Oh No! Leaves Look Like This After 24 Hours!

[rrog]

Up until yesterday all 5 seedlings were a great green and no spots of any kind. They looked like this:

I estimate within 24 hours this 1 plant now has this on the leaves. Same plant.

pH maintenance has been an issue. Travels up rapidly it seems. Was pH adjusted to 5.8 a few days ago and now at 6.25. I have Hygrozyme and a small amount of Peroxide as precautions, but I always have. Also a bubbler.

Started foliar feeding last week, but haven't done a treatment in 3 days.

Using Dutch Nutrient formula at 1/2 strength.

The only thing that comes to mind is that I have very small steams of nute flowing to each cup. There's great drainage, but the small nute stream is directed at the base of the plants, which are in a small Growdan mineral fiber pellet. It's possible that there is a lack of O2.

1 other plant has a small spot of this as well. The last 3 do not, but appear slightly yellower to me than before.

Lights are fluoros set 2" over plants.

I use RO water from a water softener. So there's no Calcium or Magnesium other than what is in the nutes. I haven't checked to see what they contribute in CA+ or MG+

If anyone has any ideas, I'm sure all ears... Thanks very much for the help.

 

[Kinderfeld]

It looks like a result from PH/lockout issues, may need a tag more mg and cal, AFTER ph is corrected. I don't grow hydro so tho...

 

[Syndicate]

Hmmm, you say RO water from a softener? is it actual RO water or from a softener? if it's from a softener you shouldn't use it.

 

[toodles]

If it is a softener you put "bags of salt" in...you need to stop using that water immediately. That is at least part of the problem.

Toodles

 

[sniffs]

Hey guys !

Would a "Brita" be a water softener? A Brita is some kind of filtered water pitcher. It has a filter at the top that you put the water into and then it filters the water into the bottom of the pitcher and it's supposed to make your water good and clean for drinking. I figured since it was good for me to drink it could be ok to use that to water my plants lol , but I have problems kinda like the OP's pics except my spots are a very "pale" yellow/green and cover the complete leaves for the most part.

 

[resinryder]

A Brita filter works differently than a water softener. It takes the chlorine and any off taste out of the water. You add salt to a water softener which is then carried to the rest of your home. Installing a ro system on a water supply line that is fed with a water softener will poison(make it brittle and crack) the diffuser tube in the ro unit quickly and render it useless. A Brita filter does not use salt and contains nothing that would affect the plants but if used for large amounts of water I don't know how long it would last because it's a small unit.

 

[sniffs]

Thanks Resin! Yeah it takes me filling the Brita up about 4x to fill up a gallon jug completely, so it gets kinda tedious when I'm filling up 6-8 gallons lol! If I'm not using my Brita I buy Distilled water from the grocery store...is that alright to use also? I'd rather not have to buy all those jugs from the store though because it's so so many and thats a hassle also + could get expensive! Guess it's time to get a PH meter and see what PH the water is coming from my tap then through the Brita!

 

[rrog]

Thanks for everyone's input. Really, thanks a lot.

Here's what I believe happened.

#1 This second hydro rig was assembled in an emergency fashion after a problem with version 1. So the very bottoms of the cups are in nute solution. Growdan rock wool is wicking nutes up. No biggie except I was also doing continuous drip. So low O2 probably.

#2 As Kinderfeld said, the maintained high pH caused nute lockout, and I'm probably looking at MG+ deficiency.

I stopped the constant drip and moved to intermittent.

I foliar watered with hard well water (full of CA+ and MG+)

I raised the lights slightly.

This all seems to have improved things this AM. To clarify, my well water first runs through a water softener. Then runs through a 5 stage RO system. There is no salt in the resulting RO water. The manufacturer of the RO system actually recommends using a softener before the RO system, because it is much easier on the RO filter to remove salt than CA+ and MG+. I just did some googling regarding Osmosis membranes, and there is universal recommendation to use a softener ahead of the RO. The CA+ and MG+ ions are indeed more damaging than the CL- leftover salt ion.

 

[wolfy_9005]

Brita filters use activated carbon to "purify" the water incase your wondering....

Took one apart and it is like a tube of activated carbon, which allows the water to go in and get filtered i guess...

 

[Weedman Herb]

rrog - CL isn't salt ... NaCl is what we commonly call salt. It stands for Sodium Chloride.

 

[rrog]

Weedman, Thanks, I was aware of that, but very cool of you to clarify.