Grow Mediums Post Apocalyptic Grow Journal SYGAVLED 600W LED TEST

[Jimmy Joe James]

Sooo new mysterious problem. Two of the 4 plants are slowly dying and idk what do to. Today I checked the ppm and EC ppm at 1200 and EC at 2.4 the plants were drooping badly. Did a rez change lower the nutrient dose to 550ppm about 1.1 EC. PH to 5.8. 1 hour later EC back at 2.4. Did another rez change cleaned the buckets sterilized them waited for them to dry, did a new fresh batch of nutrients did the same thing. 1 hour later back at 2.4 EC I have done 4 rez changes today alone and after an hour or 2 no matter if it's 400ppm 500pmm 600ppm. those 2 plants will EC back to 2.4 in an hour or 2. The look like they're drooping and there's nothing I can do. Did one final rez and put the nutrients exactly how they were a week ago. So far the PPM's are rising again little by little. I'm stumped.

The wierdest part the PH fluctuates very little. It stays in the same 5.8-6.0 range

 

[Boradan]

This is above my pay grade.
Perhaps the Guru @Waira can throw some light on this.

And can you post some pics (including close-ups) of the affected plants?

PICS WITHOUT THE LEDS ON

 

[Boradan]

@Mañ'O'Green

 

[Jimmy Joe James]

Well did my final rez change but the PH meter died in my face and idk the PH anymore so I'm blind from this point out since I dont have the money to buy a new PH meter until maybe 2 weeks plus then shipping time means a month blind without PH readings. This day is going from bad to worse I'll post pics as soon as I can.

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

Just a guess here without pictures and good trustworthy meters. Root Rot will cause all manor of weird readings but so do other things. With high temperatures your reservoirs are probably running high as well. Are you using Botanicare HydroGuard? Go to the hardware store and get a liquid PH test for gardens you can get into the ballpark with that and not too expensive. Post some daylight pictures of your roots please.

 

[Jimmy Joe James]

Just a guess here without pictures and good trustworthy meters. Root Rot will cause all manor of weird readings but so do other things. With high temperatures your reservoirs are probably running high as well. Are you using Botanicare HydroGuard? Go to the hardware store and get a liquid PH test for gardens you can get into the ballpark with that and not too expensive. Post some daylight pictures of your roots please.

Brother I use Hydroguard for breakfast, lunch and dinner. For topping the rez I even PH the water then add 2 ML of hydroguard on every top off. It's part of why im baffled and look at my roots. I'll go to the hardware store see if they have those and how much they cost but right now my account is at 15 cents lmao.

As for now as I was scrambling to find a camera (cuz my phone camera sucks) I noticed that they're not as droopy as they were, they look like they might be going back to normal but I still got little burnt tips. Also sorry for the poor phone pics but when my GF brings my camera I will post better images of the damage. Which was light though since I caught it early and Ive been dealing with this all day.

Another thing is everytime I put the plant in an empty bucket for 30 min they looked happy and as soon as I would put them in the rising EC solution they would quickly droop after an hour. The only way it stayed stable was to dial back the EC to 1.1 from the 1.3 they were in. This time they're staying stable at 1.1 EC so far no rise yet but I can't check the PH anymore so that has me very worried. Im gonna be growing PH blind for like a month (unless I get lucky at the hardware store) so it's time to pray to the THC Gods for mercy.

 

[Jimmy Joe James]

I think I've found the mystery culprit. Fireants. I noticed they're trying to colonize the hydroton and they keep falling into the rez. You can't see them in the pic but I noticed some black dots on the roots and when inspecting them they were actually fireants. The EC rose to 1.2 I noticed like 15-20 fireants dead floating inside the rez which I initially thought were some particles. But upon closer inspection of the solution there are dead fireants and little chunks of root floating around inside the rez. I've flushed the hydroton tried to clean the ants stuck in the roots as gently as possible. Cleaned the rez once more, added more hydroguard. They're apparently attracted to the GH nutes cuz in the closet I saw them circling the lids of the nutes as if trying to get in the bottle. Cleaned those up as well. It's officially been another hour since the last rez change and so far no ants the plants don't look extremely happy but hopefully I can correct that PH tomorrow and they'll live. Gonna see if I can get a friend to loan me some money to buy some pepper and srichacha powder tomorrow as well as ph strips. I need better pest control. It's a 40 year old house in the middle of the jungle that has been abandoned for 10+ years, hell the cats bring 10 inch centipedes every 3 days as tribute, so I honestly cant say I'm surprised. I know I have a little australia inside this house, cuz everything is trying to kill me, but you cant beat free rent. lol

 

[Jimmy Joe James]

Well the EC is stable finally. But im unable to find PH meter's or strips locally everything is out of stock. Anyhow Im gonna rack up this project as failed since they're starting to show signs of PH lockout. Unless anybody has some suggestions of fixing this problem blind, they're gonna die. I'll order a new PH meter and guess Im gonna have to start over in 2-3 months when I have money for real seeds....

 

[Jimmy Joe James]

Update:
I reached out to a local grower and aside of a free nug of OG kush and he donated a spare PH pen he had lying around as well as some of his homemade pest repellent.

Adjusted all of them to PH 5.8 (which had gone up to 6.8 in all of this odessy of fire ants and rez changes). Most of them are looking better. Except one is a little droopy but it was the plant most damaged and chewed up by the fire ants. Hopefully it'll recover in a couple of days.

 

[Jimmy Joe James]

Well it's almost the end of week 4 for the youngest one and the end of week 6 for the others. I think the older one either got stunted or it's just a slow growing strain they're still 5.5' tall but extremely bushy. The three almost four week old has surpassed them at 7 inches and it's catching up/surpassing on the bushiness of the older ones. Maybe I'm doing something wrong or maybe bagseed works in mysterious ways.... Update pics moved them to a room where it was cooler.