First, hello everyone. I'm new here. I've read a lot and joined today so I could get some advice on my sick plants and I'll probably be around now that I'm getting into growing. This is my first grow, so I'm a newb when it comes to most things. I am growing three Auto White Russians and one Auto Roadrunner. I started in peat pellets and put them into two gallons of FoxFarms Ocean Forrest once the roots started to stick out of the peat pellets. They are now 23 days old. Three were looking great, one was always shitty because I got a twin from one of my seeds and it has just been slow the whole time. I am using FF nutes as well. I watered with quarter strength at week 2, and have only fed a total of two times. Here's my problem: on all of my plants, the leaves are a little wilted and canoe downward. Some new growth is deformed. Also, the edges of the leaves have a slight metallic look to them. It has been like this for a few days and I have not been able to fix it. Here's what I've done to try to fix it so far: first I tried moving the light further away so I could eliminated heat/light stress, and sure enough that didn't help. I have good circulation, and the humidity and heat are fine. After that I watered with 1/2 strength nutes to see if it was some nute deficiency. It definitely wasn't cause the new growth got a little burn from it, and it didn't help the wilting or canoeing. Bugs also aren't an issue. I can't think of what else to try I would post pics, but the HPS messes with my camera and makes the pics useless Does anyone have any ideas? If you need more info to help please ask! Thanks for any help
It may be, but I don't think so. I hadn't been checking it, but after they started to wilt I got a test kit. My tap water comes out just under pH 7, and with nutes its just a bit more acidic. What pH is optimal for soil? I have read pH 6.7 is good. I haven't been able to test the soil runoff yet because I don't want to water too early. Maybe that's another symptom - they seem to be taking up way less water even though they're bigger. Should I give them a light watering with h2o2? I usually wait to water til its a little drier, but i don't know how long it will take for the soil to dry out more at this rate. Any advice? Thanks
its probably ph 6.3-6.7 for soil if you started ALWAYS checking the tap when you use it you'd see what the problem was. I recomend you let it sit out for at least an hour (evaporate chlorine) and then adjust the ph. You probably want to re-pot, get rid of all the old soil that is in that pot that the soil isn't clinging too. You might want to rinse the roots off to remove as much old dirt as you can then use fresh we need pics, hps or no.... take the pics and post them and we'll be the judge of whether or not the hps ruins it.... beyond that... whats stopping you from powerin down your lights for 30 seconds so you can get a pic?
and im not familiar with h2o2 and soil, ive only seen it on forums and then i've only seen it for hydro algae treatment
I do let my tap water sit out, usually for three days. I haven't been adjusting it, but since its in between 6.5 and seven (I'm guessing 6.8) and with nutes its a little more acidic (6.0) I don't see how it could be off that much. I'm using good soil, so I think the soil should have been fine to begin with. I don't really have the means to repot them right now. No one carries FoxFarms in my area, and I don't have any more. I'm also on a tight budget. Is there any other options? Couldn't I just wait til they dry out, water and collect runoff to determine pH, then flush with a few gallons of 6.5 adjusted water to fix the pH of the soil? Maybe add some h2o2? I attached some pics. You can see how sad the leaves look. Very curled and wilted. Just not healthy at all. Thanks for the help.
Over watering can cause this cupping effect. The plants look healthy otherwise. Plenty green and no chloritic spots on the leaves. Let the soil dry on top between watering. Thorough watering, then wait until dry to water again is better than keeping the plant moist constantly by frequent watering.
I thought that it could have been overwatering, but the problem appeared right when I started watering less often lol. Maybe it was already too late at that point. Now they're not drying out. I have a fan on them. Should I just give it more time and see what happens?
doesn't look like you need a repot looks like ph is just a little off the plants look pretty good, really,.... i was expecting some really fucked up shit keep your chin up, G.. i could be wrong... and i encourage you to keep thinking on it.. and also i encourage you to post pics of your entire set up so maybe we can narrow the issue down further but yeah, like i said, i could be wrong, but i still think its just a ph issue. you gotta be testing your shit man.. it comes out different day to day ...
