rogue tap root

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
I got ambitious a couple of days ago and put a tray under the one with the most nutrient burn so I could collect some runoff. PH was ~5.9, not much different from the water. But PPM was over 3500 (I know).

When the lights came on tonight I took it outside and sat it on an inverted bucket, then got the hose and ran water through it for close to 15 minutes. When it was over the run off PPM was still over 900, so I flushed it for another 10 minutes and got it down to 600.

If it recovers over the weekend, I think I will do the same with the other plants, since they were on the same feeding schedule. It seems happier to me, even though it's only been a few hours. Vodka at dinner really tunes you in to plant feelings, especially when you have three of them (vodka shots, not plants) : )
 
So far, so good. It wasn't even drooping this morning. The light had just gone off when I went out for a look, so I just glanced at it and zipped up the tent.

Here is the sick runt that started this thread. It developed some nitrogen burn when I re-potted it in Happy Frog. It gets nothing but water from me, and has been problem free until now. It's at least something I know how to address. I'm determined to keep this thing alive until harvest time.

emaup.jpg
 
This is the little runt I allowed to stay in the tent as long as she behaves. I couldn’t bear to leave the little thing out of the tent. Even tho it’s in the tiniest pot maybe a one gallon or smaller, and her leaves are ugly and have been her whole life so far and she doesn’t seem to thirsty and gets no special attention except a daily check for herming she still has quite a little stack of bloom on her and this bloom smells much stronger than the rest in the tent for some reason. I just happened to be all up in her business checking really close when I discovered this…my clones are starting their 5th wee of flower View attachment 293289
I ended up taking her out of he tent and chopping her up in a salad as I was afraid she was taking on to much stress and it was causing me stress checking her twice a day for balls.
 
I guess I should have started this thread in the grow journal forum. I didn't think at the time I would be posting much. Now every time a fly lands on a leaf I want to take a picture and post it! Might as well keep it all in one thread, though.

My GSC's spread out more than I anticipated. Changing the nutes today was a real challenge. I hope I can simplify that process before the next grow. I've already given up on pruning for the day. They will get a more thorough Easter trimming.

jungle.jpg
 
I ended up taking her out of he tent and chopping her up in a salad as I was afraid she was taking on to much stress and it was causing me stress checking her twice a day for balls.
I would have done the same if my wife didn't want me to keep it. It's still the first plant I check in the morning, like it's a sick child.
 
Believe it or not, I got a trash bag full of trimmings from this mess yesterday. Looks like a scene from Predator. I have to stick my face in the foilage just to check the water level. Have to fix that on the next grow.

A hand full of leaves showing calcium deficiency or "PH fluctuations". No idea why. The PH barely moves from the 5.8 I get just by adding nutes, and I'm using double the cal-mag recommended.

jungle2.jpg
 
Then there is this little one. Same seeds, same nutes, same light, everything. But it's 1/4 the size of its sisters. Early on I was swapping positions in the DWC to try to keep them all the same, swapping positions with the smallest and biggest plants, etc. This one just crouches in the corner and hardly grows at all. It's roots are much larger than any of the others, though. Go figure.

jungle3.jpg
 
Oh yeah, this is from my mother plant. Maybe one leaf in 25 looks like this. I know, more cal-mag, but I already give everything double the recommended amount. I'm starting to suspect there is another reason for calcium deficiency that has nothing to do with nutrient level. Thinking I will start giving it water at PH 6.5 for a while to see if that corrects the problem. The 5.8 I usually adjust to is not so good for calcium uptake.

calmag.jpg
 
I don’t know much about DWC growing but could it be a problem with the roots due to temperature or oxygenation of the root zone? If your reservoir feeds other plants without similar issues, temperature is probably not the issue. A larger plant would likely have a larger root ball and need more oxygen I would think. Clogged air stones maybe? If the roots were healthy and taking up nutrients well, doubling the concentration of nutrients should give you signs of nutrient toxicity. Again, I don’t know much about DWC. Just trying to spitball some ideas.
 
