DWC - Weird Dry Shiny Spots & Leaves Curling Up & Down

Hi there. I have some issues with my DWC plants that I cannot figure out. I have searched the forums and online for the past couple of weeks and read a few books and I still cannot pinpoint the issue.

Any help is greatly appreciated. This is my first go at DWC and I am stuck.

My pH is right at 6, each bucket has its own dual-diaphragm pump with 2 air stones, no light leaks, white roots, 250 ppm nutes (Lucas - when I go any higher, the plants get burnt), changing the res every week, have a Mars Hydro II 300w light that is 22" away, using HydroGuard, I have an inch of air space between the net pot bottoms, the res temperature is steady between 65-68 degrees Fahrenheit and the room temp is always between 68-72 degrees Fahrenheit.

I thought maybe I needed more nutes, but they would get nutrient burn if I fed them more.

They are exactly 4 weeks old.

I thought maybe it was a CalMag deficiency, so I added an extra half a milliliter per gallon, but no luck.

There are 4 girls each sharing a 3.5 gallon bucket and they are about to get transported to their own 5 gallons (tomorrow).

They are on 18/6 lighting.

I had one really twisted looking plant that seemed like a pH problem that i pulled today because it was all twisted growth (no discoloration, just twisted bad and curled up on almost all of the leaves). I didn't have room for it either and it was the only plant like this. I think early on I had a pH problem where it was too high and I was waiting on a pH meter for 2 weeks until I could straighten it out.

Dry Shiny Spots



Roots



Dry Shiny Spots



Curling Down



Curling Up



Dry Shiny Spots

Hi
By the way looks your wind should be high on them.
Turn lower level on your fan and not straight on plant at all the time.
Ph around 5.8 is better for dwc .
They are looking healthy .
Dont play too much with her , many folks kill the plants by giving more love .

I'm guessing by much dark green and no light green you can change to lighter feeding. Also the stem turning darker and red is probably worth looking into.

As far as the white spots... anyway water got on them from Rez? I’ve had a few instances of that and attributed it to nutrient water. Otherwise, like above post, lower feed.

neved said:

Hi
By the way looks your wind should be high on them.
Turn lower level on your fan and not straight on plant at all the time.
Ph around 5.8 is better for dwc .
They are looking healthy .
Dont play too much with her , many folks kill the plants by giving more love .

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I do have a oscillating fan on them that is on full blast. Thank you for the tip. I will turn it down to the lowest.
I will change the pH to 5.8 as well. Thank you.

Rheaun said:

I'm guessing by much dark green and no light green you can change to lighter feeding. Also the stem turning darker and red is probably worth looking into.

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I am going to change the res's out today. I will feed them less. One thing I was curious about is the fact that the CalMag has around 200ppm and I havent been feeding them anything but CalMag and HydroGuard balanced atg 6.0 pH the past week because I though they were overfed. If the PPMs are sticking at 250, could I be needing more nutes and less CalMag maybe too? Because I know there is 250 PPM in the res's, but I don't know what it is. It could be 250 of CalMag or nutes. See where I am going? Just was wondering what you thought. Thanks

tehdansauce said:

As far as the white spots... anyway water got on them from Rez? I’ve had a few instances of that and attributed it to nutrient water. Otherwise, like above post, lower feed.

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I have been foliar feeding them the same stuff I am feeding them. So the white spots could be nutes. Thanks for the tip. I will start foilar feeding only pH balanced water for now and CalMag.

You have a bit of nitrogen toxicity and those rust coloured spots are calcium deficiency. (Probably from lockout)
Also the leaf edges curling up are from too much heat. Possibly from lights being too close?
Back off a bit on the nutes and
Check ph, let it drift through ph range before adjusting (usually around 5.6 to 6.4)

Hydro4life said:

You have a bit of nitrogen toxicity and those rust coloured spots are calcium deficiency. (Probably from lockout)
Also the leaf edges curling up are from too much heat. Possibly from lights being too close?
Back off a bit on the nutes and
Check ph, let it drift through ph range before adjusting (usually around 5.6 to 6.4)

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Thank you for the information and I will follow those recommendations today.

