Issue with strawberry nuggets. 2nd attempt still a runt.

[c@b420]

Won these with all of the new releases in a grower of the year contest, and was very excited to try them out(strawberry in particular).
In my 1st attempt,she ended up being a runt only measuring 2 inches by the 6th week and starting to flower(Smelled Wonderful btw). Needless to say we pulled her, an orange diesel, and one of the creme bubblys out due to it not being worth the time, trouble, and energy just to get so little, as they were all runts and not worth keeping except for one creme bubbly.
We did some troubleshooting to try to understand why this happened.
We knew we werent overfeeding or underfeeding. Ppm and ph was constantly monitored and on point.
We came to the conclusion it was possibly too hot and too much light was stunting them. It was getting to almost 95+° in our closet. Our light system is: 2-3500k autocobs, 2- 300 watt platinum leds, and 1- 300 watt Mars led in the middle. We also usually just leave our lights up high and don't lower them much. Just for quick reference our nutrients are the GH line, with silica blast, and hydroguard. We run a dwc and the roots looked alright.
After pulling them and wasting a whole run we tried yet again to do another orange diesel, strawberry nuggets, and a white crack. This time we only have on the 2 autocobs and the Mars led on in the middle. Temp has been way better in the 79- 83ish range and humidity is usually around 50-55%. We noticed orange diesel and white crack are doing great, and really starting to take off. As for strawberry... not so much, and I'm afraid we are running into this issue yet again.
So my questions are:
is there something we are doing wrong on our part? Bad genetics? Bad luck or seeds?
I love mephisto and have a ton of their gear, but this has happened before with a double grape. It kind of sucks because we're damn near out of meds from our last run.
We started them right in the buckets this time, after soaking them in a shot glass and seeing tap roots start,(which I feel helped some) as opposed to starting them in an incubator.

Strawberry measures only around 3 1/2 inches and looks like she's possibly kicking into flower. I'm probably only going to give her one more week to see if she makes any moves. If not,she's getting pulled for the 2nd time in a row, which definitely sucks and kinda pisses me off. I should also mention that it took about 10 days for her roots to hit the res and once they did, they kind just stayed close to and circled around the bottom of the basket as if they were root bound almost? They aren't IN the water per say, if that makes sense? I've never had this happen before either. They are all a month old as of this past Saturday and we weren't gonna flip them until they pretty much stop stretching or reached around 2 feet if possible.
So in closing, is there anything we can do differently to avoid this? Or could it be just bad seeds? Keep in mind these are tester seeds. This is not our first rodeo and we have a few years of experience under our belts. We are just stumped.... and bummed out over this.
Thanks everyone.
(Here are some pictures to give everyone a clue what we're working with)(in order: lights, orange diesel, white crack, and the last 3 pics are the strawberry runt)

if nature is illegal, freedom doesnt exist..

 

[STILLSMOKIN]

Something has to be way off. Not being mean but none of them look good. Are you getting enough fresh air? What are you running ph and ppm wise and how much of each one? Are you changing solution or addding to it as you run? how much of each are you using? Always add any silica and hydrogaurd or anything without real nutes, then check ppm. Always subtract that number because its not that useful to plant. Then check ppm after adding nutes.

 

[STILLSMOKIN]

Also if using rockwool loosen plug real good before adding seed. Speeds up growth drastically

 

[c@b420]

Something has to be way off. Not being mean but none of them look good. Are you getting enough fresh air? What are you running ph and ppm wise and how much of each one? Are you changing solution or addding to it as you run? how much of each are you using? Always add any silica and hydrogaurd or anything without real nutes, then check ppm. Always subtract that number because its not that useful to plant. Then check ppm after adding nutes.

Lol, I didn't take offense, but i do definitely, and respectfully disagree about "none of them looking good" aside from strawberry, which is really the focus of this thread and my only concern.. I should also mention the lights just flipped back on when I took these pics, hence the droopiness that is seen.
I have a fan blowing fresh air in from outside the closet, one on the ground, two clipped to the walls, and a scrubber that is on low at this point.
Strawberry has a ppm of around 175 and a pH of 5.8. It (The ph) would drift up while the ppm has been pretty steady. So I add ph down to make it 5.8 again.
I've only changed the solution when something seems way off or when in transition from veg to bloom. I don't religiously do it every week, and feel it's not always a necessity. I should also mention the res temperature is around 75° F consistently.
I add the silica and hydroguard before adding any nutes and only use around a quarter strength of nutes, only bumping it up gradually when everything is sailing along.
You're right about subtraction of the silica and hydroguard before nutes, and i will admit that's something I don't really do.
I use rapid rooters and not rockwool.

if nature is illegal, freedom doesnt exist..

 

[c@b420]

Testing...testing...is this thing on? Haha

if nature is illegal, freedom doesnt exist..

 

[Waira]

-- well, I'm not a hydro guy, so maybe @MedGrower can find something off,... My first suspicion is nutes, and if they are still in good condition,.. considering you say you have a few years of hydro under your belt, then the basics of do's/don't's are covered,... That said, 125ppm does seem rather weak from what I gather from my hydro-guru's; 75F is on the high side of res' temp range, isn't it? ...... what brand nutes?...... Rapid rooters,... I see fair amount of negative feedback from them, while other swear by then,.. I do know there have been bad batches that brought peep's here!
Point is, there's a common linking problem to the results and symptoms, and it isn't bad seeds when it affects multiple strains the same way,....

 

[c@b420]

Finally gave these a shot again after putting them off after this last attempt. I'll say, so far so good this time around. The environment is dialed in consistently, leaves are being tucked in so the shoots can make their way out to the light, and fingers are crossed...

if nature is illegal, freedom doesnt exist..

 

[davisgirl]

Have a look at the GH feeding schedule. 125 ppm is way too low or a typo.

I run my ladies at 1000+ ppm by maturity and no burnt tips.

 

[Nefarious]

Not sure how it works in DWC but by around day 15 I was feeding my strawberry nuggets around 400 ppm in Coco. Running GH trio and Botanicare calmag. See pics she looked very healthy.

Your stem looks really thin too. My SN's short n fat and pain in the ass to LST leaf tuck better. I found her growth slowed when RH was too low so added humidifier and she's been growing fast since then. Temps around 25-27 and RH 50-65. Using 140w draw led around 24" away. Any closer and the leaves start to go funny.

Here she was 15 day ish

 

[davisgirl]

Not sure how it works in DWC but by around day 15 I was feeding my strawberry nuggets around 400 ppm in Coco. Running GH trio and Botanicare calmag. See pics she looked very healthy.

Your stem looks really thin too. My SN's short n fat and pain in the ass to LST leaf tuck better. I found her growth slowed when RH was too low so added humidifier and she's been growing fast since then. Temps around 25-27 and RH 50-65. Using 140w draw led around 24" away. Any closer and the leaves start to go funny.

Here she was 15 day ish

She looks great. How are you dosing the calmag right now — half strength or what?