crinkled and cupped first leaves.

I apologize for the blue white balance issues.  Im using aquarium LEDs and they are very blue.  Taking pics with my cell, which doesn't have manual white balance to correct them.
 
A few types of plants have very crinkled up leaves.  Some have leaves that are highly cupped.  Any issues?
 
BTW, at a young age most dried out a bit.  Enough to kill quite a few babies.
 
Crinkled Ice Cream Scorpions
20160329_000629.jpg

 
Cupped Caribbean Red Habaneros
20160329_000715.jpg
 
Thank you.
 
Seeing that they are still very young, how much calcium nitrate would you recommend per gallon?

They have never seen ferts so far btw, just whatever is in promix.

Or should I start a full spectrum at about 10% normal strength?
 
N NO3 -  19.000ppm
N NH4 -   1.800ppm
P     -   4.000ppm
K     -  34.000ppm
Mg    -   5.000ppm
Ca    -  17.000ppm
S     -  12.2991ppm
Fe    -    0.292ppm
Zn    -    0.016ppm
B     -    0.033ppm
Mn    -    0.083ppm
Cu    -    0.004ppm
Mo    -    0.003ppm
 
It is pure promix mixed 50/50 with perlite.
 
Any ideas?  They are not the only ones like this btw, but most plants look healthy.
 
Burned, as in too much light?  I didn't think I was over doing it.  Each 2 trays is under a 120w LED raised ~ 16" up.  50% royal blue; 50% mixed white, red, and green.  No uv that I am aware of.  They are aquarium LEDs afterall, not pot LEDs...
 
Like a Isaid just a novice, honestly the only time my plants ever looked like that was at plant out. I think many of us had a similar issue and blamed it on over spray of toxic chemicals. Best of luck either way!
 
Maybe they are too dry. 50% perlite sounds like a lot and helps with drainage. Not sure though, I am also a novice grower.
 
Its likely light burn if your running 24/7 lighting.
Better pics would help,but....
I wrinkled some up a few years ago that never lost color (stayed deep green)
 
Scuba_Steve said:
I apologize for the blue white balance issues.  Im using aquarium LEDs and they are very blue.  Taking pics with my cell, which doesn't have manual white balance to correct them.
 
A few types of plants have very crinkled up leaves.  Some have leaves that are highly cupped.  Any issues?
 
BTW, at a young age most dried out a bit.  Enough to kill quite a few babies.
 
Crinkled Ice Cream Scorpions
20160329_000629.jpg

 
Cupped Caribbean Red Habaneros
20160329_000715.jpg
 
this is lighting imho. what is the air temp? how many watts lighting?  to be honest ive never seen lighting induced stress this bad before... its usually some cupping of the leaf margins and bubbles in the mid rib area, but this looks alot worse.
 
regarding calcium. you want around 100-200 mg/l calcium. i dont have saltmix.xls spread shit in front of me...
 
i follow the howard resh nutrient profile. i dont bother adding ammonia though.
 
http://howardresh.com/dr-howard-resh-hydroponic-services/hydroponic-culture-peppers-ii/
 
its even included with hydrobuddy. works very well. just make sure you get runoff when your plants are small like this. or alternate ferts with tap water. 
right now im running a watermelon fertilizer profile, but its close enough that the pepper plants love it as well.
 
Air temp is around 78 F.  Lights are 120w aquarium LEDs raised 16" up running 24/7.  I plan on running howard resh as well btw.  I was just afraid to run full strength at this age. 
 
Scuba_Steve said:
Air temp is around 78 F.  Lights are 120w aquarium LEDs raised 16" up running 24/7.  I plan on running howard resh as well btw.  I was just afraid to run full strength at this age. 
 
thats not many watts? i was assuming you had some insane lighting... like that guy who posted earlier about his 800watt LED fixture?
 
i have never seen anything like this beffore, could it be the lighting color? its just so gnarled and twisted... very unusual.
when my plants get to close to say a HPS light source, they start stressing and distorting like i mentioned above... when they get closer they just bleach white and start scorching though, they don't twist or roll up to the extent you are showing here. 
 
idk... if it were me id test the runoff. water in just enough distilled to get a few ml of runoff and test it for EC and PH. if all is good id start with ferts.
 
full blast is no problem when plants are young. i cant emphasize this enough. its when you dont allow for any runoff that this becomes a problem.
 
these plants are very tiny and will use like 0% of the nutrients you water in, so you need to get runoff to keep the soil conductivity stable. half strength is fine to, just get runoff... or alternate tap water and fertilizer just make sure its not building up. 
 
Have you tried going to a 18/6 light cycle? Just a newb question but it seems that if it is light stress that is causing the issue that the plants need a recovery period every day. I have read this and been told the same here on the forums as well and if you think about it, it kinda makes since. I also noticed that the leaves look they are blackened up some and that also points to possible sunburn. Just my 2 cents, hope things turn around for ya!! 
 
Aquarium LEDs do have an ok spectrum for plants as they are made to grow corals which use the same parts of the light spectrum as plants do. However, aquarium LEDs can be very intense especially if they have lenses to focus light. Remember, aquarium LEDs need to punch through water with enough PAR left for the corals.

Also whilst 120w of light doesn't sound like much it is in fact a lot especially when 50% of that is in the blue spectrum.

Also, give them some night time.. 16 hours on 8 hours off this is natural.

I grew my seedlings using just 30w of diy LEDs in a simple reflector. mostly blue with some white and red, this was enough to grow 80 seedlings in red solo cups until 4-5th set of leaves and they grew fast. I did 16/8 day/night cycle and had them in a box with Mylar sides. Temp around 25-30 degrees C.

Hope this helps.
 
I am a newb, but honestly, you look like you have the same problem I had.

To fix I backed off the led's on 18/6 light cycle, repotted to 60% promix, 20% worm castings, 20% perlite, a small handful of tomato fertilizer pellets, a teaspoon of eco-scraps all purpose plant food, and some ozmocote plant food pellets. That did the trick for curing what ailed the plants.

Also used double cup method. Once the roots grew down far enough to get a healthy dose of calcium hydroponic nutes, leaves straightened out and growth was explosive.

Think I'll just use Miracle-Gro potting mix next year.
 
Smart move,even though many frown on it
MG isnt as bad as many project it to be be,nor is the excessive hydro neut infusion some push
They are peppers,not the latest greatest herb stack to be coddled over
Peppers! if you need herbal sanctification then get after it,your pissing away money
 
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