Hey Guys, I really need your help. I'm a first time grower. I have 20 G.S.C (18 days old) in SOLO cups (with drain holes) in a 5x9 grow tent with an 800 PhytoMAX LED light from Blackdog on a 18/6 light cycle. I'm growing in Fox Farm Light Warrior Seed Starter. When I first planted the seeds I watered the soil with PH'd RO water and added 'Root Enhancement' + 'Zym' (Pure Essentilas) to that water per manufacturers suggestion. Someone on this forum suggested that I stopped using nutrients and RO water since it was stripped from micro nutrients. Following his advice I decided that next time I watered (I used the cup weight method) I would do 10 plants with PH'd tap water and continue the other 10 plants with the Pure Essentials nutrient schedule to see the difference in growth. Everything was looking good after the feeding then 3 days later some of my plants stated dropping and started getting brown spots on their lower leaves. I wasn't sure why this was happening but after doing some reading online I thought it could be overwatering (drooping leaves) or underwatering ( drooping leaves plus browning). With that in mind I decided to water only 10 to see which of the 20 would recover. The 10 that I watered seemed to plush up the next day but the brown spots and yellowing leaves continued. Now they're back to drooping again with the same leave symptoms and spreading to next top leaves. I don't know what it could be anymore. I don't think it has to do with under or overwatering. Nutrient burn? but 10 of my plants I stopped the nutrients and they're getting the same leave symptoms. PH problem? I have a PH meter and ph all the water I use. Calcium deficiency? Tap water has calcium in it doesn't it? Nitrogen deficiency? I'm assuming the nutrient schedule that's telling me to add this, this and this on week 1 of vegging would have the nitrogen ratio that a plant in week 1 of vegging would need? Should I flush all 20 of them? Transplant to different pots? I don't know what to do and really want to jump on a solution ASAP Can anyone point me in the right direction to saving these babies? I've attached some pics on they started browining and how they're looking now Any help would be really appreciated, Thanks!
Repot in good soil wi perlite or pebbles for good dranage. Use ya root stim as helps relief stress also. Depending on wat siol ya use next to repot then no nutes needed as shud giv ya plants all they need for first few week but check wi ya siol supplier. Still use additives,root stim and mulizyme . Keep eye on temps etc and should be ok. Failing this it could be a bad batch !!!!!! Still keep trying . Gud luck love x
One thing I see you're doing wrong is not filling those cups all the way up to the top with soil. The soil you're using to grow those plants in very likely could be "hot" or filled with slow release fertilizers...and this could be burning your plants. At this point, your plants DO NOT need nutrients unless you want to fry them. Until they have developed a substantial root system AND had a chance to use up the nutes that came in the soil, you're good on nutes for those baby plants.. Starting chemicals before then will only fry your plants. As far as watering goes, you should not water your plants until the container has dried out...almost to "dead dry." They do not like their roots in constant moisture. In the veg cycle, if you're using quality soil, you only need light, ph"d water (6.3 to 6.7 for soil grows) and a proper understanding of when and how to water. Your plants are still babies and are WAY too young and fragile to start frying them with nutes. And yes, RO water is stripped of all micronutrients and you will eventually get weird deficiencies showing up on your plants if you continue to use it...like boron deficiencies, etc. Also, you are growing way too many plants to flower off under the lighting you have. Each light is really only good for flowering a certain number of plants and shoving more under a light than it can accommodate will only shade out the biggest part of your plants and will decrease your harvest overall. You can harvest more from one plant that has the proper environment and proper flower cycle lighting than you can by showing 6 plants into the same amount of space and robbing most plants of what they need. The overall quality of your buds depends on how much good lighting they get in flower. Read on the new grower threads for the basics of the growing process if you want to start out with the least stress possible. Information is definitely your friend when first starting out. You've just got to make sure your info is solid. TWW.