Some plants getting upward leaf curl - Thread Solved/No longer a problem

[slashroot]

Hi forum!

I have three systems all running the same nutrient strength. Some plants are getting leaf curl on one of the systems while the others are fine.

One my my thoughts was maybe my rockwools are placed deeper in one system than the other leaving one system over-watered or not draining off enough. Could that really be a problem in a ebb and flow system?

I have raised them a bit higher so it will be less soaked but wont see the result before quite a while, need to wait for new leaves to come out.

If anybody have any suggestions I would be happy



Here are the details of the systems:

I'm using the lucas formula with GHE Bloom and Micro at half strength.


System stats:

600W LED at 1 meter distance/ 3.2 feet


Grown in rockwool and clay pellets.

21ml GHE Micro and 42ml GHE Bloom in each system

30 Liter water / 5 Gallons in each system


EC 760

PPM 441

pH 6.1


Differences between day and night temps.

Highest water temperature 23.5c / 72.5f

Highest air temperature 28c / 82.4f

Lowest water temperature 22c / 71.6f

Lowest air temperature 23c / 73.4f


Timer on 5 times a day, for 15 minutes every 4 hours.

Light is on 14 hours a day.


Here you can see the actual leafs being curled. Video is only inside the "bad" system.

Here is the other system with same settings but no leaf curl and very healthy.

 

[hotty brown]

From what I know, that is a sign that there is not enough Ca+ Calcium. I've had alot of testing with Ca since the water I use here has nothing in it, I've had to sometimes put 1ml/L of Ca into the reservoir to get the plant healthy. Also, they like Nitrogen when young, and if they don't get enough, the get purplish. I'd say you have N2 and Ca deficiency, but that's just me. I would definitely use some GH grow in there at this stage. they are too young for just the micro and bloom. Also, check to see if you have hard water micro or soft water micro? if you have hard water micro, then you have no Ca+ and so you'd need to switch over to the soft formula. I compensated with BN Ca 15% when I used the hard water formula. With the right nutrient mix, you can go 18H of light.

HB

 

[ebrandon]

any air circulation? most of my experience comes from other plants but when I found them curling up like that it took adding a simple fan towards the plant and that seemed to get the excess water to expire more rapidly. It might be a deficiency like hb was saying. I know rockwool has a bit of a tendency more than some other mediums to keep moisture and nutrients so you might want to crack the seal on your covers to let some evaporate that way as well.

 

[slashroot]

From what I know, that is a sign that there is not enough Ca+ Calcium. I've had alot of testing with Ca since the water I use here has nothing in it, I've had to sometimes put 1ml/L of Ca into the reservoir to get the plant healthy. Also, they like Nitrogen when young, and if they don't get enough, the get purplish. I'd say you have N2 and Ca deficiency, but that's just me. I would definitely use some GH grow in there at this stage. they are too young for just the micro and bloom. Also, check to see if you have hard water micro or soft water micro? if you have hard water micro, then you have no Ca+ and so you'd need to switch over to the soft formula. I compensated with BN Ca 15% when I used the hard water formula. With the right nutrient mix, you can go 18H of light.

HB

When using the lucas formula I should get enough Calcium from the Micro but then again the formula wasn't made specifically for pepper plants so maybe they require more Calcium. Here were I live the water is in between hard and soft, pH is about 7.2.

I sure would like to run 18h of light but I would like to know how much that would benefit. How could I notice the difference between running the light 14h or 18h, I want to be able to tell that it's beneficial and not just get a higher electricity bill.

This thread is quite old though, what happened since the time I posted this thread was that the plants became healthy and no longer got leaf curl on new growth. I thought it was solved by checking my pH more often and keeping it in a good range(5.8-6.3). The pH could have been bad and prevented the plants from up-taking enough Calcium.

any air circulation? most of my experience comes from other plants but when I found them curling up like that it took adding a simple fan towards the plant and that seemed to get the excess water to expire more rapidly. It might be a deficiency like hb was saying. I know rockwool has a bit of a tendency more than some other mediums to keep moisture and nutrients so you might want to crack the seal on your covers to let some evaporate that way as well.

Rockwool sure can be a little too wet when the plants are young, when they grow older the roots stick out of the rockwool and reach more oxygenated areas. At least that's what makes sense in my head. I was running too many cycles of watering in the beginning which became evident through minor edema. I do have a fan on the system some hours a day, keeps mold from occurring between the clay pellets and makes the plant stems more hardy.

Right now I have 4 plants in the system and they are all perfectly healthy, no diseases or deficiencies. Hope it stays this way

 

[hotty brown]

18 H of light will blow you away at how much more growth you will get. You'll get flowers and peppers right away....

 

[slashroot]

18 H of light will blow you away at how much more growth you will get. You'll get flowers and peppers right away....

I sure will consider it. Will do some searching online for people doing comparison grows with different hour settings, if I can find that though.

 

[LUCKYDOG]

you can leave the lights on 24hrs too pepper plants are not photo sensitive

 

[thismembername]

Hey,
are these black cubans?

Im having the same trouble.

maybe its just your light that makes them look purple / black

 

[slashroot]

you can leave the lights on 24hrs too pepper plants are not photo sensitive

Thanks for your input, I'm surely going to increase the light on duration

Hey,
are these black cubans?

Im having the same trouble.

maybe its just your light that makes them look purple / black

From what I know Filius Blue and Black Cuban is not the same, just like the name the Filius Blue seem to produce more blueish peppers. Both of the plants have black looking leaves.