Can someone offer any advice as to why the leaves on these plants are getting spotted with brown and turning inward? I am starting to think it is sounding a lot like Phosphorus issues, but I’m not 100% sure. I’m growing white widow from ILGM’s seed bank (Awesome results BTW). Everything was going well until I checked the PH and it was over 8. I added PH down to get it around 6.5 and now the leaves are starting to act a little funny. This is my first grow and I’ve done a lot of research but I need a little help getting these back on track. I’m using Moon Dust as the nutrient in my solution. Seems to be a good all in one and has a small amount of phos included. Take a look at the pics below to see if you can help! I would really appreciate that!
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What is the concentration of your reservoir? EC/TDS/PPM? I don’t know anything about moon dust, what are the NPK ratios? Temperature of the reservoir?
You will have to pardon my ignorance I’m not sure what EC/TDS/PPM are. I would love to understand those concepts though and how to measure each. Temperature of the reservoir is around 76 degrees F. The moon dust ratios you are asking about are:
19% nitrogen
8% phosphate
13% soluble potash
Thanks for all the support thus far!
EC (electrical conductivity)/TDS (total dissolved solids)/PPM (parts per million) of the concentration of nutrients in the reservoir. You need to get a digital pen to measure it. The nitrogen in this stuff is kinda high in my opinion but it could be made to work. Are you working with some recommended formula that suggests using this specif nutrient mix? 76* F is starting to push it, but should still be safe, but at much higher your water will not hold enough oxygen for healthy roots. Are you using tap water? What is the PPM of your starting tap water and PH before adding nutrients? This could be a factor as well.
Take a look at the support ticket and answer any questions we didn’t cover or if it brings anything to mind that I can help explain further.
ILGM Support Tickett
What is the strain? – white widow
Indoor or Outdoor?
Size of space?
Soil or Hydro? – Medium used? DWC
PH? – was over 8, now 6.5
Type of nutrients used? NPK? PPM levels? – moon dust NPK 19 - 8 -13
Temperature? – 76 degrees F
Humidity %?
Light system/watts? – CFLs
Vegetative Growth season or Bloom/Flower season? Number “weeks/days” from start of veg growth or into flowering? – Vegetative
Thank you so much for the help! I’m not using tap water. I’m using distilled water. I don’t know what the pre-nutrient solution readings would be. I just purchased a meter to test PPM/EC/TDS. Should be here by Tuesday. I’ll post those readings then. Here are the support ticket details. Thanking you in advance:
ILGM Support Tickett
What is the strain? — white widow
Indoor or Outdoor? Indoors
Size of space? 2 foot by 6
Soil or Hydro? — Medium used? DWC
PH? — was over 8, now 6.5
Type of nutrients used? NPK? PPM levels? — moon dust NPK 19 – 8 -13
Temperature? — 76 degrees F/ just lowered this to 73
Humidity %? not sure about this but will check the humidity readings in a bit
Light system/watts? — CFLs
Vegetative Growth season or Bloom/Flower season? Number “weeks/days” from start of veg growth or into flowering? — Vegetative - 7 weeks veg growth stage.
In the mean time I’d do a fresh PH balanced mix of the whole reservoir. Also I think I’d look into getting a different nutrient mix if you are looking for just one mix the entire grow, something more like Miracle-Gro Water Soluble Tomato Plant Food 18-18-21 NPK would be better, or even better something like General Hydroponics MaxiBloom 5-15-14 NPK or Flora Nova Bloom 4-8-7 NPK.
Get your PH down to the proper level for hydroponics: 5.8
And yes, PH of 5.8 is better for hydroponics.
BTW, distilled water should have a starting or pre-nutrient level EC/PPM of 0.0 or zero point zero and a PH of 7 or perfectly neutral.
The brown crispy or totally damaged parts on the leaves will not come back. I would run flora nova bloom at 5 to 8 ml per gallon for about 600 - 1000 PPM. You can add some Epsom salts if you’d like as well at about a 1/4 tsp per gallon, just be sure your PPMs don’t go over 1200. Even with the Epsom salts you should still be under 999 PPMs with R/O or distilled water. Make sure the reservoir is staying well aerated and below 76*F and they should recover, the old growth won’t look very pretty but the new growth should look vibrant and healthy as long as you are keeping all other factors in their proper ranges. If your meter doesn’t read well above 999PPM, then just keep it at about 950 max to be on the safe side, it won’t hurt to run at 600 - 900 PPMs with flora nova bloom, it’s really good stuff and can be run at the low PPMs through to the end of flowering with no need for a flush or if you insist on flushing, only the last couple of days and you should have really good smooth smoke after a proper cure.
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Just wanted to post an update to how my plants are progressing. Thank you so much for all the help. In just a few days the Nova Bloom at the correct PPM, temperature, and PH had made the plants grow quite fast. Now my only concern is how tall they are getting. Any suggestions regarding how to keep the plants out of the lights. I’d hate for them to get burned due to light touching. Thanks again for all the help!!
You need to train them, in such a small grow box, either numerous small clones are flowered early to have one big top nug only, or you need to ScrOG your plants into submission for fewer plants with numerous big tops on each one.
Thank you. I really want to ScrOG our plants. One quick question. How many inches from the reservoir or the lights should the screen be placed?
Expect the tops to grow another third to maybe twice as big of the total after flowering , keep this in mind to keep them from running into the lights.
