ppm are people running their systems at? Im just lost I have done everthing I can think of. The temps are good and the room is dialed. Here are some pics. Any advice from you guys would be greatly appreciated. here is my journal. www.420magazine.com/forums/journals-progress/129822-surf-zombies-hydroton-drip-bucket-system-2010-grow-journal.html

this one is from about 5 days ago, they are getting worse

 

[castaway]

Where you at people? What says the community? I cant sleep when I know my plants are dying.

 

[EdIsHigh]

What type of lights? And could you be a little more specific on your nute schedule?

 

[EdIsHigh]

Oh sorry just saw your lights. It's much easier to go uphill. What I mean by that is sometimes less is more. Slow down in all the nutes and supplements, trust me. If you have a cold taking a bunch of different medicine isn't going to really make the cold go away any faster. It has to flush out of your system. One thing is for sure. Water+Light equals photosynthesis. Try a 48 hour flush. Plain ph'd water. Also what are your temps and how high is the light over the plants?

 

[EdIsHigh]

 

[SnowBender]

i know you answered some of these, but its all needed for the best support.

How to Ask for Grow Support

It is VERY hard to help diagnose plant problems if we don't have all the required information.

REQUIRED INFORMATION FOR GROW SUPPORT

What Strain is it?
Is it Indica, Sativa or Hybrid? What percentages?
How Many Plants?
Is it in Vegetative or Flowering Stage?
If in Vegetative Stage... How Long?
If in Flowering Stage... How Long?
Indoor or Outdoor?
Soil or Hydro?
If Hydro, Reservoir size?
If Hydro, Reservoir Temperature?
If Hydro, what type of Medium?
If Hydro, what type of Setup?
If Soil... What is in your Mix?
If Soil... What Size Pot?
Size (Wattage) of Light? How Many?
Is it Air Cooled?
Temperature of Room/Cabinet?
RH of Room/Cabinet?
PH of Medium or Reservoir?
Any Pests?
How Often are you Watering?
Type and Strength of Fertilizers used?
Size or Square Footage of Room?

This information is necessary for accurate support to be given.

I also like to ask what the water's source is.

 

[burrr]

Perhaps all this started with the foliar feeding,??
drop the ph down to 5.8, ease back on the nutes, and raise the lights. I bet they will rebound.

 

[EdIsHigh]

Yeah my bad SnowBender. The guy just seemed in a sticky situation. Was just trying to get the basics down with him. It def looked like some type of overkill or mis-mixed nutes thats causing a block up.

 

[castaway]

2 1000 watts
2 4x4 flood tubs
2 45 gal reservoir's (for new system I use 20 gal per res)
9 Hindu Skunk Cuts 6 Purp Ku cuts and 5 Silver haze
20- 4 gallon buckets of hydroton
Using
- Botanicare Pure Blend Pro grow
- Botanicare Liquid Karma
- Botanicare Silica Blast
- Dutch Master Zone Root Conditioner
- GrowMore Sea Kelp extract Cold water pressed
I am using tap water coming in at 200 ppm Im using the dye drops for PH-ing
So should I do another 48 hour flush even though I have done one 5 days ago?
I was concerned they may be lacking now that they are only at 650 ppm which I reached over 5 days by adding 100ppm a day.
I could flush them all again tonight.
-So I pulled one of the really shitty looking PKs out of the hydroton and their was almost no roots coming out of the 3 inch clone cube.
Man I am bewildered, but trying to stay hopefull.
Thanks for all the feedback guys!

 

[EdIsHigh]

Well that above grow I had plants in the last week of veg at about 600-650ppm. When I flushed them out with water (my water is not RO but very low ppm naturally) I did it for 24 hours. Honestly they took off. Not like whoa but it was very noticeable in such a short time. Also, the smell they were emitting became richer. I only have a couple small grows under my belt but I dont think anyone would argue if you've tried everything else then just flush it out. It's like hitting the refresh page on the browser in some cases

 

[castaway]

Wow 650 HigherEd. I have been running much higher. Thats good to know. Im gonna flush them tonight and run shit real low. Cross my fingers and hope for the best. Is anyone a fan of foliar sprays, I know it can be the fastest way to get nutes to plant.

 

[burrr]

Make sure you get your ph down, the rockwool has a tendency to raise the ph at the roots. maybe leading to a cal deficiency do to ph. Maybe go for the mid 5's on ph.

your drip time/duration seems low? why not drip 24/7?

 

[castaway]

Thanks burr I was running them for 24 for a few days, and my friend said the same. Cant really overwater hydroton. I just have spaghetti line with T's to the pot right on the rockwool cube. Ill probably just run them 24 then.

 

[PhishyPhil]

just wanted to pop in and wish you good luck.

if the lights aren't burning the plant, then follow all the great advice you've been given, if it were me, i'd Flush, as to clean it out and recal the PH a bit lower, and maybe even go 1/2 str on nutes

 

[SnowBender]

sorry if i missed it....whats the drip schedule? how often, how long ?

 

[Gman]

pithviper has a great feeding schedule sec i look for it.whats up dudes? im within a WEEK of starting my first hydro grow (WOO HOO!! ) and i believe i have as much of this shit figured out as possible except for a solid ppm chart to work from, or at least a relatively "safe" guidline for each week so i dont wreck everything lol i will be using sensi 2part grow & bloom, big bud, and piranha definitely, and im still deciding on including calmag grow & bloom and/or final phase.

what ppm ranges do you guys stay within each week when starting with well rooted clones? (i will be vegging about 2-3 weeks before i top em and start flowering so if you can consider that it would help a lot )

thanks dudes
I start with 600 PPm for week 1
900 PPm for week 2
1200 PPm for week 3
if you go over 3 weeks veg
1500 PPM week 4
1800 PPM week 5 and hold there
at bloom I flush and go to 1000 PPM week1
1300 ppm week 2
1600 PPM week 3
1900 PPM week 4
flush weekly.....VERY IMPOTANT
and hold there until last 2 weeks and ad your bloom enhancers if your using them .
pretty sure thats it but it might be a copy of a copy.

 

[Tyrone Hamilton]

what ph are you running the plants at now? sorry if I missed it.

Have you considered R/O water? At least for a flush?

 

[burrr]

For me, 1100 ppm is max. Other people seem to use a much higher concentration. It all comes down to your strain and environment. I have high lumens, and low humidity. try to find the equilibrium for your plants, where the ppm stays the same or drops a little, and ph stays the same or rises.

 

[castaway]

Hey guys,
Heres the update. I did numerous flushes cut nutes to 400 ppm and made drip rings for all the pots. I found the rockwool block really soggy and the hydroton much dryer. So I tried to get the rings away from the rockwool and moved some pebbles back to expose the block to the air, in hopes it would dry out a bit. So on furhter inspection of some of the lost PK plants I noticed barely any roots leaving the block. I cracked the block open only to find root aphids living between the rooting plug and the 3 inch rockwool block. Ive seen them before so I no its them. I know these guys fuck shit up. So Im really bumming right now the plants are just stunted and chloratic and look really bummed. My buddy wants me to use poison in the pots as a liquid application, but the plants are so shocked and then add the poison and they may not be worth saving. Im thinking I may have to chalk up my second full loss in a row. Its a humbling experience. Take a look guys heres what Im working with.
My watering sched is 15 on 15 off - no water in dark cycle

 

[burrr]

sorry to hear about the bugs, I hope you find a way to get rid of them other than poison.
the plants look like they could rebound. Is it typical to turn off your drips during the dark cycle? Why not leave it dripping all the time?