Hello all,
I am 2 weeks into making my first grow room (closet), and I'm royally screwing it up. I got clones from a friend which came in individual starter pots about 3 inches deep and 2 inches diameter. When I got them they looked green and healthy. Here's what two weeks with my black thumb has done:
I'm trying to diagnose the problem(s) and ideally keep from killing them the rest of the way. If anyone can diagnose their main problem, I'd be super thankful! Here are the steps/mistakes I've made along the way:
I immediately transplanted them into 10 inch pots (or thereabouts, I can't find my measuring tape right now) using formula 420 potting soil with nothing else added. Here's the soil:
I then buried them to the point that their first leaves would be just above touching the soil. This put their current roots about 3/4 of the way deep into their new pots. I then watered them in as normal.
I put them in a 2x4 foot closet, about a foot under a 300W LED.
I then put aluminum foil over the walls, floor, and wrapped around the individual pots. Then I waited a couple days and watered them again.
Then came the death. One by one, from smallest plant to largest, they started having problems. One of them looked a little wilty (which is why I watered them so soon after planting), and then each of them started getting yellow leaves that would slowly die / exhibit burn signs as you can see in the pictures.
I have been panic researching and have come up with this list of things I did wrong, and tried to fix each in turn:
1) Too much light! The lamp was too close to them, and the foil probably didn't help. I have since raised the light to be about 3 feet above them, which is above the manufacturer's recommendation of 24 inches. My light is on for 16 hours a day.
2) Overwatering! Shouldn't have watered them that second time, the soil was still moist to the touch.
3) Foil over the drainage holes. Yeah, this was particularly stupid. The drainage holes are along the sides of the bottoms of the pots. not the underside. Even though water came out when I watered them the second time, I had the holes mostly covered with foil for the first week. I have since taken off the foil from the pots.
4) Pots are too big! I think the pots are too big and the plants are possibly too deep. This probably made the overwatering worse.
5) No humidity? I assume there was some humidity from the water in the pots and the small enough space, but I didn't have any added humidity.
6) Circulation? I didn't have a fan in there for the first week, though I had been opening the door about 4 times a day.
So now I've raised the light and taken all the foil out, except for a bit on the floor that's protecting my carpet. I've added a humidifier that keeps them around 70% humidity all the time. I added a small intake fan on the ground and a small outtake fan at the top of the closet. I haven't watered them again because the soil still feels moist and they're not drooping. But...
They're still dying! It's been 5 days since I undid all the stupid mistakes I could think of, but leaves are still bleaching and yellowing and dying. Now it looks like they're either still dying from one or many of these issues:
1) Light burn (though the light is a bit more than 3 feet above them, only on for 16 hours/day, and nothing is reflecting it other than the white-ish walls)
2) Overwatering (possible, but it's been more than a week since I last watered them now) or
3) Nitrogen deficiency (which seems unlikely since they're so young and they were just put into a nice organic potting soil).
Please help!!!
Alex
I am 2 weeks into making my first grow room (closet), and I'm royally screwing it up. I got clones from a friend which came in individual starter pots about 3 inches deep and 2 inches diameter. When I got them they looked green and healthy. Here's what two weeks with my black thumb has done:
I'm trying to diagnose the problem(s) and ideally keep from killing them the rest of the way. If anyone can diagnose their main problem, I'd be super thankful! Here are the steps/mistakes I've made along the way:
I immediately transplanted them into 10 inch pots (or thereabouts, I can't find my measuring tape right now) using formula 420 potting soil with nothing else added. Here's the soil:
I then buried them to the point that their first leaves would be just above touching the soil. This put their current roots about 3/4 of the way deep into their new pots. I then watered them in as normal.
I put them in a 2x4 foot closet, about a foot under a 300W LED.
I then put aluminum foil over the walls, floor, and wrapped around the individual pots. Then I waited a couple days and watered them again.
Then came the death. One by one, from smallest plant to largest, they started having problems. One of them looked a little wilty (which is why I watered them so soon after planting), and then each of them started getting yellow leaves that would slowly die / exhibit burn signs as you can see in the pictures.
I have been panic researching and have come up with this list of things I did wrong, and tried to fix each in turn:
1) Too much light! The lamp was too close to them, and the foil probably didn't help. I have since raised the light to be about 3 feet above them, which is above the manufacturer's recommendation of 24 inches. My light is on for 16 hours a day.
2) Overwatering! Shouldn't have watered them that second time, the soil was still moist to the touch.
3) Foil over the drainage holes. Yeah, this was particularly stupid. The drainage holes are along the sides of the bottoms of the pots. not the underside. Even though water came out when I watered them the second time, I had the holes mostly covered with foil for the first week. I have since taken off the foil from the pots.
4) Pots are too big! I think the pots are too big and the plants are possibly too deep. This probably made the overwatering worse.
5) No humidity? I assume there was some humidity from the water in the pots and the small enough space, but I didn't have any added humidity.
6) Circulation? I didn't have a fan in there for the first week, though I had been opening the door about 4 times a day.
So now I've raised the light and taken all the foil out, except for a bit on the floor that's protecting my carpet. I've added a humidifier that keeps them around 70% humidity all the time. I added a small intake fan on the ground and a small outtake fan at the top of the closet. I haven't watered them again because the soil still feels moist and they're not drooping. But...
They're still dying! It's been 5 days since I undid all the stupid mistakes I could think of, but leaves are still bleaching and yellowing and dying. Now it looks like they're either still dying from one or many of these issues:
1) Light burn (though the light is a bit more than 3 feet above them, only on for 16 hours/day, and nothing is reflecting it other than the white-ish walls)
2) Overwatering (possible, but it's been more than a week since I last watered them now) or
3) Nitrogen deficiency (which seems unlikely since they're so young and they were just put into a nice organic potting soil).
Please help!!!
Alex
