Hi everyone, I wish I could have grown a little longer before having to post in here, but oh well! Here's the info about my setup: Medium: Soilless mix (?) 50% peat moss/ 50% perlite (Westland peat moss) Grow Type: Closet Indoor, 125W Ecolight CFL, well ventilated Strain: Lowryder 2 Age: One week as of 20/5/09 Distance from light: 2 inches, increased to 4 inches two days ago Room temperature: 21 to 22.5 Celcius Humidity: 48-51% Nutrients: None so far Pot Size: Small cups, 18 cl (180 ml ?) PH of runoff: 7.0-7.5 The problem I am having is brown discoloration on the edges of the first set of leaves, and in the centre of the second set (which are just appearing). I first noticed it three days ago, took no action. Two days ago it had gotten worse. I thought it might be heat stress from the light, so I raised the light from 2 inches to 4 inches above the plant. Since then there has been no improvement. I watered it for the first and only time so far on Sunday (three days ago) with ~20 ml of PH 7 tap water. I intend to water it again today if the soil is totally dry. Sorry about the blurry pics, my hands shake like I have DT's all the time. Thanks in advance for all your help.
i have the same problem with my plants in bloom and i have no idea what this is. Possible nute burn? but i doubt it
Tim you say that the ph level is 7.5 is that not a bit to high. Somebody with better knowledge will hopefully give a more detailed answer to this, any takers to help out a fellow first timer?
well from what i can tell u is that it looks like u got it to close to the lights. and it burned em. as far as ph level im not to sure with all that. when i grow and i have sprouts coming up i just us bottle water that is brand new. and just use that for a few week till its time to start adjusting shit. other then that i dont think its nut burn looks more like grow light burn. how close are ur lights. keep em 8 ta 10 incehs above
Thanks for the input Bolthero, but there's no nutes in the soil, and I haven't added any either, so like you said that's very unlikely. Hey Dave! Yeah 7-7.5 is high, if it's not light burn then it's definitley this. I'm using liquid PH indicator and it's kinda hard to know exactly what the PH is, I'm gonna try and pick up a digital one in town today. Thanks for lookin in! Hi Civic, I think you're right, Ive seen a slight improvement in the last 12 hours, I moved the lights from 2 to 4 inches away about 36 hrs ago. I'm gonna raise them to 8 inches now for a couple of days to see if that helps, I just don't want it stretching if possible. Now that you've mentioned it I remember that the guy I got this light from burned his plants with it a couple of times, I guess a 125W cfl produces a fair bit of heat. Thanks for the help!
Tim! What's up man? I am posting in your thread, instead of the other way around. Good times I took a close look at your pictures and I really believe what you are experiencing is "light burn." The CFL simply got too close (probably my fault for always suggesting they be so close) and it scorched the leaves a bit. It's no big deal though, a slight consequence of CFL growing. Since the plant is so young, I would just go ahead and keep trucking. The leaves will either recover, or be replaced/overtaken, as the plant gets bigger. It shouldn't hinder your grow much, if at all, and I wouldn't put any more worry into it. A good rule of thumb that I have always used to determine light distance is this: Stick your hand between the leaves and the light. If the light is burning your hand, then it is too close to your leaves. You want it just about as close as it can be without causing "light burns." CFL's don't produce much heat, especially compared to HID lighting, but they do produce some. Since you are using such a large CFL, it is obviously going to produce more heat. That rule should help keep your light at a safe distance You are on the right track! Don't forget the quote in my signature. It has been there for a long time now because I truly believe it. Only through experience, through FAILURE, do we learn. Such is life! Keep it up man, you are doing great! So glad to see you growing
Thanks Az! It's a pleasure to be the host rather than the guest! Yes it definitley looks like it's light burn, the plant is looking much healthier already. I was anxious to fix the problem but I had to counsel myself towards patience, it would have been very easy to try adding nutes, messing with the soil ph, etc.etc but that wouldn't have helped and may even have made things worse! As you know it's a tough plant and can take a lot of abuse from a beginner like myself. Thanks for the input, I'm sure I'll be making plenty of mistakes and learning loads along the way. Thanks again to everyone who read this thread, and especially to those who replied. I'm gonna call this problem solved.
My problem solved too! For future readers it only takes and hour or 2 to get the BURN! +rep Azureblue
any time bro. yea and what i did in my first week was used a 75W. that seemed to help. less heat surrounding the plant
oh and 1 otherthing. since u said something about ur plant stretching for light that u dont really want that. just take your thumb and index finger place it on the top leafs and push down gently. this is called training. it tells the plant that it hitting something and to not get taller. but its will get tall just wont strech for light. it wont cause any harm to ur plant. i do it all the time and it works. just do it a few times a day gl with ur grow.
What kinda of lights are you using? I'm on my first grow as well and my plant as is yours is a week or so old. I'm using a cfl light and I keep millimeters away from my plant and it is as green as it can be. With the the proper air circulation you can practically have your lights inside your plant. "ONLY CFL LIGHTS THOUGH"
Never heard of "training your plant"! The plant is going to grow towards the light no matter what. Touching it on the head just might piss it off!!! Use cfl lights you can put them closer and they don't put out a lot of heat
Thanks again Civic, I'll give it a try! Hi Shelves, thanks for looking in! I'm using a 125W 'envirolite' vegging CFL It's a big 'un! And although my closet is well ventilated (2 x 120mm PC fans) I don't actually have a fan on the plant yet, I'm gonna get that sorted soon. Cheers for the advice. Sure thing Indi! I know it's still higher than it's supposed to be, but as I don't have to water it very often it's tricky to get spot on. As it grows and I start adding nutes I will be able to dial it in more efficiently (I hope ). Thanks for the help!