hey GC. im kinda a beginner at this whole thing so please be nice.. so i have this plant that is just over a week old and two days ago the new leaves comin in began to curl up and turn yellowish. if you have any ideas as to whats wrong with my baby it would be greatly appreciated. she is in a small grow cabinet with a 60w cfl for now. it stays around 80 degrees most of the time. i plan on transferring her into to a bigger grow box once she gets a bit bigger. the circulation in the space isnt very good because i didnt bother installin one since i would be moving it soon.. any feed back would be nice.. thanks!
What kind of soil is that and what are you watering it with?? Tap water?? Water with some kind of nutrients? PH of water? How long do you have the light on for each day? Need some more info here to be able to help you. For the most part though, your plant doesnt look too bad. These plants can handle a lot of stress. The only bad thing, is if you stress them too much, you might get yourself a little hermi.
im just using some cheap bandini potting soil. will that work? and i have just been using tap water because i havent had time to get nutes or anything. what do you recomend i use? the light is on 24/24 for now.
Most soil already comes with nutrients in it. So if yours did, then dont even worry about adding nutes. Your plant is probably just reacting to whatever nutrients are in the soil already. It might be a little too strong for it, but not much because you dont have any tip burn. Just yellowing, which isnt too bad. I would definitely get a PH test kit, or meter. Watering your plant with tap water is perfectly fine right now, because tap water has minerals in it already, but if your PH is too high in your tap water, then you can cause lockout of certain nutrients. Tap water usually runs a bit high. Mine is around 7.8, which will definitely lock out nute. You want to stay under 7.0 in soil and 6.2 in hydro. A good place to be at in soil is around 6.5. So get a PH test kit. Should only be about $5-$10 bucks for the cheap liquid one. Then water with 6.5 ph tap water until your plants gets better and you should be good. Once you get leaves with 3 and 5 fingers on each leaf, then you want to start adding some light nutrients. Start off very light to prevent over fertilizing and slowly increase. If you can test your nutrients PPM, then start off around 300-400 ppm, then work your way up. Going into flowering, you want to be at at least 1000 ppm and go higher as your plant produces buds. When you transplant into a bigger pot, make it the pot that your plants stays in for the rest of its growth. Transplanting causes stress, which you dont want. The key to pot size is 1 gallon for every foot of growth. And that's only if you water it right. You have to soak it each time, then let it dry out, then soak it again. Watering this way helps the roots use all of the soil, therefor it take a lot longer to get root-bound. Also shoot for a soil that is about 1/3 perlite. Buy a separate bag of perlite to add to your soil just in case it does have much. Perlite will help you a lot. Trust me on that one.
Hi MMRCGrower, since you said you might get yourself a little hermi, which i believe is a hermaphrodite or however you spell it haha, why are they so bad. I believe they are male and female, but can you tell me a bit about them. sorry to bring a new topic up into this topic im just really curious.
Take my opinion with a grain of salt but IMO it looks like a slight nitrogen deficiency which is probably caused by a pH problem. If you test your pH and it is below 7 and above 6 then there might actually be a deficiency in your soil, especially since you mentioned your using cheap soil. What I think you should do is... check pH first, if it is out of whack adjust it using lemons to lower. If it is in check then add a TINY bit of N. (you can pee in a bottle and dilute it to 15 parts water to 1 part urine) some people will disagree with me on the urine thing but it does work and it also very healthy for plants if it is diluted. good luck
Hermaphrodites are bad because they produce pollen. Once pollen gets on your buds, your plants will begin to develop seeds. Once your plants begins to develop seeds, ALL of your plants energy goes to producing those seeds. Now if no seeds are being produced, your plant uses all that energy to produce more THC and fatter, stickier buds. So if you want to grow some bomb weed, keep all males and all pollen away from your girls, otherwise is will drastically reduce the quality of your weed.
where is the easiet place to pick up a ph testing kit? and i have heard alot mixxed feelings about using urine on your plants.. have you or anyone else used it with good results? thanks
Lol. Well.. he is right. I wouldnt piss in my plants, just because I'm going to be smoking that, but pee does contain Nitrogen. About 70% Nitrogen actually. It even contains Phosphorous, potassium and micro nutrients. You want to dilute it to at least 1 part piss 8 parts water. Anything stronger than that, and it will probably burn your plants.
