Plant looking very sad

[Billpopy79]

I moved my plants to my grow tent yesterday and one of them doesn't look too good at all.
The pots were very dry when I moved them so I'm hoping it just needs a soaking.
Does anyone see anything I'm missing? The leaves have gone dry and crispy and yellowed on some.

 

[Old Salt]

Believe it or not, I think you are in a good place. Start establishing the wet/dry cycle Emilya recommends. You'll find lots of good information for soil growing in Emilya's current journal. Her paper, 'The Proper Way to Water a Potted Plant' is considered a must read for soil growing and discusses the wet/dry cycle.

Once the plants have re-hydrated, it will be soon enough to address any other problems that show themselves.

 

[Billpopy79]

I'm hoping so, I've been very careful to let them totally dry before watering, think I maybe should have watered yesterday.
As long as it's just a lack of water I'll not worry too much.
Don't think it helped with the RH sitting at 38.
Watered them and corrected Rh which is now 65.
I'll check in a few hours, hopefully she will have perked up.

 

[Billpopy79]

Nearly 6 hours after watering and not much change.
Could it be worth flushing?
I've hardly fed any nutes but they are only 1/2 gallon pots.

 

[Hrenklin]

Give it time. You will know in about 12h or so if it needs anything

 

[Billpopy79]

So plants have perked up but I'm still concerned about them.
They have this on the leaves of all 3.
It seems to be mostly on the fan leaves.
I'm thinking it could be too much light?

 

[Emilya Green]

You appear to be severely overwatering these plants by watering too often. I will bet that when you think they are totally dry, you are checking the top instead of worrying about stale stagnant water sitting in the bottom of the container. Use the lift the pot method to see if it is time to water. If you can sense ANY water weight in the container AT ALL, by lifting the container, it is NOT time to water yet. Your lower leaves are showing the classic symptoms of having the lower roots shut down because they have not seen oxygen in some time.
Establish a strong and aggressive wet/dry cycle in these containers, and after 3 wet/dry cycles, this problem will go away.

 

[Billpopy79]

You appear to be severely overwatering these plants by watering too often. I will bet that when you think they are totally dry, you are checking the top instead of worrying about stale stagnant water sitting in the bottom of the container. Use the lift the pot method to see if it is time to water. If you can sense ANY water weight in the container AT ALL, by lifting the container, it is NOT time to water yet. Your lower leaves are showing the classic symptoms of having the lower roots shut down because they have not seen oxygen in some time.
Establish a strong and aggressive wet/dry cycle in these containers, and after 3 wet/dry cycles, this problem will go away.

Hi Emilya.
I've been very careful not to over water.
I have bee using the lift pot method and when I think they have used the water I wait an extra 12 hours before watering.
They are only taking about 600ml of water and it was 72 hours between the last 2 waterings.
My pH is at 6.8 to 7 when watering and Ive only been feeding 1/2 dose nutes.
They were moved from a closet to my tent so I don't know if it might be the environment change. Different lights, humidity, temps.
Im really not sure but they were looking great a couple of days ago.

 

[Emilya Green]

so you are deciding how much water to give them, or are you watering to runoff each time and letting them decide?

Why the extremely high pH? Try adjusting down to 6.3 pH

Something is fundamentally wrong here and changing the lights, humidity and temps are probably not it.

 

[Billpopy79]

I water untill I get roughly 10% run off.
I've watered as per your excellent how to water a potted plant guide.
I even have a pot with just soil so I can compare the weight when lifting.
I have been watering with tap water that has been stood for 48hrs. The pH sits at 6.8 to 7 after I have added nutes.
I could try lowering the pH but have not done so as I thought I was in the range I needed to be.

 

[Emilya Green]

great job on the watering techniques then... and lets just move past that then knowing that this isn't the problem. The pH definitely is a big problem though...
First, the range in soil is 6.2-6.8, and soil is designed to have a positive drift to it. When you water at 6.8 you are already at the top end of the usable range and any nutes that are best mobile at the lower portion of this range are likely locked out. To make matters worse, the buffers in the soil immediately try to drift the pH upwards and so your fluids quickly move totally out of range shortly after you water.
The better strategy is to come in at 6.3 pH, where mathematically the most nutrients are the most mobile. Then let the soil drift the pH upwards through the entire usable range, picking up all of the nutrients in turn.

