leaves appear to be a sneaky someone's dinner

thedudeknows

Active Member
Hi all,

Been lurking for a long while and finally got my own grow together. Naturally for my first post, I have to ask for help. ;)

First off, my grow:

Indoor, using SH Bubbleponics modified setup (yeah I know, let's call it a "learning experience")
2 x 85w CFL 3000k/6500k
4 x Caramel Kush from seed in RW with Hydroton
Just went to bloom (adding more lights this week) so 12/12
GH Flora Nutes + Liquid KoolBloom, using low dose in this 6gal res
Currently ~500ppm (PPM500)
Using RO H2O, 1 ppm, I balance to pH 5.5 pre-nutes
Also dosing: SM-90, Revive, H2O2 (I squashed potential root rot early on so I don't fly w/out these anymore)
RH: 40-60%
Res temps: 62-68F
Air temps: 65-80F
Res pH: 5.8-6.3

Other misc:
Healthy root systems, just went through aggressive growth spurts over last 2 weeks, just culled 2 weakest plants from the 6.

These plants went through a lot in their early weeks, more stress than I care to recount. Amazingly they came back and are now very strong, for now. I won't blame this on SH but I will say their product is a bit, misleading, in ease of use.

The grow room is admittedly not ideal, a bedroom with carpet. Lots of ventilation (no direct ducting right now) through the window and a large fan, + oscillating fan 6-7' from the plants, on the plants. I'll be addressing all of this for my next grow.

Here is my problem:

2-3 leaves on 2 separate plants are showing signs of some kind of leaf eater. I cannot, however, find ANY caterpillers/etc. anywhere on the plants or in the room. I have looked with my 60x micro over several leaves and see absolutely no signs of eggs, larvae, bug poo, nothing. No cobwebs either.

I don't foliar feed regularly but I did twice about 3 weeks ago during some tumultuous pH/nute lock times. We came out of that ok! :) So burns from these baby lights aren't likely.

I was thinking of foliar spraying with the SM-90 per the label, 1:5 to H2O, for 3 days with plain H2O in between each spraying. This is really just a stab in the dark though.

Any ideas/help would be great, peace. :leaf:
 

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LandofZion

Well-Known Member
Just a stab in the dark but do you have a cat? almost looks like other close to "punture" marks in one of the pics.
 

thedudeknows

Active Member
I do have cats but they are strictly forbidden from the grow room. :) So I don't think that's it but good thinking... any other ideas?

I have literally hunted all over the plants and cannot find any pests, so I'm left to wonder if it's not just the plant itself. These are relatively new leaves, maybe 1/2 their final size. If it's worse tomorrow I'll try the SM-90 spray I guess.
 

thedudeknows

Active Member
BTW those puncture marks are holes that are expanding, seemingly by the day. The 3rd pic shows 3 holes in the leaf, but 24hrs prior it was only one hole. :|

Otherwise the plants are healthy and thriving, save the leaves that show some of the early stress/nutrient issues.
 

LandofZion

Well-Known Member
Its good it seems to be under control. Maybe note some things you do or dont do so if it happens again maybe you can help eliminate the prob since you didnt find any critters.
 

thedudeknows

Active Member
That's a good tip, thanks. I am keeping a journal since this is my first grow. The only thing I can think of that I did was to rotate a few of the plants, and I remove the two weak ones. These spots were starting (in particular that one leaf with the chunk taken out of both sides) before all that though.

It does look like one or two of them are almost "growing" these holes, or splitting or something. Could that be indicative of a more internal problem w/ these two plants?
 

amsterdayum

Well-Known Member
i had a gnat problem about a week ago couldnt see any of them untill i turned my fan up and saw the fuckers flying around a few of the leaves looked like urs so double check for gnats
 

smokeybandit22

Well-Known Member
loos like your light has burned a hole right through em. happens on leaves that are tucked under one another, creating moisture that is visiable, and once they are no longer covered, get zapped by the light intensity. the holes continue to widen as the leaf gets bigger. does not look like a bug problem, just need a bit more air circulation to disperse built up moisture on the leaf surface
 

thedudeknows

Active Member
smokey I think you might be right. I tried some additional fan action today and saw nothing (phew), and I have noticed (in my twice-daily checkups) some of that moisture build up. I will have to be more vigilant about that I guess. The fan I have on them now is oscillating and a bit closer, and I haven't witnessed any moisture since.

Thanks for the help all, will update if things worsen. :peace:
 

smokeybandit22

Well-Known Member
looking good. don know if u r flowering them yet but if you are, keep in mind in hydro plants use nutes a bit quicker and K usually goes deficient from lack of or excessive salts. looks good though
 

thedudeknows

Active Member
Thanks smokey. :D I am flowering now, end of first week. I'm using a 1/2 dose of Liquid KoolBloom w/ the GH nutes so I am hoping that will take care of any K or P lackings.

Yesterday was our bump from 50% to 75% nutes and the resulting PPM ~850. Strongest they've seen yet so we'll see how they do (I hope they take a liking to their new light). I also flushed with some Clearex. The front-right plant was drooping all its leaves, today it seems to have perked up a bit. This is the problem with growing multiple plants in a single res. :|

While you're here smokey, if you don't mind, I know the general school of thought for room temperatures is ~15F change from day to night, min temp about 65, max about 80. I'm finding my night time temps can drop as low as 55 in the room, res temps may hit 60-62, above-h2o root zone temps ~66-70. Is this cold air temp hindering growth or otherwise harming them (lights are out btw at night)? It might be for 3-4 hrs in the early a.m. for example. Max temps are 80-85 at the cannopy, 70-75 ambient room temp during the day.

