Help - can someone please tell me what wrong with my plants

[whackybaccy]

my plants are about 5 weeks old. ive just recently transferred them from straight potting mix into 30 perlite 20 vermiculite and 50 soil, and into bigger pots. Since then they have been a bit droopey and bottom fan leaves turning yellow with purple stems. I have cut a few off the bottom that were mostly yellow. Should they be doing that this early? Have no ph tester or idea of NPK as soley using a seaweed tea atm, Waiting for my soil test kit to arrive then i can add what i need to my seaweed tea to get that right. Hoping theres a general consensus as to what my problem(s) could be.

All comment appreciated thanks

 

[whackybaccy]

Re: HELP, can someone please tell me what wrong with my plants

i dont know why the pics are upside down sorry. You cant see yellow leaves because i have cut them off. it was bottom 4 an leaves. but notice the puple stems on the fan leaves and thier leaf tips curling right down. the plants are quit droopy too. Am i making a mountain of a molehill or what?

 

[Mike Wright]

Re: HELP, can someone please tell me what wrong with my plants

Hi whackybaccy and to Your plant has a nitrogen deficiency. Kelp tea is great for potassium and micronutrients but it doesn't have much nitrogen. Try an organic fish emulsion fert.

If you want to, you can post a little bit about yourself in our Introduce yourself forum. It's a great way to strike up a dialog with some truly helpful and knowledgeable folk. Also, here are some links that will help to guide you around the site New Member Start Links

Starting a grow journal is also a great to track the progress of your grow and get lots of great suggestions!

 

[whackybaccy]

Re: HELP, can someone please tell me what wrong with my plants

ok thanks, do you think i could just add some coffee grounds to the soil for the nitrogen?

 

[jamthe3]

Re: HELP, can someone please tell me what wrong with my plants

The droopiness could be from over watering, I don't really understand why you mixed vermiculate into the soil. The bottom leaves going yellow could simply be your lighting as I would think both the potting soil and whatever soil you transplanted into would have had nitrogen in them. Cfl's don't really have a lot of penetration and bottom leaves tend to go yellow with them in my experience.

 

[Mike Wright]

Re: HELP, can someone please tell me what wrong with my plants

Yes, I was going to comment about the overwatering too, they do look damp and there is that vermiculite.

Things like coffee grounds, eggshells, etc can't be added directly to soil as amendments because they need to decompose. Organic soils 'cook' for a few weeks after mixing to produce bacteria which can break down organic materials like worm castings, kelp meal, etc. into a form that the plants can absorb.

 

[whackybaccy]

Re: HELP, can someone please tell me what wrong with my plants

so vermiculite was a bad choice. ok thanks. so what can i boost the nitrogen with? without buying stuff. I'll get an emulsion brewing, but i guess the plants wont wanna wait that long eh? what about old seabird shit? or blood meal?

 

[Mike Wright]

Re: HELP, can someone please tell me what wrong with my plants

I think jamthe3 is more on the right track...let them dry out well first. Mild nitrogen def is not going to be catastrophic for a few days. But maybe you might want to blend up a new soil mix 50/50 perlite/soil. Vermiculite retains a lot of water. Perlite retains only a bit and helps drainage.

If you look at my current grow, my 4 plants were all suffering from overwatering. I immediately repotted them and within a day they started to perk up. Within a week they were growing well.

 

[Tead]

Dropping a plant from a fuller soil to a 50% soil mix would seem to be the root cause of issues IMHO. I mean, you've removed a good bit of the core nutrient source.

 

[Mike Wright]

Dropping a plant from a fuller soil to a 50% soil mix would seem to be the root cause of issues IMHO. I mean, you've removed a good bit of the core nutrient source.

See, that was my initial thought, but I think jam is right. Even a light soil wouldn't deplete that quick? Maybe it is a bit of both?

 

[whackybaccy]

Thanks team. given me plenty to think about. Hey tead so would the soil thing be something they will adjust too? or do i need to rectify that? I'm letting them dry out atm. And stopped misting them. I have been misting with a very light seaweed ratio maybe 2 times a day. i was also a bit rough with the roots when i repotted then. I first suspected a lot of stress/overwatering. But being my first grow, what the F**k would i know..

Thanks again

 

[Tead]

Well, I see it this way... if there were suddenly half the food available to me, I suspect I might loose some weight and have some serious systematic problems.

Another question... I usually thing of verm and perl as being polar opposites. One thinning soil and one thickening the mix. I wonder why you're adding both to your soil? Neither provide any nutrient content... but I seem to remember that both can effect PH.

 

[whackybaccy]

Yeah a few other people mentioned that, about the perlite and vermiculite. I had no idea. I read a post somewhere, i cant remember where. and it said a great soil mix was 50% soil 25% perlite and 25% vermiculite. i just sort of got that in my head and rolled with it. i know better know though.

 

[Tead]

I feel you may have fallen into a trap that many (myself included) new growers fall into. They see all the fancy photos of great grows, read all the wonderful words, and then try to replicate it.
Remember the basic crawl/walk/run cycle that humans have developed over eons... start off with the simple and work your way up to the fancy. This has the added benefit of introducing you to the natural growing process of your plants. Hard to know if things are off if you're not intimately familiar with what they should look like when they're good.

 

[whackybaccy]

mmm... ok. I completely agree with your last statement. I thought just by going off pics of sick plants online that i would be able to diagnose my own plants. How wrong i was.. However I haven't really tried to emulate anything, more just trawling through every weed site I can find looking for the facts, how to make plants flourish. But its hard to get a good picture though, you "pro-growers" really have conflicting ideas about a lot of things. I suppose that means there is no 1 right way. My plants are coming right though! Gave them there 1st water last night after 5 days (i had suspected they were over-watered) and this morning WOW, all leaves are up and looking happier. So maybe they were under-watered??! do they look it? And btw how can i delete posts like this one, and picture? can i?