Please Help!

I don't know what is wrong with my babies! I have 4 plants in veg, about 60 days old. Some of the bottom leaves are turning yellow, and others have little spots of brown and are seemingly dry.
There are also these little hooks/chunks on the sides that are missing and holes in the leaves..which I cant figure out. For the most part my grow space is clean.. I had one big ass black fly get in my grow-closet some how, and since then there have been problems. I killed the fuck out of the fly, but have seen a few gnats recently... maybe baby black flies?

My area is dry, and around 3,200 ft sl. Im growing indoor with bubblponics..

I JUST pH'd down my res, which is why it is so low at 4.9 > itl be back up to 5.5 within a few hours

Thanks for everyone's help! I hate to see my ladies suffer..

OK, so why is you PH bounceing all over the place? I undersatnd you are using BubblePonics, but what is the plant sitting in? Do you have rockwool, or is it just sitting in one of those rubber pucks with the roots hanging down. What brand of nutrients are you useing also, and how much per gallon. One more thing. Are you useing R/O water or what? And what is the tempurature of your rez?

Hey Dangly, thanks for helping me out!

I am using the GH Flora series with some SuperThrive, Botanicare Cal+mag plus, and soon some Botanicare sweet berry. My res temps are 72-78 ( I know they need to be lower but can't do anything about it at the moment) my ppm is 350 and I am using filtered water. I raised my seedlings in rockwool, and the bubbleponics has 3in net pots with grow stones similar to lava rock.

I originally was using tap, and that was killing them of course - so I use filtered now, which is ph'd at 6.8-6-9 and at 30ppms out of the jug before I do anything, then I try to keep it anywhere from 5.3-6.4. It goes up about 1.0 every 24 hrs. They showed signs of nute burn awhile back, and maybe now as well but I thought it would have gone away by now and or have gotten better.

I also just took some clones, so I was thinking maybe that is what some of the lower yellow leaves are caused from.. but don't know why they would just start dying.

I will give that a shot Dangle, but have been told by others that it is eventually inevitable - that my pH will fluctuate. I have been using the same water for the most part (adding about 1/2gal of COLD every other day to keep water levels even -either from evaporation or the ladiez drinking) I try to keep my water level at around 3 in below my pots, but sometimes bring it up to within 1in, or let it drop down to 4-5in depending on whether or not I am trying to get the roots to grow more length, or more feeder hairs.

BluBerry has a great thread that I derive many practices from, https://www.rollitup.org/dwc-bubbleponics/432319-round-2-extrema-el-monstre-2.html#post5768497 ;

There are a few things I can think of, that may be behind the pH fluctuations.. because some people say its normal and some do not.

A few things I think MAY be causing the pH fluctuations:

1) I am using Flora Micro-hardwater, because as I said I was using tap in the beginning. I do not know the chemical differences between the two, and perhaps it is responsible.
2) I have a water pump in the bottom of my reservoirs recirculating the water for 30 minutes once every 5 hours. Maybe this is causing excess oxygenation of the water.. and somehow altering the pH.. (I have no fucking clue how that would work)
3) Evaporation and or feeding leads to my pH rising.
4) Parasites living in my roots - I have looked at my roots closely, and cannot find any evidence of grubs or worms or anything like that. My roots are awesome, on one plant. The one directly next to it also has mediocre roots, but the two in the back have really small, shitty root systems. One that took a real hard hit from nute-burn and the bad tap has some dead roots dangling down ( I was going to pull em out but thought better of it- these dead roots may also be raising the alkalinity). there is new root growth coming from the sides of the net pot, but not where those dead roots are. this is my only JackHammer which is the only reason I have kept it alive.


So you think the high pH is behind the leaf holes, chunks, and burns? If so I would much rather have that as my main problem. Fuck bugs.

Maybe it's dying of old age
Wtf I veg these for 31 days today was the last day of veg
This is "hillbilly hydro" don't ask that's what journal is for!
View attachment 1731380

When I ran my system, I had a water pump with a T on the connection which ran 24/7 with a 6" round disk air stone. This kept the rez circulating very well. I would not think that would be your problem. You said your water out of the tap is 6.8-6.9 PH. What is the water after you add the nutrients? And have not ph correct it yet.

GhettoG - thank you for ze input, but it is definitely not dying of old age lol. They are only 60 days old, still haven't put into flower, and they aren't auto's - its Sannies Killing Fields F3.

For Dangle-

**^^^ In my last post^^^**
Not using tap anymore.. I am using filtered, which (also in last post) is at about 6.7-6.8 BEFORE I do anything to it. with a ppm of 30 (BIDATI).

I usually do not have to put any pH downer in my res the first time I mix the nutes.. It usually drops by itself due to GH having the Flora series pH buffered - I usually only have to start adding pH down after 48 hrs or so, trying to keep it between 5.3-6.3.

