[Letsbelievein]

Hello! Everything seems dialed in for my first grow and my plants are taking off. But I closely check each one each day and this is just starting. My guess is cal/magnesium since I don’t add it extra into me GH reservoir because I use tap water at 150ppm and don’t want to overdue it. Help me confirm the issue, I just ordered some to supplement tomorrow but wanted to be sure before adding to it. Or maybe something I haven’t even thought of.

All top plant life is growing awesome but lower leaves and older leaves are showing this first. Also, not noticing any tip burns. 3/5 plants showing this.

 

[Letsbelievein]

Also the white fuzz is lint from a blower I added just in case you notice the white fuzz. Didn’t realize it still had lint in the hose :/ lol

 

[RealFarmer]

You may want to wipe the leaves off and take another picture. It's kinda tough to see if that is lint on the leaves or spider mite damage. Check the underside of your leaves. What kind of light are you using? What are you feeding them?

 

[Letsbelievein]

I know it’s really tough cause it blew in for a day and now everytime a fans on little tiny lint dust gets on stuff. I checked under all leaves and don’t see any signs of mites

 

[Letsbelievein]

Also using tomahawk 650 and feeding general hydroponics at 500ppm flora micro and grow. No extras.

 

[SoSoBurntToast]

I believe calmg is the problem. I wouldnt consider 150ppm very high even it was made up entirely of calcium and magnesium. did you buffer your coco?

 

[dreamnfox]

definitely looks like bugs and cal mag issues, did you use a scope to check under the leaves?

 

[Letsbelievein]

I believe calmg is the problem. I wouldnt consider 150ppm very high even it was made up entirely of calcium and magnesium. did you buffer your coco?

I believe so too, and I’m in hydroton not coco. pH always 5.8-6.3

 

[Letsbelievein]

I have not used a scope but I’ll get one and check.

 

[dreamnfox]

I have not used a scope but I’ll get one and check.

you will only see the mites with a jewelers loop or scoop

 

[BigF]

Calcium deficient

 

[Letsbelievein]

Calcium deficient

Thank you, I overnighted calimagic and went on the low end of 1ml/gal. Slightly confused that’s what the bottle says but the grow chart says 1.9ml/gal for the entire grow. Any ideas why this would be? I also got a magnifying glass 30x and don’t see any pests.

Thanks for the response

 

[Letsbelievein]

you will only see the mites with a jewelers loop or scoop

No sign of bugs, just stupid lint dust I’ll never get rid of this grow

 

[dreamnfox]

No sign of bugs, just stupid lint dust I’ll never get rid of this grow

that great news, dont worry about the lint dust, you should see some of the cat hair pics from folks

 

[BigF]

Thank you, I overnighted calimagic and went on the low end of 1ml/gal. Slightly confused that’s what the bottle says but the grow chart says 1.9ml/gal for the entire grow. Any ideas why this would be? I also got a magnifying glass 30x and don’t see any pests.

Thanks for the response

Coco is super hungry for calcium, so it sucks up quite a bit.
There are little 'sticky' spots called cation exchange sites. Coco has zillions. Normally they have been attached to by Potassium and Sodium. However, when calcium and magnesium come along, they lose interest in the potassium and sodium, and find the calcium and magnesium irresistibly sexy and dump what they have in favor of the new hotness.
This is why coco is best buffered prior to use. Basically just soak it in RO water with a good amount of cal mag. However, as roots grow, they break down coco in to smaller and smaller pieces, exposing fresh cation exchange sites. So the faster your roots are growing, the faster the coco itself is sucking up more calcium.

Its pretty much like this:

 

[Letsbelievein]

that great news, dont worry about the lint dust, you should see some of the cat hair pics from folks

lol I’m not as worried as I’m salty that when I ran the ducting to intake from outside my home for proper temps I didn’t think that it came form an old vent and I turned it on and watched it snow lol and now I get a reminder everytime I look at it

 

[Letsbelievein]

Coco is super hungry for calcium, so it sucks up quite a bit.
There are little 'sticky' spots called cation exchange sites. Coco has zillions. Normally they have been attached to by Potassium and Sodium. However, when calcium and magnesium come along, they lose interest in the potassium and sodium, and find the calcium and magnesium irresistibly sexy and dump what they have in favor of the new hotness.
This is why coco is best buffered prior to use. Basically just soak it in RO water with a good amount of cal mag. However, as roots grow, they break down coco in to smaller and smaller pieces, exposing fresh cation exchange sites. So the faster your roots are growing, the faster the coco itself is sucking up more calcium.

Its pretty much like this:

Thank you for this detailed response it’s really interesting. So because I’m in hydroton does this principle seem to replicate? I soaked and ph buffered my hydroton after washing it but didn’t put cal mag in it when I buffered. My plants are 5 weeks in after slow growth in the beginning. But I righted the ship and think my roots are going really well right now which might be why I’m seeing a correspondence in deficiency when my plants his their first big growth spurt?

Also, to be clear and why I’m slightly confused, the plants are still growing better than they have since breaking ground. Is this normal at the very beginning of a deficiency before it’s too big a problem?

 

[BigF]

Thank you for this detailed response it’s really interesting. So because I’m in hydroton does this principle seem to replicate? I soaked and ph buffered my hydroton after washing it but didn’t put cal mag in it when I buffered. My plants are 5 weeks in after slow growth in the beginning. But I righted the ship and think my roots are going really well right now which might be why I’m seeing a correspondence in deficiency when my plants his their first big growth spurt?

Also, to be clear and why I’m slightly confused, the plants are still growing better than they have since breaking ground. Is this normal at the very beginning of a deficiency before it’s too big a problem?

For some reason I thought you had coco under the hydroton. Looking back now, not sure why haha, probably had something to do with a very large bong and a series of small fires. So the def isn't caused by coco cation exchange sites, since there is no coco.

Calcium deficiency is a funky thing. If you see spots, they are already deficient. They can look healthy otherwise, but be growing a bit slower and not quite as vigorous. They can look a little calcium deficient and yield much less than they could have, but still look otherwise half decent. A little more calcium and they should be happy.