Hey guys, im new here, been lurking for awhile but ive been smoking for a lil over a year and ive been trying to get into growing with little success, Id really appreciate some advice as to what i need to improve to start having some success. I did a bit of research and orded ten seeds of master kush. My setups pretty much a 90w LED UFO light, two little 4" fans which circulate my small 2'x2' closet grow pretty good. i have my light on a timer with it on 18 hours a day. 1st try i germinated 5 and had no problems getting them to sprout. I used a miracle grow 6 month time release potting soil. The plants started dying around the time that they started getting their fan leaves, around the first or second set and turning yellow/brown at the tips that worked its way inward. I thought what happened was they didnt get enough nutrients. 2nd try i did 5 seeds again but this time i used Dr. Earth POTting soil for medical gardens. I was using a miracle grow chemical fert(24/8/16) that i mixed at 1/4th of what it said an then after maybe 1.5-2 weeks i upped it to either 1/2 or full dosage because i started experiancing the same problem(plants slowly dyeing from the tips) i fertilised some every other water and others every single watering. On the second grow i got farther but my plants were pretty much gone ~3 weeks in. Ive always tried to be good with my watering, only watering every 3~ days letting at least the top inch of soil to dry before watering again. First time i was useing tapwater but the second time i was using purified water. Like i said id really appreciate if you guys could give me some input and advice on what to do and like what you would do if you where me. What im thinking my problem is right now is mainly my fertilizing and/or my soil. Im gonna try and give growing another shot but i wanna do it right this time and get some nug Peace
Ok, 1st get some decent soil. MG works but it is very tricky time released nutes are water activated. So everytime you water you feed. You over-nuted and killed the first batch. I don't know what the 2nd soil was not familiar with it. But seedlings do not need nutes, ever. Unless you are using a soil-less medium no plant requires feeding until at least a couple of weeks into veg. Especially not one so high in N. Again, over-fed and killed. Get some FoxFarm Happy Frog and perlite. Mix 75%/25% start in small pots under a cfl or 2. When roots are coming out of the drain holes transplant to the pot you want to finish in. You will not need to add any nutes at all for a good 6 weeks with this method. I have been doing it since I started growing, never killed a baby yet.
Well bro the first thing that comes to mind is your waters PH situation that has to be the problem and MG is garbage well great for what it's designed for but weed Is a whole new beast look into general hydroponics A and B it replaced the floranova grow and bloom good stuff and designed for pot leave the tomatoes food alone oh and you can have them on 24 hours of light for more growth if you want
First let me say I agree completely with what Roy said. Also Freeborn brought up a good point... Are you PHing your water? If so what are the readings? You should be checking Ph before you water and the PH of the runoff as well every time. I suppose this next part is for later (after you figure out how to get past the first month) but How many are you planning on finishing? I know you start with 5 so I'm assuming you're counting on 2-3 females. In any event 90w likely won't be enough for 2 much less 3.
Yea that makes sense that i over nuted it it but i kinda interpreted it as nitrogen defficiancy just looking at pics on the web. I looked into the water situation an you guys were definatly right. My tap waters ph was 7.3 and thats what i used on the first run. The purified water i bought PH was 7.0 an thats what i used on the second run. Heres where i think im in luck though, i have a reverse osmosis unit from when i had an aquarium and its PH tested out at around 6.3 so i think ill definatly used that next time. On the soil do you think you can guess if the Dr Earth Home Grown potting soil would be ok to grow with? Its ingrediants are: "Formulated from the very best selection of composted organic materials. Our blend is packed full of the organic materials that help your plants become established FAST. We only use: Fir Bark Fines, Forest Humus, Peat Moss, Perlite, Worm Castings, Bat Guano, Kelp Meal, and MicroActive Seaweed Extract, Aloe Vera, Yucca Extract, and Oyster Shell & Dolomite Limes. We have also included beneficial soil Microbes plus Ecto & Endo Mycorrhizae." And also should i just go straight from seed to soil when i see the taproot or should i put it in rockwool cubes for a few days first? If heard the 90watt ufo is supposed to be equivelent to 350watts of metal halide so yea i was hoping to grow about 3 plants but i do have my doubts with the led.
Actually the water my RO unit makes actually has a PH of 6.0 i was testing the waste water line which was putting out a PH of 6.3
[quote name='"CanadianBuds"']The Miracle-Gro Organic still has time release ferts. in it. Don't get anything MG![/quote] Agreed! Sounds like the dr. earth is a good soil. & The rockwool isn't needed OP
Ok so which water should i use? The dr earth soil i heard has a ph of 6.5 so if i use 6.0 RO water wont that almost be too low?
every 3 days? you're drowning the sprouts. Soil in a big tub will take a long time to dry out in normal temps, and that baby plant ain't drinkin much. I run 2 gal tubs once I transplant my seedlings, and those literally go 7-10 days before they're dry. Next time, take two plants, water both, then ignore one for a week or two. If it's doing better than the one you're paying attention to, that tells you something...
Just use some distilled water, or if you can't afford it, leaving some tap water in a container for 24 hours will give you basically the same thing.