Recently I have just been adding 3parts GRO, 2parts MICRO, and 1 part BLOOM and 1 part SuperThrive whenever the ppm drops below 300.

I try to let the water drop 3-4 in before adding more water.. subsequently the ppm will drop after I add new water if they've been eating. I have been keeping the ppm anywhere between 300 and 500.
At 500 a few weeks ago I lost a JackHammer - they are MUCH more sensitive to the nutes.
I dropped it to 420 for good measure, and one kept getting more and more sick, even after i raised the water level.. so I then flushed again and dropped to 350..
The sickling perked back up and was doing fine until a few days ago when I cloned them. Now her leaves are looking dry and shit. I top fed her some nice cool water two days ago and she perked back up temporarily, but starting to look dried out again.. maybe her roots are just too weak to go on.. stunted from the tap and over nute, and unable to fully recover and support itself.

In any case I will clone the JackHammer again in a few says if she recovers, and then throw her into flower with my first batch of clones. She will not do as a mother.

It is also interesting to me that the JackHammer does not exhibit these little rust spots and holes and chunks out of the leaves like the Killing Fields do. If the JH is having problems with nutes it just starts to shrivel up and dry out. It does also exude some discoloration on the upper leaves.. and curling/waving of the leaves like the others, but no spots and chunks missing.

I think I would start PHing the Rez at 5.3 and allow it to spike at 5.8. Instead of PHing at 5.8 and allowing it to spike at 6.4.

My thoughts as well - That's exactly what I've been doing. I dose it down to 4.8-5.0 most of the time (1ml for 3-4 gal) and it comes back up to 6.3-6.4 after 24 hr or so. 1st pic in the 1st-post shows it at 4.9 and I think I explain it as well.

Any new thoughts on why my leaves aren't lookin good? and/or other reasons why the root systems might be fucked in my other three ladies? - I am kind of convinced it was due to the tap water in the first few weeks and maybe some over-nute... but idk. I always thought roots were pretty tough.

transplanting the largest into a hempy bucket tonight

How long have you been useing this brand of nutrients?

looks like it is iron def. if that;ll help you resolve the problem. among doing everything else as suggested by the master above me

Hey Gob, thanks for stopping by. Should I just use some blackstrap molasses for the iron? What would you suggest?

Hey Dangle - I have been using these nutrients for the entire grow. If you have a moment, check out my grow thread.
https://www.rollitup.org/general-marijuana-growing/437974-my-1st-bubbleponics.html

That has pretty much every single detail of my grow.

Besides all the nutrient problems, do you have bugs? if so what kind?

lol. I started this thread because I DONT know what is wrong with them now.. it seems I'm getting more questions than answers lol. I was doing everything correctly up until about two weeks ago I suppose, because they looked damn good and were growing fast...then they started getting spots, holes, little chunks missing, and turning yellow now recently (only the bottom leaves) . - To answer your question, I have only seen one rather fat black fly.. who was in there for 2 days about a week ago - then I killed him. I also have seen a few tiny little things that will fly when I walk into the closet in the morning, then I don't seem them for awhile.. It looks kind of brown, but it is gnat sized.. there can't be that many of them, because I normally only see one, and have only seen two at the same time, once.

-These things, whatever they are, showed up about a week ago, but the problems with my plants started about two weeks before when I initially overdosed them.

TheGreenHornet said:

Hey Gob, thanks for stopping by. Should I just use some blackstrap molasses for the iron? What would you suggest?

Hey Dangle - I have been using these nutrients for the entire grow. If you have a moment, check out my grow thread.
https://www.rollitup.org/general-marijuana-growing/437974-my-1st-bubbleponics.html

That has pretty much every single detail of my grow.

Click to expand...

i dont know about blackstrap, i would go out and get some chelated iron though...a half gallon is like 20 bucks where i am at, and it will last you a lifetime...and i wish i could help you with more dude...PH fluctuation is never good esp. that much of a flucs... here ya go

sorry it wouldnt let me post the chart...just google nutrient chart

If I was you. I would do as Gobkii has suggest and also figure out what is causeing this PH fluctuations. And Fix it, even if you have to flip nutirents to another brand. You MUST keep the PH below 5.9. If anyone tells you a PH of 6.4 is ok for bubbleponics, they have never used one. And listening to a Hydro Shop Employ on what to do, is like listening to a car salesmen on how to build an engine.

This is why I do not use BubblePonics, or DWC. These do great when they are dialed in exactly as needed. But as soon as something goes wacky, you plants go wacky also.

Ok, thanks guys. I really appreciate your help. I will look more into the pH fluctuations.. and get some chelated iron as well. I have never heard of anyone having problems with the GH Flora series in bubble ponics, but maybe the addition of superthrive and or cal/mag has something to do with it.. although again, I have heard no problems with the applications of these in bubbleponics/dwc.

DAMMIT! lol - thanks again