DWC issues... plants drooping and leaves not right

[operator1]

ok... I flushed the hydroton two days ago with a no sodium distilled water, 1 gallon for each five inch net pot. I then used the no sodium distilled water in the buckets and added nutrient, flora nova grow, to about 550-625ppm, adjusted ph to b/w 5.8 and 6.0, and put everything back together. I also cleaned to air stones as I regularly do. I stopped using superthrive in the buckets though cause the guy at the hydro shop said its not good to mix with organic nutes. My room temp is a steady 75 and the water temp is b/w 65-70. The light is just high enough so there is not any heat issues with the plants, I have a fan running on low blowing over the buckets also... I still have this wilty look to the plants, and they seem to have stopped growing. The roots look good... a little stained by the nutrient solution, but good, not slimy.

Also, the plants still look like they are suffering with salt toxicity, but don't know why anymore. Does it take more than a couple days to pull out of this? Could this have stunted them a bit and I'm not being patient enough?

[PresidentKush]

Micronutes. Add em if you dont have em.

I had the same issue a few weeks ago, I added flouralicious to the mix... (1 drop) and it fixed it.

[operator1]

hmmm... I did not think of that. How much does that stuff cost?

[operator1]

never mind, its 30.00 at my local shop, what about something like thrive alive? anything a little less expensive. I'm on a bit of a budget

[PresidentKush]

The thing with flouralicious is... it will last forever. Ive had the same bottle for a year now. Ive gone through everything else 5x already. You get your moneys worth. Any micronute should do the trick. I hope this is whats wrong, I hate giving advice that leads to a purchase when someones on a low budget. Heh.

One thing about plants... you see the results usually in the new growth.

[operator1]

hmmm... I'll have to go shopping later and see what the deal is. It makes sense though, I knew I was forgetting something.

[operator1]

no other opinions on this, or is micronutrients the universal winner.

Just checking to make sure I'm not missing anything else before I go to the shop in a few.

[DieAbetic]

you could also get FloraMicro (that is what is suppose to be paired with FloraGrow), i think its a bit cheaper. also if you are using distilled water, i would suggest getting Cal-Mag. eventually your plants WILL have a deficiency for Calcium and/or Magnesium in a straight distilled water setup. cant be avoided unfortunately.

[The Corsican]

He's using FloraNova diabetic so I'm not sure if the micro is necessary?

When was the last time you did a complete flush and added fresh nutrients? It could be a toxicity/lockout issue. To be honest your plants don't look bad at all. I saw on leaf (second pic, foreground) that looked a bit curled and the way it looks I would say that was caused by heat stress but the rest look fine so who knows?

-the Corsican.

[operator1]

its more of a edges curling up, or looking up thing corsican... and I flushed the hydroton, cleaned and refilled the buckets two days ago. Before that I cleaned and refilled the buckets about once a week. I'm going to go and see what they have at the shop, undecided at the moment on what, if anything, I'll do.

[operator1]

and the distilled water was only for this week, to kinda avoid any possible salt issues and see if that was the problem.

[The Corsican]

Hey bro,

I wouldn't worry about it. You might be over-thinking things. I was guilty of the same type of behavior so it's not a personal slant at you or anything. I would just keep a watch on the new growth. As long as the new growth is healthy and most of the old growth looks good you should be okay.

-the Corsican.

[robotdinosaur]

The three things that cause leaves to curl up are: Toxic salt buildup (which you've flushed for) lack of water (kinda hard when you're doing DWC - unless the roots are stressed) or heat stress. What's your temp/hygrometer readings? Do you have pictures of the roots?

[operator1]

Corsican... I don't take anything like that as a personal slant, I don't know everything and I know I need help with this from you guys.

RobotD... I read that stuff in the grow bible and that's why I thought it was salt build up, hence the flushing with no sodium distilled water a couple nights ago. My temp as of right now is 72, and the humidity is about sixty five to seventy percent. The humidity usually goes down after the lights have been on for a while (they came on about 45 min ago) as they are on the same timer as my exhaust fan. I know I should run the fan all the time, but there is less chance of people being here later in the day to hear it, and I want most of this stuff running when I know I'll be more likely to be home in case of any problems.

I'll take pics of the roots in a min and post them up.

The grow shop was closed anyway when I just went, maybe I'm overthinking, I don't know. I think I just pay more attention to this cause of the hydro and the quickness in which things can go wrong. With my previous soil grows sometimes I would go 2-3 days without checking on them cause I knew they were good.

[geegee2]

Originally Posted by robotdinosaur

The three things that cause leaves to curl up are: Toxic salt buildup (which you've flushed for) lack of water (kinda hard when you're doing DWC - unless the roots are stressed) or heat stress. What's your temp/hygrometer readings? Do you have pictures of the roots?

Just out of curiosity, I recently had a leaves curl up issue, and I had the feeling that it was due to salt buildup since I was also seeing little burnt tips and I knew I was nuting constantly, so I flushed throughly yesterday.. when should the leaves come down to a normal resting position?

Sorry to kinda hijack your thread Op. I do hope you get it solved bro..

[operator1]

no problem... that does sound like nute burn, and not sure what you mean by a "normal resting position". I've seen fan leaves that point to the light all the time, and others on my plants tend to just kinda hang there outstretched, not wilting though. I guess it depends on how long the stems are on the fan leaves themselves kinda... if they are longer I would guess that the leaves would tend to hang a little lower then leaves with shorter stems. i could be totally off base with this, but I'm sure someone else will be along to offer some help.

[operator1]

some root pics... I still top water a little, but not very often.

[geegee2]

Originally Posted by operator1

no problem... that does sound like nute burn, and not sure what you mean by a "normal resting position". I've seen fan leaves that point to the light all the time, and others on my plants tend to just kinda hang there outstretched, not wilting though. I guess it depends on how long the stems are on the fan leaves themselves kinda... if they are longer I would guess that the leaves would tend to hang a little lower then leaves with shorter stems. i could be totally off base with this, but I'm sure someone else will be along to offer some help.

Hey op!

Yeah I do think it was a show of nute burn setting in/toxicity build up, but I think the flush will help them, and anyhow, that was to be their last feed before chop, so now they are flushed and kindda getting ready for harvest! such a shame to chop them u know?

On the leaves thing, it's not the whole of the leaf pointing up or down, but rather the serrated edge curling up heavily... and the pointed tips also gave me the heads up to flush..

May help come to your grow bro!

[operator1]

thanks... I'm sure you'll be fine, especially with short time left.

[robotdinosaur]

Originally Posted by operator1

some root pics... I still top water a little, but not very often.

The roots look great, perhaps they just needed a flush. Good luck.