How to read your plant!

Hey folks, I'm here for one reason, to pass on some knowledge for all the fledgling growers out there! Enjoy! Feel free to ask any questions if needed!

First of all: prevention is key, keep on top
Of things and be pro-acktice with plant care and hygiene! That being said, growers everywhere run into problems so heres a useful guide to learning your plant!

Anyone who has grown plants indoors a few times will know that varieties of plant within a species can be quite different. They have different feeding requirements, look different, grow at a variety of speeds to a variety of sizes in a variety of timescales, and react differently to environmental conditions. These differences are due to genetic traits and are mainly a product of differences in geographical origin in respect to latitudinal climatic and light conditions, and natural selection within the environment. Plants are then crossed and bred to exhibit desirable qualities and new varieties are developed within the species. Other differences between varieties also become apparent, some plants are delicate and temperamental, some are strong and hardy, some more resistant to disease, some feed more than others, etc. With weed 93% is genetic, so make your 7% count!

With all that going on we need to get used to looking at the plant and quickly identifying any potential problems. This involves recognizing and familiarizing yourself with the plants body language and visual clues, some of which are in more detail below.


Looking at the plant as a whole

Look at the general colour and look of the plant

Stand back and have a general look at the plant as a whole. Does it look normal? It should be a fairly even colour – a nice vibrant shiny green and not too dark. The plants leaves should be a good size and fall nice and flat perpendicular to the light, and not pointing up or drooping down too much. Does the plant look relaxed and happy or tense and curled up? If you are having problems the first thing to do is back the light off a few inches, or a foot or two, this will take the pressure off the plant and help the plant recover while you evaluate any other causes.

Is the plant growing every day?

Under intense conditions it’s hard to keep everything perfect. As long as the plant is fairly healthy and growing every day then things aren’t too bad. As the plant gets bigger it will cope better with intense light conditions.

Look at new shoot growth

The new shoot growth is always the best indication of what is happening at any particular time. If new shoots are growing well and looking healthy then this might indicate any previous problems have now been overcome.

Is there any colour loss?

Top, middle or bottom of the plant Colour loss across areas of the plant may be caused by many things; overfeeding, causing nutrient deficiencies and colour loss over the whole plant, along with rust spots and small leaves. The first signs of overfeeding are dark green leaves that curl or hook downward at the tips as the plant tries to retain moisture; underfeeding, causing colour loss across the whole plant followed by nutrient deficiencies. Lack of main elements will show at the bottom of the plant first and move up, this is because the main three elements (N,P,K,) are mobile and will be transported from these positions to the tops where they are needed. Deficiencies in micro elements like iron, calcium and magnesium will show at the new shoots as interveinal colour loss as they cannot be borrowed internally from other leaves and are not mobile elements.

Other reasons for colour loss include cold nights, bleaching from the light being too close, wind burn, and too warm a nutrient solution causing lack of oxygen to the root for nutrient uptake. This will make the plant look droopy, grow very slowly and eventually develop colour loss and deficiencies. Over transpiration of the leaf from being too close to the light will show initially as a subtle loss of surface sheen followed by yellowing and rust spots a couple of weeks after the initial damage was done. These leaves will slowly die as the stomata are damaged and the leaf can no longer function properly.

Is there any leaf droop?

It’s often hard to avoid a bit of leaf droop during the latter part of an 18 hour light cycle using big lights, particularly in pots where the oxygen take up is limited or in hydroponic systems if the nutrient is getting a bit warm as the light cycle goes on. Protect your nutrient temperature. 18 hours of optimum light is very demanding especially on young plants but as they get bigger they can deal with the light and heat better, it is important to keep the plant healthy until on the 12hour cycle where the larger plant and shorter grow light cycle will make better use of lower lamp heights and more intense conditions.

Leaf loss

With fast growing light loving plants it is quite normal to lose some of the bottom larger leaves as the plant gets bigger. They will normally gradually lose their colour first. These leaves are not getting much light any more and the plant will discard them for leaves nearer the light that can produce more energy.

Growth patterns

These are largely inbuilt into the plant genetics but can be quite largely affected by the growing conditions, environment and plant diet. Some plants are naturally short and bushy, others are tall and sparsely branched. Apart from the breeding, sparsely branched and stretched looking plants could be due to not enough light or too much light and heat from the light source. So is the light too close or not close enough? It’s your call, work it out. Look for other signs like upward leaf curl indicating the leaf is trying to retain moisture. In this case maybe the light is too close and too hot causing this curl. (Note: Plants can cope better with intense high light levels better in a good hydroponic system where there is lots of water and oxygen, the plants can transpire and control their body temperature more easily and efficiently. In pots under optimum light the plant cannot perform as efficiently and the light may need to be slightly farther away.)


