Boron/Calcium problems (need help)

Okay so I have been starting to get more and more worried about this problem because its not going away.

I think its a boron deficiency, but it might be toxicity, I don't know.


Here is a picture of one of my plants.





It starts out as a small rust colored spot in some random place on the leaf, then after a few days it grows and gets browner and browner and spreads.

Both plants are growing at healthy rates now, but I don't want this problem to spread.

It seems to affect the oldest leaves first, then spreads to younger sets.

I am following the foxfarm hydro feeding schedule with my ph around 5.8-6.0.

They are on 18/6 currently, they were on 20/4 from seed to 10 days after sprout.




Is this a boron problem? if so, toxicity or deficiency, and how can I stop this from spreading?

If this is a calcium problem, whats the deal and how can I fix it?

Could this be caused by a high pH? I am going to flush my res and re-load nutes friday regardless.

looks like a simple overfert issue. they look a but young for the full fox farms schedule. good rule of thumb is no nutes until 3 weeks than 1/2 recomended dosage at best. drain that res and refil without nutes

smokeybandit22 said:

looks like a simple overfert issue. they look a but young for the full fox farms schedule. good rule of thumb is no nutes until 3 weeks than 1/2 recomended dosage at best. drain that res and refil without nutes

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Thanks for your input but I really don't think thats the problem.

If you follow the foxfarm schedule, you use nutrients from seed.

2 weeks is long enough anyways, not 3.

Its the rust colored spots that start out small then seem to multiply over night into dark brown patches, not YELLOW like nute burn. They do not start at the tips, they start at random places on the leaf.

The plants growth have NOT been stunted, it is 12 days old and already this big.

If you look closely, you can see where I circled the specs forming over the course of a day.

I am starting to get concerned.

I am going to flush my res out and give them some plain ph'd water for a day and see if the spots continue to spread.

Smokey is dead on, you can actually throw out that schedule or any other nutrient table for that matter, if you used half of the label strength you will burn your plants, nutes that young is a no go, aside from that, you know how hard you gotta work to get a boron or copper deficiencie? give her a fresh rez of straight water and monitor your new growth, good rule of thumb is start out 1/4 label strength or if you have a ppm meter, you can go 200-400 ppms....lay off those nutes, another good rule of thumb i use for youngins is the new growth being neon green, being too light thats when she clearly needs food, also since you are in hydro whats your water temp looking like?

morrisgreenberg said:

Smokey is dead on, you can actually throw out that schedule or any other nutrient table for that matter, if you used half of the label strength you will burn your plants, nutes that young is a no go, aside from that, you know how hard you gotta work to get a boron or copper deficiencie? give her a fresh rez of straight water and monitor your new growth, good rule of thumb is start out 1/4 label strength or if you have a ppm meter, you can go 200-400 ppms....lay off those nutes, another good rule of thumb i use for youngins is the new growth being neon green, being too light thats when she clearly needs food, also since you are in hydro whats your water temp looking like?

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I have been using the SAME batch of water/nutrients since day ONE.

2 teaspoons of big bloom and 1 teaspoon of grow big in a gallon of ph 5.8 distilled water. (probably even less, I am using a regular spoon which is probably smaller)

Haven't changed it yet, and this problem is a recent development, which is why I really don't think its nute burn.


Water temp ranges from 75-85, room temp is 70-80.


My white berry's plant growth hasn't been stunted at all.

When I have burned my plants in the past, they have stopped growing until I flush out all of the nutrients.

I don't know why I bother posting in this section anymore...

I guess I'll just continue to learn from mistakes by experience and figure stuff out on my own like I have been doing.



The random spots I get are this EXACT orangey-rust color, Haven't seen pictures of any no other deficiencies that have this distinct orangey-rust color that forms in the middle of the leaf.

first off, dont take anythiung the wrong way, but you are using BIG bloom off the bat, now all big bloom is , IS P AND K in larger doses than what the plant AT THIS STAGE NEEDS, the plant needs more N here if anything at all, the only reason your leaves ARENT CRISPY is because FF is organic and not as harsh as CHEM nutes, the only time i ever used nutes too early resulted in chaos for a plant, ask anyone n these Forums, you are right it may be toxcicity, perhaps P or K tox, your plant is too young to be getting micro-nute deficiencie bro, you said 12 days old? cmon now...maybe a touch of the grow big, use fresh water and monitor your new growth...thats not good enough advice for you? i dont know what to tell ya, maybe wait for someone to post here what you want to hear, aside from the rust spots, your plant is very dark green, thats a good indicator of over fert, if anything let your plant get lighter in color where its begging for some N, thats easy to fix when you have to add, when you over do it you can fuck your plant up

your water temp gets to 85F?????? are you serious? 75F is root rot, check your roots bro...whatever i told you i learned from my mistakes and got solid advice from here, i didnt read this out of a book, play it safe and add nutes when the plant tells you to, dont force the issue

dont even take this guy seriously morris. he posts than doesnt like the response so says something stupid and negative. OVER FERT DOES NOT ALWAYS LEAD TO NUTE BURN. 85 for the res, lol. what do we know. yeah ferts from seed is always a good idea. a simple search on any internet engine will tell you what a no-no that is. but sure, it is a boron deficiency.

obviously he hasnt got a clue, first issue is rez temps, im wondering who on this forum gave him reps?? at this point with those temps he need to chuck the plant

Roots are nice and healthy.

Plants are looking much better, I put in my scheduled dose of grow big and big bloom in there this morning, some of the browning is starting to go away now.

why are u using big bloom? are the plants in bloom?

i think he is going 12/12 from start-thats what the FF schedule says. too string ferts will cause lockouts of other ferts.

one thing i dont get is, we didnt say anyting wrong, no matter if you know exactly what the problem is, main stream advice would be to let it get fresh water no nutes and watch the progress (shrugs) that worked for every issue i had, and i think i had everything in the book go wrong in my career