Newbie - young tomatoes yellowing and wilting

10 years ago

Hi all- I'm new to hydro gardening but having fun learning. My first system is a DWC system. I'm attempting to grow tomatoes, peppers, and spinach.

Things started out great but the tomatoes have started to show signs of distress. My cherry tom is not standing up very well and has some yellowing spots on the leaves. I've got a determinate hybrid tom that was looking strong but in the last day or so has started to bend over a little showing signs of wilting.

I had them all together, but suspected that maybe the nutrient strength was not strong enough (from what I could find through some online searches). Also my water temps might have been a little low.

Old measurements:

TDS 1280
Temp 63F

Today I set up a separate container, raised the nutrient strength to 1820 TDS and using an aquarium heater set the water temp to 70F. I moved the toms and the pepper over to the new container. Am I on the right track? I'm hoping that I'm not going to stress them out too much.

They've only been in the hydro system for one week as of today. Pics attached showing the wilt and yellowing. Any guidance is appreciated!

This post was edited by Tim62766 on Sun, Feb 23, 14 at 22:36

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Comments (4)

grizzman
10 years ago
You plants look leggy. If they are under lights you should consider moving them closer to the source.
Also, the yellowing appears to be a nutrient deficiency. Possibly magnesium. What nutrient are you using and what is your pH?
Tim62766
Original Author
10 years ago
They got a little leggy at germination. I've got them under 600W MH light about 17-18" from the light. Too far still?

Using General Hydroponics series flora-gro, flora-micro, and flora-bloom.

I was thinking magnesium too but don't know what to do to boost just magnesium. Epsom Salts? Read that somewhere but no clear guidance given so I didn't want to mess them up.
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cole_robbie
10 years ago
I don't think you need to heat the reservoir unless it is falling below 58 or so degrees. From what I understand, that is the temperature at which water is capable of holding the most oxygen. Even though tomatoes like warm weather, the ground in which the roots grow is cool.

I can't tell from the pic, but fwiw in regard to tomatoes, leaf discoloration related to nutrient problems will tend to show the veins through the discoloration. If it is disease-related, you'll get black spots through which you can't see any of the leaf veins.
grizzman
10 years ago
Hey Tim,
I have a target value of 40 ppm for magnesium.
Epsom salts is 0.99% magnesium.
So to get 40 ppm, you need 40 mg OF MAGNESIUM per litre of water. Since only approximately 1% of epsom salt is magnesium, you'd need to dissolve 404 mg in one litre of water. (or 4 grams0.4 grams, approximately)
A little more or less won't harm the plant.
Don't forget to check how much your GH is already providing.
good luck!

ETA: To correct my conversion. . . sorry.

This post was edited by grizzman on Thu, Feb 27, 14 at 12:51