Ideally I'd light them for cheaper & cooler at night but I don't have a good light seal around the window yet, working on that for the next grow.
 

smokeybandit22

Well-Known Member
Thanks smokey. :D I am flowering now, end of first week. I'm using a 1/2 dose of Liquid KoolBloom w/ the GH nutes so I am hoping that will take care of any K or P lackings.

Yesterday was our bump from 50% to 75% nutes and the resulting PPM ~850. Strongest they've seen yet so we'll see how they do (I hope they take a liking to their new light). I also flushed with some Clearex. The front-right plant was drooping all its leaves, today it seems to have perked up a bit. This is the problem with growing multiple plants in a single res. :|
well you are smart enough to buy the clearex. hopefully you get to the pint where each one gets their own res-you can completely control their size and their yeild to a degree. more plants=more salt build up-I noticed quite a few posts about GH and excessive salt build ups. they will need the extra strentgh of nutes first month and than you can back down abit.

While you're here smokey, if you don't mind, I know the general school of thought for room temperatures is ~15F change from day to night, min temp about 65, max about 80. I'm finding my night time temps can drop as low as 55 in the room, res temps may hit 60-62, above-h2o root zone temps ~66-70. Is this cold air temp hindering growth or otherwise harming them (lights are out btw at night)? It might be for 3-4 hrs in the early a.m. for example. Max temps are 80-85 at the cannopy, 70-75 ambient room temp during the day.
are you growing in my grow room? b/c ur temps are just about exactly as mine. All res temps are 60-65-If they hit 70 I lower with cold water. My experience is they like it a bit better on the colder side- they can run at higher ppms with less issues-just tons of dissolved o2 in there. Any lower may be a problem. Root zone temps in check-just make sure you are able to somehow circulate the air in there 2x a day. My daytime temps run 75-82, with co2, and usually around 67-68 at night and probably 60ish for 3 hours between 3-6. I would say 55 may be a bit too cold for them, although sometimes I wake up and they look the happiest they have ever been. Remember the internal temp of the foiliage can be as much as 10-15 degrees higher. What I did was purchase a low wattage electric heater from home depot for like 30. It displays the current temp and you can set it for 1-6 hour cycle-I set at 62 and it never comes on. If you are noticing slow growth and some purpling, may be too cold. if not and they are growing just fine, than you prob be ok. Experience will tell you what's best. All seems very much in line. Just make sure you are getting plenty of fresh air and circ in there which u prob already have.

Ideally I'd light them for cheaper & cooler at night but I don't have a good light seal around the window yet, working on that for the next grow.
I hear you on that. Just make sure your dark sched coordiantes with the sun. Im sure u know even the slightest leak can wreak havic. Winter is alot easier to grow in terms of controling the temps and the lights. The best shit I have used for the res maint. was Hydroguard by Botannicare. But they are seeking reapproval from FDA so off the shelf for now.
There is one thing I can turn you on to that I recently discovered.
It's called Citrus Sweet or Berry Sweet by Botanicare. Damn holy shit. Like I have been seeing 20-30% larger finished bud mass and being about 1-2 weeks ahead of flowering sched. All without additional CO2 to boot. This is talking after several grows with the same bud. Basically is like molasses but for hydro. Carbs, sulpher and mg. Like a diff that I did not even know was possible. Something to look into. Makes the smoke a little like fruitty pebbles. barely noticable but noticable.:blsmoke:
 

thedudeknows

Active Member
Sweet, awesome advice thanks dude! I will seek out that heater -- good stuff. There is a slight leak of light through the blinds in the window (partially covered), but standing in the room at dark you cannot see the plants at all, so I assume they will be ok. Thoughts on that? Absolutely no direct light on them at all, but you can just faintly see the room outline in the dark.

Thanks for the reco on the flower enhancer. I will check that out, sounds like a must-have! My local hydro store guy has been working with me on this setup so far, and he recommended this bottle of "Gravity Flower Hardener" from Humbolt. Any experience with that? He swears by it, in very small quantities. Since I already spent the $$ I might have to wait to experiment w/ the Bontanicare stuff. BTW, are both citrus and berry the same other than the flavor they impart? They seem to have both.

Thx again. Hope we're not getting too o/t here. :peace:
 

smokeybandit22

Well-Known Member
Sweet, awesome advice thanks dude! I will seek out that heater -- good stuff. There is a slight leak of light through the blinds in the window (partially covered), but standing in the room at dark you cannot see the plants at all, so I assume they will be ok. Thoughts on that? Absolutely no direct light on them at all, but you can just faintly see the room outline in the dark.

jees, tough call on the light. the most they can have is one half of one foot candle of light-foot candle being the light from a candle ina 12x12 square. I would def seal up that window tomm. Some black garbage bags and duct tape. Or if you have acess to the lights that are close, can you switch em to green lights or fluors? green is ok as they dont absorb that and reflect it back. I mean they obviously flower in outside with the light from the moon, but for me, always better to be safe than sorry especially if it is an easy fix. Look up some threads around these parts-they gotta talk about it.

Thanks for the reco on the flower enhancer. I will check that out, sounds like a must-have! My local hydro store guy has been working with me on this setup so far, and he recommended this bottle of "Gravity Flower Hardener" from Humbolt. Any experience with that? He swears by it, in very small quantities. Since I already spent the $$ I might have to wait to experiment w/ the Bontanicare stuff. BTW, are both citrus and berry the same other than the flavor they impart? They seem to have both.

Havent heard about the humboldt-what's in it? And I think the ingredients are the same for both Citrus and Berry.

Thx again. Hope we're not getting too o/t here. :peace:
no way, that's what this forum is for.
 
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