Hey all, I have 2 1 week old plants of an unknown strain, came back home now and each has its own problem. one - completely wilted, please tell me I just over-watered her the second - burnt and have curled tips, is this over-fertilizing? I didn't add any fertilizer yet, just plain ol' water. they're under a 48W 6400K CFL with a DIY beer can reflector for now, a little sun here and there
From the looks of the pics above, they both look as if they're experiencing some heat stress. The one twisting looks like she's trying to get away from the light. The other one is just cupping for now, but give it time and she'll probably start to twist as well. The leaf tips of the one not twisting looks a bit like nute burn. How close do you have those CFL lights on them? What kind of soil is that? I'd recommend adding some perlite to that soil mix for better drainage and if possible, avoid using clear solo cups.
What brand soil are you using? 1st plant look's like Nute Burn. 2nd plant im not sure of? Ps, those "clear cup's" are gonna hurt your root's, so you need to fix this.
the light is like 5 cm from them, but it doesn't get hot at all, I did the finger test for a whole minute and I didn't even feel a difference from ambient - but I do live in the middle east so it's hot AF around here regardless. the soil is a generic soil a friend of mine used to grow hers, It may have a little compost in it, what shr grew was fine at the start and after 1 month started yellowing from what I think is classic nitrogen deficiency (she didn't use a liquid fert) I want to add perlite and I was planning on transplanting them to a 7 liter pot with it later this week, about the clear cups, yeah it's been bugging me from the get go, I think it's about time to slap some tape on it. thanks for the quick reply guys, but what do you think I should do with them for now? until I get the bigger pots and some perlite in a couple of days
5 cm, that's almost 2 inches. That's pretty close. Even if it doesn't feel hot to you, the intensity of the light that close to them can stress them out, hence why they're trying to twist their leaves away from the light. So to answer your last question, slap some tape on those cups and raise the lights to at least 12" for now until you see the leaves recover from all the twisting/cupping.
Ha just about. I couldn't diagnose the wilted one as I've never grown under light's, so im not qualified to answer that one. Lol...
Okay, So I've put tape on the cups making them opaque (is this the right word?) and I've moved the light up to 20 cm ( about 8 inches ), @-Cannabliss- 12 seems too far for a CFL, but what do I know about indoor growing, I have a logistical problem raising it further (I was planning on making a custom rig along with the bigger pots and etc.) let's hope they make it, i'll update soon.
Are you growing in a tent or closet or room? What is the air temp around your plant? I ask because I’ve put sprouts and seedlings 2-3inches from T5 bulbs without issue so 5cm should not be too close as long as temp is good. But the leaf edge curling up like that is symptomatic for heat stress.
Right now they're in a corner of my bedroom, I'm setting up a cabinet for them this week. As i've said I live in the middle east so hot, all the time, hahaha, temp range on average from 2x@night to 3x@day, some days even reach 40+ but that's when I turn on the AC. (Celsius, obviously) I think a fan might be in order?
Ahh ya that’s the culprit then. The excessive heat. Two options. 1. Run a window AC or some other AC unit to keep the room under 30c. 2. You need to alter your grow medium to something that holds a lot of water but not drown the roots. Most likely a hydroponic setup. Then you have to run your nutrients at a lower TDS level then normal to prevent nutrient burn from the increased water uptake. This will help but if temps are to excessive it’s not going to help at all.
So update time, the one wilting died, the other one continues to grow, still has burn marks and heat damage but it keeps growing, the new growth seems good, a little bright on the tips but not like the older growth, no signs of heat stress on the new growth. I have a fan blowing 24/7 now (an industrial fan on low about 2.5 meters away from the plant, stirs up the whole room real nice). I wish I could afford to do that for myself, electricity is expensive here, I turn on the AC only on really hot days only for 4-6 hours regardless of the grow.