Is this a calcium def?

Hey guys I have 6 plants growing.. 5 in FF ocean forest and one DWC. One in soil and the one dwc are starting to show brown spots in the CENTER of leaves on the TOP of the plant only. I use General hydroponics nutes adjusted to 6.8ph. Here is a list of what I use:
Florabloom, florablend, floranector, snowstorm ultra, CAL-MAG, floracious plus, and koolbloom. The other 4 plants are healthy and looking great.

Maybe but it looks like its probably a boron deficiency. Since you feed cal mag. To fix you can use boric acid. Its available as eye wash at some stores like cvs and wall green. Start off small like a quarter to half teaspoon per gallon.

boron def. shows itself as growing shoots turning grey or dying. growth shoots will appear to be burnt.

this to me looks like a lockout of either Mg or Fe due to Ph issues, what are your PHs?

or this could be zinc deficiency, which causes yellow spots to form between the veins of the leaves

you can treat that with any chemical fertilizer containing zinc

as a way to be safe i would also get a heavy metals and b-vitamin supplement like superthrive or K-L-N

My ph going in is 6.8 and coming out is 5.8 in my drip pan. Is this an ok way to check the PH levels? I am using a Milwaukee ph600 meter.

looks like lockout. you have too much of something most likely

when you say you use florabloom do you mean your not adding floramicro or floragrow to that? you know its a 3 part fert yes?

you say you have dwc and soil? then you say 6.8ph. that is too high for your dwc. bring it down to 5.8 - 6.2

also are you using r/o water or tap water? if your on tap water you probably dont need cal/mag it will just cause lockouts.

also how high is your ppm/e.c? too high ppms and too many additives can cause a salt lockout. especially mixing brands as some additives may not mix well

oh all that and i forgot to tell you, the best thing you can do right now is flush then add half strength nutes and see what happens, i bet it clears up

Thanks for the reply 2easy.. The ph in my dwc is 5.8-6.0. As for the nutes I use all of the above mentioned at half strength together, between 1270-1500ppm then adjust to 6.8ph for soil. I use R/O water that has 7ppm reading and 7.0ph to start with.

Also use co2 once a day at low levels, don't know if thats helpful here. Could this also possibly be light burn? I am using a 600w hps about 1 1/2 feet above the canopy. Forgot to mention that grow room temps have been a little high the past few days around 86F. I am working on installing an a/c unit tomorrow to help bring temps down.

monkeybones said:

boron def. shows itself as growing shoots turning grey or dying. growth shoots will appear to be burnt.

this to me looks like a lockout of either Mg or Fe due to Ph issues, what are your PHs?

or this could be zinc deficiency, which causes yellow spots to form between the veins of the leaves

you can treat that with any chemical fertilizer containing zinc

as a way to be safe i would also get a heavy metals and b-vitamin supplement like superthrive or K-L-N

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I still think its boron. What your describing happens when a plant is in veg. This plant is in flower obviously. In flower it closely mimics cal def except you can see it more middle off the leaf streaked as opposed to calcium def brown dots starting at the tips. Here's a boron def in veg and then one in flower. Both solved with boric acid eye wash.
View attachment 2290971 View attachment 2290970

i agree it does look a little like boron def but i really doubt he needs to add more boron. more likely he has a salt build up or his nutes are to high and its causing lock out.

go do a little test for me in your dwc. flush it with clean water or florakleen. then add your nutes back. this alone may clear it up.
then go back and check your ppm the next day or a good few hrs later and see if they have gone up or down. if they are going up your nutes are too strong.
i usually only run about 700ppm in flower but thats just me the best way is to read your ppms and see what your plant is using.

I think your right 2easy.. I think my nutes are a little too strong and they caused a lock out. I already dumped my dwc yesterday and replaced it with clean water ph6.0 no nutes. The ppm was really low when I put it in and is now around 220ppm.

