Spotting on older fan leaves

[Timhomegrow]

Is this calcium deficiency or some pest on the older fan leaves? It's just a few leaves of one plant right now.

FFOF and Megacrop, 38 day autos. I may have been under feeding with MC, last was 4.25g/gal. Also did notice more fungus gnats ....or something flying around and my sticky cards are loaded. Perhaps not related to the spotting but mentioning just in case. Been letting the pots get very dry so a bit puzzled on the gnats

 

[013]

Dood...! Not sure what’s up with leaf spotting, but maybe try bottom watering for a while with mosquito dunk water. If you’ve got flyers above the canopy then I’d assume gnats are your culprits again. I had just reduced mine to what I thought was zero gnats, did bottom water for couple weeks. As soon as I top watered again I saw more flyers the next day. I’ll go back to bottom water and I’ve got ground up dunks and bit’s both mixed in soil. But I suspect theres a few stragglers living in other places like garbage cans or other soil containers not being used etc. They are sneaky little bastards and they can find wet soil or a parking spot elsewhere until the soil is wet again

I think you have to bottom water mostly but if/when you resume with a top water session then mos def use mosquito dunks and you’ve probably got to follow up by spraying soil with Neem or spinosad, putting DE or sulfur down etc. It’s jungle warfare

see what other bites you can reel in tho

 

[Timhomegrow]

Dood...! Not sure what’s up with leaf spotting, but maybe try bottom watering for a while with mosquito dunk water. If you’ve got flyers above the canopy then I’d assume gnats are your culprits again. I had just reduced mine to what I thought was zero gnats, did bottom water for couple weeks. As soon as I top watered again I saw more flyers the next day. I’ll go back to bottom water and I’ve got ground up dunks and bit’s both mixed in soil. But I suspect theres a few stragglers living in other places like garbage cans or other soil containers not being used etc. They are sneaky little bastards and they can find wet soil or a parking spot elsewhere until the soil is wet again

I think you have to bottom water mostly but if/when you resume with a top water session then mos def use mosquito dunks and you’ve probably got to follow up by spraying soil with Neem or spinosad, putting DE or sulfur down etc. It’s jungle warfare

see what other bites you can reel in tho

I've been doing the neem too. May go ProMix next grow to stop these gnats. I'll look up bottom watering too thanks!

 

[013]

I’m running amended faux mix but they can live in any peat based media or dirt but not sure on coco.

bottom water is easy - just need a pan or storage tub and water. I do lukewarm to not shock her. Don’t let her soak for 10 minutes, but ya need to hold container cause it will try to float or tip over. Maybe 3 to 5 minute soak & she’s gonna drain hard when you pull her up. Don’t forget the skeeter dunks. Rule of thumb if your bucket has 8 inches of dirt then do 4 to 6 inches of water minimum to give a drink. Don’t know if you knew the high brix crew but doc used to say if you are bottom feeding nutes then go 2X on nute strength.

 

[Emilya Green]

When you bottom water, you neglect the top spreader roots. The plants can adapt, but generally it is not a good idea to keep the lower root always under water either. I am not a fan of this method. Your megacrop grow looks to be very well balanced at the level you are feeding and I would not change a thing. The spotting you are seeing doesn't look nutritional to me... it looks like bug damage.

To deal with the bugs more effectively, I will suggest putting a 1" layer of pine bark mulch on the surface of your containers. Bugs that need to burrow into the soil to lay their eggs are confused by the mulch, and their brains can not process how to get past that barrier. If you break their life cycle at that point, the gnats will go away. It is cheap, effective and it looks pretty. Sometimes the old world methods are the best.

 

[Timhomegrow]

When you bottom water, you neglect the top spreader roots. The plants can adapt, but generally it is not a good idea to keep the lower root always under water either. I am not a fan of this method. Your megacrop grow looks to be very well balanced at the level you are feeding and I would not change a thing. The spotting you are seeing doesn't look nutritional to me... it looks like bug damage.

To deal with the bugs more effectively, I will suggest putting a 1" layer of pine bark mulch on the surface of your containers. Bugs that need to burrow into the soil to lay their eggs are confused by the mulch, and their brains can not process how to get past that barrier. If you break their life cycle at that point, the gnats will go away. It is cheap, effective and it looks pretty. Sometimes the old world methods are the best.

