Yellow Leaf Dots Spreading Completely Over Some Leaves (It's not spider mites)

Hi All,

I'm trying to diagnose this leaf problem. It's currently affecting almost every plant in the room, some significantly (half the leaves), others totally minor. It doesn't seem to have any pattern: the edge plants (least light, least heat) have it no more or no less than the center plants.

I know there are a lot of factors to consider in diagnosing a plant problem, but maybe someone will know what's going on -- once they see the pics and read the post. The pictures show how it progresses from tiny yellow-dot stippling, to more dot stippling, then to stipples growing in size, and finally covering the whole leaf. (It's 100% not spider mites, by the way.) The stipples generally seem to follow alongside the veins, but not exclusively.




On the underside of the leaf, it looks like the stipple is actually a very tiny eaten area, that expands -- both in the number of them and the size. I took an extreme close-up that shows this pretty clearly.

I can see no insects or eggs under multiple magnifications, from 2x to 100x -- and I've looked fairly often. If it's a pest, it's one that is invisible at 100x, and crawling all over my grow room.

The room is going into the latter stages of flowering, but everything will be the same for the next grow -- so I better find out now, before I damage another crop!

Thanks for any help!

~jessie

PS: Links to the HI-RES pictures:
http://www.fileden.com/files/2009/7/23/2518920//Leaf Stipling In Early Middle Stage - Near to Veins -- Top of Leaf.jpg
http://www.fileden.com/files/2009/7/23/2518920//Leaf Stippling - Ultra Close Up - Eaten Away Holes.jpg
http://www.fileden.com/files/2009/7/23/2518920//Leaf Stipling -- Near Final Stage -- Top of Leaf.jpg

To supplement the pics, here are the grow details:

MAIN: 15 plants, flowered March 1st, 2010 (after 6 weeks of vegging)
STRAINS: AK-47, White Widow, Ice, Chrystal, LA Woman (all from seed)
GROW ROOM: 6' x 8' SCROG
GROW METHOD: Hybrid Drip/DWC. Six self-contained totes, each its own reservoir.
LIGHT: 2 x 1000w HPS (air-cooled vents)
NUTES: 800-1200ppm, Lucas Method using General Hydroponics, and I don't use any other supplements (when I get more knowledgeable, I'm sure I'll start experimenting . . . ).
TEMP: 70- to 90-degrees
HUMIDITY: Recently upped to 50%, from 30-ish%
PH: Mid 5's, checked regularly.
CO2: None now. Tried for exactly one day: the room is heavily vented. Maybe next grow I'll figure a way that doesn't break the bank.

My main diagnostic theory is HEAT STRESS, possibly compounded by low humidity. The room is really comfy now (mid-seventies, 50% humidity, well-vented), but for a good 4-weeks it was bad (mid- to upper-80's, 30% humidity). My books on growing don't mention heat stress causing dots like this.

My minor theory is some sort of nutrient lockout. I use tap water run through a multi-stage filter, but it's not distillation -- and the tap water here is hard (about 200ppm). The thing is, I've already gone through two grows using this water and nothing like this happened.
 

bobbyhopefeild

Active Member
looks like it could be a fungal problem, heat stress would only really affect the top leaves, depending on how bad it is.
 

bobbyhopefeild

Active Member
yea on closer inspection , if its not a pest problem then probably fungal, were you misting the room when the humidity was really low because water left on leaves over night can cause leaf rot.
x
 
yea on closer inspection , if its not a pest problem then probably fungal, were you misting the room when the humidity was really low because water left on leaves over night can cause leaf rot.
x
I'm thinking it might be some strange fungus or even bacteria/virus. Thanks for the input!

In one of the books (Soma's?), I just read about hard water, and the trouble it can cause -- especially in combination with topping-off your reservoir too often (instead of changing the water).

If you top-off your reservoir too often, Nutrient "X" might be being taken in by the plant at a high rate, while Nutrient "Y" is absorbed at a low rate. If you keep topping the reservoir, you'll end up with a major disbalance in the nutrient ratio. I'd show the math now, but it's too early.

In any case, the book was definitely accurate about how topping vs. complete replacement of the reservoir affects nutrient ratios.

Any more ideas would be welcome!

~jessie
 
yea on closer inspection , if its not a pest problem then probably fungal, were you misting the room when the humidity was really low because water left on leaves over night can cause leaf rot.
x
Fungal might be it, too. Tx.

I just wanted to add that the leaves get brittle as this stippling progresses. Still trying to pin this problem down . . . not 100% sure of the cause yet.

I keep looking through the diagnostic pictures in my books (which are pretty extensive), and I'm not seeing a leaf that has this weird stippling.
 
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