Hi everyone I was wondering if one you more experienced growers could help me diagnose my plant problems. As you can see some look healthy, others not so healthy. The unhealthy plants seem to be showing all different symptoms. They haven’t consistently looked unhealthy, some days they look fine and others they go bad. The 3 larger plants are 49 days old. Once they were germinated, I planted them in a small biodegradable pot and as an experiment I mixed the soil with coffee. I later transferred to a bigger pot with plain soil. The other 3 were germinated roughly 1 week later but didn’t use coffee at all. The ones I used coffee with seem to have grown bigger faster, but not sure if this is the cause of the problems. I initially started with a 125w dual spectrum CFL and roughly 2 weeks ago I upgraded to a 300w LED light, which I am keeping on dual spectrum. They have always been on an 18/6 light cycle. I have also been putting them under my windowsill with windows open when there’s been sun, to save energy and give them natural light. Since this is my first grow I have been using a lot of trial and error hoping to learn from my mistakes, however it’s been a ball ache trying to figure out what I’m doing wrong. So far I’ve been using google to try diagnose my plants; using more water, less water, more fert, less fert, trimming dying fan leaves, changing from tap water to bottled water. Yesterday I transplanted the 2 biggest plants thinking this may be why the one has dropping leaves. Today I even tried mixing traces of milk with my water as I read there could be a calcium deficiency. (My fertiliser isn’t calcium rich). To make things easier I’ve numbered each plant. Plants 1-3 are the youngest, and 4-6 are 1 week older. 1-2. have always looked very healthy, but seem to grow really slow. 3. Has always been very pale and skinny. Lately the leaves have gone taco shaped, and some have brown tips. 4. Mostly healthy. Very eager to grow. Shooting nodes in all directions. However only a couple of leaves are showing brown and yellow patches, with brown edges. 5. One of the two taller ones that I transplanted, most of the leaves towards the top seem to be drying out and dying over the past few days. Also a couple at the bottom. 6. The other taller one. Has better node growth than 5. Looks a healthy colour with the exception of a couple of brown and pale leaves. however leaves have been drooping downwards for the past several days. I appreciate you taking the time to read. Hope you can help ✌
Are you getting good drainage thru that soil ? I can't see any perlite in there...What kind of soil is that?
Bit of a noob question but what’s perlite? As for the soil I’m using Canna Coco Coir Natural. The pots also have holes for drainage. Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
Here's one brand...There are many others...It's to provide good drainage and let oxygen into the root zone,in order to prevent 'anaerobic ' bacteria and fungi from causing root issues...www.amazon.com/Organic-Perlite-Perfect-Plants-Container/dp/B07FGGCWW7/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=perlite+for+plants&qid=1566239592&s=gateway&sr=8-4
Awesome! Will be ordering some shortly. Not sure if I’ll be able to use this with my current grow if you have to mix with soil... unless I can just pour some over the top. Would this help the sick plants? Cheers Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
possible. Your post about perlite it is mixed with your medium before you plant. Putting perlite on top now will not do much bit keep stuff off top of medium. As for an elaboration, coco is an inert medium so it is more of a hydroponic grow medium. This means you have to treat it as such. Coco needs nutrients at every feed you should be feeding once a day to run off. It looks like your plant is starving to mee.
Your soil or coco mix should be about 30percent aeration. Many people use perlite. In the organic world, you also see a lot of lava rock and rice hulls, which is what I use. The roots will suffocate in the ground if you don't have aeration in the medium, and you will see curling and deficiencies like what you are starting to see. I would repot them in a new mix, gently shaking off the excess coco to use it in the new mix. Just my 2cents.
Thanks for the input, makes a lot of sense. At first I was worried about over-feeding them as I read about nutrient burn and got concerned when tips started going brown. I’ve been spraying them with a mix every 2-3 days. Maybe I need to pour them instead? Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
I do not personally foliar feed. I would stop if I was you just because there is not much benefit at this point the roots are the problem that needs to be fixed.
Yeah Coco is for hydroponic gardening man. And you definitely need to have coco or soil aerated. What's the PH of the solution you're giving them?
What you could do is take a chop stick and poke it slowly into your medium- all over your pot. This will aerate your soil a bit and should provide some air flow to dry it out faster- if you can’t transplant it soon. Just be careful though as you don’t want to be chopping up your roots. It doesn’t have to totally obliterate the medium just a few holes here and there. Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
I don’t currently have a ph testing kit, so I’m using bottled water around 6.5 Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum