First grow help

[toker1285]

Hey guys I've Been lurking around for a few months now and have started my own bag seed grow. Took some hard work to get seeds germinated( prolly went through about 2 dozen bag seeds). Finally got 4 to germ and have Lost 2 of them so far. First one As a seedling, the second one recently. My other two are showing signs of problems.

The lower leaves of them are withering, browning out and falling off. The next sent of leaves is purple/ green color and other than that fine. This is an indoor grow under cfl total of about 184 real watts, 6 are 5000k bulbs and 4 2800k. 18/6 lighting schedule, Temps are about 30 degrees Celsius during the day and 27 at night. As for humidity it's about 40-50% day and night it creeps up a little bit higher at night.

Ventilation is done through a 235 cfm 4.5 in fan the sucks through ducting that is routed to under the lights. One fan on the right is an intake and the other just for movement they do fight each other but is seems to keep the temps down lower through my experimentation.

My soil mixture is homemade mix with 33% compost, 33% peat moss, and 33% miracle grow perlite. With some of each in the mixture aprox. A cup each lime, stone dust, 3-0-4 organic tomatoe fert. Soil sat well over 30 days prior to planting.

Here are some photos I took tonight. Let me know if you guys and finger my problem or problems if any.

Thanks
Toker1285

 

[toker1285]

Here are the photos, still figuring it out I think I got it.

Plant 1

Plant 2

Grow room


Thanks for looking

 

[Jimmy6000]

Sup Toker,Welcome.You forgot to mention your ph.Very important info,and will help us help you.

 

[toker1285]

The soil ph is 6.5 however that is measured using a cheapie Home Depot ph meter. When I water them today ill get a ph of my water and than the runoff also. I'm on city water btw and I let it sit out for a few days in gallon jugs before I use to water the plants.

 

[toker1285]

Ok so I just watered my plants they where dry and light so, I figured I would take a complete ph reading.

My water ph is 7.2

plant 1
Runoff ph of 6.8
Soil ph is between 5 and 5.25

Plant 2
Runoff ph of 6.8
Soil ph is between 5 and 5.25

As I mentioned early my last ph reading of soil was about 6.5....... That was about 2 or 3 weeks ago. Am I right to think that the soil ph is too low and that is prolly causing a nute lockout??

Advice ?

Toker1285

 

[toker1285]

Bump for help. Have been watering as they dry out watered them last night before they went sleep and measured the ph again.

Runoff for both plants was still 6.8.
Measured soil ph and it was reading at about 6 for both plants....... I'm a little bit stumped but my assumption is that the soil wasn't " cured" enough before I planted????? Am I on the right track or fishing for answers.

Thanks

 

[toker1285]

Here's some pics I snapped.

Plant 1

Plant 2

 

[Skybound]

I've read (and also experienced) that compost made with bark is highly acidic, not an optimal environment for cannabis. At the beginning of my plant's life, it was in a similar type of soil and just would not recover much at all. After I made some upgrades and got into a better soil, the plant was able pull itself together. Also, the tin foil that is hanging everywhere is known to create reflective hot spots and can concentrate beams of light onto specific areas of your plant and cook it like an ant in a magnifying glass. Perhaps taking that down and hanging plain white poster boards or painting flat white. Another thing to consider is light spectrums. You have 4 x 2800k and 6 x 5000k. The 2800k CFLs are pretty close in preferable color spectrum to flowering lights of 2700k, but plants in the vegetative stage of it's life mostly uses the blue spectrum which is 6500k. These are the most difficult to find, but they can none the less be found and are pretty cheap when you do find them. I run a similar setup to you and use 4 x 6500k bulbs with 2 x 2700k bulbs. Also now have a single 6500k 2' long T5 floro.

Your water is likely the culprit as it's a little too alkaline. Hydro likes 5.3-5.8 and soil 5.9 to roughly 6.3. If you can dial you pH to within the range of 5.9-6.3 or close by, your plant will thank you with regeneration. The guy at my local hydro store told me when using the pH control kits (pH Up, pH Down, Dye type pH Tester), when testing the water, get it to the color of pee for soil. I did this and have kept doing this every time.

 

[CDub]

Your plants look ok, but I would be investigating why the lower leaves (not the round seed leaves) are yellowing and I would be looking into why the tips of the leaves are slightly curled and yellowing. At a glance I would be moving those lights higher and probably turning one off until they are a little bigger. It pays to start gently. Also I would not be running any nutes yet. That's just me, but I think your plants are a little stunted because of nute block.

 

[CDub]

Actually to be honest, on a second look, they do not look good. They should not be loosing so many lower leaves. I would take the pots outside and flush them through with clean water for 10 mins till its been running free for a while to get all the nutes out of the soil. Then, if possible I would put them outdoors in sunlight for a week and see if they look healthier. Could go either way for you mate, either they have been stressed and will hermaphrodite or they might be ok, sometimes the most abused plants are the best keep going but be gentle. nutes are for heavy growth and budding. there are already nutes in your soil which are enough for the time being watch and wait till your plants are healthy and start to turn light green then slowly introduce tiny amounts of nutes till they turn dark green. You can't force the plants to grow quick only help them.

 

[northmann]

Looks like that soil has a lot of bark in it, May be to acidic

 

[toker1285]

So I wAs in the process of getting the cabinet painted white and had it pretty much all painted up. Went down into the basement the other night and found one of the sewer pipes that run under it had developed a leak. So needless to say it has to come down, for the pipe replacement. I have flushed and moved the plants outside and they are looking great.


I guess on a brighter note it allows me to redesign the cabinet, so I was thinking of making it wider than the 13" I had previously. This way I could also better control my airflow too.

But I have to get back to fixing the pipe in the basement so ill figure the details out soon and keep you guys updated as to the plants and any design questions I have.


Thanks for your help