Plant problems - Please help

[harbour151]

Ok plants lower leaves are turning yellow at tips and around edges. They are also dryin out and turning a weird brown colour. Tips feel like sand paper.

Im using grotek nutes at 1/3 the reccomendations. I wait for the soil to be dry before next water. (pot feels light). I test the tap water before i use it to water. (6.3ph with or without nutes added). I only add nutes every other watering sometimes every 3rd). I always allow quite a bit of water to flush out the bottom of pot during each water. I tested the soil yesterday with a soil test kit. Ph was 6.8 or so. Pot size is 4gallons. Strain is somesorta kush (apparently). Temperature in room fluctuates between 25c lights on, 21 lights off. Humidity is 30-40%. Ill post pics if i can figure it out. Plz help. Any ideas would be greatly apprectiated.

 

[Fuzzy Duck]

Every thing sounds fine to be honest humidity could be a little bit higher tho


More likely suffering defeciency due to under feeding & may be time to rise nutrient feed to 1/2 or 2/3.

 

[harbour151]

Ya thats kinda what i was thinkin but from what ive been reading and the pictures i e been looking at, scortching seems to be a possible cause of the leaf damage. I wish i could post a pic. But i cannot see how that is possible seeing as i only use 1/3 nutes and the humidity being so low.

I put worm castings and batt guano in my soil. 1 tblsp of guano in each pot(top dressed) when the plants were 2weeks old and another tblsp just before i put them into flower. Could that have burnt my plants? Its just the lowest set of fan leaves.

The two plants in question only stretched maybe 3" each. I was hoping for a lot more. The plants total height now is only 13". But they are beautiful little bushes. Thats why im so concerned, with the plants being so small there isnt any buffer for illness. A wrong mistake could wipe them out fast.

My other plants which arent the same strain stretched 3 times their original height and dont have any problems as of yet. Im getting so disscouraged, my first indoor grow i got spider mites half way into flower. I think im a bit paranoid now. Ive never had issues like this outdoor

 

[Fuzzy Duck]

Some strains may react differently to nutrients used...

Its also pretty common that macro nutrient defeciencys do occur on the older fan leafs first & that flowering is a nutrient intensive time where defeciencys do happen on most soil grows around this stage of growth.

 

[Fuzzy Duck]

You can raise humidity by placing a bowl of water in the growing enviroment or damp tea towel on a daily basis etc that will slowly evapourate & raise humidity.

Height may well be strain dependant also pot size could be at question in case they are to small which may stunt growth by root balling effect.


Unlikely that the guano has caused burn symptoms but may depend on how you applyed it !

Mixing guano into your compost very well is the best option so to get an even mix of it through out.

Putting a table spoon of guano in base of hole & directly placing plant on top of the guano may cause burn symptoms.


Link - Photo Gallery Guide - How to Resize, Upload & Post Photos

 

[harbour151]

 

[harbour151]

Ok im now panicking!! Im at work and just realized ive doomed a couple plants.

Ive been thinking it was a nute deficiency which i think is part of the problem. Ive been kinda struggling with my soils water retention. I have to wait atleast a week between waterings. So the plants are only getting nutes every other week. Thats not the worst part though,one plant shows signs of nute deficiency and OVER watering. (plant looks listless, leaves curled under) last night, like an idiot i decided to water with nutes at full strength. The pot wasnt light when i picked it up but i really thought it needed nutes bad. I cant water offen enough because of the soil so the plants lack nutes

Today im reading about soil retention and if theres anything i can do to ammend the soil and i came accross h202 (hydrogen peroxide). I think i need to use it. My question is, should i water again tonight with the h202 or do i wait? I now know i have some root rot and i messed up and watered again.....ahhhhhh i cant believe i did that. Any help would be hugely appreciated i dont know what i should do.

