Plants dying! Papery leaves/overwatered?? Please help!!

Jaydee86 · Dec 31, 2021

Hi guy's I've been doing little bits for a fair few years now and the past year I've not been able to complete a full grow because of this 1 problem and I cannot work out what's going on.
I'm scratching my head in desperation trying all different things but whatever I do to make improvements my plants will take a turn for the worst just randomly and start dying until they quickly become shrivelled and lifeless.
Before any of you guy's ask about my growing environment its 100% perfect.
I'm using a recirculating nft system, with airstone in the reservoir, my ppms are 850, pH 5.8, temps between 20-25c, rh average of 55-60.
Lights were 2x Mars hydro ts 3000 in a 1.2m x 2.4m tent.
This is what happens to my plants, they will start to look like the leaves are heavy, like they're full of weight and drooping over almost like they're over watered and the leaves are full of water?? But at the same time the leaves feel dry like paper!
Very dehydrated feeling with no moisture to the touch.
Eventually the leaves will be so droopy and so dry they will crisp into dust.
Surely Someone out there has seen this before?? I'm beginning to think it's some kind of plant disease maybe in my environment??
My plants should be very healthy as every parameter is spot on yet they are dying mysteriously every time!
I notice that the veins of the leaves look very dark like purple and the leaves going lighter in color before they wilt away and die.
This is very frustrating and really messing with my mental health.

SofaKingHigh · Dec 31, 2021

What are you growing in? Have you used the same medium for the past year? What nutrients are you using. How often are you watering them? I have never used a recirculating setup but hear you have to monitor it super closely all the time.

Solarscar · Dec 31, 2021

I have had something very similar to this. Mine happened from mixing my nutes into a garden sprayer and apparently I did not mix long enough and the nutes concentrated by settling near the intake straw at the bottom of my garden sprayer. Suffice to say 1 1/2 plants got a crazy bad dose of nutes. They got light green, droopy and simply stopped growing all together. I mix my synthetic nutes in a tub now and before putting of it onto the plants, I do a mix before I scoop some nutrient-rich water out. May not be what happened with your grow though. Just another possible for you to consider.

Jaydee86 · Dec 31, 2021

SofaKingHigh said:
What are you growing in? Have you used the same medium for the past year? What nutrients are you using. How often are you watering them? I have never used a recirculating setup but hear you have to monitor it super closely all the time.

Hi thanks for the reply, so it's rockwool on nft trays, the roots are looking very healthy and I've pulled some out and put them into a soil coco mix to see if I can save some at least.
It's a very odd situation that sometimes go away but then come back with a vengeance. I really don't think it's overwatering and I did think it was because the plants weren't transpiring enough due to low infrared from led lights and holding onto too much water?? I do monitor the parameters of the nutrient solution well and it's good every time, this is such a mystery.

Solarscar · Dec 31, 2021

When you pinch a leaf off, does it feel rubbery and not want to snap off easily? Mine did that but mine never got out of that funk. Mine happened within 12 hours of watering in nutes as well. Hmmm….

Jaydee86 · Dec 31, 2021

Solarscar said:
I have had something very similar to this. Mine happened from mixing my nutes into a garden sprayer and apparently I did not mix long enough and the nutes concentrated by settling near the intake straw at the bottom of my garden sprayer. Suffice to say 1 1/2 plants got a crazy bad dose of nutes. They got light green, droopy and simply stopped growing all together. I mix my synthetic nutes in a tub now and before putting of it onto the plants, I do a mix before I scoop some nutrient-rich water out. May not be what happened with your grow though. Just another possible for you to consider.

Thanks for the reply mate, so yea I guess you can overdose with concentrated nutrients like that, however when I top up my res I put them in with the pumps turned off and then hosepipe mixes all the nutrients while it's blasted into the reservoir.
I am so frustrated with all this, nobody I know can get their head around this mystery.

Solarscar · Dec 31, 2021

How about your run off ppm and ph? I would think growing in rock wool would eliminate your medium holding onto nutes causing buildup?

Solarscar · Dec 31, 2021

Jaydee86 said:
Thanks for the reply mate, so yea I guess you can overdose with concentrated nutrients like that, however when I top up my res I put them in with the pumps turned off and then hosepipe mixes all the nutrients while it's blasted into the reservoir.
I am so frustrated with all this, nobody I know can get their head around this mystery.

Its a mystery right now but I think if more people chimed in with similar past experiences or possible ideas, you can eliminate or support your suspicions.

Jaydee86 · Dec 31, 2021

Solarscar said:
How about your run off ppm and ph? I would think growing in rock wool would eliminate your medium holding onto nutes causing buildup?

