Spots on pepper

[StrangGuy]

Hi,
I would like to thank the members of this forum because I have gained valuable information from here. I am a first time hydro grower with a brand new home made unit. It is constructed of 4” PVC with 3” net cups and has sprayers that perform at 180 degrees on each side of every cup. I use LECA (Lightweight Expanded Clay Aggregate) as the support medium and 20 gallons of Liquid Earth as my nutrient solution. My PH is 6.5 and I do not have a PPM meter. The system is currently located outdoors around Atlanta, GA.
I germinated bell pepper plants from May 30th so they are about 3 weeks old. I used Perfect Start #2 which I thought to be great as all but one was germinated. I currently have 62 plants total and will only use the strongest 48 as they mature.
So, I have the system ready to transplant my plants into and here starts the problem. I didn’t use a separator in my seeding tray so almost all of them had roots growing together. So in pulling them apart it was like pulling open a treaded stitch at times. The roots still really looked good for the most part and the plant looked healthy at that moment so I added them all to the system on the evening of May 20th (two days ago). Yesterday they were all fell over but today they are all perky and standing up. We have received a few thunder storms as well on them.
One other thing that may be of importance is that my nutrient mixture has changed. I followed the mix instructions on the bottles to make one gallon of “Mild, for seedlings and cuttings” which was 1tsp Grow and 1tsp Vigor. I used that gallon up to the point I was ready to place into the hydro system. However, when I made my 20 gallon batch on Thursday, I followed the manufactures spec sheet for young peppers in which the 1 gallon equivalent would have been 0.4tsp Grow and 1.4tsp Vigor. So, that is a lot different.

If that is not enough background then please ask for more specifics. Please respond if you can assist with the answer to any of the following.

Question 1: In the attached pictures you can see that I have some spots on a few of my plants. 6 plants to be exact with is about 10% and the pictures are the worst 3. I don’t think that I have bugs so I am wondering could it be a consequence of tearing the roots or to I have some other problem?

Question 2: Can plants be too wet with nutrients? I have had the system on continuous since I started on Thursday night. I never kept the Perfect Starts that wet during the germination stage as they are like a sponge. I have a 15/15 timer. I think that a setting of 15 on and 45 off should be good to keep them nice and moist.

Question 3: Out of the 20 gallons of nutrients that I started with I am now down about what appears to be 3-5 gallons in just 2 days. Can I add 5 gallons of water and nutrient amount for 5 gallons?

Thanks,
StrangGuy



Uploaded with ImageShack.us


Uploaded with ImageShack.us


Uploaded with ImageShack.us


Uploaded with ImageShack.us