Hey what's up - this is my first real grow and I have some trouble I didn't expect. The plants were growing well, lots of fresh green growth and they responded well to some easy topping. But now 2 of the 3 plants have discolored upper fan leaves that have started to turn dry and curl up. I came too far to let them die so I did the only thing I could: I went online to find people who know wtf they're doing. Strain is White Widow, seeds from Crop King Seeds Soil is Pro-Mix Potting Mix; to a noob, it seems to have most of what goes in to good soil. Lime, perlite, rock dust, worm casings, etc. I've grown one other plant before that was a frankenstein (not in a yield way,) using this soil and so far all seedlings have loved it. Lights: CFL cause cheap and first grow. 8 26w 6500k bulbs. Approx 4 inches from plants - definitely not hot on the leaves. Nutes: none yet because I haven't gotten that far Watered with distilled water. I don't trust the tap water here and I don't want the water to upset the Ph balance, or the soil somehow. Paranoid noob thinking. It's worked out great so far so I keep doing it. Grow tent is a D60(?) 2x2x4 tent. Ventilation was pretty much static up until recently as this is in a basement and temps are fairly cool all year. The temps in the tent fluctuate between 26C and 28C. There is a small fan blowing on the plants, enough to see the leaves moving on all 3. This is almost the end of week 3 of veg Thanks in advance for your help - I'm trying to do the best grow I can as a first time farmer.
Squat shitty thing caused by the light color being 5600k vip you add some 2700 kelvin or warm white to encourage some vertical growth before you hit 12x12 you need branches to hang those buds of..? One of the better white widows around so ensure when you flip 12x12 all cfl's are 2700k or warm red, and a quarter inch from leaf tip imo the soil needs more (30%) sand or perlite to aid aeration and avoid root compaction water only by weight then 1x time per week consider removing the lowest 6 inches of plant growth as the light don't reach that low this will increase venting in your space a 3 usgallon pot is the best good luck
UPDATE-- Hey just wanted to add an update to this thread for any n00bs that may come across this in the future. The leaves dying turned out to be nutrient lockout caused by low Ph. I finally got myself a cheap tester off Amazon and got some numbers from the plants. All 3 plants were below 5.2. It turns out this was caused by using distilled and sometimes filtered water. I started using tap water as I live in a small town that is fed by a river. The tap water is fairly rich in calcium and minerals which was exactly what these girls wanted. Within a day after the first watering from the tap they exploded in healthy green leaves 2 waterings later, the Ph has gone up at least 0.5 on each plant bringing me much closer to the range I want. "It only goes up from here.." Vostok was bang on, here. This is something else I learned after finally ditching the CFL's and getting a proper HID setup. Not only is HID kicking the s*** out of CFL's, but the HPS bulb is promoting much faster branch growth than the MH bulb. Apparently, light in the red spectrum promotes vertical growth and light in the blue spectrum seems to promote bushier leaves and root development. I see now why both spectrums are ideal. After having short, squat and wide plants for most of this grow, the switch to HPS has dramatically increased height, almost as much as an inch/day (same light schedule - not ready for flower yet). It's all a learning experience, lads. Can't wait for that first harvest.