Help diagnosing Brown edges and small holes in leaves

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Wiki93

Well-Known Member
A quick summary of the grow: growing indoors in a 4x4 tent. Fox Farms Ocean Forest soil with 20% perlite. Fox Farm nutrient trio with snow storm added in. Growing under full spectrum LED (522 watts at the plug) two plants heavily trained into a scrog screen. 9 weeks into veg now and both are very large and should produce well if I do not have a serious problem...

I have had multiple leaves show small brown dots / holes and some leaves with edges that brown and wilt. The problem seems to affect lower leaves and leaves that are shaded on both plants. The problem has progressed very slowly and I initially thought the brown dots were a calcium deficiency and gave some Cal-Mag. After noticing the browning of the leaf edges I thought maybe a fungus or pest but air flow is good, replacing the tent ever minute. Circulation fan in the tent to move air around. RH spikes to 50% or so after watering but normally hovers around 30-40% tops. Temp is in the 78-82 Range. My most recent thought is maybe I have caused water stress by over or under watering. I am new to soil as my first grow was coco. Any help is appreciated.
 

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Bud1284

Bud1284

Active Member
Wiki93 said:
A quick summary of the grow: growing indoors in a 4x4 tent. Fox Farms Ocean Forest soil with 20% perlite. Fox Farm nutrient trio with snow storm added in. Growing under full spectrum LED (522 watts at the plug) two plants heavily trained into a scrog screen. 9 weeks into veg now and both are very large and should produce well if I do not have a serious problem...

I have had multiple leaves show small brown dots / holes and some leaves with edges that brown and wilt. The problem seems to affect lower leaves and leaves that are shaded on both plants. The problem has progressed very slowly and I initially thought the brown dots were a calcium deficiency and gave some Cal-Mag. After noticing the browning of the leaf edges I thought maybe a fungus or pest but air flow is good, replacing the tent ever minute. Circulation fan in the tent to move air around. RH spikes to 50% or so after watering but normally hovers around 30-40% tops. Temp is in the 78-82 Range. My most recent thought is maybe I have caused water stress by over or under watering. I am new to soil as my first grow was coco. Any help is appreciated.
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Did you check your leaves and under them thoroughly with a magnifying glass to identify any potential bugs/mites that would be potentially invisible to naked eye like mites?

Careful with cal-mag as an excess of calcium would block the uptake of potassium, iron, magnesium and manganese.

Could be iron def but then again, its probably present in the medium just not being able to be processed by the plant.

PH is important and your water going in should sit at around 6.5 for soil.

If it was my plant i'd do the following:

- Test the soil to see what PH is in there (ph can vary if you have peat moss for example in the mix, moss has a PH of about 4.5) and make sure its in the 6 - 7 range.

- Once we know its not PH, i'd then prepare some PHed water at 6.5 and run two times the volume of the pot through the medium to get rid of any excess salt buildup.

- Next feeding start feeding again at 1/2 strength and monitor the behaviour.

Good luck!
 
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Wiki93

Well-Known Member
I have not but will order a microscope / a good magnifying glass to double check for pests I just have not seen any other signs pointing that direction but it's possible they are too small to see without magnification.

I should have mentioned that I do montior pH closely and use water in the 6.25-6.5 range each watering. Once the problem arose I got a soil pH tester and it is reading 6.25-6.5 for both plants. Could have been pH fluctuations in the first two-three weeks of growth as I didn't have my pH pen yet but we are at week 9 now.

I will try a flush and hope for the best. Thank you for your quick response!
 
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Beachwalker

Well-Known Member
Wiki93 said:
I have not but will order a microscope / a good magnifying glass to double check for pests I just have not seen any other signs pointing that direction but it's possible they are too small to see without magnification.

I should have mentioned that I do montior pH closely and use water in the 6.25-6.5 range each watering. Once the problem arose I got a soil pH tester and it is reading 6.25-6.5 for both plants. Could have been pH fluctuations in the first two-three weeks of growth as I didn't have my pH pen yet but we are at week 9 now.

I will try a flush and hope for the best. Thank you for your quick response!
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Don't flush your plant! Check for some type of bug maybe thrips, but you don't need a flush, or at least hold on a minute and get some more input cuz there's nothing wrong with your soil therefore you don't need to flush, counterproductive at this point
 
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Bud1284

Bud1284

Active Member
Wiki93 said:
I have not but will order a microscope / a good magnifying glass to double check for pests I just have not seen any other signs pointing that direction but it's possible they are too small to see without magnification.

I should have mentioned that I do montior pH closely and use water in the 6.25-6.5 range each watering. Once the problem arose I got a soil pH tester and it is reading 6.25-6.5 for both plants. Could have been pH fluctuations in the first two-three weeks of growth as I didn't have my pH pen yet but we are at week 9 now.

I will try a flush and hope for the best. Thank you for your quick response!
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You are welcome, but check for bugs first - If its not bugs, and not PH, then its probably salt buildup in the medium.
 
