This is my first grow (not counting planting in the woods with 0 oversight) indoors and can't for the life of me find anything that explains why/how my leaves are curling from the tip, then shrivelling. Using a generic "organic" (whatever that means nowadays..) potting soil, ph is fine, no signs of nute burn that this noob can see. Any insight would be a great help, thanks Jah people!
That was my first thought. I think I've ruled that out now. It happened to the first 2 leaves to appear,now the lower ones. That's why I suspect nute imbalance. Would the leaves typically droop this young from overwatering?
Whatever it is, I'm almost certain your soil is to blame. That thing barely has 4 set of leaves so I don't think its a nute deficiency. How are you testing the soil's PH? This looks like what happened to me during my first grow when I was also using some locally made organic soil. Even though I was balancing my water to ~6.2, the soil would still throw the PH way off and my plant would develop that ugly yellow color, similar to the one in your pic.
The thing with overwatering is that it irritates the roots, which gives you trouble that looks a bit like pH trouble or a few other things. Here is my suggestion. If you can, carefully crumble away most of the current soil from the roots and re-pot it with something fairly bland like an own-brand multi-purpose potting compost (not branded MG or something heavily fortified). Water it well, leave it for a few days, see how it goes.
Testing water runoff with litmos papers. Not forking the money for electric pH testers yet.. I'll get new soil and try to repot asap and I'll update progress. Oh, roughly how long does the irritation of roots take to repair once the correct watering cycle is found? I assume a week or 2? Thanks for the info!
im leaning towards compressed soil as this soil has compressed since I planted. But what does this nub know
Throw some more perlite in your next batch of soil. It'll aerate the soil, limit compression, and keep it fluffy.
My guess would be the soil that was sold to you as organic. Most of them had extended release fertilizers in them and don't advertise that in big letters. LOL You can flush it, but more than likely if you just leave it alone it will make it through and be OK. You can flush 3:1 tap water/gallon size container and let is drain for a few days then start nutes at a weak dose. If you flush it, you'll be solely responsible for nutes because it will clean the soil out completely. It's just young and weak and fertilizers will burn them a little bit at this stage. It should be fine though. What have you got that plant planted in? It looks way too big to start one in...should use Solo cups or something like that in the very beginning, but always fill your containers up to the top leaving enough room to be able to water without it dumping on you. Good luck with it. TWW