New to both the forum and hydroponics...

[mrd05d]

So I am on week three now of a 6 5g bucket (would like to expand to 8) dwc project. I am growing 4 types of tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant, and okra. Im using maxigrow and maxical. I do 1tsp of each per gallon of water. I have them in a south facing window and have hung two fluorescent T8's over them. I do have a couple of questions.

1) the starter cubes are turning white and it looks like its being eaten by fungus or mold or something. Is this normal? (the roots look white and normal or what i think normal looks like anyhow )

2) The ph fluctuates pretty heavily within a 48 hour period. I changed out the nutes the night before last and ph was set to 5.5 it was 7.4 this morning. I am using RO water and General Hydroponics ph up and down if needed (only one or the other as ive read its bad to use both) Am I doing something wrong or is this normal fluctuation? The PPMS are staying fairly constant.

3) I am starting to see some curling of leaves and other signs of stress. I have read about a lot of things that could be wrong ie deficiencies and or bugs etc but i am not sure what root rot, blossom rot, burning, or leaf curling looks like.

I'm uploading some pics and maybe from the images you all will see obvious mistakes or signs of stress etc.

Thanks in advance
Marcus

[Stan]

It looks like it is a salt build up possibly from nutrients or the water you are using. Does the hydroton also have the white build up? If this persists it will damage and kill the plants. Buy Clearex it will help clear it up but you have to find out whats causing it.

Don't use full strength nutrients use only 1/4 or 1/2 strength. If you are still getting the salt build up then you need to look at the water. I know the water down in Florida is not very good. Not sure if you can find out what is in the tap water even though you are using a filter. If you can set up something outside to capture rain water and use that instead.

[mrd05d]

Thanks for the reply. I will definitely take a look at clearex. I am using RO water and when I test it after it says it is 5ppm. Can that really build up salt? I am using 1tsp per gal of nutes and the package says 1-2 tsp per. I will cut that back.

any suggestions on the ph swing or the leaf curl?

Thanks again for your responses.

Marcus

[Stan]

Usually I will see a salt build up if I'm using to much nutes. It happened to me the first time I started growing hydroponically. When I used the Clearex and cut back a lot on the nutes it cleared up and so did the ph fluctuations.

You say the nutes say 1 -2 tsp per gallon, I would go with a 1/4 tsp per gallon at this stage. I would up it to 1/2 tsp during the flowering cycle when fruits start forming. You could go higher if you feel the plants could use more but if the fruit and plants look healthy keep it at 1/2 strength.

Are you checking the ph before or after you add the nutes? It should be checked after. Also make sure your pH meter is calibrated properly.

[mrd05d]

I have been measuring after i put the nutes in. Then i add water to bring ph up. So I did a little experiment last night. I got a piece of tupperware out placed some water that had nutes added with ppms of about 950. I then got the ph correct at 5.5. I left it overnight. When i checked it this morning it was 6.5.

This tells me its most likely something in the nutes or the ph down/up solution?

I will definitely heed the advice though and use less nutes from now on considering it also saves money

[fintuckyfarms]

I am not familiar with the nutes you are using but my guess would be they are not PH stable if they are fluctuating that much. Is it a one, two or three part nute? If more then one part add the micro nutes first then the macro, test the ppm then check the PH. I would not add any PH up at all for any reason. If it the PH gets too low just add more water. Make sure you are mixing everything separate from the reservoir and only adding it when it is close to the same PH to prevent the shock and the leaf curling.
The white on the rooter cubes probably not harmful but if it bothers you, mix up some hydrogen peroxide and water in a spray bottle and give them a spray. Should clear it right up.
Just between us, I don't even own a ppm meter