I don’t know much about DWC growing but could it be a problem with the roots due to temperature or oxygenation of the root zone? If your reservoir feeds other plants without similar issues, temperature is probably not the issue. A larger plant would likely have a larger root ball and need more oxygen I would think. Clogged air stones maybe? If the roots were healthy and taking up nutrients well, doubling the concentration of nutrients should give you signs of nutrient toxicity. Again, I don’t know much about DWC. Just trying to spitball some ideas.

That one leaf is from a mother plant growing in Happy Frog. I cut them off and it looks fine for a couple of weeks, then they show up again.

Good idea on the air stones, though. I used cheap ones, and I haven't checked them since the DWC bin became a jungle on top. The roots are all tied together making it difficult to raise the baskets very high, but maybe I can raise the lid up enough to take a look. I keep getting a couple of leaves per plant showing some calcium deficiency, even though I have extra cal-mag in there. Not sure if lack of air would cause the same thing, but it's worth checking.

Reservoir temperature is kept constant at 66 degrees. So if it's a reservoir problem it has to be air flow.
 
That one leaf is from a mother plant growing in Happy Frog. I cut them off and it looks fine for a couple of weeks, then they show up again.

Good idea on the air stones, though. I used cheap ones, and I haven't checked them since the DWC bin became a jungle on top. The roots are all tied together making it difficult to raise the baskets very high, but maybe I can raise the lid up enough to take a look. I keep getting a couple of leaves per plant showing some calcium deficiency, even though I have extra cal-mag in there. Not sure if lack of air would cause the same thing, but it's worth checking.

Reservoir temperature is kept constant at 66 degrees. So if it's a reservoir problem it has to be air flow.
That’s what I figured since it sounds like you are running other containers and they are not seeing the same issue. Could the root ball have encased the air stones maybe? I know roots grow towards water in soil and can ruin sewer pipes but maybe in hydroponics, roots seek our oxygen. Again, no experience in DWC but I used to troubleshoot complex systems where I had to look at the system as a whole and figure out what module was causing problems. Hopefully you get to the bottom of it. That is a MILG(mother I’d like to grow)….
 
That’s what I figured since it sounds like you are running other containers and they are not seeing the same issue. Could the root ball have encased the air stones maybe? I know roots grow towards water in soil and can ruin sewer pipes but maybe in hydroponics, roots seek our oxygen. Again, no experience in DWC but I used to troubleshoot complex systems where I had to look at the system as a whole and figure out what module was causing problems. Hopefully you get to the bottom of it. That is a MILG(mother I’d like to grow)….
I do need to pry up the top and take a look at those stones. I can always stick another set of air hoses it if the roots have kidnapped the others. From what I can see through the access port I use to change the water, the roots are pretty massive and tangled with one another.
 
It's definitely nothing to do with the air stones. There are 8 stones and all seem to be working well. The dark areas of the roots are just shadow where the flashlight isn't hitting. They are all very white and healthy looking. Wonder if they would make good spaghetti : )

airstones.jpg
 
  • Love
Reactions: boo
Update on my runt. From march 19 to today here's the transition...

March 19
dead2-jpg.290813


April 21
powerrunt.jpg


It was a lot of work for the tiny buds I'm probably going to get, but it did survive to flower. Next time I will take everyone's advise and toss it before I show it to my wife!
 
I wish I had kept track of what strains I was growing. I just had so many seedling die on me early on I stopped paying much attention to what seed went where. Now these two can be Alien OG, Blueberry or White Widow.

harvest3.jpg


I have one I know is a blueberry, and these look nothing like it, so I'm guessing the larger one is the Alien OG and the smaller one White Widow. I have some still in flower I know are Alien OG, and the taller one looks just like them. So the smaller on must be a White Widow. I did flip it pretty young.

I wouldn't really care, except the male I thought was a White Widow was really an Alien OG, and it pollinated the little one. I have 28 mature seeds from it. I think I'll call them Alien Widow seeds for now. I want to grow a couple just to see how they do, but won't make any more seeds without knowing exactly what they are. Oh Well...

From now on, tags for every plant!
 

Latest posts

Back
Top