Im growing nirvana ak-48 and kc brains mango from seed. The seedlings are around a week and 3 days old (mango's are a couple days behind the ak's) and I'm having a few problems with them. All plants were doing fine with 5.8 ph water and one drop of super thrive per gallon, until my dad thought it was time to fertilize them without consulting me and the first set of real leaves got nute burned. Since then they have only been given ph'ed water with one drop of super thrive per gallon every other feeding. Now I have a few question's and I seek the wisdom of the gc community! Most plants (some more than others) are starting to curl their leaves inward along the sides. Is this anything that i should worry about or correct immediately? Here is a picture of the worst case (no others are near this bad, but if you look closely you can see them curling a tiny tiny bit). This happens to be one of the mango's. My second question is about my ak-48 seeds. They look completely different! Same bag of seeds from nirvanna, germed at the same time, only difference is that i ran out of coco and the plant that looks different is in fox farms ocean forest. Two of my ak-48 seeds that are in 3 gal pots of coco and vermiculite have more rounded and short leaves, and the ak-48 that is in the ocean forest has longer, less wide leaves like the mango plants. First two pictures are of the rounded ak-48's, and the second two are of the more pointed one. Why are they so different? My third question is about soil ph. My meter says my soil is always at high 7, or even into 8! I have never watered with water over 6.0 ph and I flushed the coco before mixing it with vermiculite. my meter responds when i dip it into my ph up or down so I don't think my meter is broken, but ive never gotten the ph to drop below 7 even with multiple flushes of ph'ed water. Any and all help on my first kush/soil grow is greatly appreciated!
Leaves are still curled on that one mango really bad, but the others haven't gotten any more curly. Also the one differently shaped ak is growing at a much faster rate then the two with rounded leaves.
Hello just a idea for your curling leave's your nitrogen might be where it need's to be but look at your potasinum and if that's right it's a light problom
Oke so the "rolling" leaves have only gotten worse. I've tried stopping nutes, raising the light (600w hps), shifting the fans, adjusting the ph, stopped over watering, calmag,... everything! They're rolling up so tight on the one mango that they're nearly closed! I think it must have something to do with my light because since picking up 5 clones (2 WW, 2 super lemon haze, and 1 og kush) two days ago, I can see their leaves starting to do the same thing I'm also noticing very slight discoloration (kinda yellowing) on most of my fan leaves, as well as other general misshapeness in the leaves. Hopefully these new pictures will help The first 3 are of a WW clone, and the second 3 are of that one really bad mango. ALL my plants are doing this, just not to the extent as the one mango i have photographed.
What are your temps? If you don't have a digital hydrothermometer, get one - they are very useful and well worth the money. They are relatively cheap (~$20-25) at Walmart/Lowes/Home Depot/etc and you can find cheaper ones online. The unit can read temperature and humidity, and also has a wired probe that you can attach near your canopy to get canopy temps as well (the probe is normally used to get outdoor temperature as well as the unit's indoor temperature). If you're on a tight budget, at least get a thermometer to read the temps. It may very well be hotter than you realize, especially if it's in an enclosed space. This is what the digital hygrothermometers look like: The reason I ask/mention this, is that I had a very similar problem with a plant on my first grow, and it was because it was too hot in my cab.
Use your run-off for pH adjustments. Water normally, but enough so that you have a slight run-off. Measure the pH of that run-off. I'm betting that it will be around 7 or even a tad higher. Your pH on the run-off should be between 6.5 and 7.0 Take your reading, if it's 7.2, then lower the pH of your added water to 0.5 lower than you are now. The next time you water, again measure the run-off and keep adjusting your added water until your run-off is between 6.5 and 7.0, (more towards the 6.5-6.7 range). I believe your problems are pH related. Your pH is causing a lock-out of several nutrients and resulting in poor plant health.
hydragyrus - My Temps are always between 75-80 f. We have a pretty big room and pretty good ventilation, plus its winter now so the temps are pretty stable. RH is between 50-55%. Ledfun - I'll Check my ph as soon as I get home tonight. I cant imagine my ph being too far off since these pots have been watered with 5.8 ph water everytime for almost a month now, and the coco was expanded/flushed with 5.8-6.0 ph water, but the meter has always been way high so maybe something is up. will test my runoff tonight and post back for sure. Raised the light even higher and moved the fan from directly blowing over the plants, and I'm also going to try a foliar spray once the lights go out tonight. Should I mix nutes into the spray? I have foxfarm's big bloom, tiger bloom, grow big, calmag, and superthrive available.
Well I didn't find out till today but my dad actually DID mix 8 pots (all mango and two of the three ak) with 50/50 coco-vermiculite and not perlite! Is this whats causing them to grow slowly? I know its whats making the water stay in the soil for 5 days at a time They're more then two weeks from the surface and only have around 3 or 4 sets of leaves, and seem like they're taking forever to get the new ones going. They also aren't responding to lst as quickly ( not turning back up really) as I see lst's on these forums doing. Edit: checked runoff ph and it was 6.9. Watered with lower ph water and runoff dropped to 6.5, so well see if there is any changes in the morning hopefully
Doh! Tbh, I've never used vermiculite (only on my 2nd grow so I'm not very widely experienced) so I can't respond with respect to that, but you'll know a healthy plant is responding to LST as it should because it's almost sooner than you'd think... I was very surprised when I LST'd last time and went and did other stuff for a few hours and came back and the plant was already facing up again. Hopefully the pH correction brings some more energy to the plants... Sorry I cannot help you further but there are many very knowledgeable growers that are a great resource for us
It may not rebound quite that quickly. If you keep your pH around 6.5 to 6.7 consistently, your plants will improve. Within 3 days, you should see new growth happening nicely. Your plants are still very young. Don't expect them to just shoot up. As the plants get more leaf surface, they will grow faster and faster. Let us know how they're doing in a few days.
Ive been adjusting the ph super low (5.3 or so) and its been slowly balancing out my runoff ph to around 6.8/6.9 and they've started growing a few new shoots and the clones have been producing new ones too, as well as the lst'd plants responding a little better to being bent down. I noticed one of the white widow clones starting to roll its leaves pretty bad like that one mango, so i dropped my probe down to plant level and the back plants' temps were almost 85 f! I moved the weaker plants more towards the fan in the front and started to use a foliar spray at night near when the lights turn off and it seems to have stalled the leaf rolling but the plants with the very obvious leaf rolling ( WW clone and a couple mango's) seem to be developing much slower then the healthier looking ones. Also got a 3x3x5 grow tent and fan, and about to get a t5. Should make a awsome room for all the different moms I get out of this batch