Leaf Edges turning white? (PICS)

ok so for the past few days...like 3maybe there has been this white stuff along the edges of my main plant and it goes away when watered, but then comes right back.
does anyone know what this is or why its happening?

pics included





someone please help.

Can you wipe it off when it's dry? If so it's probably due to hard water and you're going to have to use purer water or get salt build up in your soil. I don't think it's powdery mildew. That doesn't grow in that pattern.

no i cant wipe it off

all my plants are starting to get this! how can i stop it?
change the ph? buy distilled water? someone help please.

Distilled water isn't necessary, bottled drinking water is fine and cheaper. If you plan to do a lot of growing I recommend a reverse osmosis (RO) filter.
About $150, but produces the same thing as bottled water.

It is hard water that dried on the leaves. Your seedlings are lovely there is nothing to worry about.

IpFreely said:

no i cant wipe it off

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My mistake, if it's dried calcium it won't wipe off and when it's wet it pretty much disappears til it's dry again.

also the redish stem you have at the bottom means you need more nitrogen... get some nutri in that plant when its small so you wont have to deal with redish stems and light green leafs later

growxbud said:

also the redish stem you have at the bottom means you need more nitrogen... get some nutri in that plant when its small so you wont have to deal with redish stems and light green leafs later

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NNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Don't give those little babies anything like that -- they don't need a thing until at least 2-3 weeks and even then it's questionable.

They look fine.. don't worry, might be a little dried calcium from your water like someone suggested. The first set of real leaves are often a little goofy. You've got months ahead of you... you'll get an ulcer reacting to every little thing.

I surely would NOT worry about that red on the stalk at this point. It's way too early to know whether it's genetic or some deficiency (phosphoric).

I had this same problem, it is hard water. I was using it in my humidifier as well that's what clued me in, there were deposits all over the inside of the machine. If you have an old pressure cooker and some soft copper tubing you can distill your own water, it's kind of cool.
I have kept using my hard water with no problems.

what if i boiled the water? and thanks for the advise. when should i give nutes? and what kind? how much? im still a hardcore noob at this growing thing. ive never had a green thumb

IpFreely said:

what if i boiled the water? and thanks for the advise. when should i give nutes? and what kind? how much? im still a hardcore noob at this growing thing. ive never had a green thumb

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Boiling won't do anything for hardness. I wouldn't worry about -- it's primarily calcium and magnesium which, at the very least won't hurt the plants and in many cases is beneficial.

Nutes.. My advice? Don't add any unless you see an actual sign of deficiency. If just must "do something" for your plants, there's a huge array of choices. Wait until your plants are at least a month old before you add anything and whatever you add at that point -- mix it at 1/4 of the strength that the label tells you. The vast majority of stuff is way too concentrated for weed when you first start feeding. I burned the shit out of my first plants, and I can direct you to a million pic's on here showing the same thing. Many newbies do it, no matter how often the pros tell you how not to.

You've at least 3 weeks before you need to worry about it. Plenty of time to read up...

Just remember all in all, MJ is a WEED.. it's a tough sum'bitch, and it doesn't need constant babysitting and tweaking, just daily disciplined attention.

If your water is hard enough to show calcium stains on your plants it's definitely too hard for them out of the tap. It's probably also way off on ph. I have the same problem with my water and it nearly ruined my last grow. I had to get a RO machine to fix the problem. They're expensive but worth it. My tap water has a ph of around 5 and a ppm of 350 out of the faucet. After the RO treatment its 6.7-7.2 ph and 5 ppm.

atmt888 said:

If your water is hard enough to show calcium stains on your plants it's definitely too hard for them out of the tap. It's probably also way off on ph. I have the same problem with my water and it nearly ruined my last grow. I had to get a RO machine to fix the problem. They're expensive but worth it. My tap water has a ph of around 5 and a ppm of 350 out of the faucet. After the RO treatment its 6.7-7.2 ph and 5 ppm.

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Hard water is slightly alkaline.. it can push 8.0 if Ca and Mg are the only hardness consituents, but that's rare. The pH of pure calcium carbonate solution at saturation is 8.4; can't go any higher. The "chemical competition" in natural hard waters puts another lid on how high the pH can go, so most "hard" waters are about 7.5

At worst, one might need to use some plain ol vinegar to drop your pH a little bit, about a 1/4 tsp per gallon.

Your tap water at 5.0 and 350 ppm sounds like "sulfate water", which is "soft" in water business lingo but obviously has a lot of salts in it with the 350 ppm. Are you in the northeast... or near the Atlantic or Gulf coast? Utah, Wyoming, west South Dakota? These places have sulfate waters... but they're not the only ones. They occur anywhere the geology is right.

Thinking this a bit more, sulfate water in gypsum-rich states like the interior west can leave white stains, too. So, it behooves you to at least test the pH of your water. Your municipal water provider, if you have one, may already have this info on their website.

how can i lower my ph levels?

IpFreely said:

how can i lower my ph levels?

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In your water, I take it to mean..?

Vinegar... you'll have to experiment with your particular water a bit to find out how much to add to get it where you want it. pH of 6.5 is a good target.

For water that's 7.5 - 8.0, try 1/4 teaspoon per gallon for starts. Check pH and take it from there.

Just FYI, I water with my tap water at 8.0.. never been a problem. In fact, I had quite the opposite problem for awhile -- super-LOW pH from my nutes. Personally, I think pH'ing water to move it down is a waste of effort unless it's way out there, like 9-10 or more. I could go into a huge spiel on soil buffering to tell you why water pH is largely irrelevant.. I know that's heresy.

Kriegs said:

In your water, I take it to mean..?

Vinegar... you'll have to experiment with your particular water a bit to find out how much to add to get it where you want it. pH of 6.5 is a good target.

For water that's 7.5 - 8.0, try 1/4 teaspoon per gallon for starts. Check pH and take it from there.

Just FYI, I water with my tap water at 8.0.. never been a problem. In fact, I had quite the opposite problem for awhile -- super-LOW pH from my nutes. Personally, I think pH'ing water to move it down is a waste of effort unless it's way out there, like 9-10 or more. I could go into a huge spiel on soil buffering to tell you why water pH is largely irrelevant.. I know that's heresy.

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Don't forget good ol fashion PH Down. BTW ph'ing water isnt always a waste of time. I have a horror story from my last cycle. Tap ph was 5.0, I didnt know. Promix ph was 5.5, I didnt know. After nuting the water ph was 4.5 or under, gasp! Plants showed no signs of lockout or deficiency until late veg due to foliar spray. They were apparently getting all their nutes from the spray allowing watered nutes to build up in the soil. They were literally fine one week, looked like shit a few days later. By the time I figured out I needed to flush it was too late, cosmetically at least, they still produced some awsome bud. One plant actually had a soil ph of 3.8!!! Every time I hear someone say they killed a plant I think of how awful that poor abused plant looked and how great it is to still be smokin it.

when testing the PH should i be testing the soil too? and where can i get a decent (but not too expensive) PH meter, so i can stop using these tablets?

bumping for some answers