Hey everybody. First post here, hope there's some folks here to actually help rather than talk shit like on the rollitup board. I FIM'd the plant pictured below 2 days ago and it seemed at first to handle it ok, even started new growth already in that time, but now its beginning to droop and the leaves are getting crispy. This happened with another plant after I topped it and it recovered great, though the leaves that were affected never did fully recover. Has anyone encountered this issue with topping/FIM-related stress before, or do you think it's something else? I went into the soil after seeing a gnat or two and DID notice a lot of salt-like grains in there. Watched them really close and they aren't moving, I don't think they're larvae. When there is a salt buildup can you actually see salt in the soil?? I'm not adding nutes yet but there are micronutrients in the soil I used. It's not the greatest. something like .07,.09,.06(not the actual nute levels, just an example of the quantity, we're talking MICRO.) Anyway this is my first grow and my box is like 3 1/2 feet high, which is the reason for the FIM. Second issue: I have three seedlings that look like total shit. They are at least a week and a half old and the cotyledons are totally yellow and the leaves are heading that way too. They also have purple stems and are super stunted. I just got a better thermometer/hygrometer and realized the temps were too high. like around 88-90 degrees so today is day one of better temp control and its been in range of 79-82 all day today. Does this seem like the likely cause of these seedlings? Could the sudden change in temp be the cause of my other plants malady? I wouldn't think so because the temps get that low at night already so I would think it could handle it. I know this sounds totally wrong but these plants seem to hate a breeze. When I oscillate a fan so they get the gentlest breeze you can't even feel with a wet hand the leaves seem to dry up. Humidity NEVER gets below 40, but for the extra temp control I've been putting frozen water bottles in two places in the growbox. It's a pain in the ass changing them but it seems to help the temp a lot. And I check on them all the time anyway. I wonder if the cold air is bad for them.. These are all things I can't really find an answer to anywhere, and before everyone jumps up my ass for using frozen h20 bottles, there are two exhaust fans and one intake fan plus the I've been leaving the front of the box 25% open for temp control. You wouldn't think 5 cfls would put out so much heat but in my case they certainly are. I really hope to get some feedback on this one, it kills me to see these plants unhealthy. BTW the reason for the wet pattern soil in pic#2 is from spray. I'm trying not to overwater. Third pic is another plant in the same growing conditions and same strain as photo #1. That's the one that I mentioned has the same kind of effects from topping, but recovered.
I've definitely thought of an N deficiency but was always told not to give any nutes for a few weeks, but there are three of those seedlings, two of which are looking this way. I'll add some nutes to one of them and see if it helps. thanks for reply. Yeah I did top early, but it WAS the fifth node and I topped the healthy plant on the right when it was younger than this one. Topped it at the 2nd node. Id definitely got stressed but it recovered, so I gave this one 5 nodes thinking that would be better but I guess I should just wait a while before topping next time. Thanks again!
I agree smaller one has nitrogen defin, but is that a chunk missing from leaf on middle one? That's a potential root issue, try and get those stocks green again! Good luck..... Sent from my iPad using Grasscity Forum
no its not a chunk missing from a leaf its just the angle that the pic is taken from. well it seems I have my answer on the seedlings. I suppose its stress from fimings that's getting to the other one. its gone downhill severely since I took this photo only about 8 hours ago.. its really strange but the other, more healthy plant did the exact same thing after I topped it, so I'm hoping for a recovery. What I worry about is how easy it is to turn plants male, because these are obviously grown from seed.. thanks for the help guys!
Your condition doesn't look too dire. You should recover fine if you haven't already. It looks like each plant has a different soil, though. Looking at the pictures I suspect the middle one is in a soil that is higher in nutrients and is possibly stunted due to the soil being too hot. The 1st and 3rd picture look like they had a soil that was great for starting seedlings but may be ready for some nutrients a couple day before those pictures were taken. For these guys I would get a good soil based food like Canna Terra or Dutch Pro's Soil formula. If you want organic, check out Roots Organics' Buddha Grow. Yellowing from the top growth can be iron deficiency, but most base nutrients should cover all these minerals. IN the future, you should consider starting seedling in small cups of soilless medium to ensure complete control over nutrients. For this I'd recomment Light Warrior (Foxfarms) or Coco fiber (by Canna or Roots Organics). The middle guy is a tough one to treat b/c the yellowing would make most people think deficiency, but those cotyledons should cover the nutrient needs of those first set of 'true leaves'. As such, when I see a plant yellowing that young, I suspect too much nutrients in the soil and immediately treat with distilled water until run-off, then it's a waiting game b/c you also don't want to over water and cause root rot. Again, going with soil-less mixes at the start is a more controlled way to start these guys, IMO.
Thanks for the reply CocoCola. This was kinda silly to be honest with you, but there has been a great recovery. I am embarrassed to say that the actual problem with plant number 1 was... UNDER watering! From everything I've been reading about overwatering and to let the top few inches of soil dry out before watering I guess I was just trying to be too careful. The seedlings.... they're growing. Just reeeeeally slowly. To be honest I really want to get rid of them, I have some coco coir now and still have 7 seeds, but my growspace is small, and I really wanted to raise 5 plants to have a decent chance of a female when I changed the photoperiod. Looks like it may be two now. 50/50 or worse, as they have had a few instances of stress. The soil is the same all around, I just added perlite when I germinated those seedlings. Here's the shitty part, I would have thought that if there was ANY product I wouldn't have to order online and could trust MiracleGrow with, it was perlite, well, apparently not. I realize now that the PERLITE has micronutrients in it too!!!! has anyone ever heard of such a thing? Anyway, I have a good recovery and am already into my next set of problems. One of my plants is drinking water so fast I think its root bound but that would be the second time I've transplanted it! HASNT IT BEEN THROUGH ENOUGH!? Thanks to anyone who took the time to read my post and especially to you guys that replied! I really appreciate it, this was my first post here and I like this forum a lot.
Well I agree with the diagnosis of the people on this form I'm going to tell you about another problem that might soon come. Looking at your soil I see wood chips, on my very first grow I made a mistake of getting a bad soil with wood chips, wood chips can cause a major problem with fungus gnats which are a pain in the ass if you ask me took me forever to even control the problem and they still never fully went away, they also reproduce at a horribly fast rate and only get worse almost taking over your plants and soil, so the gnat you saw I would keep an eye on the problem see if any more pop up if your soil doesn't fully dry out or stays to wet you might want to look into fungus gnats the adults really don't cause problems but the larva will destroy and kill your plants if you let them get out of hand. Happy growing