So it's recirculating system, the ppms were at 1350 before when they were doing fine and then few days ago I diluted the nutrient solution down to about 850, and now they're really dying so I can't imagine I'd be overdosing them.
I can try bumping the ppms back up and see how they go??

Jaydee86 · Dec 31, 2021

Solarscar said:
Its a mystery right now but I think if more people chimed in with similar past experiences or possible ideas, you can eliminate or support your suspicions.

Exactly what I'm hoping for, thanks alot dude much appreciated

Jaydee86 · Dec 31, 2021

1 thing I forgot to mention is that I've had this before, so I switched the lights out to a 250w mh/hps bulb and they recovered.
They were doing fine and then started doing this again 2 weeks after using the mh/hps.
It almost feels like the plants are not eating/drinking any nutrients.
They've gone into retreat or protection where they are just dying and withered.
Could it be possible that it's something to do with the lighting??

Solarscar · Dec 31, 2021

Absolutely. From the photos they do appear to look good but as we all know, pictures sometimes don’t support real life.

There has to be just one oversight we haven’t nailed yet. I’m curious to see what they do in the soil mix you transplanted them into (granted it hasn’t been used previously) after 3-5 days. I’m leaning towards medium. However, I think you are doing things spot on.

anyone else have a different angle?

Jaydee86 · Dec 31, 2021

Solarscar said:
When you pinch a leaf off, does it feel rubbery and not want to snap off easily? Mine did that but mine never got out of that funk. Mine happened within 12 hours of watering in nutes as well. Hmmm….

Yea I think I know what you mean, it is like that yes! You can feel that it's not right.
Definitely something wrong.

Jaydee86 · Dec 31, 2021

Solarscar said:
Absolutely. From the photos they do appear to look good but as we all know, pictures sometimes don’t support real life.

There has to be just one oversight we haven’t nailed yet. I’m curious to see what they do in the soil mix you transplanted them into (granted it hasn’t been used previously) after 3-5 days. I’m leaning towards medium. However, I think you are doing things spot on.

anyone else have a different angle?

So I know this might sound confusing but this is the 2nd time this is happening with the same plants!
that's why I potted some up, changed the lighting and they all came back nicely.
even the plants I left in the nft trays, which actually look better right now.
So yea this is the second time around on the same plants.
It almost looks as if the plants are holding onto too much water??

Solarscar · Dec 31, 2021

I’m assuming those 2 3000 series lights are 300 true watts per light giving you 600 true watts total? You got the horsepower if so as long there is no light burn. How about if you let them dry out to where the leaves are drooping, do they bounce back up in a light cycle or two in response to a water only?

I don’t grow in rock wool, but I did find that they do hold onto nutes very well. I have a feeling, with your grow style, they are going to recover in your soil mix. I know that isn’t 100 percent what you need at the moment. I know the struggle is real as shit man!

Solarscar · Dec 31, 2021

Jaydee86 said:
Yea I think I know what you mean, it is like that yes! You can feel that it's not right.
Definitely something wrong.

I was suspecting that. Transplant them girls into that soil mix you got, flush the shit out of them with ph’ed water and check them in a couple to few days to look for new growth. I feel this is your best option since you have had this before and possibly did not do the transplant last time into a soil mix? You got this.

Solarscar · Dec 31, 2021

Jaydee86 said:
So I know this might sound confusing but this is the 2nd time this is happening with the same plants!
that's why I potted some up, changed the lighting and they all came back nicely.
even the plants I left in the nft trays, which actually look better right now.
So yea this is the second time around on the same plants.
It almost looks as if the plants are holding onto too much water??

I would say as long as your rock wool is pretty much rooted out and they aren’t sitting in water, they should absolutely be sucking that water up. Apparently 1ml over of nutes in rock wool can cause lockout. You seem to be monitoring that effectively though.

Jaydee86 · Dec 31, 2021

Solarscar said:
I was suspecting that. Transplant them girls into that soil mix you got, flush the shit out of them with ph’ed water and check them in a couple to few days to look for new growth. I feel this is your best option since you have had this before and possibly did not do the transplant last time into a soil mix? You got this.

Yea sorry to sound confusing but yea that's what I did last time.
Everywhere I look it seems to look like overwatering or somehow the plants are holding onto too much water somehow.
I've switched my fans off to raise humidity and using the 250w mh and see what happens.

Solarscar · Dec 31, 2021

How about your ph/ec meters… are they calibrated? How about letting your water stabilize for 15 minutes then rechecking your ph? Just another idea to consider among the many.

jguit · Dec 31, 2021

Have you measured the amount of light you're hitting them with? It's easy to overdo it with LEDs. If they did better with less lighting (250w MH), you may have figured it out yourself.

Plants dying! Papery leaves/overwatered?? Please help!!

Plants dying! Papery leaves/overwatered?? Please help!!

Jaydee86

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