RDWC Severe Leaf Curl

*sorry about the picture quality with HPS all I have*

Hello I’ve been using my system and growing this strain (wedding cake) for 9 months no issues.

Back in May over night I woke up to severe leaf curl. I flushed and it seemed to get better.

lowered my PPM from 900 to 500. Things were going well for 2 weeks and they curled again.

this has been going on and off and I can’t figure it out. It will be great then overnight go to shit. Affects all plants at same time

I spray neem oil weekly
Checked for bugs with a jewelers loop

RDWC
Flush every Sunday
City tap 120ppm
Ppm 500-600
PH 5.8-6.5
Water temp 68F
Air temp 75F
Humidity 50%
8x12 grow area, each 4x4 has 4 buckets and a 1000w HPS light
Use Hydroguard
Use Jacks 321
Every 12 buckets have (2) 110L/min air pumps and 2 air stones per bucket just incase one fails
Roots look good to me

I don't really have an answer for you @Tarby, lets see if I can bump your post up in the order and maybe someone else will jump in.
I will say that I try to keep my PH under 6 in hydro as a PH over 6 can lock iron out in a water grow but 6.5 isn't too much over that. Still....

I'd stop spraying the neem and keep 5.8 PH see if that helps. Check neem solution not to much.

The Dankstar said:

I'd stop spraying the neem and keep 5.8 PH see if that helps. Check neem solution not to much.

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I don't have any neem experience but I was wondering if the leaf curl might happen around the time they were sprayed. Phototoxic maybe?

Ph was my thought, I run 5.4- 6.0...

Thanks
I change water every Sunday and spray at that time
For some reason this always seems to show up towards the end of the week
I have increased my water changes to 2x a week Sunday and Wednesday.
this is my first week trying this and I will see how it goes.
I will also try to keep my ph no higher then 6-6.1
I’m starting to believe my city tap has changed and it’s killing my Hydroguard but time will tell

Neem sprays with lights on?

I have drenched plants with neem before and never had a negative reaction. I'd say they were murdered or poisoned by something they drank up the roots. Either your EC is way too high or it's a hydrogaurd issue. I guess if the neem is too strong it could be bad. I never tried a strong dose of neem, I just follow the directions. It seems the bottom leaves would be bad too if they got sprayed with strong neem oil.

70's natureboy said:

I have drenched plants with neem before and never had a negative reaction. I'd say they were murdered or poisoned by something they drank up the roots. Either your EC is way too high or it's a hydrogaurd issue. I guess if the neem is too strong it could be bad. I never tried a strong dose of neem, I just follow the directions. It seems the bottom leaves would be bad too if they got sprayed with strong neem oil.

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EC is 1
Been spraying 2oz / gallon neem for a year no issues
I agree something is going on with my water. I even bought a brand new bottle of Hydroguard and plants curled again after 5 days. They recover then curl it’s a vicious cycle
If 2x a week flushes with fresh nutes / hydro / ph to 5.5-6 doesn’t work I’ll switch back to home made UC Roots with an ORP Meter / doser

HydoDan said:

Ph was my thought, I run 5.4- 6.0...

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I’ll try it out thanks

Tarby said:

EC is 1
Been spraying 2oz / gallon neem for a year no issues
I agree something is going on with my water. I even bought a brand new bottle of Hydroguard and plants curled again after 5 days. They recover then curl it’s a vicious cycle
If 2x a week flushes with fresh nutes / hydro / ph to 5.5-6 doesn’t work I’ll switch back to home made UC Roots with an ORP Meter / doser

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Your tap water seems high at 1 EC , any chance you could get a cheap RO water system or get your hands on enough low EC water to try a run with it and see if it helps?

MustGro said:

Your tap water seems high at 1 EC , any chance you could get a cheap RO water system or get your hands on enough low EC water to try a run with it and see if it helps?

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My tap is 120ppm or 0.25EC
My nutrient solution is 1EC

Tarby said:

My tap is 120ppm or 0.25EC
My nutrient solution is 1EC

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Yeah that's not too high with the nutes in there, thought your water was 1.0. I just switched from GH to Jack's 3-2-1 this grow. I ran it around 5.4 and it was too available to the plants and burned their tips. I talked to the Jack's rep and he told me to run the PH at 5.8 and to up my PPM's to what they listed in their chart. My plants seemed to like it. You were at 900 PPMs which is right where I was with a fresh tank. I keep coming back to PH but you're not doing anything wrong that I can see.