I PROMISE I have tried to figure out whats going on by myself before coming here. Unfortunately I am at a loss. I'm not quite sure what to do and im worried about messing with them too much and doing more harm than good. Lets start: Thursday last week I received these 4 clones for my first grow. They are: Grape Ape Wedding Punch Durbin Poison x2 (black grow bags) - all in this same order in the pics. My Setup is as follows: 600w MH - About 20" above plants 5x10 Grow Tent 5gal fabric pot M3 Michigan Made Mix Soil Filtered water - PH was slightly high at 8 for my first ever watering. - have only done 1 watering Temp @ 77ish - 65% Humidity. Ok so I received the plants Thursday, Friday I put them in their 5gal pots and gave them about 1/4 of a gal of water each. It wasn't a whole lot I feel, but it got the soil decently wet for them. I was worried about drowning them before they have rooted into the new setup. The wedding punch is the main lady having issues (2nd pic), Her leaves are going very yellow and i actually trimmed a few off as they had shriveled up completely. I was thinking i may have accidentally overwatered these ladies so what i did this morning was take them out of their pots and put dry soil around them. I did notice that the Wedding punch is looking a little bit more lively after getting the wet soil away from it. From all my research the plants look to be having a nutrient deficiency? Which could also be overwatering too. I'm thinking overwatering because the soil is fresh and supposedly packed full of good nutrients. I'm not sure what to do. I have probably stressed these girls out already but I'm afraid of inaction and killing them. It's really discouraging to be failing so fast into this grow! Please help.
Here is an earlier shot of the Wedding Punch before i trimmed off the couple of deadening leaves and put her into dry soil. I Forgot to mention, the grow room smells like ammonia. Is that normal? This is only my 3rd day growing and i've noticed the smell for a while. google didn't help with this question. ** I just realized i posted in the wrong area. If this is a problem, please move my post. Thank you in advance.
The smell i would guess is the soil, PH im betting from a soil slurry is going to show high, raise that MH at least a foot more for such tiny plants. I suggest flushing soil after checking numbers. PH, PPM. That kinda crap. But from knowing soil mixes going bad that smell is a factor. Would flush with gallons of water and give a weeks time to recover.
My soil is possibly bad? They were 10 weeks old when i got them Thursday. When i pulled them out of the wet dirt i noticed none of the roots had tried to spread whatsoever. I dont know if they even would in 2 days huh? Did i possibly not give them enough water?
What soil are you using? Here’s a watering tip. Go by the weight of the pot. When it’s light water it. Also, it sounds like you might be giving your plants too much attention. I’d just water with RO water. It looks like there’s some Ph issues. And either over or under watering. Have you only checked the water ph? Plant Doctor - Diagnose Your Plants! | Grow Weed Easy
Hey Mel, thanks for touching base. I am using MIchigan Made Mix - M3. Its suppose to be a pretty good soil from the research I have done, I guess comparable to an Fox Farm Ocean Forest but this one i was hoping would bring me from these transplants to harvest (idk im a newb). My water was slightly Basic - 8 it appears. I received the plants thursday, got them in soil Friday and gvae them their first sip. I unfortunatley didn't have a PH meter at the time but didn't think it would cause many problems for the first watering. I have a 2 gal watering pot so i watered about a half gal for each. I have been doing most of my research on Grow Weed Easy, and ILGM. Could the PH being high cause these nutrient problems? As i mentioned in my first post, i was worried I had overwatered so i put the girls in dry soil to see if they would get better. I do feel like I was messing with them too much, or more so checking as I didn't really do anything. I just raised my light from 18ish inches to 22 for durbin and 27 for the others (the durbin are taller). If i stick my finger in the soil the dirt right next to the clones is still damp but the dirt around is dry. Should i wait to water them, or should I get my water to 6.5 PH and give them a drink?
Hey Bryan, if i remember correctly the roots were white. They had a bit of soil around them so they weren't pure white but they didn't look like they had rot. Also - i might need to add that now that my carbon scrubber has come in and i'm able to get fresh air that Ammonia smell has seemed to be not nearly has intense. -- I wanted to wait before I did any sort of flush as Dscdk mentioned as I felt that was drastic. I PH'd my water to 6.3 and gave all the girls just a little bit of water last night & also raised my light just a little more. The wedding punch doesn't seem to be shriveling anymore, so maybe it was PH and light burn? Light was at around 18 before.
Incase someone else rolls along and might be able to offer some insight. Here are the ladies today. The 2 in the back seem to be overly limp. The couple in the front (the grape ape and the wedding punch) are looking a little more vibrant but they do have some wilting leaves. I have been thinking about my issues and am wondering on 2 things - Should I move these girls to 2gal fabric pots? they are in 5gal ones now. Should I get a gentler soil to top dress and put these ladies into? Like happyfrog/roots organic?
I think you might need to just litfa. They’ll live or die but the more you manipulate the plants, the less happy they’ll probably be.
haha took me like 2 secs before i got the "litfa". Yeah i think you're right. I put the light WAYYY up, gave them the PH'd water, now going to wait a few days. Thanks to all who have contributed. Hopefully these clones pull through!
I would stick those in 3 gallon pots in coco substrate. Give a growth/veg nute mixture so you have about 500 to 800 PPM. Also make sure to add some cal-mag to the recipe. Also use some recharge for good root health. PH mix to between 5.5 and 6. I don't know about your lights but if you can get your hands on led I would stick them under an LED panel about 20 plus inches above canopy. Probably not completely necessary but I don't have as much experience with lights other than LED. Also, how is your water quality? Make sure you aren't using water that has gone through a softening system. If you want I can give you the nute recipe that I use. I have managed to nurse plants back to full health with it and these methods. Plants that even had no leaves. Just a stem. These are all just suggestions of course. Based on my personal growing methods, what I have encountered and how I have saved plants that looked like your sick ones.
Thanks for the insight. Unfortunately, as a first timer, I just spent a HEFTY chunk of change on all my equipment and am pretty tapped on what I have available to spend towards other supplies. I was recommended by another to use soil-less such as coco, and I may do that next grow but for this one I'm eitehr coming out on the other side or they are dying and when it comes to that I'll have to move forward accordingly. It's sad, as I had such high hopes after the hours I've spent into research, but its my reality. I did get in touch with a local grower, and she was able to add some insight for me. I followed the few steps she recommended and now am just playing the waiting game. I am hopeful though as all the newer growth on my girls looks pretty dang healthy. Thank you all who have contributed. It's been much appreciated.
Don’t feed nutes in m3. No ppM. Just microbs. Soil is just fine. You wanna do something add some compost and mix it in. Maybe 3-1 but watch out for bugs Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk