Please Help! What's Wrong With My Babies?

[mellowmama]

07/21 Soaked seeds (Crystal Rain), germinated quickly, grew long tails overnight
07/23 Potted in rockwool, kept watered with distilled water, under T5 HO lights 18/6, 5-6 inches from lights
08/05 Roots showing through pots, moved to hydroponics, T5 lights HO 8/6, 5-6 inches from lights, 1/4 strength Technaflora Roots & Sugar Daddy

Seedlings seemed too light in color, a yellow-green, but no signs of stress at first. Thought it might just be the strain.

Then leaves turned yellow mostly in center, then tips turned mottled brown and curled up (the light brown mottling doesn't show up well in photo).

First few days in hydro the PH ran high at 6.8 or so, got it stabilized at 5.8 after few days.

TDS = 250 (used half distilled, half tap)
Water temp = 70
Air temp = 73
RH = 50%

Had small fan blowing on them, turned it off.

Noticed tiny white grains on top of rockwool that I've not seen before.

What??? Too soon for nutes of any kind? Too close to lights? Hungry?

 

[mellowmama]

Re: Please Help!! What's Wrong With My Babies??

Please somebody who knows what the heck they're doing!! Help!!

 

[209 Cali C.G]

Re: Please Help!! What's Wrong With My Babies??

and more nutes, there just a pale yellow?Last time I had plants like that they where not getting much nutes

 

[mellowmama]

Re: Please Help!! What's Wrong With My Babies??

Not just the pale color, it's hard to see in the pic but the leaf tips are a mottled brown and are curling upward.

Thanks.

 

[209 Cali C.G]

Re: Please Help!! What's Wrong With My Babies??

don't worry about the old leafs, just the new ones

 

[Fuzzy Duck]

Re: Please Help!! What's Wrong With My Babies??

More likely nitrogen defeciency causing the pale yellow/green colour the mottle brown leaf tips could be phosphorus.


A 1/4 strength nutrient solution will help pick them up or the alternative method of foliar feeding will prove to be benifical to plant health.

 

[mellowmama]

Re: Please Help!! What's Wrong With My Babies??

Thanks. Seems there is an art to how much nutes when with these babies. Hope I get the hang soon before my little darlings get hurt.

 

[mellowmama]

Got home last night and the damage was worse!! Pure panic!! This is just my second grow and the first one did so well!

What I did differently the second time:

Realizing that my TDS was high, I used about half distilled water and half tap, as I await arrival of the new RO system. I added teensy bit of Roots and Sugar Daddy. The part distilled water is the only change I can think of.

So, after reading everything I could find, I suspected perhaps a magnesium and/or nitrogen deficiency, and/or too close to the T5 HO bulbs. I had already moved the lights up about 4-5 inches before leaving for work. When I got home, I dosed the existing reservoir with 2 tsp Magical per gallon. YIKES! That raised the TDS to over 700!

So, this morning, I changed out the reservoir and dosed with 1/4 strength of my entire nute lineup for veg. TDS at 350, PH at 5.8, temps and RH fine. The fan is back on.

The girls don't look any better or worse at this point. I hope I can save them.

If anyone has any suggestions, please jump in!!

More photos, this time using the microscope. The plants are actually a paler green that the photos depict.

 

[Jimmycricket]

Hydro confuzzles me.

However you should trim off the dead necrotic parts of the leaves. Otherwise the plants energy will keep trying to repair the dead stuff rather then grow new stuff.