Possible Copper Deficiency.... Advise Please Growers!

Hey there,

This is my first attempt at cultivation. And I am experiencing the normal growing pains. This plant has started to look strange for the last day or two, figured you guys could help me out.

Cooler dwc system, 400w MH, Cheese or NL Autoflowering plant, slightly over 3 weeks old. Cutting Edge Solutions nutes (with a tiny bit of Calmag.) This plant is a slightly darker green than usual, and the two newest fan leaves are curling up substantially (all other leaves curling slightly.) Darker green at the tips and the edges of the leaves stand up. Not sure if they are getting too hot, or if there is a copper deficiency.

I have 2 strains in the same bubbler due to difficulties on the startup of my grow. I pulled out probably a gallon of nutrient res water and replaced with dechlorinated and PH'ed tap water to lower the PPM. The other plant was burning. But now a few days later these symptoms are popping up.

Any advice on what the problem might be is appreciated. I assume I probably need to remix the res?

Pics:

Bump.

Got home from work, leaves are darker around the edges. Leaf blades are pointing up.

Anybody got a take on this?

OK lets start at the source. You said dechlorinated tap water right? What do you mean by that? Did you treat the water or just 'let it sit out'? If you 'let it sit out' it probably has chloramines which do not evaporate. Chloramines will cause all kinds of weird problems from lockout to stunted growth to crap root growth. You must check your water quality report to determine if your company uses it, if it does, that's your problem.
Second thing: Copper deficiency is extraordinarily rare. If its anything, it would be lockout, but copper is required in such minute amounts its typically a non-event (like PPB- thats parts per BILLION).
Not familiar with 'cutting edge nutes' but looked at their website and as usual their 'full force' formula will kill a plant in an hour. You see they typically jack up the amounts to get you to fail grow after grow so you have to buy more and more nutes. Think of DWC like 'heroin' of plant food. Its directly available, so start off really, really low with basic micro, and bloom (initially seedlings need more phosphorous then nitrogen for rooting). As far as your plant, get that 'tap water' situation figured out, and then flush flush flush pH adjusted to 5.8!! Give it 2-3 days at least. It won't seem like anything is happening but it is. If you have superthrive or any B-1 root stimulator use a little of that. Unless you have brown slimy roots, use a flushing solution of 1 TBSP of molasses with the fresh water to feed roots as they heal. Remember, with DWC, youre growing roots, not a plant. Think of it like that.

Oh to get rid of chloramines not even a RO filter will work. You mus get a UV light filter or use API tap water conditioner (JUST the tap water conditioner- not the one with fish shit in it) from pet store. It will smel like crap, but remove chloramines.

Well thank you espoker19. I have been using some concentrated chlorine remover from the pet store. No sure if it has fish shit in it, as I am too high to find it at the moment. So far it has worked well, and the plants have not had any adverse reactions.

Thanks for the info on the nutes. I agree that the strengths they are shooting for are WAY to high. 500-1250 ppm for seedlings. I gave them the three part and a total of 5mL calmag for a 8 gallon res. Cant figure what scale my tds meter reads off of, but the ppm came out to 314. One of the two strains in the tub was burning at 340, this plant was thriving. Hopefully this change sets me at a happy medium. I think I fed at about 1/3 to 1/4 strength this go around.

If the girl perks up I will continue feeding at about this level, no sense ruining two plants to try to shelter the less ambitious one.

Thanks again for the tips, would rep you but I am out.

yeah it's definitely not copper related, plants are too green. it looks a little heat stressed. also if you got the fan that's in the pic at full speed turn it down, running it at full speeds will cause fan leaves to dry out and cause other problems.

Thanks again!

I lifted the light up about half a foot. I am going to look at work today for a fan I can suspend from the ceiling somehow, get some distance between it and the girls.