I just moved the lights up to 24" away too.

I have a question you might be able to help me with:

So if my PPMs have been steady at 250 for the past week, and I the last time I fed them any nutes (besides CalMag) was last Tuesday (today being Tuesday and last time I fed them being 7 days ago), and I am feeding them around 200-250 PPMs of CalMag when i top off everyday. how do I know the 250 PPM in the res is all nutes and not just CalMag? Could it be that I am not feeding them enough nutes and only CalMag? See what I mean?

Thanks for your help!

If there are any other photos I could take to make helping me easier, please let me know and I will get them and upload them as soon as I can.

mr.Tank said:

Thank you for the information and I will follow those recommendations today.

I just moved the lights up to 24" away too.

I have a question you might be able to help me with:

So if my PPMs have been steady at 250 for the past week, and I the last time I fed them any nutes (besides CalMag) was last Tuesday (today being Tuesday and last time I fed them being 7 days ago), and I am feeding them around 200-250 PPMs of CalMag when i top off everyday. how do I know the 250 PPM in the res is all nutes and not just CalMag? Could it be that I am not feeding them enough nutes and only CalMag? See what I mean?

Thanks for your help!

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That would explain the N toxicity.
They need base nutes to get to your desired ppm or close to it. Cal mag is just a supplement. If you find after topping up with water and ppms haven’t dropped (plant isn’t uptaking nutrients when drinking water) then you more than likely have salt build up and need to do a res/bucket change

I would recommend doing a res/bucket change with fresh base nutes maybe leave the cal/mag out for now and when you see a rust spot or two then add a little cal/mag.
Good call on moving light a little further away too

mr.Tank said:

If there are any other photos I could take to make helping me easier, please let me know and I will get them and upload them as soon as I can.

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Don’t need.
Empty out old water, give roots a little rinse off, add fresh water, add nutes (maybe at quarter strength for now until leaves lighten a bit) and adjust ph. You will see a big improvement!

Thank you everyone for the help. It think it was ultimately the pH. After trying everything else, once j changed the pH to 5.8, the plants exploded with growth and started straightening out.

I am going to change out the reservoirs tomorrow too.

I have been at 1/4 strength nutes the whole time and think I will be okay if I just continue with that and keep the pH at 5.8.

Thank you all for your help. Seriously!

Here you can see how much better they already look. The rust spots are getting smaller too. I am sure that all the tips together helped out in some way. Changing the pH made the biggest difference though. Their growth exploded, all the rusty spots started getting smaller and the weird curling and twisting started going away.



I'll post some more images in a few days.

Hydro4life said:

Don’t need.
Empty out old water, give roots a little rinse off, add fresh water, add nutes (maybe at quarter strength for now until leaves lighten a bit) and adjust ph. You will see a big improvement!

Click to expand...

Thank you!

Hydro4life said:

That would explain the N toxicity.
They need base nutes to get to your desired ppm or close to it. Cal mag is just a supplement. If you find after topping up with water and ppms haven’t dropped (plant isn’t uptaking nutrients when drinking water) then you more than likely have salt build up and need to do a res/bucket change

I would recommend doing a res/bucket change with fresh base nutes maybe leave the cal/mag out for now and when you see a rust spot or two then add a little cal/mag.
Good call on moving light a little further away too

Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice! Gonna start with a fresh res tomorrow.

mr.Tank said:

Here you can see how much better they already look. The rust spots are getting smaller too. I am sure that all the tips together helped out in some way. Changing the pH made the biggest difference though. Their growth exploded, all the rusty spots started getting smaller and the weird curling and twisting started going away.

View attachment 4472817View attachment 4472818View attachment 4472819

I'll post some more images in a few days.

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Good stuff man!!
p.s the rust spots will permanently be on the affected leaves. Just watch for new rust spots