Plasnt/Seedling Help - Hydroponic Beginner
Hello. I am new to Hydroponics, and new to this site. I am currently growing a variety of vegetables and things do not seem to be progressing as well as they should. I started tomato plants from seed. After about 2 weeks I moved them to my homemade NFT hydroponic system. I moved the plants into the system about 5 days ago. It seems in this time they have not developed at all. I am using a General Hydroponics nutrient mix per instructions treating the plants as if they are two weeks old. I have a 1000 Watt Double Ended Metal Halide light about three feet above the plants. The water temperature holds around 70 degrees, and the air temperature is between 65-70. The humidity is a little lower than I would like, but I try to mist them at least once a day. After having poor response to the system I remixed my nutrient solution and triple checked my mix to make sure I was mixing it correctly. The PH is about 6.0. I am currently running the lighting at 19/6.The new leaves came in very shiny, but almost curl up a bit, and growth is much slower than I expected. I have added pictures and would appreciate any advice you may have. Thanks so much for taking the time to read.
Comments (28)
Francis-William Rhéaume
8 years agoRelated Discussions
Indoor Herb Garden for Beginners?
Comments (16)Congratulations on your herb garden. I've been growing several varieties of basil in a bay window in my kitchen for a little over a year now. It actually does well for me in terra cotta pots though they need daily watering in the summer heat. I now have some chives growing there as well but most of the window is taken over by plastic pots with various seedlings since things sprout good for me there. The basil has been manageable for me there cause I use a lot of it so am always pinching to keep the plant short and the variety of basils in terra cotta pots make the window look very nice. I found that plastic pots stay wet too long there and some plants don't like that. I do tend to overwater though and have to watch myself. Herbs are really fun to grow and your cooking will taste so much better than using dried herbs from the store. I'm still pretty new at this myself but growing herbs has been very rewarding for me. Ania...See MoreTomato Plant troubleshooting help!
Comments (9)Jesse_83 "Homehydro, as you mentioned there are many web sites with pictures of specific nutrient deficiencies for tomato plants, unfortunately I have not been able to find any pictures showing combination's of certain deficiencies or, as in my case, total nutrient deficiency.". That's the exact reason that I didn't want to post them/any in this case. Because most people spend so much time convinced that there is a problem, and trying to compare pictures and descriptions in order to find one. As an example, if you have a blemish on your skin and were determined to find the cause. The first thing that resembled what you saw, you would likely just assume that was exactly it, (just because it was the first thing you saw). Even if there were hundreds of other similar symptoms that could causes the exact same thing, or had symptoms that excluded it from being the problem. Most people just assume that the first one they can compare to is the problem without doing more research.. That's the main reason I brought up calcium deficiency's in the first place. Simply because they can resemble just about any deficiency and/or toxicity, (and sometimes disease). SO PICTURES WONT REALLY HELP, when one problem can look like all the others, (& visa versa). I know that is hard to understand (I have been there myself), but the more you look into it the more you understand it. Don't get me wrong, I'm not wanting to deprive anyone from any information. And if you still want me to I will post all the links that I can think of that might be related to tomato and nutrient deficiency as well as diseases. I am not going to re-read them to point out possible problem areas for plants where I don't have first had experience with, or even knowledge of all the details. So I leave that up to the grower to decide what apply's to their situation. But I have been in that exact same situation before myself (looking for the exact picture of what my tomato plants looked like), as well as the symptoms. I spent months searching for it and without plant tissue testing there was no real way to say exactly. Most people think there is only one cause, but there can be multiple factors for the plants problems, and after months of talking to people at General Hydroponics as well as searching for pictures and descriptions for diseases from good sources. I concluded that there were multiple factors in my plants problems. I still got nice tomato's off of them. The way i have learned to approach it, is by eliminating all the factors that I can, then