The leaves are getting curly. What am I doing wrong?

Hi everyone,

I've started two little Light of Jah's from seed (3 weeks old now) in my 10 gal DWC bubbleponic system and everything's been going very well until now. My leaves are starting to curl up a little and I'm worried.

Here's what it could be:

- They're not getting enough light (My HPS broke, so I've only been using a 15w LED in the meantime. Getting the new HPS any day now, though.)

- Too much nutrients (My TDS reads 675 and rising, although it's around 77 fahrenheit in a 10 gal system with two small plants, so I guess water could be evaporating too.)

- Nutrient lock-out because of hard water (Have been using tap water at 275 ppm. Tried to buy drinking water/mineral water, but it reads around 250 ppm.)

- Damage from fan (I've been using a fan on the plants 24/7 the last week.)



The pH is at 6.1, so it shouldn't be that. Please help, I'm so worried. Should I use the tap water or mineral water?

first off, whats the temp of your water? also I start my Ph at 5.5 and let it rise to 6.5. here is a chart to show you what range differnt nutes are taken in.

My water temp is around 70-75 degrees. So it's better to keep it at a lower pH in the beginning? And going up to 6.5 when flowering?

Water temp seems ok, but i preffer 68-69,and as for i start my PH at 5.5 and let it rise to 6.5 before changing water and adding more nutes. On the chart I posted it states at differnt PH ranges the plant takes in differnt nutes. Thats what I was tought by a master indoor gardner I know. Plus it says that on the chart. I had curling problems when my plants were a few weeks old and this was the first thing I changed, water temp and PH.

Looks like heat stress to me. I'm assuming that 77F was your res temp (which is a bit high.) What's your air temp?

I changed the res and used some cleaner water this time (65 ppm). Adjusted the nutes to 500 and they seem to like it. The ppm is going down slowly and that's a good sign, I guess. I'm sure it will be better when my 125w LED and 150w HPS reaches my doorstep too. Will keep you posted.

Still not getting better. I adjusted the pH last night to 5.8 and the leaves are starting to hang now. Also, the bottom leaves are dying. See pictures.
This is my current status:

- Temperature is down; water temp 70 degrees
- PPM at 440 (in 50 ppm drinking water)
- pH adjusted to 5.7/5.8
- one 120w LED on it and a fan

Could the water level being too high be a cause of this? The water is less than an inch under the pot now. This is not easy.

Can anyone help?

Im far from being a pro but are you sure you meters are calibrated,I just had a ph issue and my meter was way off from the manual drops in a vial. just a thought. peace and grow on

Not really sure. How do I do that? Or check if they're working? My automatic pH meter is 3 weeks old.


Edit: Sorry, I'll look it up. Was not really sure I needed to do that.

Edit II: It's been looked up and now I realize what those little bags that came with the pH meter was for. One says 6.86 and the other says 4. And the instructions are in Chinese. Does anyone know what to do with these? It's in powder form.

So I checked my pH and TDS meter, and they're both fine. TDS off by 80 ppm, but that was it. Now it's at 520 ppm.

Any other suggestions? Could nute burn even be possible? Is 520 ppm for a 6-7 inch plant too much? I'm using GH Bloom only (powder) as recommended by some other users here.

Someone mentioned it could be Natrium deficiency. Should I add some GH Grow nutes?

So it was a nitrogen deficiency. Added GH Micro and they recovered slowly. I was using MaxiBloom alone and it is short in N. Good to know.