Droopy Crusty feeling leaves, whats up with that?

Have 6 plants under a 250 watt hps, all in soil. I use distilled water. The heat is never that intense, i may have over watered recently. All of them seem to be both droopy and have crusty feeling leaves. I'm uber p*ssed. Some leaves on a few of the plants are showing these gray'ish brown spots covering several of the llower leaves. wtf, this is urgent plz help....

need pictures really my friend, get pics up and we can see wat we can do.

here are some pics hope they are clear, off my comp camera...

are they currently in flowering or veg?? if they are in flowering this could just be normal otherwise, i think that it could be a magnesium deficency, other thn tht im not sure my friend. i agree with the over watering though give them a good few days so soak the pot water up, and dont water again untill they stop drooping

If they droop when they are over watered, when they are in need of water what will the leaves be doing? Curling the other way? Just wondering so i don't screw them up again. Thanks for the input though, im getting kind of worried. Oh yeah, they are in veg.

They droop when they are underwatered as well, but in a different sort of way. When they are under watered, you will see the stems and stalks bending and drooping as well. It's an easy problem to avoid. Wait until your soil is almost completely dried out, not just dry on the top. Then, water them heavy making sure to thoroughly saturate the soil all the way through. Its good to see water flowing from the drainage holes. Then, sit back and wait until the soil dries out again before watering them heavily again. My plants are in 3gal containers and each gets 1gal of water every 4-5 days. Again, you want to wait until the soil is almost completely dry before watering them again. Don't make the uber-newbie mistake of watering them little by little every day. This will prevent your roots from spreading out and colonizing the entire container. It will also lead to root-rot since the root zone will never have a chance to dry out.

Thanks rolla, nice set up you got there. I hope your right. As for the blotchy spot thingys on the leaves. A deficiency?

Those spots on the leaves could be bugs or mold or fungus. Are you spraying these with water? Don't. Is your humidity too high?

Do you have a magnifying glass so you can look at the underside of the leaves for bugs that are as small as the head of a pin?

You should water maybe once a week or so with plants this size. When you water flood them good, let them soak up water from a tray. Then don't water again until they are truly dry, the pots are light weight, and sticking your finger over an inch in the soil it really feels dry. They will visibly droop a lot when truly dry.

If they're wet all the time you'll get bugs in the soil too. Check the water runoff with that magnifying glass and see if any wiggling larvae come out of the pot that are barely bigger than trichomes.

Oregon, i have see these black flies, 3 or 4 flying around the past few days. If i do see little bugs in the water/soil. what would be the best means of removing them. or would drying the soil eliminate said bugs. Anyways thanks a bunch oregon.

Are they fly sized or are they gnats? Gnats are common with overwatered soil and if you seem them it's a guarantee they have larvae in the soil eating your roots.

The best way I've found to get rid of them and keep them away even if more get in the house is to just put an inch or two of sand on top of your soil. Don't leave any gap around the edge.

You can also use those pest sticky traps, but I think the sand works even better than those.

so just letting the soil completely dry out, wouldn't kill these gnat fly larva?

If you can truly let it dry out long enough to kill them all without killing the plant too.

I've had the fungus gnats before and no I wasn't able to go a whole day dry enough, my plants were practically laying down they drooped so much but the larvae fuckers were still alive after watering.

shiiit, guess i better find some sand. Thanks for the help bud. I hope things turn around. I hate weed in pain, specially when its all my fault.

The thing is though that gnats wouldn't leave those spots on the leaves, so there's still something else doing that.

Might be wise to use a general purpose bug spray as well or those sticky yellow paper traps too, or all of the above.

Maybe the spots are deficiencies in something. I have given them any nutes yet. Could that be the problemo with the spots? I was thinking the pH level. But i don't have a pH test kit and i use distilled water, which should have a pretty solid pH to begin with, something like 6.5-7 if i'm not mistaken. What are you thoguhts on this? (oregon/anybody else)

Nope, not spots like that.

Cannibustible said:

Maybe the spots are deficiencies in something. I have given them any nutes yet. Could that be the problemo with the spots? I was thinking the pH level. But i don't have a pH test kit and i use distilled water, which should have a pretty solid pH to begin with, something like 6.5-7 if i'm not mistaken. What are you thoguhts on this? (oregon/anybody else)

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Those yellow spots on the leaves do look like the result of a pH imbalance to me. Distilled water, especially the store bought kind, has a tendency to be on the high side, often in the range of 7.5-8.5. This is too high for your plants. For soil, you want the pH of your watering solution to be between 6.3-6.8, 6.5 being about perfect for most strains. Get yourself a pH test kit or meter and some Up/Down solution so you can correct any imbalance. Maintaining the proper pH is very important to the success of your operation.

meecrob, should i cut these leaves off before its spreads????

I really don't see a nute deficiency although you do need to get them started on on some...the spots are prob.from whatever type of gnats you have You can go to Wal-Mart an get a bottle of garden safe fungicide#3...It's neem oil which will get rid of several different types of fungus along with several different pests. It's less than $4.00 a bottle and well worth it.Make sure you spray underneath the leaves as well as on top.....this should solve your problem..keep us posted and let us know how thing are going.............hope this helps and good luck on your gro...............

kk, you guys are more than helpful, there is a friendly hydro store nearby and im sure they have everything that y'all suggested, except the sticky paper. i dont think ill use that. the fungicide and the ph stripes/up/down solution are for sure. well thats it for tonight, ive got to hella cramp for my final physics exam. thanks all, ill be back probably tomorrow with the supplies. if you still interested, ill be posting the news. thanks again, this forum has been really good to me. peace