Hey Everyone, My wife and I are brand new growers, and we had a friend build us a "grow box" out of an unused upright refrigerator. (I've included two pics of our grow box so you can see what we are using... please feel free to ask any questions)... I've also included two pics of our pH/moisture meter for reference. (pH = right about 7, Moisture near the bottom is still quite moist) Anyways... We began growing by using some seeds that our buddy gave to us... Only 2 germinated. And out of those 2, only 1 survived; which is the plant having problems now. Well, for quite a while the plant was doing great! It had lush green leaves, and looked and smelled amazing. However, I began to see the pH of the soil (Miracle Grow Moisture Control Potting Mix) raise to what i THOUGHT was a high level (pH was between 7 and 8 on my pH meter). Due to this, I treated the water that we had been using with pH down (Earth Juice Natural Down) and I think I put too much in it, because it brought the pH of the soil way down (to like 5 in some areas of the soil... but that was within the same day). However, because of this, I stupidly decided to mix some of the soil around (complete newbie mistake, i know!) and I may have disturbed the roots and the leaves began to droop badly over the next day... At this same time, we had been having a pest problem with these TINY little black flying bugs that were coming out of the soil. Our buddy told us that these were "fungus gnats." We explained the situation with the plant, and he told us we should treat the pest problem with Azamax (which we had purchased for the pest problem, but hadn't yet treated for)... He told us that the treatment would include a soaking of the soil, and that it hopefully would even out the pH at the same time... So, we followed the Azamax instructions and treated the soil. It DID get rid of the pest problem, as it has been around 1-2weeks and there isn't a sign of the bugs. The soil's pH went back up, and has been stable at 7 (is this too high?) The plant, however, was still completely droopy, and the leaves began to yellow and brown and fold under, and after several days (where we left the plant completely alone), many of the leaves began to dry out and become completely brittle to the touch. However, on the bright side, after about a week, we began to see new growth! The old leaves were still dry and brittle, but the new leaves which began to spring up seemed to be healthy enough. So we thought that MAYBE this plant could make a spectacular return! We were told to clip off any and all dry/brittle leaves if they were possibly in the way of new growth (which most of them were)... Now, it has been a good week or so since the dry/brittle leaves were cut off and the pics I will be posting are of the current state of the plant (as of today)!! Most of the new growth looks quite healthy, but there is still slight signs of yellowing/browning of the tips, and either a folding under or folding up of the tips. You will see this in the pics. There is one picture where I show an almost completely yellow/brown leaf, which was one of the older leaves I never clipped off. I know the plant doesn't look the greatest. But as we are COMPLETELY new to this, we wanted to stick it out with this plant and see what might come of it. The plant is still under 24hour lights, as we haven't felt we should put it into the flowering stage just yet. So this is where we stand... Our buddy has begun to be less and less available for questions we have for him... and we're even begun to question his advice. So we joined up here to get the advice and suggestions of you guys... So the questions are:: What type of deficiency is going on with our plant currently? (And how do we fix it?) Should we keep going with this plant? (Can it make a come back?) Any and All advice and suggestions is extremely appreciated! Thank You! ~Tyler and Ginger
First off I would like to say welcome and good luck, glad to see more families growing their own. Now on to the plants. Looks like several things happened. One, you jacked with the root zone which is ok if you know what your doing. Two, you didn't water them for a few days so they wilted. Three, MG has a bad rep for most people try to avoid it next time. Yes you can mostly likely keep this plant so no worries there. Using the search feature will lead you to all kinds of wonderful answers and people. Someone will chime in with the link in a second I'm sure but there is one for people just starting off to help answer common questions. Keep posting and I'll do my best to offer what I know.
Thanks for the quick reply and the welcome... We will be here for sometime for sure! Yeah, I didn't know what I was doing when i jacked with the root zone (but now I know!) First lesson learned! As for the watering, yeah, I'm still learning how to accurately monitor moisture as to not over water, and this probably lead to the drooping. Second lesson learned! And as for MG, I was told by another buddy (one I trust a bit more when it comes to growing), and he has told me to go with Fox Farm Ocean's Forrest soil for our next plants, which we will be doing from now on! Third lesson learned! (Unless others suggest different soil?) And as for being able to keep the plant... that's what we thought, but to hear it from another is a nice feeling! Thanks! Any more advice appreciated! Thank you!
from someone that has grown in soil outside, well, I personally am happier with what I see out of my hydro systems so far. Plants are controllable. Environment is controllable.Just a lot of bonuses to going hydro IMO. If you look at my journal you will more than likely find a plant or two around the age of yours for a comparison.