A closer look at leaves

Leaf size

Leaf size is important. Leaves may generally be bigger under sodium lights and slightly smaller under fluorescent and halide lights. If leaves generally appear too small it may also be an indication that you are close to overfeeding, check leaf colour to confirm. Large leaves are a good thing.

Leaf colour

A shiny vibrant green, not to dark, is what we’re looking for. Too dark and dull are symptoms of overfeeding.

Leaf shape

The shape of the leaf depends largely on the genetics, although if the blades look a little narrow, lacking in colour and not reaching a good size or shape the may be a main element deficiency. Increase feed strength slightly. Twisting and mutating of new leaves is either unstable genetics, lack of silicon or more commonly excess chlorine. De-chlorinate your tap water for at least 12 hours before use.

Yellowing of leaf tips

This is common and hard to avoid, as long as there are no other associated symptoms it may just be a bit of light wind burn.

Leaf tip curl down

When leaves curl at the tips and margins the plant is trying to retain moisture. When they curl down this is usually an indication of overfeeding, the feed is too strong on the outside of the root membrane so through reverse osmosis water passes from inside the plant across the root membrane to water down the strong solution outside the plant, it does this in an attempt to even out the pressure on both side of the root membrane.

Leaf tip curl up

When leaves curl at the tips and margins the plant is trying to retain moisture. When they up this is would be due to an environmental problem rather than a nutrient problem. This could either be due to wind burn, or the lights to close, or not enough air exchange or a combination of all three. I may well be the light is too close for the stage of growth, size of plant or specific variety. Some plants are more sensitive than others.

Leaf margin curl

Curling down is more associated with problems in the root zone, usually overfeeding (check for curling down leaf tip and other symptoms). It could also be temperature or oxygen problems in the root zone. Curling up margins are more associated with environmental problems and would be caused by the same problems as leaf tip curl up.

Over transpiration damage

Transpiration damage on leaves is caused by too much light and heat. In its attempts to keep cool the plant over transpires moisture from its. In this case the leaf may immediately look a bit blotchy and have lost it shiny, thick, smooth green look for a few days and then start to loose colour generally and especially between the leaf veins where rusty spots start to appear. These later symptoms of colour loss, rusty spots and general leaf damage usually show themselves a couple of weeks after the damage has been done, a few inches under the fresh shoots, indicating it was a bit hot or the light was a little close for a while a couple of weeks ago. The bigger the plant gets the easier it can deal with the light and heat. Always check new growth and move the light away a few inches if your’e in doubt. This condition is often mistaken as a nutrient deficiency, which are actually quite rare and 90% of all leaf damage and rust spotting is environmental not nutritional.

Wind burn

This is a common problem in the summer when using oscillating fans indoors, you have to be careful not to blow too hard on the top surface of the leaf where there is a lot of light or you can draw too much moisture from the leaf and it will at first start to curl up at the tip and margins slightly in an attempt to retain moisture. Then the leaf will lose colour and start to die back a golden brown colour from the leaf tip. The dead part will soon become brittle and crispy. Aim you fans away slightly or more directly at the lamp.

Main element leaf deficiency symptoms

Potassium deficiency is common and will show first as a yellowing of the larger leaves from the tips and margins inward towards the main leaf vein. Nitrogen deficiency shows first on the larger lower leaves as a yellowing of the tips spreading evenly back towards the leaf stem. Phosphorus deficiency is common too and will give a dark purple tinge to your larger green leaves, it will also cause purpling of the stems. These are main elements and therefore mobile elements, meaning your new shoots are one of the last parts of the plant to be affected, enabling you to rectify the deficiency before it seriously affects the plant.

Micro element deficiency symptoms

All essential micro elements like iron, calcium, magnesium, etc are all non-mobile elements. This means these elements once initially sited cannot move around the plant to where they are needed like Nitrogen. Instead deficiencies in the micro elements will initially show at the new shoots and leaves and not on older or bigger leaves.

Colour loss on old large leaves

This is very normal. These big leaves are the main engines of the plant, when the plant gets bigger they will fall off and often lose colour first. These leaves are no longer getting enough light, the plant will replace them with up and coming leaves nearer the light source and grow them into big leaf light catching engines to replace the old ones which now use more energy than they produce.

Purple stems

This is usually associated with a Phosphorus deficiency, check for purpling of the leaves. It can also be caused by cold or just normal plant genetics.


Roots

Damping off

This often affects young plants in propagators where the environment is too wet and humid, and the air is still. The bottom of the stem goes soft and watery looking, this may be the start of stem rot.

Healthy roots

If you are in a hydoponic system check your roots regularly making sure they look reasonably white and healthy and growing to a reasonable size. If in doubt or in pots use products like Sensi Zym, Hygrozyme or Voodoo Juice to increase root mass and products like Trichoderma and Guardian Angel to protect the roots zone from infection.

