SOIL Strange Patterns on Plant

[griste]

This is my 4th or 5th grow now, and I've learned bits and pieces with every cycle, but I have searched far and wide to figure out what's going on with the plant I started growing roughly a month ago. I'm unaware of the strain, as I got a batch of seeds from a friend who also didn't know what they were.

I'm using some mixture of organic walmart soil and miracle gro (walmart ran out of the other soil, I forgot the name) and I'm growing using an LED box, though I started the grow with a CFL as I figured the 1000w box would be a bit overkill for a sapling. The issue began with the second set of leaves, and was prior to the switch to the LED box.

I've been pretty good with watering, and overall, it seems to be growing at a fairly normal pace and otherwise looks mostly healthy, but there are these strange patterns of lighter areas in the leaves, and I have struggled to find a single picture of anyone else that has shown something close.

I dont have a soil PH tester, though I really should pick one up soon. I water the plant every 3 or 4 days when the soil seems to be getting dry, usually a little longer than with the finger to the first knuckle trick, and it hasn't shown any signs of water issues. I have grown in the past with this same miracle gro soil and used the same water, and this pattern is something I've never seen before.

Has anybody seen this before? If so, what's the general cause?

[griste]

I figure I should also mention that I haven't added any nutrients, the room temperature sits around 66-70 degrees f at all times, and there is a fan blowing in the general direction of the plant, but not directly to the point where its swaying around.

[Rwise]

You need that soil PH tester now as you have a PH issue, though its hard to see the pink pics. Give us pics in normal light please. I just dropped a tad over $300 on a bluelabs combo meter plus, so far I luv it. It showed my soil had crashed to 4.0.
Also the temps are on the cool side.
Most will say loose the MG soil, I'll add unless its their organic soil.

[griste]

You need that soil PH tester now as you have a PH issue, though its hard to see the pink pics. Give us pics in normal light please. I just dropped a tad over $300 on a bluelabs combo meter plus, so far I luv it. It showed my soil had crashed to 4.0.
Also the temps are on the cool side.
Most will say loose the MG soil, I'll add unless its their organic soil.

Here are some pictures under normal lighting. It's a bit difficult to see in general at this point in time, though the effect does seem to be growing with each day, and the leaves also seem to be taking on a more deformed shape with each day. All my grows have been super budget friendly, hence the cheap soil.

I thought the temps were pretty ideal, but I cant really comfortably change that as it's in my closet and I dont want to be sitting in a tropical rainforest in my room, lol. I'm assuming that it has nothing to do with the temp, lighting, or water as none if that has changes from previously successful grows, and the soil hasn't changed either, but I'm sure the soil is a far more variable factor and is likely the culprit.

I originally assumed this to be the case, but seeing that I couldn't find any other plants with a similar effect, I was wondering if it was some sort of genetic issue, pests I haven't been able to find, or some sort of disease.

[Rwise]

These pics are better, I'll stay with the PH being off, when you looked for bugs did you use a 30x or greater lens/microscope etc.? These bugs are tiny.

[SoOrbudgal]

I agree with the bug issue

[Holden90]

yeah that's what mine looked like with spider mites, don't ignore it mate and if you can, quarantine the sick one if the others are still OK. Also the PH is VERY important for overall plant health, I spent $40 on a soil tester. Get a magnifying glass, USB microscope, jewelers loupe etc as the mites are to small to see with the naked eye.

[Ace1973]

Looks like PH

[Gluteous]

Agreed

[Holden90]

This is spider mite damage, looked like a dusting of fine ash or similar, eventually the leaf starts to get dead spots / brown spots etc. Bastards.

[griste]

I have 2 jewelers loupes, I'll look closer to make sure it isn't bugs but I was pretty thorough. I did notice one fruit fly looking bug in the closet a few days ago, but nothing else. It is weird because I haven't seen any other bugs other than stink bugs in the last 2 months, and theres a heavy layer of snow here.

I will probably get a soil tester at some point within the next week, though I'm imagining at this point that the only realistic culprit could be the PH. Theres only one plant in my current setup, so spread isn't a concern.

On a side note, would a single 1000w LED box have sufficient light dispersion to grow two reasonable plants? I've only been growing one at a time because I assume the light cant spread enough to effectively cover two separate plants canopies. I understand that different boxes have different light dispersion angles, but would it be necessary to have a perfect top down beam of light on each plant to expect a decent yield?

[RetiredGuy]

Lighting requirements are based on grow area not the number of plants. Most people recommend 35-50 watts/ft2. Also the most common recommendation is 4 ft2 per plant. When you do the math you need to use the actual power draw from the wall. The equivalent wattage listed by most manufacturers is usually deceiving.