Shiny Leaves! Good Or Bad Problem IDK! What Caused It??? IDK!

I watch this plant closely and it seemed like over night it is building an incredible shine from the bottom up.

It is a practice cup for future solo cup comps. Luckily I have good pictures from today and 3 days ago.
This one has only been fed once. About 1 1/2 tsp of FF Marine Cuisine 10-7-7 about 10 days ago. It is 27 days old from when it peeked out of the soil.
It has been fed small quantities of water every day most of the time avoiding run off. 1 part tap 3 parts RO creating 150ppm water.
Pictures from 3 days ago and today were both taken when the plant was light and thirsty.
Yesterday I increased the distance of the 600w hortilux hps from 24" to 30". Glass enclosed but not air cooled at this time.
Only other thing that I can think of is it got a small amount of neem oil spray 3 days ago and a small spray of dawn soapy water yesterday. Both were lightly sprayed on the soil surface for fungus gnats. The leaves have not been given any type of foliar.
It's just weird. Not sure if it was caused by the marine cuisine. Not sure if the shine is a good thing or that maybe I should have only fed less, maybe 1 tsp instead of 1 1/2 tsp of Marine Cuisine.
Wondering if anyone has experience with it.
Curious why it is creating the shine from the bottom up and if that means anything?

I love that I have pictures of the change from 3 days ago.
Appreciate any thoughts or comments.
Happy Growing!

These two pictures were taken 3 days ago. Day 24 from seed before getting watered.


These two were just taken. Day 27 from seed before getting watered.

don't give her any more N; she has excess, that's all. that's also why your leaves are so dark green.
are you waiting for your soil to be close to 100% dry before you water it? if so how are you telling wheather its dry or not?

min0r said:

don't give her any more N; she has excess, that's all. that's also why your leaves are so dark green.
are you waiting for your soil to be close to 100% dry before you water it? if so how are you telling wheather its dry or not?

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That's what I was wondering, if it was N tox.
They only get fed water once a day and are bone dry in the morning.
Is it normal for N tox to show at the bottom and work its way up the plant?

Kushash said:

That's what I was wondering, if it was N tox.
They only get fed water once a day and are bone dry in the morning.
Is it normal for N tox to show at the bottom and work its way up the plant?

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yeah, most problems do that. you can see your bottom leaves are starting to claw. are your leaves drooping becuase they're underwatered by the morning time?

i agree, you need to find something with lower N, looks pretty healthy otherwise,

Thanks for the replies!
They were fed about 10 days ago with the Marine Cuisine 10-7-7. Going to keep with the water only and ride it out.
1 1/2 tsp of Marine Cuisine 10-7-7 was to much.
Probably would have been OK with 1 1/2 tsp of DTE Bio Live 5-4-2. Maybe 3/4 tsp of Marine Cuisine would have been OK. Trying to dial in when to fertilize, what ferts to use and how much to use.

I would say its the foliar spraying making it shiny.
It is a bit high in N mind but neem will shine.

Just curious but why are you avoiding run off?

Get it out of that cup quickly though. Shiny, waxy leaves are very good.

Kushash said:

Thanks for the replies!
They were fed about 10 days ago with the Marine Cuisine 10-7-7. Going to keep with the water only and ride it out.
1 1/2 tsp of Marine Cuisine 10-7-7 was to much.
Probably would have been OK with 1 1/2 tsp of DTE Bio Live 5-4-2. Maybe 3/4 tsp of Marine Cuisine would have been OK. Trying to dial in when to fertilize, what ferts to use and how much to use.

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are your leaves drooping because they're underwatered in the morning time? yes or no? if they aren't you arent watering right. you need to let them droop a bit, it's not bad for the plant. you want the roots to reach for the water, not always have a constant supply.

ANC said:

Get it out of that cup quickly though.

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^^ what he said

coreywebster said:

I would say its the foliar spraying making it shiny.
It is a bit high in N mind but neem will shine.

Just curious but why are you avoiding run off?

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I'll get back in a minute on the run off.

I didn't foliar spray.
Here is a quote from my 1st post.
"Both were lightly sprayed on the soil surface for fungus gnats. The leaves have not been given any type of foliar."

He is practicing for the 16oz party cup comp. No point potting up in that case.

There are 5 levels of health for a plant, level 4 is where they get the nice shiny leaves... when they get to 5 they will kill bugs trying to eat it.

ANC said:

Get it out of that cup quickly though. Shiny, waxy leaves are very good.

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ANC said:

There are 5 levels of health for a plant, level 4 is where they get the nice shiny leaves... when they get to 5 they will kill bugs trying to eat it.

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So do you feel it is good?
Not to much N?

Well, you are going to have to dial the N down as you are flowering, but I would say you will grow some healthy weed with that little plant.

Thanks!
In the last comp I did have a bad case of N tox. Long story but I had 5 cups and experimented on some.
The N tox did not look the same as this.

This green shine seems like the type you mention ANC. The type that is good at repeling bugs.
Maybe it's not good I really am not sure.

Here are a couple from the solo cup comp when I over fertilized N. These displayed N tox at the top.

coreywebster said:

I would say its the foliar spraying making it shiny.
It is a bit high in N mind but neem will shine.

Just curious but why are you avoiding run off?

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In the comp I watered to where I had mild runoff each time and had some amazing roots show up at the bottom at about this stage but was disappointed when I took the soil apart after the comp. I expected great roots and they were not impressive at all. So I'm experimenting with watering as much as I am with fertilizing. This grow I am watering them lightly compared to last grow where I made sure the soil was evenly moist.

min0r said:

are your leaves drooping because they're underwatered in the morning time? yes or no? if they aren't you arent watering right. you need to let them droop a bit, it's not bad for the plant. you want the roots to reach for the water, not always have a constant supply.


^^ what he said

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I'm not sure why they are drooping overall. In the pictures in the 1st post they were as light as can be. I just watered them after the pic, they may perk up I'll have to check.
Some of the droop may be from heat stress. I have a rough time in the summer with temps. That was one of the reasons I backed the lights off from 24" to 30" to see if they would be happier.

Kushash said:

In the comp I watered to where I had mild runoff each time and had some amazing roots show up at the bottom at about this stage but was disappointed when I took the soil apart after the comp. I expected great roots and they were not impressive at all. So I'm experimenting with watering as much as I am with fertilizing. This grow I am watering them lightly compared to last grow where I made sure the soil was evenly moist.

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Cool, its worth trying anything to get ahead of the competition.
Its good to be able to experiment, its not something a lot of will risk doing with our whole regular crops.

OK! So this was unexpected.
I just looked in on them and the shine has dissipated.
I tried to position the plant the same in the most recent picture.
In the last couple of hours it has lost some of the shine and the leaves are standing a bit taller than they were before getting watered.
The shiny leaf facing forward looks like a different leaf in the second picture.

Kushash said:

I'm not sure why they are drooping overall. In the pictures in the 1st post they were as light as can be. I just watered them after the pic, they may perk up I'll have to check.
Some of the droop may be from heat stress. I have a rough time in the summer with temps. That was one of the reasons I backed the lights off from 24" to 30" to see if they would be happier.

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they look over watered(only leaf drooping, not the stem). they should be drooping(both leaf and stem) when you're about to water them. if you're not watering right, and you're gonna end up with root rot. especially with that small space the roots are in. when you water btw, you should be completely saturating your pot. i dont understand why you're avoiding run off.
could be heat stress(on the bottom), but i have a strong feeling youre just pushing it with the N with how dark your leaves are.