Bud1284

Bud1284

Active Member
Beachwalker said:
Don't flush your plant! Check for some type of bug maybe thrips, but you don't need a flush, or at least hold on a minute and get some more input cuz there's nothing wrong with your soil therefore you don't need to flush, counterproductive at this point
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That is why i suggested to check for bugs first, then PH before flushing
 
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Wiki93

Well-Known Member
Ok I've ordered a microscope and will check for bugs as soon as it's here. Is there a general insecticide / preventative that won't be too harmful to use at this time? I hope to flip to 12/12 Saturday if that's not a bad idea.
 
thumper60

thumper60

Well-Known Member
Wiki93 said:
I have not but will order a microscope / a good magnifying glass to double check for pests I just have not seen any other signs pointing that direction but it's possible they are too small to see without magnification.

I should have mentioned that I do montior pH closely and use water in the 6.25-6.5 range each watering. Once the problem arose I got a soil pH tester and it is reading 6.25-6.5 for both plants. Could have been pH fluctuations in the first two-three weeks of growth as I didn't have my pH pen yet but we are at week 9 now.

I will try a flush and hope for the best. Thank you for your quick response!
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please don't flush,bad advice keep it simple don't love them to death they look pretty good
 
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thumper60

thumper60

Well-Known Member
Wiki93 said:
Ok I've ordered a microscope and will check for bugs as soon as it's here. Is there a general insecticide / preventative that won't be too harmful to use at this time? I hope to flip to 12/12 Saturday if that's not a bad idea.
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its not bugs, just check ph of water going in an the ppm of nutes in water before u do anything else,also seems very early to be dumping snow storm on them?
 
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Wiki93

Well-Known Member
Ok I am not going to flush and if it's not bugs are you thinking it's just a nutrient problem? Or could it be mould or fungus? I check the pH every watering and have checked the soil but I will look into ppm.
 
thumper60

thumper60

Well-Known Member
Wiki93 said:
Ok I am not going to flush and if it's not bugs are you thinking it's just a nutrient problem? Or could it be mould or fungus? I check the pH every watering and have checked the soil but I will look into ppm.
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do u water only sometimes,or always water-feed?
 
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Wiki93

Well-Known Member
Throughout the 9 week grow I've averaged watering about once sometimess twice a week and have used just water maybe 4 times. So about every third watering is just water
 
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Wiki93

Well-Known Member
I ordered a TDS meter and will be testing the water tomorrow. I have been using tap water. Probably was too early for snow storm. Only used 1/2 tap / gal but it is used more for flower if I read correctly.
 
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Roger A. Shrubber

Roger A. Shrubber

Well-Known Member
you might have a few thrips or leaf miners, but not a major problem. a couple of applications of spinosad or pyrethrin will take care of that.
most of the other damage looks like it was either caused mechanically, or may be the result of large ph fluctuations. you said you have a pen coming, did you get any calibration solution? good to have, meters drift off of true, especially cheap ones, good to have a way to make sure they're accurate. i use a cheap one, and test it weekly. i discovered that the local grocery store sells cleaning vinegar by the gallon. i checked it multiple times after using the test solution i bought. it's always 2.2.....so now that's what i use as my test solution, i clean the meter and put it in a small cup of that vinegar, and adjust it to 2.2 if it's off. i probably should find something closer to 6 or 7 and use that as well, just to get more reference points, just haven't found anything convenient yet
 
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Wiki93

Well-Known Member
I already have the pH pen and did use calibration solution when I got it. I also tested the soil with a soil pH tester. Both came out to 6.5 and that's what I set the water to. I ordered a tds pen to check ppm of the water.
 
Roger A. Shrubber

Roger A. Shrubber

Well-Known Member
then i'd say most of the damage that isn't little spots is mechanical, from moving the plant, from leaves laying on top of each other, from getting pinched when they're growing out....
i'd still say you have a light thrip or miner infestation, but that's easy to deal with if you get on it and spray at least three times, two days apart. i usually spray 5 times, but i'm kind of anal about shit like that....
they look slightly overwatered. not bad, but i think i'd wait a day longer than you have been before watering again, give the roots time to dry out a little, they don't grow much when they're constantly wet, no reason to....
 
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Wiki93

Well-Known Member
Some more info. I ordered the spinosad spray and it'll be here tomorrow. I'll get that done before flower. I checked the base of the pot and see a few roots and they don't appear to be soaking wet so hopefully that means they have been given enough time to dry out but I'm going to hold off an extra day on watering as suggested. I did notice one or two more tiny holes today and one more leaf that has some damage around the edge. I am attaching a picture of the edge damage.
 

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Coloradoclear

Coloradoclear

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Wiki93 said:
Throughout the 9 week grow I've averaged watering about once sometimess twice a week and have used just water maybe 4 times. So about every third watering is just water
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Plain water only four times in 9 weeks and your in Ocean forest soil?
 
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Wiki93

Well-Known Member
Chip Green said:
Exactly which soil PH tester? Not that 2 pronged PH/Moisture meter I hope....Unless you have a quality PH soil probe, I wouldn't put a lot of faith in that reading....
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Yes it is one of those types and I was not putting a lot of faith in it just hoping it kinda confirmed my results after I calibrated my pH pen and used pH 6.5 water the 6.5pH soil reading made sense but I will be sure to calibrate my pH pen again and be careful with the water. Do you have a recommendation for a different soil tester?
 
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