Ya I know its not really that horrible, but its getting worse so I just wanted to be proactive. Its almost impossible to get a pic of my whole setup. Its very cramped, I can barely get back there and there's not enough room to get the setup in a picture. There's just enough room for the light, plants, and ventilation. I'll try to describe it though. Basically I have a recessed closet. It looks like a hallway that goes back into the corner of my room, but just ends. The walls are white. Its wide enough to fit two three gallon pots width-wise with a little extra room. I have drainage trays under the pots. My light is hanging by chain from a bar near the ceiling meant for clothes. I have a fan oscillating at plant level the circulates air. I rotate the plants daily so they all get about the same amount of light, breeze, etc. i think that paints a pretty good picture of what I have going on. If you wanna know anything else let me know. Also, when I water next and test pH, what is the best way to correct it? My water's been sitting out for two days now and I have it adjusted to ~6.8. I figured it would be better to go a little high because if the pH is off, I could only see it being low from nutes. So if my pH is low, say 6.0, what pH should I water with? Should I go higher to compensate? or stick with 6.8? Or just water with what I want the soil to be (6.5)? Thanks again guys.
I think 6.8 or 6.5 would be fine but I don't like to test limits so I would personally have shot for 6.7... but the key is wait for the soil to dry. when you think its totally dry, wait 3 more hours, then water it slowly until you see the tiniest bit of runoff and then quit also, you want to give them enough nutes but not too much follow the directions on your nute bottle by the way last year i had the most beautiful plant I ever saw growing and I used happy frog with 6.5 ph waterings. I always tested the runoff and it was always in the high 4s or low 5s. The leafs were so green and beautiful. However, I killed all my stuff because of a security scare, so I can't report that I grew it all the way to full flower and got great smoke... I admit I am still a noob, but after that I do not believe in runoff ph being important. Anybody agree that runoff ph is useless?
I have only used max of half strength nutes (1/2 of what the bottle recommends) and that burned them a little. I think I'm gonna do 1/4 strength next time I feed and up it if they do well with that. And about the runoff, I don't really view it as important. I'm not an expert, but the way I see it, if you start with good soil (right pH) and water with the correct pH, there should be no need to test the runoff. Also, if the pH of the soil is off, water with the pH you want it to be should eventually correct it. Testing the runoff can't be that accurate anyways - I think its more about how the soil changes the pH of the water you're putting through.
Also just noticed that one of my girls isnt a girl... It's and "it". I just carefully picked off two pollen sacs with a tweezers and inspected all the nodes with a magnifying glass. Since I only have a few plants, I don't really want to throw it out. Does anyone know how fast the sacs grow? I know more might now grow, but if they did, how often should I look for them? Every day or every couple days? I'd much rather just keep picking the sacs off, especially if its only a few. Anyone have any experience with this?
WTF ??? Man, u need to do some reading. Runoff Ph IS the indicator a grower should use. It is the single-most important reading, when it comes to soil conditions. For soil, runoff Ph should fall in the range of 6.3 - 6.8 no exceptions. OP: it also looks like a Nitrogen overload, by the darkness and the clawing and downward curl to the leaves. Flush, adjust Ph, resume nutes at half strength for a cuppla feedings, then increase with each feeding after that. Also, weed loves to dry out in between waterings. Freak
I think they're dry enough, so I'm going to do that right now. I will definitely test the runoff and adjust accordingly. I'll post back and let you guys know how they react Edit: Is it really a good idea to start at half strength? The highest concentration I have ever fed is half and I only did that once, and if that caused Nitrogen toxicity is it a good idea to start there?
Nothing yet. The leaves are still curled under, but overall they look a little healthier. One random leaf is curled up, probably just a freak. Also, the new growth seems very light green/yellow. The yellow is in the top leaves only, and radiates from the petiole and is green at the edges. Is that a problem?