hi everyone, I have some serious problem with my once very healthy flourishing 2.5 week old VIP tank (sativa widow cross). My set up is as follows (tried to provide as much info as possible. Grow space - 131*50*70 (cm) Lights - 3*42w(draw wattage) cool cfls for veg, warm for flower. Only 1 in use just now. Growing medium - 100% coco coir (could be the problem) Feed -GH trio and calmag. Ph - 6.5 at start of flush, now run off is 6.2. Ventilation - no exhaust due to temp being fine, but circulation is done with 2*120mm pc fans. Light cycle - 18/6 Average canopy temperature - around 28.5C / 83.3F Max temp canopy - 31C / 87.8F (this was a one off) Min temp canopy - 22C / 71.6F (lights off) CO2 - small grow bag suitable for 5m2 Watered - once a week, first week just 1.32ml/L cal mag. Second week 0.32ml/L GH micro, 0.16ml/L grow and Bloom and 1.33ml/L calmag. Week 0 - 2 she was looking amazing, extremely green and healthy loving the conditions and growing really nice a squat (light right in there) first pics are week 1, then week 2. A friend who has grown before suggested that I should have mixed perlite or clay pebbles with my coco (3/1 in coco favour) to help with drainage and to stop the coco massing up and causing root problems. I was intending on doing this on transplant, but I did read that squeezing the pot slightly will break up the coco a bit and allow more oxygen to the roots. So before the water on week two (first actual nute water) I did this. Stupidly I did this prior to watering and I heard a definite tear/ripping sound from the roots (reckon that's my problem right there). 3 days later and my plant had burns/brown marks on the ends of most the leaves and the bottom two single leave almost fully covered and pretty much dead looking. The plant was also praying to the light which was only 6cm away. This morning it looks even worse. I flushed it the second I saw the signs of damage (yesterday) with water at ph6.2. I don't have a ppm meter (armature), one is in the post, but I reckon my water is pretty good. Live in Scotland and my tap water is fresher than most bottled water. So, my main question is, do you think it's nute burn and it will bounce back in a week ish, or do you think I seriously damaged the tap root and if it does pull through it would be 3-4 weeks and permanently stunt the plant? If this is the case (root damage) do you think I would be better off biting the bullet and chucking her and starting again since she isn't even 3 weeks old anyway. Seeds are not an issue as I have 3 left over. Also, one other thing to point out, I wasnt sure if my CO2 bag was working so as per instructions I added a little water to the bag to encourage production, well, it's stinking now, hard to explain the smell foosty would be the best, also slightly chemically (possibly). Basically the kind of smell your body wants to get away from as a natural reaction, doesn't feel good breathing it in. It's an organic CO2 bag of sterile fungus, perfectly find for plants (apparently) Thank you all in advance for any help, if you need any more info to help diagnose, please let me know. Cheers Ando P.S I've attached my nute plan below also.
First thought is it got burned by a light too close? May also have a nute burn. I suggest u don't use a nute manufacturers schedule but rather start REAL low and increase gradually. I wouldn't use more than 200 ppm nutes at this stage of growth and probably wouldn't have added nutes at all this early. I suggest up flush with 5.8 water and monitor for a few days. Also get rid of the co2 thing till you can rule it out as the problem G/L
Hi denman81k. Thanks for your reply. I was under the impression that light burn was almost impossible with CFL's, but I presume it is not temp related and rather the plant receiving more light than it can use? The lights I use don't seem to produce much heat at all, but agree, light burn would make sense (the bleached patches right?). I'm new to all this and really wish I had a ppm meter from the start, silly mistake on my part. My nute schedule is taken from a very popular growing website which is designed to try make growing weed easy (unsure of forum rules, so don't want to drop in the site name, but I'm sure you can guess). It is 1/4 strength that of the manufacturer (to start with anyway). As I'm growing in coco coir, would I need to add micro and the calmag at that stage since the coco is inert and has no nutrients at all for the plant? Perhaps just leave out the grow and Bloom until say the 3rd node is developed? I should add the 5 fingered leaves had grown before feeding with nutes. Co2 has been removed, figured it's useless at the moment since she's struggling. Am I right in thinking it's only beneficial when running at 32C (89.6F) and below that the plant won't need it? It was bought as a buffer should my temps creep up when at work. (sorry very long reply) So, I guess it's perhaps one condition compiling the other, perhaps over fed but with light burn present also unable to process the nutes therefore quite major problem? My ppm meter should arrive Monday, so I'll check the level of my tap water and do a flush at 5.8 as advised. I hope she pulls through, she is my first ever plant, would really like to make a success of her. One last thing, do you think I can rule out root problems? And that this is something she'll bounce back from given a week or so? This early on I don't want to mess around with her for another 1-2 weeks for me to bin her anyway. That would result in me being 1month behind schedule, I won't say wasted as i've learnt a valuable lesson, but still behind schedules none the less. Thank you again for your answer..is the a plus rep situation on this forum? Cheers Ando