Do you think those spotting on the leaves is fungus gnats or something else? I looked really close today with the loupe and I'm not seeing any bugs. Thanks as always

 

[bluter]

can you flood flush ? - get the water table to the top of the media, as opposed to draining through.

it's something i do in hempy with an h202 solution. they either drown or get killed by the solution. i also hang a hotshot in the tent when i'm at work. death from above. the two methods in tandem clear them out in 10 - 14 days or so.

 

[Timhomegrow]

can you flood flush ? - get the water table to the top of the media, as opposed to draining through.

it's something i do in hempy with an h202 solution. they either drown or get killed by the solution. i also hang a hotshot in the tent when i'm at work. death from above. the two methods in tandem clear them out in 10 - 14 days or so.

I have the sticky cards in the pots, perhaps I need a high flying killer . And will try the line bark. Those darn gnats !!! If that's my biggest issue though I'm happy

 

[Doctor Trevor]

Looks like a calcium or magnesium deficiency. I usually get it when my plants start flowering.

I use Calmag Extra for it.

 

[SmokingWings]

Do you think those spotting on the leaves is fungus gnats or something else? I looked really close today with the loupe and I'm not seeing any bugs. Thanks as always

Something else, not fungus gnats.

The gnats tend to be in the soil and their primary food source is any decomposing organic matter. The use of Mosquito Dunks will work on solving a Fungus Gnat problem. The gnats fly around searching for new soil to live in and to find other gnats to breed with and that is when they get caught on the sticky cards.

After viewing the first photo it really looks like the spots could be caused by some sort of inch worm or other insect in its pupa stage. A common insect that can do this sort of damage would be one from a group called Leaf Miners. Many leaf miner larva are from small flies but those flies should be larger than a Fungus Gnat.

Maybe a close up and in-focus photo of the insects caught by the sticky cards might help someone identify the flying insect, just in case it is not a Fungus Gnat.

If it is leaf miners then something other than Mosquito Dunks or Mosquito Bits will be needed. The active ingredient in those is BTi and that bacteria does not work that well at all on insects that are above the soil or not in water. You will need an insecticide that contains a different bacteria, one that has a short name of just BT. The BT works great on insects that feed off the surface of leaves.

Or try a Neem Oil spray on the leaves might do the job.

Have a good day.

 

[bluter]

Looks like a calcium or magnesium deficiency. I usually get it when my plants start flowering.

I use Calmag Extra for it.

not seeing the pre-cursor for it though. there would be different levels of damage present at the same time. the spots look like uniform injury, occurring at the same time, suggesting it's predatory. it's by no means a slam dunk though.

 

[bluter]

i agree it doesn't look to be gnats however ...

gnats attack the roots, not the leaves. i'm not sure if i'm looking at the leaves responding to root damage.

 

[SmokingWings]

i agree it doesn't look to be gnats however ...

gnats attack the roots, not the leaves. i'm not sure if i'm looking at the leaves responding to root damage.

I would think that if the spotting, which does look like trails, was caused by root damage then it would show up as random damage and spread over the entire surface. The damage in the first and second photo looks localized to one area of the leaf surface.

 

[Emilya Green]

very good insights being voiced here my friends... I love how you are talking this out! May I suggest looking into natural pesticides with our sponsors at SNS once you identify this critter? You can buy a very cheap little packet of just what is needed, that you can mix up and easily apply, and their shipping is very fast.

 

[Fuzzy Duck]

Defiantly not a nutrient issue.

Perhaps it could be some sort of innocent natural cause like plant cell death leading to randomly appearing necrotic spots, it is not dangerous.

It happens to the best of us.

 

[013]

Yes, gnat larvae feed on the roots. Anyway you’ve got some great answers and solutions to try.

 

[Justin Goody]

I know you've checked for bugs, but pull off that leaf with the damage and put it upside down under the loupe again. Check for aphids, they are almost exactly the color of the underside of the leaf (sometimes) and really hard to spot sometimes. That damage almost looks like its from them, though usually its not in such a pattern. Fungus gnats damaging the roots would usually start affecting the edges of the leaf first.
At first glance I was inclined toward the beginnings of light burn (I know you just added a second light) but up closer it looks like something is poking your leaves from below (likely thrips, spider mites, or aphids) it doesn't take very many to do some noticeable damage. Good job catching whatever it is before it spreads, just keep on it.

 

[Timhomegrow]

Here is the close up of the sticky cards and also took a pic of one of the other leafs if it helps. Assuming those are fungus gnats in the cards.

 

[bluter]

yeah shit it's predatory .. i see mite damage

 

[Timhomegrow]

Here's a close up of the under sides of the leaf with my microscope. I see those white dots ....but they aren't moving. Not sure what they are