1st time grow - perplexing problems

[stumper]

What strain is it? LA Confidential
Is it Indica, Sativa or Hybrid? What percentages? mostly indica
Is it in Veg or Flower stage? veg
If in Veg... For how long? 29 days
If in Flower stage... For how long?
Indoor or outdoor? in
Soil or Hydro? coco
If soil... what is in your mix?
If soil... What size pot? 2 gal fabric
Size of light? 4x 55w CFL, 2x 23w CFL, 2-3' away from plants
Is it aircooled? no
Temp of Room/cab? 83
RH of Room/cab? 50
PH of media or res? 5.8
Any Pests ? n
How often are you watering? every 2 days
Type and strength of ferts used? 1/2 strength foxfarm trio w/ cal mag

First time grow. I have 2 plants that were treated the same in terms of water and nutrients. After 4 weeks, both are small (about 6" tall - I know this strain is slow growing, but this is rediculous) and very bushy. One plant has perpetually droopy leaves. The other has what I think is nutrient burn (I've just done a major flush with ph 5.8 water), but the stems are purple and all but the top most leaves are also yellowing (nutrient deficiency?).

Water: Been setting tap water out in 5 gal buckets to let chlorine evaporate. Untreated water is ph 8.3 - I ph down water and water/nute mixes to 5.8

plant with nute burn (deficiency?)

plan with perpetually droopy leaves (stays that way regardless of watering freqency)
This plant was weird - started out growing 4 cotyledons, 1st 2 nodes grew 4 leaflets each, subsequent nodes 3 each.

THANKS!!!!!

 

[Beateo]

stumper,
I'm not an expert but if I had to guess I'd at least look at overwatering as a possible problem. Every 2 days seems a lot for such little ones.... what method are you using to determine when your girls are dry? Also... when did you start giving them the nutes?
It's easy to panic and start to try stuff that just finishes the job of killing them. The best early advice I was given was that we tend to kill our plants with kindness... no one ever "under does" something... we always use too much nutes, too much water, too much too much....
Your girls don't really look bad.
I recommend starting a grow journal and I think you'll be amazed at how much help you get that way!

Greenest Regards,



Beateo

 

[stumper]

Beateo - I started them on nutes when the first real leaves started growing in - very weak concentrations (1/4) at first. I had no sign of nute problems until I transplanted them two weeks back almost. I was up to about 3/4 strength nutes, and one of them did not like it at all. I've heard so many conflicting things about watering when using coco - I was sticking to every 2-3 days, b/c I've heard that its bad to let coco completely dry out, but now I'm inclined to let them go a little longer and see what happens. I watered too ofte for sure when trying to germinate, and started getting algae growing on top of the coco....

I'll think about starting a journal - good suggestion, and many thanks for your thoughts!!!

 

[HealingKronic]

Looks like too much nutes. Give no food for about two weeks. Plain water only. It will snap out of it

 

[neon green]

2 weeks with no nutes in coco? I think that would be pushing it a little no? Personally I would flush them out. It looks like your pots don't have any moisture on the sides, what that leads me to believe is that you aren't watering enough and salt is building up around causing your headache. I would flush and continue nutes as normal watering until about 10% of the water you put in comes out. I've grown in coco for only 2 years but I've watered EVERYDAY no matter how wet the pots are and most of that time twice a day. I've never seen an over water situation and especially with perlite in the mix I would without question water at least once a day as stated above. I'm not taking anything away from the other opinions just noting my observations and experience.

 

[EARTHWALKER]

Neon is on the button In coco, because of the salt build up you have to water at least once a day. I'm on once and more often twice a day atm. The bigger of mine is on 3 times a day and never have I seen any signs of overwatering.
Your PH is spot on, so it nutes. I've always seen problems with anything above 1/2 suggested, so I stick to that and at the first signs of trouble which is noticeable when watering twice a day I'll switch to 1/4 nutes, but nuting every 3 days.

 

[neon green]

Thanks for the second. Just to add, I've used a lot of different nute lines and I've really never ran into any issues running full strength with adding up to 4 teaspoons of mpk per gal and feeding like that everyday. Not sure why but my be strain selection. I blast the lady's and they seem to love it. Key may just be running enough water through.

 

[stumper]

Thanks for your replies, all. I flushed them good with ph water, (2x the volume of the container), let them sit for 3 days without watering, then started on 1/4 nutes. I've been keeping to every 3 days, and just went back up to about 35% nutes. They are looking much better now, and actually starting to grow more.

i'm going to try the everyday watering and see how that works. Starting to LST them now as well.

I'm getting a feeling that the plants are coming out of the ICU now...

Thanks again!!

 

[neon green]

Good to hear. I think you and the lady's will like the everyday watering better. You may get a little nervous watering a wet pot but it holds a surprising amount of o2. Remember it's not soil and holds no nutrition just keep that in mind.