First Grow, How's my plant? [SuperCloset]

So, been lurking for a while on RollItUp, reading and learning techniques and what to look for in deficiencies, and have finally started my first grow (of any kind) in a hydroponic cabinet.

I'm about a month from seed. I started by germing 11 seeds, but shortly after the cotyledons came up, a friend asked if he could try to put a piece of a cactus in with them. For whatever reason, I ended up taking the seedlings (in rockwool) out of my cloner, and back into the humidity dome. Big mistake. Overnight several of the seedlings had stretched to around twice their size, and fell over.

Now about 3 weeks later, I have 3 healthy Indica plants [Barney's Farm-Critical Kush], and 2 healthy sativa plants [Barney's Farm-Laughing Buddha].

My strongest 'Critical Kush', affectionately referred to as "Bertha", has grown into a Y-shape, since her first node. At first she came up with a fan leaf on either side, and one parallel to the stem, making her look almost humanized (two arms and a head). Now, unlike any of my other plants, she is growing in two directions, with that same single leaf standing in the middle of it all.

Early pic:

Current pic:

While I've heard of this type of thing happening when you top the plant, this has been its natural shape. I haven't cut any part of her off, or tried to super-crop or bend the stem. I have tied down either side to try give the other plants around her a chance to catch up, but by that time it had already taken the shape seen above. Is this natural, is there anything I should think about doing to maximize this trait if it ends up being a good thing for flowering?

And a different plant of mine, one of the Buddha's, looks like she's had one of her leaves cut in the middle, however I don't know of any way that it could have happened, so I'm starting to think it might be a deficiency of some sort, and if so I want to catch it as early as possible...

Leaf in question is on the right side:


Temps staying at 73-78 F, Humidity 30-35%, 18/6 under 2x24W T5 Fluorescent strips, store-bought RO distilled water, Techna-flora RFS nutes to ~380ppm, pH stable at 5.5-6, small high-velocity fan for circulation.

Thank you in advance for any insight, it would be greatly appreciated.

since it's only one leaf I wouldn't worry about it. if other leaves start to look like the one you pointed out I'de start investigating. Are you phing your nutes? only reason I ask is because the fan leaves should be pointed upwards like they are "praying" when the plant is healthy and happy with what it's getting. assuming your ph is where it needs to be, horizontal fan leaves means it's needing more nutrient, usually nitrogen.

Still though, you've got a healthy looking plant, good job.

do you smoke around your plants? sometimes tobacco mosaic virus can look like bugs are eating your leaves. slim chance but worth mentioning.

Self topping plant, you gotta love it.. Only had 1 do that before, nothing to worry bout. Just keep your ph stable, res temps low. And dont fall into the trap of trying to follow a set feed schedule. Your plants will let you know wghen they need something. Thats why you see so many burnt plants from people following charts instead of there plants.

The Growery said:

since it's only one leaf I wouldn't worry about it. if other leaves start to look like the one you pointed out I'de start investigating. Are you phing your nutes? only reason I ask is because the fan leaves should be pointed upwards like they are "praying" when the plant is healthy and happy with what it's getting. assuming your ph is where it needs to be, horizontal fan leaves means it's needing more nutrient, usually nitrogen.

Still though, you've got a healthy looking plant, good job.

do you smoke around your plants? sometimes tobacco mosaic virus can look like bugs are eating your leaves. slim chance but worth mentioning.

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I keep the pH in the reservoir balanced to 5.5-6 (bright yellow with the drop test), should I be buffering the nutrients on their own? Or just keep the reservoir balanced?

The leaves usually are perked up, however I just topped off the reservoir last night, so the water level might be a tad high, which might account for some of the droopy leaves. I will look into fine-tuning my nutrient mix though, if they don't perk up more within a day or two.

As for smoking around the plants, only cannabis, and I open my windows to let the smoke blow out. However I have heard that the tar in the smoke can build up in/on the leaves, so I might just have to start going outside and smoking in the sun.

the res ph should be 5.2 they say thats the best and room temp 76 and water res cooler than that in the 60;s when toping off res check and correct ppm then correct ph over all looks pretty good becareful of nutes there is no buffer with hydro if you put to much in they die over nite

The Growery said:

since it's only one leaf I wouldn't worry about it. if other leaves start to look like the one you pointed out I'de start investigating.
do you smoke around your plants? sometimes tobacco mosaic virus can look like bugs are eating your leaves. slim chance but worth mentioning.

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So you said if It starts showing up on other leaves to investigate.. Well This morning I found one of the new leaves (the adjacent branch) had the same type of thing going on. Also, I failed to mention it earlier, but one of the fan leaves on that plant is severely browned and in is probably dead. I assumed that this was just extensive Nute Burn, but it might be related? None of my other plants are showing the same tearing that this one is... *knocks on wood*

Pic of leaves showing 'tearing':

First set of fan leaves on same plant (Has shown what I considered Nute Burn since early seedling stage..):

Those first true leaves die eventually anyways nothing to really worry about there. As for the leaf cut that is odd, I have not had any experience with insects in my grow but have you noticed anything crawling around? my best guess for the cut, that one leaf situation def looks ph/nute related since you should have been too 3 to 5 leaflets

natro.hydro said:

Those first true leaves die eventually anyways nothing to really worry about there. As for the leaf cut that is odd, I have not had any experience with insects in my grow but have you noticed anything crawling around? my best guess for the cut, that one leaf situation def looks ph/nute related since you should have been too 3 to 5 leaflets

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I've been looking everytime I go to check pH/PPM/Temps/Water level/(Growth in the past 15 seconds) but I haven't seen anything crawling or anything that looks like larva/eggs. I'll probably be switching them over to flower under a HPS next week. They're about 6 inches tall, and I only have around 28 inches of height available in the flowering chamber.

Quick update, and asking for advice...

Took these pics just a few moments ago, I've moved them down to the main flowering chamber, but still have them on an 18/6 (week 4.5 from seed). When should I switch them over to flower? I Had to extract the rockwool from the net-cup, as the roots had tangled around the net-cup, and some roots were lost taking all of them out slowly. They are slowly growing down into the water, but the majority of the root-mass is in the net-cup with the hydroton.

pic of flowering chamber setup:

Edit:close up of new growth on Critical Kush (Indica):

Also, Anyone have any tips on lowering reservoir temps? I'm getting 77-81F Air, and 73-76 water temps since turning my HPS on.

Those are some fat leaves for a sativa juust sayin...

harley420 said:

Those are some fat leaves for a sativa juust sayin...

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actually you're right. That was actually one of my critical kush right beside my Laughing Buddhas. But the leaves are about the same proportions on all four plants. Though, the two Indica are shorter. They're both hybrids, the buddha is more sativa than indica (if there's actually a percentage), and the Kush is more indica.