# leaves on hydroponic cannabis plant curl down and droop



## piratebones (Jul 4, 2012)

Hi, i have been on the site for a couple of months, but as you can see this is my first post. i need some help fast please.

one of our plants has got curling down leaf's on it any idea's please?

What is the age of your plants? 31 days
What growing stage are the plants in? vegetative or flowering? according to the feeding schedule i go to 12/12 in a few days
What soil/medium are you using? 5 gallon reservoir dwc 
When did you last feed the plants and how often are you feeding? tank changed yesterday
Do you know the pH of your water? 5.5 - 5.8 and i check the ph every day some times 2 times a day since i noticed ph spikes.
Is your water HARD or SOFT? soft
What type and size of bulb are you using? 600 watt mh
how close is it to the plants? 1 and half foot
what strains are you growing? 4 tahoe og and 2 nyc sour diesels
what are you feeding the plants? fox farms trio (Big Bloom, Grow Big & Tiger Bloom Liquid Fertilizer Nutrient Trio Hydro-Formula) with a little super thrive but have not yet started the tiger bloom.

yesterday evening i noticed the curling and droop of the leaves. i know i can not be over watering or under watering and the effects are only seen on one of the plants in this grow tent. so all conditions are the same for all plants.  im going according to the fox farms feeding schedule for hydro. so next week i am supposed to start 12/12 and switch to hps. im getting very seriously worried for the plant  and if it is a disease i dont want to keep it in with the others.

i did add a little sm-90 a couple of days ago and saw the nute mix was real thick like cloudy with loads of thick stuff floating around in the res. this is when i first noticed the beginning curl and then dumped the reservoir and filled with straight water and about a teaspoon of super thrive. in another day i will be changing the water or adding the fox farms and carry on as usual as i understand this backing off of nutes may help.


the one with the down curling leaves and drooping leaves feels very limp as if it lost its strength. but just like 2 days ago it was the tallest and most thriving plant.

 heres 2 photos before
 
 
 
and 2 as of this morning 
 
 
you can see the dates on the photos.

anyone that can help out please, i need help with this.

how can i correct this or do i let the plant "self correct" on its own? 


i myself suspect nute lock. over fed due to the sm-90 since that was the one different thing i did right before the leaves changed. i believe it caused the thickening which caused the lock out and then the leaf curl and droop. note i do not have an ec tester, but i probably should have one.

also notice the small one in front and center. it has stayed the same size since i brought all of them home on June 4Th. all clones were in rock wool and came from the same place.

if there are any questions about anything then please ask if i have not provided all the relevant info to better understand the situation in order to help answer my question.

and thank you in advance.


----------



## crazy7605150 (Jul 4, 2012)

man pirate that suck.. hmm well just from looking at the pics and disregarding the info you gave us, it does look like the plant is under watered but it is dwc so there is no shortness of water .. and ur other plants seem ok.. my second thought would be temp.. but unless ur plant grew a bunch or u lowered you light or just heat spike in house, then it shouldnt effect a plant that fast and bad. uhh .. shoot.. ur other plants are in the same water.. when u mix ur water and nutes and ph .. do u add it directly to ur dwc or do u mix in a container then add to ur res.. cuz just dumping the nutes and ph straight in can mess it up .. 
.. hope the rest of ur holiday ends up better then this mornings shock..


----------



## piratebones (Jul 4, 2012)

thanks for both of the answers so far and please keep it coming because as of now it looks worse than earlier.

as for the schedule im going by the hydro formula schedule for the fox farms trio. i see there are 2 versions one online at their site and one that came in the package with the hydro formula nutes. im going by the one that came in the package. and the ph is getting checked on like a sick child home from school. i am on it today hard i am going to check a few times today and monitor things very close till it gets better or... i dont want to say it. 

crazy: no temperature spikes or any weird things like that as the central air stays on in this house at a solid 71 degrees all the time. i have no other explanation except the sm-90 was introduced and then i saw the bad things happen. i have kept everything steady from the get-go and this happens to one plant all in the same tent and the same reservoir.

well here are the current saddening pics.

  

as you will notice a difference in lighting since i have turned down the light power on the ballast so its not as hot. it's down to 50% instead of full force 100%, and i have raised the hood a few inches as much as i can. i'm hoping the lower light concentration and heat will allow the plant to bounce back a bit and then go from there, but now concerned for the others to get the light they need.

again, thanks for the reply to the post and please, keep the good feedback coming.



p.s. crazy... i love your quote about the corned beef hash.