Yes but one is in soil and one is in dwc. I doubt he has a salt build up in soil. Plus no amount of any nute will cause a boron def to show with nothing else seemingly wrong with the plant. Its not like a Mag def where too much cal can cause a mag def. REally only seen boron def caused by ph if its lower than 5.5 which I doubt is the problem and higher than 7 which I also doubt when hes watering with 6.8. You may be on the right track for his DWC but since they are showing the same def at the same time I believe his nutes are just lacking enough boron.

probably safe to stick some nutes in there again now and see what she does. dont want her on water for to long she might get hungry lol

sounds like you will get it sorted but keep us updated please and good luck

bostoner said:

Yes but one is in soil and one is in dwc. I doubt he has a salt build up in soil. Plus no amount of any nute will cause a boron def to show with nothing else seemingly wrong with the plant. Its not like a Mag def where too much cal can cause a mag def. REally only seen boron def caused by ph if its lower than 5.5 which I doubt is the problem and higher than 7 which I also doubt when hes watering with 6.8. You may be on the right track for his DWC but since they are showing the same def at the same time I believe his nutes are just lacking enough boron.

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you could be right bos im no soil grower so that part for me is a mystery. im not saying your wrong just my first course of action is always dump the res, flush then add nutes again. 8/10 times the problem goes away if it doesnt then add something extra. its the quickest way to figure out whats up in hydro imo. and if you dont rule out a lock out first and you just start adding stuff it can make things worse. thats a hydro growers opinion though like i said im no soil grower

yeah its seems like it could be a lock out from the low ph (soil), if your runoff is reading 5.8 it's a little to low. you have to remember ph flucuate, so if the initial reading is 5.8 its normally lower than that. all you did was brought it up when you watered/fed at 6.8. it sounds like you need to flush until ph is at least 6.3-6.4, for soil that is.
i have no experience with dwc so can't say anything on that.

I hear all a yall. Im not saying I'm right either. Just an observation. I still think its showing as a boron def tho. Lets face it boron def not a common problem, which would lead me to think that if it was a ph issue or too much of another nute or something this wouldn't be the only def we would see and it wouldn't be the one we would see first. If it was too low ph I'd think you'd see calcium phosphorus, Magnesium, and a few other def first since they are more sensitive to low ph. The fact that nothing else seems wrong is the sole factor in my assessment and recommendation for boric acid.

i feel you and i could see where you're coming from, but what i've seen and read, 2 easy basically summed it up all in a nut shell.

Boron is important when dealing with maturation, pollen germination and seed production. As well as keeping calcium in soluble forms and keeping the stems, stalks, branches strong. Born keeps good colour on the leaves and helps produce the plants structure. Boron also aids in cell division and protein formation.

Boron deficiencies will show up first in younger leaves (they may turn yellow), then moves up the plant. Boron deficiency can resemble calcium deficiency. Stunting, discolouration, possible death of the growing tips, bud abortion and development. The Roots will show a stunted with swollen short secondary roots, leaves distorted, sometimes bronzed or scorched. Tip of the shoot dies; stems and petioles are brittle. Boron deficiency plants are easy to tell, because of the spotting the leaves show like a strawberry mark and or splashes of the marking. Boron-deficiency symptoms first appear at the growing points. They also can show signs of newer growths turning gray and or dying, bud deformed, curling of the leaves which are often spotted and discoloured. Newer growths appear to look like they are burnt. They can show signs of hollow stems along with yellowish to brownish colour leaves. Dead (Necrotic) spots develop between leaf veins, as well as the leaves becoming thick. The leaves will wilt with necrotic and chlorotic spotting. Boron is poorly absorbed with low potassium content. First signs of the deficiency are abnormal growth tips. Having not enough boron can also invite troubles for fungus problems from the internal tissues to rot away, as well as the root hairs along with them being discoulored. To avoid having a Boron deficiency try to keep the ph below 7 and to improve the moisture as well as retaining light soils.

Too much boron in your plants can produce a lot of problems. The leave tips turn yellow progressing inwards causing the plant to soon die slowly along with leaves dropping a lot.
Can show same signs as if a magnesium deficiency, but only happens on newer growths. Parts affected by a boron deficiency are: Growing points and young leaves.

as you can see the new growth is growing normally, none looks to be gray or dying. buds don't look to be deformed. best bet is to flush and take from there.