Slight Browning of the root surface

This is hard to avoid especially during the latter part of a plant’s cycle. Slight browning may be caused by chilled roots from turning solution off where roots are totally exposed like in NFT system. Any more than a bit of browning here and there may indicate you have some root disease.

Pythium and other root diseases

If your roots come apart when gentle pulled, are all sloppy and off colour you probably have pythium or some other root disease. You can protect yourself from the offset by inoculating your young plantlets with Trichoderma Powder which is a beneficial fungi. These beneficial mould and fungi treatments will prevent any other pathogen from taking hold in the root zone and also stimulate the roots. Enzyme products like Dutch master zone, Hygrozyme and Sensi Zym also help prevent infection by bolstering the root zone and significantly increasing root mass. If you already have a disease problem use Bio-Sept, Guardian Angel or ultimately a Vecton UV Sterilizer unit.



For those of you who took the time to read to hear... Without skipping, you have promise, a keen learner will make a good grower! For those who skipped most of it, stop being lazy and read... It could save your plants one day.

Peace folks!

 

Probably nearer the end or after half way of flowering but never grown this strain. Check it's heritage and the purple parents description will maybe give you an idea

 

Also if you have a lower night time temp and make the day and night difference of about 10celcius, this can trigger pigment retraction and force start your purpling!

 

Thanks friend, hope it was helpful!

 

Hey buddy, so here's some info on teas!

Understanding the Value of Castings

Castings added to the soil carry to the root zone a rich compliment of soluble plant nutrients and growth enhancing compounds, a diverse and populous consortium of microbial life and a substrate of organic matter harboring a storehouse of nutrients that are not lost to rain and irrigation. The plant is delivered an ongoing, reliable food source when bacteria and microscopic fungi feed on the organic matter, releasing some of the nutrients to the soil and storing others for their own energy and reproduction. When nematodes and protozoa in turn feed upon them, the nutrients stored in the bacterial and fungal bodies are released to the soil in a plant-available form.

According to Dr. Elaine Ingham, Director of Soil FoodWeb, Inc. of Corvallis, Oregon, when soil, compost or castings support protozoa numbers on the order of 20,000 per gram of solid matter, 400 pounds of nitrogen per acre are released through their predation of bacteria. When we feed organic matter to the soil, the soil life feeds nutrients to the plant.

Further, unlike soluble plant fertilizers, the nutrients stored in organic matter and the bodies of the microbial life are not lost through irrigation to contaminate ground water. Hair-thin fungal tentacles, called hyphae, wrap about soil and organic matter particles in their search for food, forming aggregates that are the basis for good soil structure. Thus, both the fungi and the organic matter are held in the soil. Bacteria exude sticky glues that enable them to cling to solid particles of mineral and organic matter, ensuring they too remain in the soil and, like the fungi, aid in the formation of aggregates.

Nutrient retention and cycling are not the only benefit to castings use, however. By inoculating the soil with the rich, diverse, microbial life present in good worm castings, the plant root is protected from disease and attack by root-feeding organisms. Because the diversity of organisms aids in ensuring everyone present has a predator, no one organism in the root zone is easily able to reach populations sufficient to cause significant damage. Plant roots exude foods that encourage colonization by microbial life beneficial to the plant, reducing the number of possible infection points. Many micro-organisms exude compounds inhibitory to pathogenic organisms, further reducing the chance for pathogen blooms sufficient to cause plant damage.

When we add castings and the microbial life they support to the soil, we aid in increasing the complexity and diversity of organisms in the root zone, thus aiding in disease and pest suppression. It may not be in the root zone alone where worm castings demonstrate the ability to suppress pest attack, however. There is a growing body of research suggesting that castings derived from a feedstock of plant materials are rich in a compound called chitinase. Chitin, a component of the exoskeleton of many insects, is damaged by chitinase, leading some researchers to believe its presence in the castings may be inhibitory to some insects. Research being conducted in California is demonstrating suppression of white fly and ambrosia beetle in some tree species when castings containing chitinase are applied at the root zone.

From Castings to Tea

So, "why tea?" one may wonder. With compost and worm products demonstrating such tremendous benefit to soil and plant life, why take the extra steps to generate a liquid from this already understood and easily applied solid material?

Leaf surfaces, like plant roots, harbor a rich microbial population that protects the leaf, and thus the plant, from infection and attack by pathogenic organisms. When the microbial consortium present on the leaf surface is reduced by pesticide use or environmental damage, it exposes leaf surface, opening infection points. We can reinoculate the leaf with the diverse com-munities of microbial life found in compost and worm castings by applying a tea made from these materials. Further, teas can be applied as soil drenches and root washes after pesticide use, to reintroduce to the soil microbial communities that may have been damaged by the pesticide. The microbes can then continue to provide protection from pathogens to the plant as well as aiding in breakdown of any pesticide residues in the soil, thereby preventing ground water contamination.