----------



## polyarcturus (Jul 4, 2012)

change your res and re dose everthing. always run at half strnegth nutes. out some plastic bags on thiose babys and spray the insides. your in for a ride trying to bring that stuff back to life, ,looks like straight up shock, either your pH is wrong or your root zone temps, or even possibly oded on nutes.

GL


----------



## piratebones (Jul 4, 2012)

*polyarcturus** thanks for the tips i *[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]will make[/FONT]* sure to get the bags on her quick. im going to go with the od on nutes cause temps are great in the res and all around in the room and in the tent also. and the ph is getting checked closely ill check every 4 hours or so.*

*thank you again*


----------



## zem (Jul 4, 2012)

maybe you drowned it, lower water levels keep roots 1/2 submerged with bubbler underneath


----------



## Fergman (Jul 4, 2012)

Flush like crazy and start with 1/4 strength nutes is what I would do. Also, careful with the super thrive. It could be burning them up too.


----------



## piratebones (Jul 4, 2012)

now i just looked in on the girls and they are looking better. the one that had the problems is now showing signs of improvement.

earlier today i removed the leaves that were crispy, did the flush, added some h202 (3% hydrogen peroxide), and i gave them the 1/4 strength dose of nutes, have the ph at 5.5 and now i see signs that leaves are perking up and not drooping and leaves are looking better.

i will sadly say that it is looking a little "charlie brown christmas tree" from loosing a few leaves, but the good leaves on it look better and is showing signs of bouncing back. obviously this kind of shock is not going to be good for the plants yield and other expectations.
i do have another air stone on order, but at this time i have a small one and till it gets here i have to work with what i have.

now since i have peroxide in the res i am going to have to change it after only 2 days i believe. please correct this if it is wrong.

fergman, yes, super thrive does burn so im keeping an easy hand on super thrive and anything i put in making sure to KEEP IT SIMPLE. but remember none of the other plants are showing any signs of anything bad except the one with the curling drooping leaves. and i forgot to mention from the beginning that the roots on the one having leaf droop curl has the best biggest juicy roots of all of them. and no signs of rot or any other signs of root damage.

and zem, water levels are at about an inch to 1 1/2 inchs from the top of the tank. so i should lower the water level from there to half way down the roots? ill keep checking for your response.

now at signs of improvement im thinking be gentle and leave the light at 50% power on the ballast to let the one heal. anyone have any suggestions on that?


----------



## piratebones (Jul 5, 2012)

checked up on it at 6:30 am and looking perky on the branch that has leaves.

its funny how the leaves on the one branch on the same plant were like they were not even affected. this is visible in the pics too. on the far right branch on the plant having problems. i see the leaves curl down but they are still not crispy and so i left them, and it seems those are good enough to help the plant bounce back. of course she isnt out of the woods just yet and i can post pics regularly to show its recovery progress and maybe someone can get some benefit from that.

here are new pics   to show whats going on.

i will leave this post up so that maybe someone having this same problem can tell me what happened or someone can get help from something in this post.


----------



## Bluezdude (Jul 5, 2012)

Something similar happened to a young one that I had. I checked under the net pot and saw her roots being covered with a white slime that imo was suffocating the plant. h2o2 does help to dissolve that slime (too warm temperature on the water and some light leakage from a transparent hose that I had to use seemed to have caused it). What I did to bring it back to life was to take it to the bathroom and slowly and gently wash off the slime from the roots. That helped, I saw recovery after 3-4 hours.

Hopefully that will help you or anyone else.


----------



## TriPurple (Jul 5, 2012)

That would be a miraculous recover... I've never seen one bounce back & survive after drooping like that...great job!!!!! PB.... The most amazing thing to me is how your NYCD (bottom right) & bottom left, just keep looking better & better. It's Perplexing that they all have the same reservoir. Check out Heisenberg's recipe to cure root slime ....... https://www.rollitup.org/dwc-bubbleponics/361430-dwc-root-slime-cure-aka.html


----------



## Fergman (Jul 5, 2012)

Glad the ladies bounced back. Keep them in ICU for a few days and they should make a full recovery.


