So, everything was going great up until about a week ago. All of a sudden the edges of my leaves started turning brown!! My bottom fan leaves are completely dead. It seems like the lower leaves are worse than the higher leaves, leading me to believe that there's an issue with too much light, but my plant is just starting to get it's fifth set of leaves, and is about 6" tall, so how much light could it really be blocking from itself? I don't have any idea why this is happening... I'm using: 1 Daylight 6500K CFL bulb approx 3-4 inches away from the top of the plant. 1 Sylvania 120w Spot-Gro bulb at the top of the closet (about 7ft from top of plant, more for added heat in the room than anything) Some sort of generic potting soil... threw away the bag, but I have no idea what it was. Tap water left out for 24 hours to reach room temp. and help evaporate at least some of the harmful chemicals. 1 8" dia pot (I have 2 8" dia's, and one 12" dia, but the only seed that actually grew was the one in the 8"... thinking about transplanting to the 12" soon) 1 Oscillating fan What could be causing this? Do I need more light? Do I need to move the bulb farther away (the bulb itself is warm, but doesn't seem to be emitting too much heat, not like the Spot-Gro bulb)? Is it possible I'm watering too much/not enough? Could it be... and I dread the thought... that my soil is no good for growing? If soil is the case, I'm in trouble. I've tried researching soil for awhile, and different mixes, and different pH's and all that stuff. Frankly soil is just too boring for me too be able to learn about. Is there a brand, or something specific to look for on the bag that will instantly scream out "BUY ME FOR YOUR MARIJUANA PLANT!"? Hopefully it's not the soil that's causing the issue but rather lighting or watering or something simple that I can fix. Any help on fixing the problem will be much obliged. I really wish I could post a picture, but I don't have a camera. I'll try taking one with my cell phone and seeing if I can get it up if it's decent quality I guess.
How old is this plant? Usually yellowing from bottom up is nitrogen deficiency or fert burn. Have you fed them yet? Since we don't know the soil brand we will not know for sure. If it is yellowing from the soil they are getting fert burned. Do you see any yellow balls in the soil? Your lights are not too much; doubt that's the problem. Your spot grow bulb at 7 feet away is worthless. Why you adding heat to the room? What is the temp in the room?
The plant is 4 weeks old (from when I first put the seed in the soil, or about 2 1/2 weeks since it broke soil). I haven't fed her (I hope it's a her) yet, and to be honest, I hadn't intended to ever feed her. I want to do a really cheap, very natural type grow for my first time 'round. Yes, there are tons of yellow balls in the soil (they started out white when I first put the soil in the pot). The rest of my house is kept at a chilly 62-65 degrees F. The bedroom however doesn't have it's own vent, so I keep my bedroom door closed and that room stays around 65-67 degrees F. The spot bulb in the closet has brought the temp in there from a constant 64-65 degrees (don't know why the closet is cooler than the bedroom... ) to right in the 69-71 degree range. I keep my apartment so cold because I have to keep my computers nice and chilly to keep them running properly (and yes, they really are monstrous enough to need it, even with the side panel taken off completely and a large industrial fan blowing on it (with dust guards of course)). Also, I like it cold around me, but I know my girl wouldn't like that kind of weather. So, if I have to change my soil (for some reason that's what I figured was the problem) is there a soil out there that I can just grab right from the shelf and put it straight to the pot with no mixing different ones together? If so, what is it called? And, I suppose I should feed my plant, though I really want to keep this grow as cheap as possible. Is there a single product I can buy to feed my plant with? I guess I'll have to research plant food and soil a little more... but I really can't see me researching too hard. Soil and food just bore me to death. And I'm not concerned with a large harvest, or even the best bud out there. I really just want to use this grow as a practice run for when I really start growing (maybe years down the road), mostly because I don't know when I'll be moving out of my apartment, so I may have to halt the grow completely at basically a moment's notice. All I want is some experience and the ability to be able to say that I grew my own plant... and if at all possible a little herb of my own to smoke would be great .
Those balls that were white and then turned yellow I belive is the perlite in the soil. I am looking for yellow balls that when squeezed have liquid fertilizer in them. Even if you don't see those, the soil could still have fertilizer pre added to it, which I suspect is starting to over fertilize your plants; hence the yellowing. There is no reason why a 2.5 week old plant should be yellow other than over fert or pH. I don't suppose you have a pH tester? You can get one at a pool store, fish/aquarium store, Home Depot etc. You need to check to make sure the soil pH is between 6.2-6.8. Fertilizing: Good, don't fertilize this plant until you know why the yellowing. Quick and dirty for the fertilizer would be some Miricle Grow 20-20-20 for vegetables. Soils: Stay away from MG Miricle grow soils. The fertilizer is fine but, the soil often times has time release ferts in it which burns them. Stay away from Shultz unless you are postive that the soil has no fertilizer. Other than those, any potting soil should work that is free of nutes. Sunshine mix 4 is a good high quality soil. Your FF Ocean forest is good for mature plants just not seedlings.
