What am I doing wrong?

Discussion in 'First Time Marijuana Growers' started by tommysupra13, Oct 24, 2014.

  1. so here it goes, I started out with a mystery seed that came out of some og kush, I am an absolute beginner this is my first attempt at growing and it's not going too good... i am using 5 18 watt 6500k cfls and 1 5000k cfl. my temp is right around 79 degrees and humidity says around 60 to 70%. the soil I am using is half organic potting soil and half vermiculite...I am using fox farms nutrients, grow big and bloom, after about a month of growing my plants started getting burnt tips I figure it was nute burn and flushed it it started growin a little bit better but some tips still had browning... I decided to get a ph tester, and found that my nutrient water and regular waters Phs were way off from each other. so I got ph up and down and adjusted to proper ph. now my plant looks terrible and leaves are dying and falling off, tuning yellow.... don't know if it's a deficiency ?? I had a fan blowing directly on it, I tried lowering it and turning it off to see if that would help but no change... I know this plant has been through hell and back but is there any chance of saving it!? what should I try !? what nutes am I lacking ? please see pics. thank you for any help you can provide!! ImageUploadedByGrasscity Forum1414172788.458955.jpg


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  2. What size pot are you using

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  3. not sure what size it is.. it's got about a 7 inch opening.. I know it's prob time for a upgrade. but I was having these problems even when I put it into this pot from a red cup.


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  4. Rootbound???? Check to see....
     
  5. at first I had the plant about two inches away from the cfls. I recently dropped it down to about 8 inches away thinking maybe the bulbs were drying the plant out. also shut the fan so the humidity could build up better


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  6. moving to a bigger pot is def my next move but what do u think about the Soil I have? I'm not sure if it's ok,,, the organic potting soil has all sorts of micro nutes... and at first I was giving it plain water when it was real young and not adding any fox farms and I noticed the tips starting to turn brown. but very slightly. I thought maybe it was lacking something so I started using fox farms and the problem continued the soil drains very good. but not sure if the organic soil was a bad move ?


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  7. and when I do upgrade the pot size, if the soil is wrong can I switch soils and transplant it ? or will that mess it up even more?


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  8. Your plant is rootbound. That's causing the late stage nitrogen deficiency you can see at the bottom of your plant.

    I don't know who started this pH balancing in soil, but its absolute bullshit. A good soil, such as fox farms, will naturally balance itself out. PH worries are best left for hydroponics systems. I have been growing almost seven years, mostly with fox farms happy frog or ocean forest, and not once have I ever had a pH problem, no matter what water I use.

    Transplant her, don't worry about adding so much vermaculite. Let her recover a few days, then give her a 1/2 feeding of grow big. She'll love you for it.

    Good luck blade.
     
  9. I had essentially the same problem.  The plants are getting too many nutrients.  It seems that Fox Farm soil has a lot of nuts in it already and won't need any extra nuts for 3-4 weeks at least.  I was using Fox Farm soil and adding some extra nutrients and my leaves started to yellow at the tip and even had some yellow spots on them.  How long ago did you do the flush?  It takes a few days for the plant to get back to normal.  Just my opinion!  Thanks
     
  10. ok thank you, I will transplant it and let it recover and see what happens


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  11. Although I'm relatively new grower I have to agree with the phd soil thing mcstoned was saying. My wife's uncle tested his water once in like 25 years. He's always used good soil and has grown really good shit since the 80s. Don't quote me on this but I would think most "city water" is about where you want it to be already. Well water obviously can be different. I agree your pot is too small. It's in skinny jeans. Give it some sweatpants. Plant looks good tho


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  12. so I upgraded the pot size today and believe it or not it wasn't root bound.... there were a couple of roots on the sides maybe two or three that were visible. maybe I'm using too much vermiculite and too much oxygen is getting to the roots? I'm using half vermiculite and half of an organic potting soil. what else could this possibly be? the plant looks pretty bad up close. all the leaves are growing in with burnt tips. even the newest ones on the top. and now the top leaves are getting yellow spots. I've already had one big fan leaf fall off by itself. what else could be my problem......

    Soil has too many micro nutes because it's organic?
    Too much vermiculite?
    Some kind of deficiency?
    Fox farms is too strong for it and maybe burning it worse?
    Ph issue?
    Is the plant too close to the light bulbs?
    Could it be a combination of these things?.....

    the plant keeps growing and is getting taller inch by inch each week. it's prob about 12" tall right now. but like I said all the new growth has burnt tips and yellowing...

    what am I doing wrong and what are my options???
    what is the proper soil I should be using if my soil is wrong and can I transplant it into new soil ?

