Leaves cupping, please help.

They look under-watered, but I grow hydro in my room. I flood my 5 gallon tray 3 times a day for 30 minutes each time. I'm considering bumping it up to 4 because the reservoir has dropped dramatically and I'm thinking that means they're extremely thirsty, but I'm not sure that's the issue because I'm new to this. I know there's other things that look like under-watering, but everything seems alright.


The only thing that stuck out to me besides the reservoir level were the lights. They were like 2 inches from the plant and there wasn't good air flow up there, so I considered heat stress. So I raised the lights to 4 inches from the plants and made sure the fan was blowing across the bulb/top area.



I'm somewhat fresh off a reservoir change, but not entirely fresh, because I changed it Thursday, which is also when I switched to 12/12. Everything was fine until today, when I noticed that my reservoir was almost half empty.

I've checked my pH and it's at 5.8. The amount of nutrients is the most I've given it yet, so its not a deficiency. Under/over watering or heat stress is all I can think of. I appreciate any help. I'm growing in gravel. Temperatures in the grow space is 79 degrees, my water is 74.

Thanks for any help.






1) PICTURE OF PLANT *** VERY IMPORTANT ***
2) Growing indoor or outdoors -- Indoors
3) Watering schedule -- 3 times a day, ebb & flow
4) Growing Medium -- Gravel
5) What stage of growth -- 1st week of flowering

What type of light are you using? Have you used your hand to feel out the heat under the light?

Oh, I'm using 8 23W CFLs. I felt them after I looked at the reservoir, they felt too hot to hold and the space around them was warmer than I'd like, so I have a fan more or less blowing across the bulbs and tops of the plant now and I can hold onto the bulbs in my hand.

I'm thinking that was the issue, but it seems that the cupping has continued to progress, so I don't know. Maybe it was on track to get a tad worse before it gets better, but I'm not comfortable waiting it out without checking off everything so if I wake up tomorrow and it's still like this, I can move on to the next problem.

My issue is that the heat is the only problem I can think of because I'm a beginner. But I've been growing this way my entire grow, with my pH being at 5.8, flooding my tray 3 times a day, following the nutrient company's feeding schedule.... and everything has been fine.


Thanks for the reply.

It may be from a slight excess of N. Things look healthy. Try cutting back the nute strength by 25% next time through. The company's feeding schedule is often 25-50% too strong.

think what have you changed recently when you moved them into flower, i might be baked here but i can see nothing wrong in your picks lol,....

you dont have to have your light exactly 2inches away, some strains will like it a little higher others a little lower....

Thanks for the fast responses guys. I was shitting bricks and they've softened up a little.


I know they look healthier than most people's pics in this section, but my leaves use to be soft yet stiff like the hair on the back of a pissed off cat. They're a little droopier than I'm used to so I posted some pics before it possibly became a disaster.

The suggestion about too much N, that may be. I'm using this schedule and I'm on the 1st week of 12 hours.

https://www.liquidsun.bz/shop/images/feed charts/foxfarm/FoxFarm Hydroponic.jpg

You think 2tsp/gal was too much? If I'm not mistaken, they're getting less N than before. Though, that's all I've changed since going into flower.

Thanks for the suggestions, guys.

I think it is heat stress. move the bulb up and in a couple days the leaves should look less tired and dull. Give em a spray before lights out.

The claw leaves are pretty consistant with high N and heat stress. Burgertime is right. Do both and see what happens. Read as much as you can on RIU. I use FF too. I cut in in half at my heaviest levels.

Thanks for the help. I sprayed them with water before lights out.

The heat stress would probably explain why my reservoir was half empty. I read that when it's too hot, the plants sweat alot and need more water. If I don't see improvements, I guess I'll change out the reservoir again. The res looks less concentrated than it did when I first mixed it up, though. When I first mixed it, I could stir up the res and not even be able to see the bottom. Now, I can see the bottom after stirring the settled nutrients.

I hope I didn't waste an entire res change.

hmm they look a nice colour, but in middle to late stages of over feeding they do look dehydrated
and some of the tips look burnt cant really see from the pics , many of the leaves seem to be affected
normally if you catch it early you will see the burning on just the new growth, or a few leaves here and there but it looks like you have it on old and new growth, they may of been suffering for a while
they dont look too distorted though, if you ease off on the food, and wait and check to see if the new growth starts growing normal or not, they should be able to recover from this and just grow it out

peace