----------



## piratebones (Jul 7, 2012)

Bluezdude, TriPurple, Fergman. first thanks for your input and well wishes. special thanks for the link to Heisenberg's post on curing root slime and generating beneficial microbes.
heisenberg specifically mentions using sm-90 and after i used this is when the problem began.
yeah, i'm amazed and happy as you can imagine, lucky more like it. i still don't know what happened and would love to know by anyone that can tell me so i know about this problem and how to avoid it in the future, but i guess it was just a shock, and maybe a little tempermental. but thank all of you for all of your input and i will be taking more pics soon.

at this time i just started to do a 36 hour dark period before doing 12/12. i figure time is up for 18/6 even though there was the setback. Sunday morning 9:00 am i start 12/12 with the hps light.


----------



## polyarcturus (Jul 8, 2012)

im glad things turned around for you man, that was a green thumb in action good work.


----------



## piratebones (Jul 8, 2012)

latest update...
as of this AM i have switched over to 12/12 and using the hps bulb after 36 hours of dark time to trigger flowering. i am already seeing new growth from the part of the plant that had curling drooping leaves. when i turned lights out for 36 there was nothing there where there are now some new leaves.
the other plants are looking nice i know the one small one is struggling but i have faith in it. and we shall see what takes place with her.

here are new pics i just took as of this AM and you can see the new growth in a close up too.
updates will be made regularly to show progress and new growth.

   

so i guess this is going to turn into a grow journal, which i have needed to do from the beginning. 

Thank you Arcturus for the encouragement. for a long time i thought i had 2 left thumbs and not a green one in sight, and the only way i would have a green thumb is if i had a can of spray paint or stuck it in some pea soup. 


And to everyone, .... i hope your grows are big, and may you keep the spider mites away.


----------



## piratebones (Jul 13, 2012)

Mystery solved!

And the problem was.... Nitrogen deficiency.


----------



## piratebones (Aug 3, 2012)

also another thing i noticed is that the nutrients were lying on the bottom of the reservoir adding to the cause of nitrogen uptake and other nutrient deficiency.
as you can see in this photo 

so now i have gotten a water pump to move everything around. i have it on a timer so it comes on for 15 minutes every 2 hours. (on for 15 minutes and off for another hour and 45 minutes) so its not going to kill me on the bill and its going to do what i need it to do.
since the water pump was added i have noticed amazing growth on the roots and overall the entire plant is thriving.

  

too bad that it was after the loss of all 5 other plants that i realized this huge error. i hope someone else can get benefit from reading this so they wont have the heartbreak i did.


----------



## piratebones (Aug 7, 2012)

zem said:


> maybe you drowned it, lower water levels keep roots 1/2 submerged with bubbler underneath



you know, it did not hit me that i had water levels way too high. even after reading your post to the thread, i did not realize i was supposed to have the water level way lower than it said to have it in the setup of the system.


----------



## hellraizer30 (Aug 8, 2012)

Water levels should be 1/2 in under the bottom of your net pots.


----------



## lordjin (Aug 9, 2012)

Those clone types look familiar.

Boy, you really destroyed those, didn't you?

Would you mind giving me a quick recap? What did you determine to be the error? And how have you corrected it?


----------



## inspired333 (May 23, 2013)

hellraizer30 said:


> Water levels should be 1/2 in under the bottom of your net pots.


I know this thread is kinda old, but, isn't 1/2" under the bottom of the net pot a completely arbitrary guideline. If you're in a 10" net pot and have it full of media, your plant cube/roots could be anywhere from the very bottom of that net pot to the very top of it - and that's about 8 to 10 inches in difference.
If you try and grow a seedling with the water level a 1/2" below the bottom of the net pot "just because", then your plant could be 10" above the water level and will not be able to reach the water.


----------



## dtowndabber (Aug 19, 2013)

inspired333 said:


> I know this thread is kinda old, but, isn't 1/2" under the bottom of the net pot a completely arbitrary guideline. If you're in a 10" net pot and have it full of media, your plant cube/roots could be anywhere from the very bottom of that net pot to the very top of it - and that's about 8 to 10 inches in difference.
> If you try and grow a seedling with the water level a 1/2" below the bottom of the net pot "just because", then your plant could be 10" above the water level and will not be able to reach the water.


Don't use 10" net pots unless the diameter of what you are growing is going to be 8"


----------