We aren't really interested in going into hydro right now. We are starting with soil in order to gain experience with growing our plants naturally... at least at first. Hydro will be something we look into in the future. But we're still in need of someone to take a look at our pics, and give us an idea of what might be going wrong with the plant... such as a possible nutrient deficiency? Or maybe a pH problem? We do appreciate the suggestion, but trying to do everything at once is not our cup of tea. So we want to just take it slow and learn the natural way to grow.
From the looks of these plants, I'd say those leaves are looking bad because of the pH fluctuations that the plant went through. If you're going from pH 8, down to 5, back up to 7, that is going to screw up the plant and those older leaves are now damaged and will not come back. The good news is that your new growth looks good, and hopefully you've got your pH under control so you won't have more problems with leaf yellowing. You want to keep your pH between 6.5-6.8 for the best nutrient availability. Also make sure your water is pH 6.5-6.8 after you add all your nutrients and things to it if you are adding them. If you take the water pH and then add things, it will change it (usually lower it). If that MG soil you got has time-release fertilizers in it, I would really consider transplanting that plant into potting soil that does not have time-release ferts. I like Fox Farm Ocean Forest personally, but some people say it is not worth the price (it is expensive). Just make sure you get one without time-release (and don't get anything MG), or those little fertilizer pellets will start releasing unknown amounts of different chemicals at unknown times during your grow. It is also why you got those fungus gnats by the way, MG is notorious for having tons of them in its soils.
I didn't really have to read much to see what the problem is. MIRICAL GROW. stuff is nast for growing plants. trust me at first they will seem extremly healthy and growing at a great pase but then seem to have problems with growth and start to look like there dieing. Go to the nearest hydroponics stor and buy FOX FARMS OCEAN plant it in that make sure ph and all is good and your growing good. hope this helped at all. Also there are small things that you can do to help there growth. Music for one. it may sound crazy but study have proven that putting on soothing music like classical send the virations the music makes and the plant can sence it and helps to grow. (dont put rock or heavy metal the virations will be diffrent. talking to them or getting something like a slow releas tank or co2 will help the plant it will inhale the co2 and exhale oxygen. when you water the plant do it every other day or so theres good and bad stress plants dont want to be waterd every day but in periode like every other day. this is the most i can offer with out writting an essay. hoped this could help.
I will gladly help at any point through out your grow. But I would like to say something first and I hope it gets passed on to many many new growers. Dirt is harder! I have grown in dirt for many years outside. And the problems I had were always much harder to diagnosis and treat. Much harder. When I moved indoors and was recommended some Dutch Master products because of their results and online nute calculator. It seriously took all the guess work out of everything. In soil we have little to no idea whats happening with out a soil tester, in hydro its much easier to determine exactly what your plants are getting at all times. Now back to your thread Going slow is smart, to many people I have seen jump in and get over their head. Then end up with bad harvests and don't know why.
Yeah, ever since all of that happened, the pH has been a solid 7 for the last few weeks. We were told to leave the plant alone, except for watering when needed (btw, it's just one plant in those pics). So except for a single watering in the past several days we've just been keeping our eye on it every day. We have not been giving the plant any nutrients, because we were told that the MG soil was quite nutrient rich. But this was advice that I began to question, especially when our other buddy told us he uses the Fox Farm Ocean Forrest soil with the Fox Farm Happy Frog nutrients. But as it stands, our plant has not been "fed" anything besides water (which has either been pH treated, as well as the one time it was treated with Azamax). So we need to know if we NEED to start giving the plant some nutrients, and if so, what would be recommended??? Ok, as for transplanting the plant into Fox Farm Ocean's Forrest, could anyone describe to me the best way to transplant? I will be going to get some of this soil tomorrow, and if needed I will transplant and give some nutrients within the same action... such as, maybe mixing some dry/soil-type nutrients (i.e. Fox Farm Happy Frog nutrients) with the Fox Farm Ocean's Forrest, and transplant the plant INTO that mix? Would this be a good idea??? Interesting idea, and one we shall definitely try... we both love classical music, so this is quite agreeable to us! Thank You! This is actually good to know... While I still want to continue with growing in soil to begin with, I feel that getting the growing process down within a method you are saying is more difficult will just make it all the more easy to transition into growing hydro when we do! I figure, soil growing is the more "natural" way a plant grows, and learning to grow with soil will give me a good foundation in growing. Then, when I have got it down where everything becomes second nature, moving to hydro will be an easy switch... as opposed to going from hydro to soil. So thank you for letting me know this! Again, we're complete newbs when it comes to growing... in fact, we're newbs when it comes to growing almost anything. So any little bits of advice here and there is quite awesome and appreciated! Thank you all for replying and helping us out thus far!
