I've read through most of the stickies and have tried to diagnose my plants myself but I thought a little help from some experience wouldn't hurt. I think I'm experiencing a nutrient "lock out" from my water being to high in calcium. The total hardness of my water has be between 100-150ppm and what I've read on here and a few other forums is this is too high? It seemed like 50ppm for total hardness was where I want my water to be...Am I wrong on this? Also I should probably mention these plants have been through hell and have a poor root system (I think) And I think I might have a moisture problem in the sense the plants might be loosing water faster then the roots a can absorb? This make any sense? I have this stuff a local grower gave to me called Superthrive he swears by it and says hes seen it bring almost dead plants back to life so should I let my plants roots soak in this? and then put them in new soil and water them with a better adjusted water meaning bring my total hardness down to 50ppm? Would this be too much stress on them? Any other ideas/advice would be greatly appreciated.. I'm running: Lemon Skunk and Haze x Skunk#1 600 watt metal halide Just Right Xtra potting mix perlite 18/6 Temp's been between 78-82 with light on and 65-68 with light off Ph is 6.3-6.5 using natures place spring water Would using tap water with a brita fliter be better and possibly lower the calcium? Heres a couple pictures of what they look like: sorry for the shit quality but the leaves are yellowing, dropping, hints of browning/burn look to them....I'm a noob so maybe its just over watering/under watering? Thanks for the help
dont sweat it. soil looks kinda weird but nothing to really worry about. eventually youll need to transplant and you should do that in somepremium soil but for now it should be good. remember to refrain from watering so much and every thing should start lookin real nice for you.
dude your coming up with some far out thoerys on water uptake and what not. Most soils have enough nutes in them to get threw a few weeks with seedlings. Use the superthrive PER INSTRUCTION AND NO MORE. Your ppms in your tap water are perfect. Use your tap. It has the extra cal, mag and this is good. Theres no way at 150 are you too high in calcium. my tap water is 170 and works fine. beginners kill there plants with too much attention and over feeding.
I probably should of mentioned I started the plants in all purpose miracle grow haha I dont know if that makes a difference
the only MG ive ever heard wuz okay to use is the organic MG...if it says slow-release fertilizer on the bag then dont use it. if it does then i recommend an immediate transplant into some different
yes it was a slow release kind said it had 6 months of nutrients i also hadnt checked my ph so for a while they were getting water with a ph of 6.8-7.2 which is pretty high or so I've been told. like when I said I put the plants through hell, I ment it haha I probably would of killed them had I not started checking the ph it was reading about ph I came up with all those "far out theories"
they look a little worse then yesterday. I'll post pics when I get home from class....I just donno what to do
try switching your light cycle to 24/0. have you got a good vent system? intake, exhaust? been holding off on water?? temps should be around 75-80 and humidity around 50-60%. honestly if theyre getting worse then i suggest restarting in new soil. slow release is a B, however, i dont feel the soil is directly causing your problems this early in.
Word thanks for all the help man. The temps been perfect stays between 76-82 with the light on and drops 10-15 degrees during lights out. Got air flow coming in and out. Humidity on the other hand I have no idea...how does one check/monitor that? I'm gonna hold off on watering them until the soils dry. The soil has about a weeks worth of nutrients so I'll hold off on adding any. I'm gonna keep watering them with natural spring water with the ph around 6.3-6.5...hope this is good? haha I hope they make it!
you can figure out humidity with a humidity gauge. either analog or digital, whichever. theyre pretty cheap. i use analog temp and humidity gauge. got mine at petsmart for a couple bucks but you can find these anywhere for even cheaper at walmart or really anywhere. home depot, lowes, and SO many other places
Just so I dont make the same mistake when should I be watering them and how much? There in clear solo cups, organic soil and a little perlite mixed in....if this matters.