Need help, first grow

[Bnelly]

2 Grand Daddy Purple, 1 Skywalker Hybrid (small plants), and
1 Blueberry Kush (bigger plant)
Vegging for 3 weeks and 1.5 months
Growing in buckets outdoors. I also have 60w grow light inside for cloudy days for the smaller plants (gopher problems)
Soil used is Fox Farms OF and Sungro Black Gold Seedling mix.
Just started using MG all purpose on the older plant ~1/2 tbsp/gal
Using tap water

After having damage to the leaves on the 3 small plants (our dog snacked on one and almost got the others) leaves turned purple/brownish and started curling up. I removed two extremely dead leaves from one of the plants. They havent really been growing much either. Today I flushed them with ~6.2 ph water. They didnt look to be draining well so I poked holes in soil to aerate and hopefully get the roots some oxygen

The bigger plant was fed on friday, ~1/2 tbsp of MG all purpose. New growth is yellowish and fan leaves are turning yellowish.

Ive exhausted the extent of my knowledge trying to figure this out but it just keeps getting worse. Any help is greatly appreciated

 

[Pbass]

Welcome @Bnelly that plant with the purple leaves reminds me of a rescue I took in late last fall...what's your outdoor temp there? That plant looks like it got cold. Only other thing I'd say is could they be getting overwatered? Weed likes really good dry cycles. CHeers, good luck!

 

[Bnelly]

Welcome @Bnelly that plant with the purple leaves reminds me of a rescue I took in late last fall...what's your outdoor temp there? That plant looks like it got cold. Only other thing I'd say is could they be getting overwatered? Weed likes really good dry cycles. CHeers, good luck!

Thank for the response, outside temps are mid-high 60s in the day and low 50s at night. I bring all them back inside at night, and inside is 70 day and 60 at night. Is there any way to check if soil is too compacted and not draining well enough?

 

[CO Finest]

First pic cold temp more then a 10 deg temp swing can cause purpling leafs and Ph swing to much, soil ph 6.5-6.8 best. Second pic showing light or heat stress taco looking leafs is the plant trying to shade leafs from to much heat by light most likely it needs to adjust to outside light in the shade for a couple of days before getting direct light. Third pic for sure showing Ph stress, when you see the leafs twisting or curving that is a Ph problem most likely do from changing levels to much at one time, soil 6.5-6.8 best. Fourth pic, keeping doing what your doing that one looks happy.

 

[Bnelly]

First pic cold temp more then a 10 deg temp swing can cause purpling leafs and Ph swing to much, soil ph 6.5-6.8 best. Second pic showing light or heat stress taco looking leafs is the plant trying to shade leafs from to much heat by light most likely it needs to adjust to outside light in the shade for a couple of days before getting direct light. Third pic for sure showing Ph stress, when you see the leafs twisting or curving that is a Ph problem most likely do from changing levels to much at one time, soil 6.5-6.8 best. Fourth pic, keeping doing what your doing that one looks happy.

I never thought about the heat change, we did just have like 5 days of heavy overcast so they spent most of their time under a 60w grow light. Today is the first clear day we've had. I guess I need to ease them back into it. Glad to hear about the 4th one being ok, how will I know when to increase nutes? Currently using 1/2 strength with the MG

 

[CO Finest]

1/4 strength at 2nodes to 4nodes, 1/2 strength 4nodes to 6nodes, 3/4 strength from 6nodes to 8nodes and full nodes on up. Adjust down or up as needed, if seeing burnt tips adjust down. Ph try to keep in 6.5-6.8 area at all times

 

[Bnelly]

1/4 strength at 2nodes to 4nodes, 1/2 strength 4nodes to 6nodes, 3/4 strength from 6nodes to 8nodes and full nodes on up. Adjust down or up as needed, if seeing burnt tips adjust down. Ph try to keep in 6.5-6.8 area at all times

Thank you so much! That takes all of my guessing out of it. Another question, I flushed my plants with 6.2 ph water this morning, should i follow up with like 6.8ph nutes or let them dry out first?

 

[CO Finest]

Dry out so the roots get some dry time. Not worth risking over watering roots and drowning them. Soil is very forgiving you have time to fix.

 

[Bnelly]

Dry out so the roots get some dry time. Not worth risking over watering roots and drowning them. Soil is very forgiving you have time to fix.

Got it! Again and I cant say it enough thank you for the help! I was at my wits end thinking I was gonna lose em. I'll send updates this weekend after the plants have some time to recover a bit

 

[bobrown14]

Try some other brand of nutrients besides Scott's/Monsanto brand.

They specialize in poisoning the earth and its inhabitants.

Growing in soil the best method is to use a known mix that works or mix up your own with a known recipe that works or make your own and get a soil test.

 

[CO Finest]

Oh forgot to say if your using FFO soil it should have enough nutes for awhile. A 5gallon pot with ffo can feed plant for over a month no problem, only cal/mag needed. I just did a start to finish series of videos on youtube with sixteen autos in 5gallon pots with no nutes added, that is a good example of nutes already in soil for that amount of time

 

[Bnelly]

Oh forgot to say if your using FFO soil it should have enough nutes for awhile. A 5gallon pot with ffo can feed plant for over a month no problem, only cal/mag needed. I just did a start to finish series of videos on youtube with sixteen autos in 5gallon pots with no nutes added, that is a good example of nutes already in soil for that amount of time

So should I stop feeding nutes or lessen the amount for now? I went ahead and bought some cal mag. Also I noticed some of the new growth tips are forming weirdly, here's a pic for reference. Is it something i should be concerned about? Also maybe its because of the LST?

 

[Bnelly]

Quick update, plants seem to have rebounded since the ph flush, still a bit overwatered and droopy looking but I expect that to go away when the soil dries out. They havent had this much growth this quick in a while so its very promising. I'm still working with the heat stressed one to alleviate the folded leaves, currently have a fan blowing across it under the grow light to keep her cool

 

[Bnelly]

I noticed this stuff about a day ago, it was just on this one but this morning I saw that another plant also had this developing. No idea what it is, I originally thought a hard water stain but I couldn't get it to come up with a damp rag. Any thoughts from the more experienced people than myself?
Edit: I did isolate the 2 plants on the chance it is a fungus or bacteria so it hopefully wont spread further

 

[Bnelly]

Upon doing research, I found that many others had a PH problem with their Black Gold seedling mix from Sungro as well. One gentlemen even documented putting 6.5 ph water in and getting 5 ph out... Think im just going to get rid of the rest of the soil. This would explain the issues with the seedlings/early vegging plants, since the BBK was started in FFOF. Off for more reading y'all