I grow Hydroponics, but you can still use the same nutes that I'm using. The easiest and cheapest would be the General Hydroponics 3 part solution. There's a few good ones out there. This is what I would recommend in this order. House and Garden Dutch Masters Humboldt Nutrients Advanced Nutrients General Hydroponics I use General hydro, but I dont like them. I bought so much, that now I'm stuck with them until I run out. I dont want to waste them. When I run out I'll be switching over to either House and Garden or Dutch Masters. I've heard a lot of good things about Advance Nutrients, but I dont know how much of that is the actually truth and what part of it is marketing. So I would start from the top and work your way down. But stick with the 3 or 2 part nutrients. No 1 part. You'll see what Im talking about once you start looking into them.
Lol. Personally I wouldnt pee in my plants. lol. But thats just me. It is true though. As long as you dilute it, you'll be safe, but if your growing indoors like I am, then the smell of piss just isnt my cup of tea. As for the PH testing kit. If you short on cash, then this is the way to go (see link below). If not, then buy a digital meter. This store is local to me and so far has the best prices that I've seen. This PH test kit is only about $6. Discount Hydroponics - pH Test Kit
One more thing before I head to bed.... clos3tgrow3r might be right about the Nitrogen deficiency. Nitrogen deficiencies usually start off with yellowing leaves. Plants HIGH in Nitrogen, usually have very dark green leaves. I dont necessarily think thats its a "deficiency" because soil usually comes with plenty of Nitrogen (N) in it already, so my guess is what I wrote in my original post, that your PH is off and causing lock out. And that Lock out may be of Nitrogen which would be causing the yellowing leaves. So hold off on pissing on your plants. lol. Get that PH right first.
The truth of the matter is that even if you feed your plants piss it will never make its way into the vascular tissue (plant body) as urine because it is broken down into its constituent nutrient parts before the roots absorb it. We all use shit in our soils why not urine? I have done it and they have not had any deficiencies or problems whatsoever. Check out the thread in the organic growing section, it will explain how to properly use it. The reason why I bring it up is because for you right now it is perfect, you can make a mild nute for your little baby, it wont cost you a dime, and its always on tap. Regardless let me shift the focus back over to pH. Before you even think about using any nutes check and adjust the pH--that is most likely the culprit. Here are some plants which have only been fed my piss. Not good quality photos but you can see that they're all healthy
LMAO!! Do your customers know what you feed them?? Mine wouldnt be too happy. Lol. Urine is also 95% water. Plants take in that water along with the nutrients. And while your bud probably wont taste like piss, the chemicals that you feed your plants have been proven to effect the flavor of what you are growing. Shit.... you can even drink your own piss and you'd be okay, but its just something that a lot of us will probably pass on. And not everyone uses shit in there soil. Shit is another good source of Nitrogen, but most nutrients come from salts. Organic gardners are the main people using cocka and dead animal parts to feed there plants. Like Bat Dookie, dried animal blood, grinded up animal bones and dead fish. Yes, organics is lovely. Dont get me wrong, it works and a lot of people perfer it over chemical nutrients. They even have "Vegan Organics". Vegan organics have no artificial chemicals, livestock manures or animal remains from slaughter houses. So there's a lot of ways to go. Its all really just a matter of preference. Oh and if you guys ever come across a bottle of CalMag Plus by Botanicare, open it up and take a whiff. I'm totally convinced that it is pure piss. Looks and smells exactly like some nasty piss that was pulled out of a bar urinal.