    Any help is greatly appreciated thank you for all of your advice so far!!




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  13. Brah i'm going through my own grow mess as well so I def. understand the frantic concern you have. I'm also growing with cfl's so I would first make sure the ph is right. Get it to that 6.5 sweet spot and give her time to rebound. Take this as a learning experience.
     
    Here's a nifty chart in the sick plants section:
     
    http://forum.grasscity.com/sick-plants-problems/855335-sick-plant-guide-here-updated-aggregated.html
     
    I can attest that Ocean Forest has a bunch of nutes in it. No need to add any until the plant is showing it to you.
     
    My real concern is if your plant is in nute lockout. make sure your ph meter is calibrated and give it a nice 1-2 gallon flush of 6.5 distilled water. See how that turns out. 
     
  14. ok so here's the thing. I have tried to flush this before and let it rebound and it always bounces back to the same.... how come some people are recommending that ph with soil doesn't matter? I always thought it did at least from what I was reading. I thought correcting the ph would of helped but seemed to make it worse. or it might just be getting too many nutes or too much of one kind and not enough of another .... from reading that deficiency link I am still a little confused,... it seems to be pointing to a nitrogen deficiency due to the yellowing leaves, but I was feeding it fox farms big bloom and grow big. shouldn't those have the correct amount of nitrogen?
    also another question I have is that I was using distilled water thinking it was at a good ph level and then when I finally got a meter I tested it and it was about 5.7 which was low. so I started adjusting it with ph up to get it to around 6.9 and the run off tested about 6.5 or 6.6. do I need to use distilled water or can I just balance the ph of filtered sink water? take a look at these new pics maybe they can give a better idea of what's going on. and thank everyone for your input, this is my first time I guess I would consider this a test plant to build my growing skills so far not going too good lol.... one last thing to add the stems are a purplish color not sure if that's normal?
    ImageUploadedByGrasscity Forum1414276659.808960.jpg ImageUploadedByGrasscity Forum1414276672.279455.jpg ImageUploadedByGrasscity Forum1414276687.864681.jpg


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  15. How often and how much water are you giving? Every like 3-5 days you should be watering. Also you should only water til you see a small amount of water come out from bottom. When adding nutes it should go something like water feed water feed or water water feed w he the Plants start to use more water per day. Ffof is good soil, Fox farm is a good nute system. Big bloom is a real safe nute to add for your girls. Grow big is a bit scarier as its more chem based. I personally would give up on this girl your not to flowering yet so start another girl tonight. Keep trying to get this girl in order but at this point you may have stunted her into the point of no sensible return. I would agree with ph problems if your numbers weren't so good. Buy a ph drop kit test to make sure your not getting false readings. When adding nutes do you make sure to ph after nutes added? Your meter seems tucked up to me 5.5 distilled isn't right. It's likely what you think is 6.5 is really 8
     
  16. Purple color is sometimes sign of ph issues sometimes strain so you can't really go by that. City tap water is great just let it sit out for a day or two to take out chlorine.
     
  17. Careful with the vermiculite, some types can through the pH way off. Perlite is a far better choice.
     
  18. I was ph'ing after adding nutes, also was watering every 3-5 days like you said or when I felt the soil was dry an inch deep... I may have been watering too much, I'd have about a half cup of run off after each watering. and yea I was cycling regular water, then nutes, then reg water every other time . it is possible my ph meter is messed up because I found it odd that distilled was coming out in the 5s... I calibrated it with the two powders it came with... maybe I'm better off just getting test strips. I think I will order some fox farms soil and maybe switch to perilite instead of vermiculite. thanks for all of your help. if there's anything else you think I can try please let me know.


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  19. one more question...let's just say my ph meter is messed up like you mentioned and it's reading a lot lower ... are the symptoms my plant is experiencing characteristic of having a high ph level??


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  20.  
     
     
    Digital pH meters need to be calibrated regularly or they can't be trusted. I use the general hydroponics dropper kit and go for 6-6.5. No need to calibrate and fine for soil grows. Distilled water should be 7. If you have any vermiculite left check the packaging to see where its from and if there's any info on pH. Maybe leave some in a glass of distilled water and see what it does to the pH.
     

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