Ok, I have a bit of a new question. Since I'm pretty positive now that my soil is the issue, do I really have to change it, or can my plant survive the nute burn until it's big enough to use it (if that's even how it works...) Basically, will my plant A) Live B) Grow C) Eventually stop suffering from nute burn D) Produce smokable buds in the end If the answer is yes to all of those, than I think I'm just going to leave it as is. As I've said before, I'm not looking for the best bud, or the biggest plant, or the largest harvest. I just want to take a plant from seed to smoke at least once. After that I may very well become a real grower as I've actually really enjoyed this first few weeks growing. And, if I do become a real grower, than I'll start to take into account soil (or perhaps another medium) and advanced feeding. Until then however, can I just keep up what I'm doing and go from there? My plant is still getting taller, it's still getting new leaves, and the new leaves appear healthy all the way until the next set begins to show, then they start turning brown around the edges, and none but the very bottom fan leaves have died completely. Is this grow still going to work without changing soil? ...though, I guess changing soil isn't that big of a deal. Still, I only have one plant, that could (God forbid) turn out male, and I may have to move which means destroying the plant either way, and I just want a successful first grow, not the best first grow ever. Obviously I'm still deciding, but until then, as I've said over and over again (sorry for being redundant), will the grow work at all in these conditions?
well if i were you, id try adding some fertilizer... dont put too much though cuz it does the same thing.(turns the tips of the leaves brown). it happened to my friend once..
Again, the yellow fert balls are critical. If it is slow release or time release fertilizer, flushing won't do anything because there is fertilizer yet to be released. If it just has some guano or somthing in it flushing might help. So the answer to all your question MIGHT be yes. It's hard to know. Just Keep an eye on the new growth.
There aren't technically any yellow fert balls in the soil. However, there are some white balls that have since turned a yellowish hue (some quite dark, others still pearly white). I took one and crushed it in between my fingers. No liquids came out of it, instead it broke apart and looked/felt almost exactly like styrofoam. The only real difference is that styrofoam is fairly soft and breaks into nice little balls, but this stuff is harder, and kinda breaks into shards. I guess that would make them not at all alike... but it still reminds me of styrofoam. Hope that gives you a better idea.
Ok, I've decided I'm just going to change the soil. I know that's what's causing the problem (at least that's my best educated guess). So, I know how to transplant a plant; I even know how to transplant plants without causing them much, if any, stress (yes, it is possible. though often pointless as it involves starting with a large pot so you can remove the plant with it's roots completely covered in soil and out of sight... which isn't often necessary because after all, you're starting with a large pot). Anyways, what I'm not to sure about is changing soil. When I transplant plants, I always make sure I take most of the soil from the original pot over to the new pot. By doing it that way you avoid disturbing the roots, which eliminates most (if not all) the stress caused from transplanting. Essentially, I basically add soil under the plant, instead of moving the plant to more soil. The plant never notices the difference because it's roots are always covered in soil. However, since the idea here is to get the plant out of the soil it's growing in now, I'm not sure how to do that without causing too much stress to the plant. Obviously stress is going to be involved in the transplant, and it's probably going to slow down the growth for awhile, and I'm ok with and prepared for that. What I want to know is how much soil should I actually remove from around the plant? My best guess is that I should probably remove enough soil so that I can just barely see the tips of the farthest (or deepest had it still been in the pot) reaching root and then put that into the new soil. Then I can add new soil on top of the original soil, and water somewhat harshly (like a small, small flood) once or twice to try and push the new soil into the root system. Even that way seems like it would cause a lot of stress though... I guess I just need to know if I need to remove as much soil from the roots as I can without damaging the plant, or if I can just add new soil around the existing soil for the plant to grow into later. In other words, since the strongest part of my root system is currently in shitty soil being fert burned, do I need to get fert free soil into that area to stop the ferts from reaching the plant at that rate, or can I just let the roots grow into the new soil and perhaps it will even itself out over time? My guess is that the best thing to do would be to get as much of the new fert free soil around my roots, and as much of this time released fert soil away as possible. All without causing too much stress to the plants... right? And if so, any good ideas on how to do that?
That styrofoam stuff is the perlite and is good for the soil. Yes the idea for the transplant is to get as much of the old soil away from the roots as possible. You can even run water onto the roots to wash it away just be very careful. Get it planted into the new soil ASAP and then just water it with some B-12 if you have any in the water. Give enough water so that some water runs out the bottom of the pots.