Well, MG soil does tend to have a lot of nutrients in it, but a lot of times they are the time-release kind so you can't control when it releases nutes and how much get released. Once you transplant this into the Ocean Forest soil, you could give it a 1/2 dose of fertilizer but I wouldn't overdo it until you see how the plant responds to the transplant. As for what nutes to use, there are a ton of different brands and kinds so you will have to find something you like and try it out. If you don't like it you can switch or if it works good then keep using it! I am using Earth Juice fertilizers at the moment, and I haven't had any problems with them. When getting fertilizers however, there is usually a Grow type fertilizer and a Bloom type fertilizer. You want to be feeding a Grow fertilizer right now, and when you're going to switch to the budding cycle, switch to the Bloom type fertilizer. Another thing you might want to do is get a bag of pulverized dolomite lime and mix in 1-2 tablespoons per gallon of potting soil that you use. It will look like a white powder and should be mixed well into the soil before potting a plant or transplanting. The lime will help buffer against pH problems, especially during the budding phase of your grow. Just make sure you don't get the lime pellets, or hydrated lime. The pellets won't work very well and the hydrated stuff is way too strong. I have never experimented with mixing something like the Happy Frog nutes in with the soil, I usually just add nutrients in when I water. Maybe someone else here has experience with using soil-mixed nutrients. As far as transplanting, you basically are going to move the plant from one container to another. You should try to move it into a bigger container than it is currently in. First fill up the new container with your Ocean Forest, and pack it down a little. Don't smash it down, but you want it to be firm so when you put the plant in there it doesn't just sink down into the dirt. You will eventually fill this pot up with dirt to about 1" from the top. For now, however, only fill it about 3/4 full after gentle packing down. Next create a little indentation in the middle of the soil about the size of your old pot (this is where you will put the root ball). I don't like the old soil to be too wet when I do this, so I don't do it right after I water. I don't like the soil to be ultra dry either, I try for a nice happy medium. Carefully remove the plant from its old pot. You can squeeze or tap the sides of the pot with your hands to help free the dirt and hopefully it will all come out in one clump. Turning the plant sideways and pulling the pot off the bottom is much better than pulling up on the stem to get it out of the old pot. Have another person help you if you need to. How well the dirt stays clumped together on the roots will depend on how rootbound it got in the old pot. Once it is out, look at the root ball of the plant, if it is thick and rootbound try pulling apart the roots a little bit to allow them to grow into the new soil better. Don't rip and break them, just pull them open slightly and even knock off some of that old MG dirt if you can. If it is not rootbound then you can proceed with putting it into the new pot. Try not to disturb the roots very much if there aren't very many of them (i.e. if it is not rootbound at all). Once you have the roots prepared (or not if there are not very many of them), carefully place the root ball into the space you made for it in the new pot. You want the top of the old root ball (where your stem starts coming out) to be about 1" below the top of your pot. You can add more or less dirt to the indentation you made in order to get the plant to around the right height. If you don't have a good rootball have someone else hold the plant in the proper position while you fill in dirt around it to make it stable. This is a good time to make sure the plant is standing straight up, and not leaning to one side or the other. Once it is firmly in place and the stem looks to be the right height, start putting dirt in around the bottom to stabilize it, then add cupfuls or handfuls around the sides of the old root ball going upwards to fill it in. Pack the plant in firmly, but don't push so hard that you're breaking all the roots. Make sure you put in enough dirt so that the end level after gentle packing is about 1" from the top of the pot all the way across. Next you will want to water it in, just water like you normally would with correctly pH'd water. If you didn't pack the soil firmly enough, you will notice when you water the plant. The water will kind of do the packing for you and you may end up with pits and valleys where the dirt sunk down. This is OK, just add more dirt into the pits until the entire soil level is back up to 1" from the top of the pot. That is all I can think of at the moment, please post if you have any questions and I will try to help you out! Also if you have someone you can ask that has transplanted plants before, it might be a good idea to have them help you out for your first time transplanting. It is a lot easier to show someone in person all the stuff I'm talking about than to just read it on the internet.