give time to re-assess the situation. Then I will send e-mails to the nutrient manufacture (with pictures) for ideas (what's there to loose there). Bottom line from sending out feelers, and assessing the feedback,. I generally get what I need to know. If I remember correctly you said that you think your nutrient solution is on the warm side, but I don't remember seeing any numbers. I think grizz made a reference to about 88A (if that's 88F degrees Fahrenheit), that's too high in my book, just on the verge of pointless destruction. And would be a definite cause of browning (cooking) roots. Another cause for browning roots is the nutrients themselves. Tinting the new white roots is normal. Though not usually with roots that new, but all nutrients are different in that department. Bottom line I would still be in the wait and see mode, it has only been a couple of days scene you upped the nuts. You need to give it time to make a conclusion before you make another change, or you will never know witch change made the difference and/or how much....See MorePlumerias for a beginner
Comments (42)Kay.. Xo!!! Tamela.. You are more than welcome!!! ;-) Dee. I'm sorry to hear of your loss and of the stolen trees. Celandine is a great one to start with. Easy to root and is a classic scent!! Good luck!! Emily gave you great advise.. ( hi, sweetie!!) Raucey!! Welcome to the forum!! Nice to see another from the " 757" Staking is a good thing. I wouldn't add pebbles, but be careful of all of this rain we are having. Keep them somewhere that they can get bottom heat but keep from getting soaked as well.. If the soil is bone dry and you didn't or they have never had a good initial watering, then I would add a little water and then let them dry out. It will take 6-8 weeks to root. So be patient. When I first started, I put mine on the deck facing the west and then placed an umbrella over them to protect them from getting soaked. If you want to mist, then once every 10 days is fine. They like to be left alone, so be patient with them!! Sounds like two beautiful varieties!!! Being in black pots , you won't see the roots, so don't go poking to find any. You will see signs of activity at the tips. They will get shiny and start to green up!! I would water for the initial potting up, then wait for leaves to be anywhere from 5-7 inches before I give them water., Then water on a wet/ dry cycle!! This is a great time to root, so you are doing a great job already!! Where are you in VB or ORF? Good luck.. Laura...See MoreNeed help with Tomato - Brown Spots, Curled Leaves, Indoor Garden
Comments (5)Dan, I've used a few different mixes in containers and I like the sound of your sea soil. The problem with containers is that the system is really too small to set up a true organic soil system in them. People do all sorts of things and may technically get away with it, but I my abilities can't do a completely organic soil and get reliable production, since any "help" and you kid yourself that it is "almost organic". That said, I had some luck with a mixture of 1/3 compost (Black Kow Composted Organic), 1/3 peat & 1/3 perlite in summer but you must watch it doesn't get waterlogged. I know it sounds strange, but raw perlite is "organic". You could put some of those fancy rock dusts in there and dolomitic lime and give it a whirl. Problem is at some point your plants will need the nutrient boost of something like Miracle Gro, which is not organic, but not as bad as some make it out to be, either! There are some Fox Farms hydroponic/organic and Dutch Master hydro organic ones, but these things are really cost intensive and there is no way I could afford to even evaluate them. Tomato-Tone is organic and you can use some of it (the affordable option I would use) but a lot of experimentation is necessary to get it right in a bucket. Those are the tools I would use. There are others that are more expert than I am in this forum on organic methods in a container, but the problem is that ingredients and climates can vary enough that a lot of experimentation is necessary anyway and it is a bit much to ask of a container considering the nutrient demands of a big tomato plant. And a bigger contaner ( say, 25 gallons) can be costly to fill with organic nutrients only. There are other much more economic ways to go if you drop the requirement of deriving all nutrition from "organic" sources, for example pine mulch, etc, is cheap but offers no nutrition so it doesn't get you anywhere nutrient wise, though it might help you save on perlite. I can't answer whether your tap is appropriate for your plant, even knowing the pH is 7.5. That's because it will be the interaction among the tap, soil ingredients and amendments that determine the pH of the container. For example, if your soil starts on the acid side which it likely will it needs