Sudden Overnight Clawing & Unknown Leaf Decay & Damage

[juggaGROWrX86]

Hey all, wanted to ask some veteran cultivators what could be happening here. I watered/fed a 6/9ml per gal. Micro/Bloom in RO with 3.5ml/gal of CalMag added first and 6ml/gal of Terpinator last after I add the Lucas Formula. Last night before bed at about 10:30pm EST I gave this Lemon Autoflower about 3/4 of the gallon and usually just stop before any runoff. Sometimes I just water until I get slight side runoff. I am at the end of Week 2 of Bloom. I water with straight up R.O. and pHed water every other watering. Woke up this morning to the first signs of clawing Ive ever had to deal with, 12 hours ago these leaves looked fine and the onIy thing that changed was the Lucas Formula Watering last night. I use a Bluelabs pH pen and calibrate it with their kit weekly. This girl is under a Full Spectrum Viparspectra 300W LED with no switches/heavy on the blues. I run all autos and stick to a 24 Hour ON cycle. About 32" above the canopy. Could it be too much light? They are just getting bigger therefore closer the light? I continuously move it with the plant. However some of the lower leaves are also showing signs of clawing, being so far away from the light I just dont get it. I have noticed strange slices in 2 fan leaves and treat all plants with an Organic Neem Oil mist at a ratio of 1/8 tsp per 16 oz.spray bottle, pHed and R.O. foliar, like I said I treat all plants as part of my IPM and has never done any damage to my plants before.... This year I have noticed some ants in the house so atrributed the small leaf slices to them. I constantly check under and around fan leaves and cloth pot bottoms. Always keep the small fan going just above the canopy. So far all I do to my autos is some SCROG/Light LST like branch tieing etc. Any advice is welcome guys, lay it on and if I've missed something let me know. Current tent Temp/Humidity is: 82°F / 55% RH. Strain: Automatic Lemon Feminised from Seedsman. (Lowryder #2 by Joint Doctors x Greenhouse Seeds Lemon Skunk) Cheers Fam! Also using a 440CFM apollo horticulture fan so they are getting plenty of filtered fresh air. I have the grow dialed in for the most part but just feel I am missing something.

If you need more pics/info from me for a better diagnosis let me know and I'll get it up. Thanks again!

 

[juggaGROWrX86]

re: Sudden Overnight Clawing & Unknown Leaf Decay & Damage

Here are 2 more pics to show you my light height, which as you can see is rather high up and is a 300W Viparspectra Full Spectrum Reflector Series.

Also included a photo of the plant as a whole and up until this morning have not had any problems. Also, did my first defoliation last night before the watering I mentioned but only superficial fan leaves in the center that were stopping air flow. First time defoliation and dont really plan on doing it again unless it gets out of control again. Damn claw ass leaves got me buggin yall! I feel all the stress that my lady feels ya dig! Gotta get it off the chest and get her feelin right... ty all

JuggaGROWrX86

 

[LordofDanknis]

re: Sudden Overnight Clawing & Unknown Leaf Decay & Damage

Hey Jugga Grow, looks good so far my man.
Let's get you de-stressed. Lol. You got this!
The sliced leaves look like they have been cut by ants, like you said (5% could just be poor genetics). The "Taco leaves" are caused by a few things: heat stress, poor humidity, or salt build-up. It's probably not your light-distance (300w @ almost 3ft, whole plant effected- not just the top, you're good). It's probably not the diluted foliar spray/ defoliation (unless you did the spray during "daytime hours," instead of right before "lights out".) So, it's likely the nute change is causing a salt build-up. You said you usually water until it's just barely running off, but you're far enough along in the grow now to do a complete flush (runoff=about 2-3X container size) to avoid toxic salt build-up.
That should get 'er back on track!
If this is not the problem, then it's likely heat, or poor humidity. 82degress is fine for most strains, but it's on the warm side, & the room could be getting hotter than that, which could put you past optimal temps- especially around midday. Also, if your fan doesn't oscillate, the air above your plants/below your lights will get dry, so getting one that oscillates will help keep your room cooler, while retaining more humidity as well, which definitely will help, regardless. Let us know how it turns out!

 

[daTenshi]

Great detailed explanation LordofDanknis. Would only like to add that you can leave the tent door opened and not zip it all the way, works for me to reduce the amount of heat. Even during dark period, don't worry about light leaks, since they're autoflowers, that won't stress them.
Otherwise they look great to me.

 

[juggaGROWrX86]

thanks so much guys, my last plant struggled in flowering due to excess salts I believe. I have the Botanicare 30% h2o2 so I will do a peroxide flush to get that taken care of then a full feeding 24-48 hours later then. Someone mentioned Nitrogen Toxicity in another forum but doesn't that claw downward not up? Either way, this gave me the boost and information I sorely needed, only my second round of Autos and I love their turnaround time and watching them grow so fast right in front of me. Tent is in the living room on the side of our couch and its me, my girl, our cat, a bearded dragon and a 4 foot ball Python, so the Co2 is up there. What I am super interested in and maybe you can point me in the right direction, is a Grower Base, preferably 2 Part, for Coco, with less SALT! Do all nutes have this much salt in them? Someone mentioned a company, Elite Nutrients that may or may not boast a smaller salt content. Anything would help, and ty again for the reply

 

[juggaGROWrX86]

RN have the tent at 54% RH and 77°F, we had a hot week but things will be cool for a bit now. I flushed with pHed 30% Peroxide solution 3ml per Gal of Botanicare, did that whole gallon through, then pHed some R.O. and just added Terpinator. Will wait a day or 2 before giving it a full feeding, my last question is, can leaves de-claw or uncanoe/taco or once they claw up thats it? Want to know if I should watch for improvements on the old leaves as well that have already been affected or will I just have to wait for new fan leaves to find out if the flush worked?

 

[Suntana]

Have a read through this and compare
Mighty Mites: Spider, Russet and Bulb Mites | Way to Grow

 

[juggaGROWrX86]

@Suntana are you saying I have mites? Im pretty sure I dont. I have such a small tent and its in my living room, I check and clean it daily. I use Gnatrol and Cover my medium in 2 inches of sand. I spray over and under my leaves with an Organic Neem Solution and a sample of Guard N' Spray. I have many mini microscopes I use for trichs and check all my leaves on the plant and what I take off in defoliation. I think your post needs to be a bit clearer man.

 

[juggaGROWrX86]

Have a read through this and compare
Mighty Mites: Spider, Russet and Bulb Mites | Way to Grow

plus it happened literally overnight, aaand the other two plants in the garden show no signs of anything but dankness... ty tho

 

[Suntana]

Was just a thought, that it was possibly early russet damage. Looks a lot like heat stress. If everything is perfect then wait it out and see if it might just be a genetic problem.
Also if they did find there way in there, they will favour a desirable plant. All those pest controls you tried won't touch them.
Doesn't hurt to be damn sure.
Raise your light for a couple days to rule that out, some strains are more sensitive than others.

 

[Suntana]

Looking back a month ago when you had spotting those leaf edges were turned up. .

 

[Suntana]

Can't see 2" of sand, good for gnat if you do. Why all the pest management? Have you had a pest problem? Neem will turn pistils brown if your spraying as you described.
Its either russets or heat imo.

 

[juggaGROWrX86]

the sand goes under the cocoa when I water it kicks it up and on top of the sand but I just do IPM for prevention. Better to prepare than to wait for a problem to start I guess right? Plus I live in the woods in a converted 42' 08 King of the Road 5th Wheel lol. Modern Amenities but we have animals and reptiles as well. I keep the environment clean as hell as its in my living area...