overwatering? magnesium deficiency? maybe

Ok, i've attached some pics of what's happening to my plants. i have 5 plants in a hydro system and one potted in soil pic #1 is in the hydro and i noticed it started to look limp yesterday, then this morning the leaves started to curl up, a few hours after that i noticed on 3 of the 5 plants these tiny round yellowish looking dots on the leaves in between the veins, including on the potted plant that is seperate from the others. upon reading some literature, i have come to the conclusion it could be 3 things: 1. overwatering-i had been foliar feeding twice a day (morning and Night) for the last week and the beggining of the week they really seem to flourish from it, i stopped that yesterday when i noticed the limpness. 2. magnesium deficiency. Its been a week and a half since i changed out the water, so it might be unbalanced, so i got some epsom salt and foliar fed the plants that about half hour ago...we will see if this helps or 3. whiteflies, though there is no evidence of them in the room, i have seen only one! though i did notice 5 days ago that there were all these little worm like larvae things in the water, they all seem to have died though.

So if anyone has any ideas what it could be please let me know! much appreciated!

a few things about my set-up.
ebb and flow, with 15 minute on/15 min drain cycles pots filled with hydroton and nothing elsei use floranova (grow) a single airstone in the reservoir of 30 gal. 400 watt HPS, aluminum covered walls, going into my fourth week of veg cycle, ph about 6.3, i have had a fly problem though, 5 or six at a time flying down there, put up fly traps today i did set up my ozone generator yesterday, but turned off this morning after i noticed problems with plants. i don't have a lid for the tub the plants are in so i added perlite to cover the roots so they don't burn from the lamp, thinking this could also be part of the problem? Anywho that's all i can think of now. Please Help! don't wanna lose my first grow, and i have to go into flowering next week! Thnak in advance.

Regardless of what it might be, I'd change the nutrient solution out for a fresh batch for starters, watch out for getting too heavy handed making the new mix, more fertilizer doesn't always = better...especially with nitrogen. The pH sounds good but do you know what the is EC or TDS/ppm is? Stop the pm foliar feeding. Am is OK because leaves will dry out before lights out. Skip the epsom salt treatment until you get things back to square one. Diagnosing things is difficult. Better to start with a clean batch of solution and stop all other treatments. Plants may need to have their root zones flushed. This can be done with a very dilute nutrient solution made from your regular nutes. When I see leaf tips curling up and getting toasted I usually suspect I goofed on making my nute mix. So I got a TDS meter and that and a good pH test kit have kept me on track. I often find weird changes just after I made some change in the past few days to the system. Did you change something in the past few days?

If I had to guess it looks more like a zinc deficiency to me. Changing out the nutes and flushing would help that issue. Very common.

KingInDaCloset said:

Regardless of what it might be, I'd change the nutrient solution out for a fresh batch for starters, watch out for getting too heavy handed making the new mix, more fertilizer doesn't always = better...especially with nitrogen. The pH sounds good but do you know what the is EC or TDS/ppm is? Stop the pm foliar feeding. Am is OK because leaves will dry out before lights out. Skip the epsom salt treatment until you get things back to square one. Diagnosing things is difficult. Better to start with a clean batch of solution and stop all other treatments. Plants may need to have their root zones flushed. This can be done with a very dilute nutrient solution made from your regular nutes. When I see leaf tips curling up and getting toasted I usually suspect I goofed on making my nute mix. So I got a TDS meter and that and a good pH test kit have kept me on track. I often find weird changes just after I made some change in the past few days to the system. Did you change something in the past few days?

Click to expand...

Yeah just what he said


Guys Im soo stoned!

flush for sure

Thanks man, i just changed out my water and even cleaned everything with hydrogen peroxide cuz i thought it might be some sort of mold,(the resevoir was kinda dirty and cluttered) and then flushed the plants with ph balanced water, no nutrients. Unfortunatly, i dont have a TDS meter, can't afford one right now, so im gonna have to trust in floranova, i'm only using about 2/3 the recommended dosage with this new mix. So i guess i wait now and see huh? Good news is the newest leaf growth still appears to be healthy along with the main stem. Only two of 6 appear to be limp and 4 of six have those yellow spots. Although one of the ones with the yellow spots is the one potted in soil, apart from the hydro. and, i use a different watering can for that one with no nutes. Which Leads me to believe that it was the foliar spray, which i stopped yesterday. i have been on a 24/7 light regimen, would that be a possible cause? I've also noticed in the time since my last posting that some of the leaves have a slight greyish/purplish to them, hope that isn't a sign its getting worse! Anyway, thanks for the advice, i'll keep it updated!

It would take a day or 3 to know if it is any better or not, gotta be patient.

It's hard to say given no pics of the rest of what your talking about.

Still no new damage that i can see. I just noticed today that the stems on two of them have turned purplish near the top of the plant, the bottom remains a nice helathy green tho, not sure if this was there before.

Reading up on potassium deficiencies, this most accuratly describes whats going on, not sure about the purple stem though.

Should i remove the bottom leaves that have curled up and seem to be dead or very near dead?

savag3kush said:

Still no new damage that i can see. I just noticed today that the stems on two of them have turned purplish near the top of the plant, the bottom remains a nice helathy green tho, not sure if this was there before.

Reading up on potassium deficiencies, this most accuratly describes whats going on, not sure about the purple stem though.

Should i remove the bottom leaves that have curled up and seem to be dead or very near dead?

Click to expand...

You can, take a pic lets see what they look like.
I let my leaves die and fall off.
Only remove them if they are over50% damaged.
The damage will not get better just new growth will be normal.

whats your temp at night,cool temps can cause purple .Unless it is a purple strain

here's some pics of my set-up and leaf progress since monday when i cleaned and changed everything out. Another pic is of the purple in the stem. Looks like there are a couple of leaves i could probably just remove right? New growth seems to be doing fine and they have grown a little in the past 3 days as well, so i think things are good! To answer your question super joint temps are a constant 72-75 degrees 24/7. ventilation isn't the greatest, i have some duct work from the AC pumping air into the 5'x6'x5' room constantly and a hole at the top to release, but thats it. One 6" oscillating fan blowing full speed at all times. Humidy 29%. Not sure what strain these plants are from, recieved froma buddy of mine.

Due to time constraints, i have to go into flowering mode tomorrow, even though they are less than a foot tall. A couple wuestions i have, if anyone is up to answering them is:

1. Can i wait a few days after switching the light cycle to 12/12 before i switch out the water and nutes for they 'bloom' nutrients i have?
2. WhAT can i do to speed up the flowering process? (i only have 7-8 weeks for this part) (moving!)
3. Should i remove the dead leaves?
4. should i switch out water/nutes every week or two weeks?

ALSO, any other advice y'all could give me about flowering plants this size that have only been growing 4 weeks would be appreciated, along with other tips! Thanks guys, you have been a great resource!