to be neutralized with some lime, but you can do what I do ... put less in and water with alkaline water for a while. Clearly that is not an optimal situation but to be honest my plants do fine despite all the issues with pH, and my tap is pH 7.7. But this is a fragil relationship and the only way to now for sure is to pH test your soil while you grow toget the hang of what's happening, if you are really enthusiastic. Just because it works for me, btw, doesn't mean it will work for everyone. We get lots of rain here and that frequently washes trhough soil mixesand I purposely open the tops wide to encourage that. No residue builds up from the tap or any of my not-organic supplements due to the rain. The common wisdom of hydroponics of a vegetative and a reproductive period fertilization schemes doesn't seem very pronounced to me when growing the tomato for the long haul. To be perfectly honest, I think all these mantras about vegetative stages and drastic changes during flowering stages are geared towards high value crops LOL. Really with tomato plants you want to keep the nitrogen at a baseline, low in all of my scenarios. You are not growing vines, they get quickly unmanageable for indeterminates and make few tomatoes, and most everyone here seems to agree that being pretty stingy with nitrogen is the way to go. That's the opposite of what you've done. When I grow my tomatoes, my seedlings have only 1/2 to 2/3 the nitrogen the producing plants do, so my nitrogen rate actually increases for me. At the end I back off though because the plants get less productive and unmanageable so there's a lot of give and take. Hope that helps a little, because nothing is as easy as it seems, so most people find something that works and get pretty stuck to it. Cheers PC...See More
hydroveggiegrow
8 years agoPhil Nicolosi
8 years agoPhil Nicolosi
8 years agohydroveggiegrow
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoPhil Nicolosi
8 years agoPhil Nicolosi
8 years agoOK, I realize it has only been one day. I attached a few pictures to show you what is happening. Not sure what I am doing wrong, and I am not hopeful that time will fix things. Thoughts?
Phil Nicolosi
8 years agoI am using a starter cube called Root Riot that is said to be ideal for Hydroponics or Soil. I started them in your typical dome, they sprouted in a few days. I gave them about two weeks and then moved the cube into the clay pallets and NFT system. I adjusted the water level in the NFT system to just barely touch the bottom of the cube. I have asked a few people and have not gotten a definitive answer, but could the problem be too much/strong lighting for this stage of their growth? I am using 1000 Watt Double Ended MH Bulb and I have it positioned about 4 feet above the plants. Air temperature in the basement is in the low 60's, but runs in the low 70's with the light. As I said before I have adjusted the nutrients to about half of what the recommended mixture called for. I have checked my PH daily and it runs around 6.0-6.2 Humidity is around 60%, but I lightly mist them once or twice a day to bump it a bit. Water temp runs around 68-70 degrees.
I appreciate everyone who has taken the time to read and comment. I will attach another picture of the system. (this is the first I have ever built, and in retrospect I would have used square chambers and will move to them in the future) Please feel free to give me any advice as my hope is to be successful.
Phil Nicolosi
8 years agoFrancis-William Rhéaume
8 years agoHello Guys! I am really asking myself if my seedlings are ok. First time growing... Worried to have curled down seedling or other symptoms, Please give me your advice! White spots? Or normal pale green for young leaves?
Thanks so much!
Phil Nicolosi
8 years agomitchnc
8 years agoNow that my calcium nitrate has dissolved, my ppm is about 650. I accidentally bought the kind that has a coating so that it time-releases. So initially it just sank to the bottom.
Here's a pic.
Phil Nicolosi thanked mitchncPhil Nicolosi
8 years agomitchnc
8 years agoPhil Nicolosi
8 years agoPhil Nicolosi
8 years agoWow, I just received more information from a Cannabis site. I found someone experiencing an identical problem and after a few pages of threads it turns out these plants were said to have UV Damage from bad lighting. In his instance he had a cheap Metal Halide Bulb that was made in China. I went down and checked my package and it reads Made in Peoples Republic of China. Has anyone experienced this? Or have more information on this? I moved my Basil plant under this light 5 days ago and look what it has done to the plant.
Phil Nicolosi
8 years agomitchnc
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoPhil Nicolosi
8 years agomitchnc
8 years agoPhil Nicolosi
8 years ago
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