1st time grower, DWC, strange leaf development, need your experience & input please!

Hello everyone. Smoker for around 5 years, first time grower. Settled on a DWC bubbleponic setup based on the tutorial from growweedeasy. Before I speak on my issues I will do my best to include every possible detail needed.
Method: Bubbleponic in 10gal container with 7gal nutrient solution, 2x 4" airstones
Tent: 2x2x5
Light: OpticLed PhatSlim 1 XL
Vent: AC Infinity T4 + 4" carbon filter
Fans: 2x 6" fans, static not oscillating
Medium: Hydroton, seed was started in a RapidRooter
Nutes I've been using: GH trio, CalMag, Silica, Humboldt's Golden tree, Orca Mycorrhizae, Southern Ag Garden Friendly Fungicide (from here on I will call this Bacillus to save time), AACT tea that I brew (details below)
Nutes I have but have not yet used: Humboldt's Sweet & Sticky

Typical Temp: 75F
Extreme Low: 66F
Extreme high: 81F
Typical reservoir temp: 75F

PH: I PH my water to between 5.5 and 6.5, I never shoot for a specific PH.
PPM: I haven't been measuring consistently enough to tell what the average is. I've seen anywhere from 300 to 550. I don't know where my PPM should be.

How I mix: I mix 7 gallons of solution at a time. I mix AS IF it was 5 gallons. i.e. on the weak side. Silica first, full strength. CalMag half the strength recommended on the bottle. GH trio at half strength. Goldentree at 1ml/gal to equal 5ml. Orca at full strength. I then drip about 1ml of bacillus in a circle around the base of the plant to soak it to the roots.

My tea: I start brewing my tea the same day that I do a reservoir change. 1 gallon dechlor. water, 1/2 tsp organic unsulphured molasses, 1/8th cup worm castings in 180 micron bag, 0.5ml each of Orca and bacillus, between 1/8th and 1/16th tsp of MycoGrow soluble. Let brew with a 4" airstone for 48 hr, then pour 1 cup through the hydroton, and squirt 1 cup directly on roots. So this is administered 2 days after res change.

Methods used: Low stress training, topping.

Did I miss anything? Let me know if I did.


THE ISSUE (and other things I'm concerned about)
-I'll attach pictures (or at least I will try) to show what I am talking about.

1) My leaves have a weird shape to them, some of them look as if you grabbed a normal leaf and tore the tip off of it. They begin their growth in this shape, it is not something that occurs over time. (This makes me think it is genetic.) Others, the entire leaf is looking weirdly wilted and gnarled. Wavy and bumpy almost.
2) Some leaves look pretty dark green. Nitrogen toxicity? Is this a healthy dark green, or is this TOO dark?
3) Leaves look like they're sustaining damage from some kind of pest. Pinholing and little tears. I've read about thrips and other pests.

What I've Done
1) Raised my light by around 4" as it was VERY close to the plant for around a week. ( Light was around 18" from plant the entire time, then about 4" from light for a week, now around 8" from plant.)
2) I've looked on every part of the plant for pests and eggs. I can't find anything. I've found a FEW (seriously almost none) tiny white specs and have looked at them under 60x magnification and it doesn't look like a pest. I could easily be wrong. I would've expected them to reproduce and multiply to a highly visible population by now, am I wrong in this? NOTE: I really have checked every part of the plant. Roots, stem, branches, leaf top, leaf bottom, etc.


What I think
I'm brand new at this. My knowledge is incredibly limited. The leaf shape on its own looks like a genetic mutation to me. However the rips and pinholes do look like a pest to me. The leaves look a bit too dark to me, but maybe it's still a healthy shade?

Thank you to everyone who reads and posts, I hope I didn't miss anything. Let me know if anything needs clarified, or if pictures don't work, etc.
Please take the time to hit a bowl of your own dank bud before crucifying eachother in this thread, I know how forums get and let's all just smoke a bowl together and not get crazy.

Thanks everyone,
Garrett
 

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Moses26

Member
good day I hope all is well overall the plant looks a good color and the roots are looking healthy and your training is going well. I’d say the deformed leaves are from genetics or they were damaged during training when they were really small. I’d say keep pushing forward and see what happens. If you do suspect some sort of pest now is the time to spray or use what ever methods you like to use or want to use to make sure there aren’t any. Definitely want to get rid of any possible infestations before flower!! Hope this helps keep up the good work.
 
Thank you both for the replies, I hope you are right. Since posting I've done a few hours reading and my current best guess is I have a small population of broad mites. The deformation combined with the slight dark shine and wilting structure of the leaves seems to fit the diagnosis. I still haven't visually seen any, but I read that broad mites are incredibly tiny and even with a jewelers loop they are didffuclt to see. Hopefully I will have an update soon.
Garrett
 

myke

Well-Known Member
Id say its your organic inputs,not meant for hydro.Remove all of them and you should be good.
 

myke

Well-Known Member
Youll need to flush them out,just use the GH 3 part,calmag,Si and the bacillus nothing else.
Youll want an EC of around 1
 
I went over the damaged leaves with my 60x and could not see anything. Mike, thank you for the info and suggestion. It's strange to me that the organics would take this long to have an adverse effect, but I'm truly novice. Do you mean the Golden Tree? Or are you suggesting the tea is having a negative impact? What is your reasoning for believing it's the organics? (I'm not questioning you, I just want to learn as much as possible.) I'm definitely willing to try out your suggestion. A big thanks to everyone for their thoughts and replies. I will continue to seek information & adjust my methods as I go.
Garrett
 

myke

Well-Known Member
all of the organic inputs are messing up the synthetic inputs.
Not sure where you got the idea of adding all that.
100% sure this is your problem,theres no evidence of bugs that i can see.
 
The Golden Tree is a result of my own inexperience. Nobody told me to use it. As for the tea, as far as my research has taught me, it's a pretty common practice and has no adverse effects. It single-handedly restored my reservoir to pristine conditions when I was previously experiencing major root for and fungus in the reservoir. To be fair, the root rot and fungus could have easily been caused by the Golden Tree to begin with. Just wanted to say that the tea was not done without reasoning, a massive thread can be found on it if you Google "Heisenberg Tea", and it is specified to DWC. As always I appreciate the informstion and replies.
Garrett
 

myke

Well-Known Member
Oh no doubt there's someone who has made it work,but why? I can imagine root rot would be a problem adding the organic.Your bacillus has probably saved you.
Save your organic stuff for your dirt.
 
You make a great point myke. I will flush and refill the reservoir today with the changes you've suggested and keep a close eye on it this week, hopefully I will return with good news to report. As a side note, would you personally remove the deformed/affected leaves, or would you let them stay? Thanks again
Garrett
 
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