DWC, Fox Farms nutrient trio using their hydroponic feeding schedule, RO water, pH 6.0, EC= 1.9, TDS= 1,200, ILGM Northern Lights Fem, just added cal mag 3 days ago. Week 3 1/2.
First time grower. My wife has epilepsy and we’ve found that a heavy indica in the evening helps with symptoms and side effects. It’s hard to get a consistent or safe supply in our state. I’ve been trying to diagnose my problems via guides and the forums for a while and thought I figured out it was just my RO water needing cal mag, but it’s been 3 days and no real change. Any help would be appreciated.
I am by no means a plant guru, so please take anything I say with a grain of salt. I will tag a couple people who have helped me as well. If you have been feeding this entire time without a cal mag supplement using hydroponics and RO water, this would explain the calcium and/or magnesium deficiency. Could I see a closeup of the newest growth? From what I see, the new growth isn’t exhibiting the deficiency so much, so I believe the calmag is working. However, from my VERY limited understanding, once the deficiency reaches this stage, the old growth will not repair itself. If this was my grow, I would continue the calmag with every feeding at a rate of about 1 teaspoon or roughly 4 ml per gallon of water and keep a watchful eye on the new growth for improvement. I am battling a calcium deficiency with 12 day old seedlings in fox farms soil myself. The next grow will be hydroponic for me. I hate being stuck between a rock and a hard place and waiting for the soil to dry out, waiting for the ph to buffer, waiting for soil to do the very thing it is supposed to do in the first place. @Bulldognuts@Covertgrower@SKORPION
I too am learning the chemistry side of growing myself I put the chart up because I don’t feel comfortable advising in this area. I was just on another post with another experienced grow who may be able to help. @Oldguy
Thanks for the tag @SKORPION brother. But I grow in pro mix. @Myfriendis410. And @peachfuzz are my go to grow gurus for hydro or anything for that matter. . Thanks fellas for past help.
They’ll see the tags and be along.
@Nrock208. I would say this is the biggest problem.
Tds at that age /size should be around the 400-500 mark.
If you redo your feed to this I think you’ll def see an improvement.
And 5.8-6.0 is the proper ph range too.
Interesting to say the least. I would also say the lower leaves are splash, and water marks.
I think @Covertgrower is on to something. Though he grows in soil currently, he has seen it all. Let’s see if @Hellraiser can shed some more information.
Correct, but I am constant in my journey for knowledge. I’m familiar with parameters of hydro, I just don’t have a space for hydro yet. We’ll see what pans out for “space” in a month or two.
I think in the hydro, with how young they are. They are just getting roasted with nutrients. Especially fox farm, being that it isn’t super well rounded. I’d probably back it down to 500-600ppm but I’ll let a bucket guy chime in.
Thank you guys so much for helping out a noob! Nutrient deficiency/excess diagnosis has been my weak point so far too @SKORPION . I started with doing half the fox farms recommended, based of someone here’s advice. I probably misdiagnosed the early cal mag deficiency as nitrogen deficiency. I started adding all of the scheduled nutes, which didn’t help. All my EC and TDS ratios are “within limits” per fox farms schedule, but since I’m using RO water I think you are right @Oldguy, @Myfriendis410 and @imSICKkid . I’m going to flush the system today and start fresh with everything. I was thinking RO would be a more controlled way to go than my tap, but I didn’t consider all the minerals and micronutrients that might leave out. I just got General Hydros CalMag but I’ve seen some other CalMag+ products that are supposed to have other trace minerals like iron and such. Would that be worth using instead of straight CalMag? @Covertgrower I tried to set this up as clean as possible as an indoor grow, can the mosaic virus come with the seed, rockwool, hydroton? I will update this the next few days with progress. Also here’s some close-ups of new growth
Usually comes from a tobacco product.
If there are no tobacco products present, it’s possible I could be wrong. I’m humble enough to admit when I could be wrong.
If the new growth comes out looking nice, I would agree that you’ve solved the issue giving cal-mag. You should be set. Remember old growth will still look the same, and won’t recover.
Tobacco mosaic virus is a death sentence so let’s hope for the better.
I agree with others that you are feeding too strong. I also was wondering about your root zone. Kinda looks like root problems, but hey, I’m a grow in dirt guy so I am just throwing it out there. Good luck!
A agree , what do your roots look like and what are water temps…?
I also agree that your ppm’s are way too high…
400 to 500 would be better for them at their age…
Also when was the last time you calibrated your ph pen…?
Again seriously you guys are awesome and I really appreciate your help! anything you need to know I will be happy to provide!
I flushed the system yesterday, cleaned reservoirs, filled both to about 3.5 gal RO and about .75 gal of tap to maybe help with trace minerals, initial TDS=150 added GH Calimagic at full strength, then added FF growbig and big bloom at 50% strength, then pH balanced over 20 min to 6ph, final TDS =475-520. Too soon to tell much obviously, but I will keep updating.
Other info: temp at plants is kept 75-79F, humidity is kept at 50-60 RH, reservoir temp is pretty consistent at 70-75F, grow light is mars hydro TS 600W LED.
. Thanks fellas for past help. 
