NEED HELP PLEASE! First Medical Grow, Nutrient Issues!

Hey everybody, I need some help with these plants. My friend is growing some medicinal marijuana for their ailments and they know the importance of organic nutrients, however, they are in the beginning stages of growing their own medicine and they decided to go with the TechnaFlora BC Recipe for Success Starter Kit since it would be an easier introduction to hydroponic and nutrients in general.

The strains being grown are are Dutch Passion's Blueberry, and Orange Bud, with a couple of previously harvested seeds or "Bag seed"

The Dutch Passion Strains/plants are starting their 2nd week of veg and the bag seed plants are going into their 3rd week of veg.

The first pictures are the Orange Bud which has some brown spots/tips starting as of today but they are quickly showing up.
The second pictures are of the Blueberry.
The final pictures are of the 2 bagseed plants.
The leaves are/have been curling at the edges for a while so they raised the light in hopes of trying to stop this in case it was heat stress related.
They are using a 400watt MH Conversion lamp.
PH is maintained between 5.6 - 6.3.
PPM is between 480-560 on their TDS meter.

I myself am not a grower, I do research the subject often but, without any true experience I do not dare tell them to change anything that could hurt their plants.
I can not seem to figure out the exact problem as each plant showcases slightly different issues/problems.

Please post up a response with any valuable information if possible.

Whatever you believe is the cause of each symptom or any ideas on what can be done to help the overall health of their plants is appreciated.

Thanks everybody!

Dan K.

The problems at the top of the plant are caused by micro-nutrient deficiency. This can be caused by underfeeding, bad PH, or sodium lockout.

A few questions.... are they constantly having to add extra nutrients to bring the ppm back up to that level? In other words, is the ppm reading the same in 24 hours? Does it go down or up between adding water? Is this a DWC, or an aeroponic grow? Cycle times on pump?

Yes, it is a nutrient issue. The answer as to what needs to be done is dependent on the answer to those questions. The PH should be between 5.0 and 6.0. That ppm fluctuation is the issue... If the PPMs keep dropping, bump up the ppms.

Also, a res change may be needed. If the plants are using up micro-nutrients faster than the main elements, N-P-K, the reservoir can become depleted in a specific nutrient. Therefore it is good to change out and clean the reservoir every 3-4 weeks.

are your dutch passion blueberry regular or femmed? i dont know about the nutrient thing im a soil grower. but if it is femenized watch it closely around week 4 and on, i did two my last grow and both threw naners inside the buds and seeded 3 of my other plants. luckily i saved my super lemon haze and kandy kush from the destruction.

LOL, why would you want to give them more to worry about now? LOL..

lovemug said:

are your dutch passion blueberry regular or femmed? i dont know about the nutrient thing im a soil grower. but if it is femenized watch it closely around week 4 and on, i did two my last grow and both threw naners inside the buds and seeded 3 of my other plants. luckily i saved my super lemon haze and kandy kush from the destruction.

Click to expand...

its nothing to worry about just watch them. ive had horrible luck with the 2 i poped. hopefully they have better luck and get some awsome blueberry!!!! but dont hesitate to wack them if they start to hermie inside of the buds.

seems like you might be giving your ph to much range to bounce in try dialing down to within a 1 point change...

Thanks so much for the info guys.
They JUST changed the res for the 4th time last friday. They change the res EVERY friday.
They ran about 1 week of PreVeg, then changed into another PreVeg for around 3 days then changed again into Regular Veg. They just changed again last Friday [2 days ago] and are now running into their second week for Veg.


Both strains were given to them for free from their seedbank they order from. They are both Females and I know that Dutch Passions females turn hermie 80%+ of the time from all the research both I and they have done.
I know it may sound silly but they are willing to let the grow the whole way through a proper harvest and they do not mind the seeds as they can be used for future grows. Also, this being their introduction to hydroponics, they are just trying to get down the whole regimen with success.
If they turn hermie and start to produce seeds/pollen then the most it can do is cause the bagseed plants to start producing seeds.
Also, they are waiting to see which bag seed plants, out of the 3, will sex male or female so they know which ones to remove. They are hoping to have at the least 3 females (One bag seed and the 2 dutch passions).
Space is somewhat limited and LST methods will be used as you can see the one bag seed that is 3 weeks into veg has been tied down already and the other larger bag seed plant has been topped.


The PH is at 5.8 right now. They try to check 1 or 2 times a day and if it rises to 6.3 - 6.5 they add a little PH Down to control it.
The PPM was rising before the last change, I considered the fact that the water levels were getting lower so this would cause the PPM to rise from what I have heard. This can be because the plants may be drinking more than they are eating?
The recipe for success kit states that you add so much nutrients in a mixture per gallon. They use 5 gallons in their reservoir and only mixed in enough nutrients for 3 gallons considering this is their first hydro grow and they did not want to over fertilize.
Also, there was 6 plants and one was removed/killed off today.

They have no idea what range the ppm should stay at.

They have 2 - 4" air stones running 24/7 with a top feed/drip system that runs on a timer for 15 minutes on 6 times a day. Is this too much? The plants seem to be enjoying the air stones as their root systems are doing pretty well and they were feeding them around 10 times a day for 15 minutes each time and they cut this down to 6 times and the plants had improved from this.

Anymore questions please let me know and if I do not know the answers right now I will contact them tomorrow for the information.
Any and all help and info is appreciated.

They do not need the BEST medicine for their first grow but they would like a higher quality medicine [even if it has seeds] and a higher yield [but who doesn't go for high quality and yield?]

Thank you guys so much for the info and as I said any tips or advice is appreciated!

I have been doing more research tonight and I've come across some valuable guides to nutrients, PH, Deficiencies, Illness and disease. I see that Boron deficiency can cause brown tips, brown spots, and yellowing of new growth. Is it possible that the Orange bud and Bag seed are effected by this?
I forgot to mention they are using hard water with undetermined nutrients/minerals in the water supply (could be causing "lock-outs" of some kind from what I've read).

As I said I am trying to help these medical growers and I just do not want to give them any advice in the wrong direction for obvious reasons haha.

Thanks!