Teas also carry the soluble nutrients and beneficial growth regulators contained in the solid matter used to make the tea. Many of these compounds can be absorbed through the leaf surface, feeding and enriching the plant.

Tea or leachate?

The microorganisms present in an aerobic compost or vermiprocessing system require significant amounts of moisture in order to break down the organic materials present. They use the water in both their life processes and as avenues for moving through the material. These organisms are swimmers. Thus, when we build a system for the remediation of organic wastes, whether or not worms are involved, we moisten the organic materials to ensure efficient breakdown. As the bacteria and fungi reduce the organic material, the water held within the feedstock is released to the system. Further, as organic materials are broken down by microbial decay, moisture is generated as a by-product of aerobic activity. What this means is that these systems often generate fluids generally referred to as leachates.

Leachate from an actively decomposing pile of organic debris will often carry many of the soluble nutrients that had been present in the solid matter, producing a beneficial growth response when used to water plants. It will also carry small numbers of the micro-organisms present on that solid matter, as well as small bits of undecomposed organic material. This becomes an issue of some concern when materials like manure or post consumer food residuals make up even a portion of the feedstock in the system. There is the possibility that fecal coliforms and other pathogenic organisms can be present in the leachate, potentially contaminating plant and fruit or vegetable surfaces with which it comes into contact.
Further, the bits of undecomposed organic debris in the leachate will continue to be broken down in the liquid where oxygen levels are very low, through the action of anaerobic microorganisms. As they slowly decompose these bits of material anaerobes produce alcohol and phenols toxic to plant roots.

It is not always possible to tell when leachate will produce a beneficial growth response and when it will cause damage. Without a lab test it is not possible to tell when leachate will harbor potentially pathogenic organisms. As such, it is generally recommended that leachate from compost or worm bins not be used on plants, but rather used to moisten the system if it dries out or to moisten new feedstocks before they are included in the system.

Steeping the finished, stable end product of a composting or vermicomposting system in agitated, aerated water, then adding a nutrient mix for microbial growth makes a true tea. The water is agitated to extract as many of the organisms clinging to the solid matter as possible, and the nutrient mix provides those microbes dislodged into the liquid with a food source on which to grow and reproduce.

Aerating the water ensures that it is the aerobic organisms that are supported in the liquid. This blend of food and oxygen in the tea enables the microorganisms to grow to numbers rivaling those found in the solid matter from which the tea is derived. Teas must then be used within a few hours of being generated in order to ensure aerobicity and high microbial populations. Once the oxygen and food are consumed, anaerobic organisms will begin to populate the system, producing alcohols and phenols toxic to plants.

Good tea begins with good, quality compost, worm castings or vermicompost, or a blend of these materials. Provided the solid material is stable and supports sufficient beneficial microbial life, there is nothing in these liquids to cause plant damage.

Using the tea

Compost and castings teas are a relatively new product in today's agriculture and gardening industries. Researchers are still identifying uses, though there is considerable research demonstrating that teas can suppress fungal disease in a variety of plant species and aid in disease prevention on plants where disease pressure is great.

Application rates for tea will vary considerably with the type of plant being treated, climate, and whether or not the plant is already battling a pest or infection. Dr. Ingham suggests that in agricultural fields the application rate begin at five gallons of undiluted tea per acre per week and adjusted as needed based on performance. For home use, teas can be applied to flowers, perennials, turf, roses, shrubs, trees and vegetables from a hand sprayer at a dilution ratio of one part fresh, undiluted tea to five parts water, applied once per week. The tea can be applied more or less frequently or at a lower dilution ratio as needed based on performance.

What we do not know about teas still far outweighs what we do know, though research demonstrates an exciting future for tea use. The possibility of finding a means of controlling certain plant diseases with a truly effective yet benign material that simply capitalizes on nature's own means of control is a basic precept of sustainability and promises to help us repair the damage already caused by conventional agriculture techniques.

And while we may not know everything there is to know about tea, we know that using it harms nothing and very often brings great benefits. Indeed, there's nothing like a good cup of tea!

 

updated and comprehensive sick guide is now here (link)...
http://forum.grasscity.com/sick-pla...ide-here-updated-aggregated.html#post11246040

Took me ages so I hope it helps!!!!

 

updated guide can be found linked below... p.s thanks for the Rep, Appreciated!

http://forum.grasscity.com/sick-plants-problems/855335-sick-plant-guide-here-updated-aggregated.html