Why do some plants look great and others like this.....

i have 8 plants under a 600W HPS in a 4'X4' tray in a E&F setup. they are currently in day 30 of flowering, and are fed 5X daily (to keep up with higher temps in the room 84-90F). the plants were started in 1.5" RW cubes then placed in 6" netpots w/ hydroton.

it seems that some of the plants tops look all withered and crinkled like in pic (1) and some look awesome like in pic (2). i know its not heat damage cause there are plants closer with no damage, even on the same plant. and maybe i dont know enough about nutrients and what-not cause wouldnt that cause problems in all the plants? the only explanation i have found myself is that they might be root-bound but i didnt think that was possible in hydroponics.

anyone have any ideas? this is my first ever grow and im working all the kinks out wth some bagseed before i break out my WW seeds. its things like this i want to avoid with my "real" grow. thanks much fr the help......i have a grow journal but these are the first pics ive been able to take in the last month. i think the growth from then to now is nice, any seasoned growers out there have any good advice/constructive criticism? any and all comments greatly appreaciated.

well i cant see the pics but 5 times a day watering seems like alot.

the 1st pic is one of the ones im concerned about, the 2nd one is the plant directly under the light (which makes me rule out light/heat) pic 103 is the bottom part of the crunchy lookin top, which makes me think its not nutes. pic 100 is another trouble plant.....you get the idea

lol....yeah kinda forgot about those there they are tho

have you checked the ph recently? the do look overwatered a little. I also use ebb &flo and i water 4 times a day and let the water fill up for 30mins or so. wat kinda nutes are you using? also because its flowering time, expect fan leaves to turn yellowish

i'll check the pH tomorrow but everytime i have checked it its been around 5.6-5.8....i only flood for 15 min at a time....im using new earth custom nutes (a local hydro shop brand) custom bloom 3-12-6 and bloom builder 2-15-4. my ppm is around 1400 or so. not sure how well it shows in the pics, but they arent yellow they are a darker green color. but i have others that are receiving the same nutes/water as those that look way better.

based on the pics is there anything i need to do/change/fix? or is it normal for there to be that much difference between plants?

Well It looks to me like they are starved. You said you didn't think you could root bound a plant in hydroponics? You air prune the roots every day. If you want this size I would go with larger pots next time. Just wait till you see that root ball. So I would have to go with a small container looks to be the problem.

However I did find heat stress or PH imbalance would look similar.

Here's a page from The Growers Bible.




Good Luck and look into training your plants.
You will get a much larger yield.

can i train them at this stage? or do i need to begin that earlier? i didnt consider training cause i really didnt think they would get this big....i only vegged for like 2 weeks or so. if they are root bound what do i need to do....remove the root ball and transplant into a bigger container or just move the whole pot i have them in now?

any other opinions out there?

just picked up some 12" net pots....gonna put the 6" pots in them and fill in w/hydroton, hopefully this will help

i def agree wit the otha guy about the heat issue try to keep the temp between 70-80 with 74 being ideal temp. in my experiences really dark leaves are often related to nitrogen overdose even a slight one. my best advice to you is to stick with the well known fertilizer companies there worth the extra couple of buck i use general hydroponics flora series and they work great. give em a try you ll be amazed, but if you do dont use the directions off the bottle look up the lucas formula. best of luck man