It is often quite tricky to spot the difference between an unhealthy plant and an awkward teenage plant. Sometimes you may think your plant is growing poorly, when in reality its doing just fine! Here are a few tricks to help you diagnose your plant and ways to treat these issues;
Yellowing leaves - this is a very common sign that your plant isn’t as healthy as it should be. The most common causes of yellowing leaves in your hydroponic setup is a poor nutrient balance. The best way to treat this is by ‘flushing your system’ which is very easy. All you have to do is empty the nutrient rich water that is currently in your system and refilling it with plain water. You can add nutrients again roughly a week or two after flushing (or you can re-add the nutrients as soon as the plant stops producing yellow those yellow leaves). We recommend re-using the nutrient rich water in other plants!
Drooping leaves - Seedlings may naturally look this way, the pert upright bunches you see of them are usually fully mature plants (a few months old). However, if you notice your plant looking limp its usually due to humidity/air temperature/water temperature (these all go hand in hand). The first thing you can do is to check is that your plant is getting enough water and that all of its roots are submerged. Secondly you’ll want to move your unit to a location that’s either in a cooler spot or is well ventilated. Leave your unit there until you see your plants start perking back up (this should only take a day or two)!
Crispy leaves - if you’re noticing burns on the leaves of your plants it is most likely due to excess light. If your plant is receiving too much light its leaves will start to get a little crispy, but it’s a very easy fix. All you have to do is move your unit to a slightly darker area or if you’re using Grow lights, turn down both the intensity, move the lights farther away, or use a shorter timer setting.
Thin/sparse (Spindly!) - This is the most common thing we get asked about and 99% of the time it is due to one of two reasons:
The plant could be young and hasn’t had a chance to ‘fill out’. if so, have patience and it will grow into itself!
Alternatively the plant may not be getting enough nutrients, all you have to do for this one is add a scoop of nutrients!