 

[Billpopy79]

great job on the watering techniques then... and lets just move past that then knowing that this isn't the problem. The pH definitely is a big problem though...
First, the range in soil is 6.2-6.8, and soil is designed to have a positive drift to it. When you water at 6.8 you are already at the top end of the usable range and any nutes that are best mobile at the lower portion of this range are likely locked out. To make matters worse, the buffers in the soil immediately try to drift the pH upwards and so your fluids quickly move totally out of range shortly after you water.
The better strategy is to come in at 6.3 pH, where mathematically the most nutrients are the most mobile. Then let the soil drift the pH upwards through the entire usable range, picking up all of the nutrients in turn.

Ok that makes sense to me thanks.


I may have been wrongly informed but I have been using the biobizz range of organic nutrients.
My grow shop guy told me that my pH doesn't really matter with these nutes.

I will try adjusting the pH down to 6.3 and hopefully it will help.

 

[Emilya Green]

A lot of grow shop guys have no idea what they are doing, and some actively give bad advice to soil growers so that they give up and go to a hydro based method and spend lots of money in the shop. Be very careful when getting your advice.

From the biobizz website and instructions on how to use their feeding chart, in bold letters I noticed the following:
Remember to keep an eye on the pH in your water to make sure that your plants can absorb every last drop of the nutrients you give them.

 

[Billpopy79]

A lot of grow shop guys have no idea what they are doing, and some actively give bad advice to soil growers so that they give up and go to a hydro based method and spend lots of money in the shop. Be very careful when getting your advice.

From the biobizz website and instructions on how to use their feeding chart, in bold letters I noticed the following:
Remember to keep an eye on the pH in your water to make sure that your plants can absorb every last drop of the nutrients you give them.

You could be right there, I suppose it's their job to get us to spend more.
I should have checked the Biobizz website myself, I was given the feeding guide so thought that was all I needed.
I will correct the pH down to 6.3 on my next feed and hopefully it should sort them out.
Thank you for the advice.

 

[Billpopy79]

Update today.
I watered the plants 3 days ago with 1/2 nutes and brought pH down to 6.3.
I've been away for a couple of days and when I returned today it looks like my issues have worsened.
I have transplanted them to the 5 gal pots just incase they were getting pot bound, when TransPlanting the soil was dry through and the roots look good to me.
I've watered them into the new pots with pH 6.2 I've given them a 1/2 dose of calmag.

The more I look I think its a deficiency of some sort, not sure what to do now.
Maybe I've been to careful feeding?

It only seems to be effecting 2 of my 3 plants.

 

[bluter]

hey bilpopy
hang tight, will probably get it figgered.

what are you using for soil ? i didn't see it mentioned.

something is going on in the root zone. i dunno if it's locked out or an excess.
to me it looks hungry and looking for something.

 

[Billpopy79]

Hi bluter.
I'm using Canna terra professional, I've added an extra 10% perlite to it.
I've only ever give 1/2 dosage of nutes and I was watering at a slightly high pH so I'm thinking they could possibly have been unable to use the nutes thoroughly.

 

[Emilya Green]

I am surprised that your response to the plants not getting enough nutrients is to continue to give them half strength of the recommended nutes at this stage of development. Feed them... and over 2 or 3 watering cycles the plants will catch up... but you can't solve a deficit by continuing to go light on the nutes.
The new soil will help too... just give them time to repair themselves.

 

[bluter]

ok looked up that soil.

may have some amendments in it you butted heads with.
first it uses tree bark. i know that can mess with ph. it's lightly nuted, so the first few weeks you should not feed, you are past that point by now tho.

it also has a lime based ph soil adjustment which is supposed to be long term. wondering if you smacking up against it.
sorry, not a soil grower for years and that's the best i have.

others will chime in. good luck.

 

[Billpopy79]

I am surprised that your response to the plants not getting enough nutrients is to continue to give them half strength of the recommended nutes at this stage of development. Feed them... and over 2 or 3 watering cycles the plants will catch up... but you can't solve a deficit by continuing to go light on the nutes.
The new soil will help too... just give them time to repair themselves.

Hi Emilya

The only reason for the 1/2 dose is because I wasn't really too sure it was a deficiency.
I've not watered them in too heavily as I have ordered some recharge, I think I will give this with a full dose of nutes in a couple of days.
Hopefully the fresh soil will have some goodness for them in the meantime.