First time trying hydro (DWC)... am I over-nuting this poor plant?

I am using General Hydroponics Flora nutes.

This last bucket change I used one tsp per gallon (4 tsp in four gallons) each of the basic nutes (micro veg and bloom).

Since then the bottom growth kind of exploded and the top got all curly as you can see.

The older leaves also got some mid-leaf burningView attachment 4457812

I am using distilled water btw as our tap ppm is around 350 (I have MicroHardwater on the way).

Based on info gleaned from the sticky threads I think I should cut nutes back to 1/2 tsp each and see what happens?

She looks pretty dark to me. Can be too much nitrogen. ***edit*** I posted same time that you posted a close-up

Here's a close-up of the mid-leaf burned area... I am familiar with burning the leaf tips but this mid-leaf burn is a new one.

TheSadVeryBadMadGrower said:

She looks pretty dark to me. Can be too much nitrogen. ***edit*** I posted same time that you posted a close-up

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Wouldn't a nitrogen burn start at the leaf tips?

da_nam said:

Wouldn't a nitrogen burn start at the leaf tips?

Click to expand...

Thank you for the info!

da_nam said:

Thank you for the info!

Click to expand...

I am not 100% sure that is correct. I just said she does look a lot darker then she should which led me to Nitrogen Toxicity.

what is the PH and PPM of the reservoir? 5/5/5 per gallon is the formula? are you adding any cal-mag since you are using distilled water?

Classic claw. I would give them one tbs of micro and 2 tbs of bloom in 4 gallons and skip the gro.

Possibly this is all because of bad PH levels. My old Oakton ph meter died but I just ordered a new one (Apera 610) which should be here tomorrow. I just swapped buckets with 1/2 strength nutes, and my Micro Hardwater just got here too so I don't need to use distilled water/calmag any more (I hadn't gotten any calmag because the hardwater nutes seemed cheaper in the long run. The thing I love about DWC is if there is ever a problem, you just swap nutes/water and the plant can recover quickly. (I used to grow organic in soil but every fuckup caused long-lasting issues that were hard to correct...)

As far as skipping the Grow, its strange because the Micro has 2.5x more nitrogen than the Grow!

also think too much n,clawing and single bladed leaves at top of bud!!

Plant looks like it's revegging as well. Is the timer for your light set correctly?

When I see the top with the green single leaves curled along side the baby bud I think too much nitrogen.

Distilled water lacks Calcium, and calcium enables the uptake of other nutrients (sidenote: does the same thing in humans). To me it looks like a Cal deficiency that in turn made other nutrients unavailable with the result being an unbalanced mix, which could give you some pretty crazy ph swings going on as well.

It's an autoflower and the light is on 24/7... Will switch to the hardwater nutes with our high-ppm tap water tomorrow after the new PH meter gets here. Thank you everyone for the insights and advice!

Turns out my PH was WAY low. It's sitting at the lower limit of 5.4/5.5 right now at half nutes so it must have been even lower at full strength. Here's a picture of the crazy side growth that exploded in just one day after changing the nutes. Hydro is SO much better than soil growing, but it does require a working PH meter.