I will try the lava rock option for my next future grow. I also water the plants from top with the nutrient solution to speed up the root growth. I transplanted these babies from soil and they already developed quite a lot of root mass so I slipped what I could through the netpot and the rest are laying down on the bottom surrounded by hydroton. My water lvl is about an inch from the bottom of the netpot, so I'm wondering if the droopiness is from too much water contact...Well from my understanding they are still pretty young so 500ppm seemed like the right choice but I can up it to see if they perk up... They kind of go from a little droopy in the sunlight then perk up a bit during the evening hours but its been 5 days and I don't see any progress really...I'm wondering now if I had a nute lock out, and might have to flush out the system for a couple hours with pH water only then slowly introduce nutes. Any suggestions would greatly be appreciated. Thanks.

If we're talking Mandevilla laxa... be patient. Looking dead when dormant is normal, nothing to worry about - of course it also looks dead when it's dead, which could be the case if it got really cold where you are. More likely it's fine and will get going when spring is well underway... it likes heat. As for other plants... certain things are already growing (some Clematis, for example). Certain other plants don't make an appearance until July. So it really depends on the specific plant.

You might want to ask this over on the hydroponics forum.

Hi, don't know if you already have this figured out, but want to provide a few words on Calatheas. I'm no expert on them but I have a couple of varieties, including orbifolia. It's good to have a humidity monitor and a moisture meter. Both can be bought on Amazon or somewhere like Home Depot for fairly cheap. Calatheas do fine if relative humidity is over 50%. They also don't like it when their soil dries out completely. Basically, water when dry, but don't let it stay dry for too long. If you stick the meter all the way down and it shows "dry" all the way down, or maybe "moist" but not "wet" at the bottom, it's time to water. Also, I've experienced this and read about it elsewhere: apparently Calatheas like to do this scary leaf-dropping act that includes discoloration like yours, right before/as they push out a whole bunch of new foliage. Like someone said above, don't cut the yellowing leaves off — just leave them alone and let them die. Finally, it's hard to see the light levels from your photos. It looks like it's outside. If it isn't any of these other problems, then the light may actually be TOO bright. Again, my experience, but they need indirect light and suffer in too much sun.