 

[harbour151]

Ahhhhh, now im thinking i should just put a fan pointing right at the soil and wait it out till soil is dry. I have read that h202 will kill the microbial growth in the soil. And as im using organic based nutes i need those microbes. I dont know what my best coarse of action is. I know it needs to be the right one or those plants are toast

 

[Smokemupm8]

Hi mate, How are ya? IMO, I wouldnt use Hydrogen Perox. it may as you said, kill microbes.. You want to try keep your soil as 'Active ' as possible for happy plant growth.
you sound like oure on track, but yeah you need to be care ful as to what you add to your girls, Ive made a few mistakes along the way.
And a week between waterings is a fair stretch, my 35L pot is dry is 48hrs usually, so for your soil to hold this much water is fairly excessive.
I always have a small fan blowing across the top of the pots, this may help evapporate some water from your soil a little, but it should dry out itself before then. I usuall check as long as the top 4inches or so is dry, Ill give her a water, not heaps but a couple litres top up.. I wish I could be more helpful mate, But hope all sorts out! Cya mate, Smokemup..

 

[harbour151]

Thanks for the reply!! Last night i added another fan and its pointed at the soil. I also added more drain holes. I had put my circulating fan on the light timer because i felt the room was getting a bit too cold when the lights were off. So i changed that back to on all the time. Also, when i was watering before i watered enough so that water came out the drain holes. Im not gonna do that anymore. I thought i had to do that so nute salts wouldnt build up around the roots. Some good news though, when i drilled the new drain holes i could see some roots and they look really healthy. I didnt expect that.

 

[Stoma]

Exhaust fans and circulation fans need to run 24/7, the only time mine are off is between grows. I would not point your circulation fan towards the soil as this will quickly dry up tender root hairs and they will die, the ideal location for your circulation fan is between your light and canopy. Ideally you want about 10% of the water you add to drain otherwise you could have pockets of soil that remain dry and kill roots. I keep my humidity between 30 and 32% for the entire grow, it requires a more frequent watering schedule and a little misting but I never ever have to deal with mold, fungus, or rot. A common mistake growers make is adding more nutes when a plant starts to look sick, been there done that myself, I learned real quick that the 1st thing is stay calm and check your soils ph level. If your water ph is at 6.3 then your soils ph should be close to the same, are you sure your meters are giving you accurate info? You said your soils ph is 6.8 or so, thats not a very accurate reading. Next watering I would suggest you try to get your soils ph level at 6.5 and see if conditions start to improve may take 4-5 days or may take up to 2 weeks. Stay off the nutes until your plant shows signs that it needs them. My soil mix is such that most grows I don't need to add nutes, I just need to maintain a 6.5 ph level this makes life alot easier for me. Keep it simple and sit back and watch them grow!

 

[harbour151]

I used one of those test kits that comes a vial and a capsule full of somesort of compound. I mixed the dirt, compound,and water together than matched it with the colour chart. The colours on the chart are too similar for my eyes. I know it was below 7 and above 6.5. So i concluded its anywhere from 6.6 to 6.8. Also my water source was 7.0 which they reccomended, however it wasnt distilled. I now have my circ fans running 24/7. As for testing my water ph i use the litmus paper(grotek). Plants seem to be doin a bit better now however the damage has been done i have lost a few bottom fan leaves on 2 plants. The other 2 are doin fine. Its kinda wierd, i have 2 strains and the problem is only happening to 1 of each strain. I switched nutes to general hydroponics a and b formula as there is a lot less variables. Im tryin to dumb it down a bit. Plus the grotek nutes i have is strictly the flowering nutes. Whereas the gh a+b is a mixture of both. I think i can be more sure that they are getting all the nutes they need now. I havent watered in a week now as im tryin to get the soil to dry out a bit. Plants are not drooping and the leaf curl has went away. Next grow my soil is gonna be much much better!!!

 

[harbour151]

Also im gonna stay off the nutes like u suggested. Stoma, could u tell me your soil mix. I have read about some mixes that dont require nutes throughout the grow but im curious what u use. Thank u so much for all the advice!!

 

[harbour151]

Plants are considerably worse. All fan leaves on the small bushy plant have turned a bright yellow. Damage starts on the tips and edges of leaves. Than progresses inwards. The veins yellow last. The edges dry up and become crisy. Also leaf stems have turned red. From pictures i look and and everything that i read it seems as though i have a few deficiencies. In my mind i believe it has to be nute lockout. I flushed the plants last night and with the last pail of water i added a mild nutrient solution. Im debating using epson salt solution to spray on the leaves as part of the deficiency seems to be magnesium. Any thoughts??


Also im using grotek Litmus paper to check the ph of the water going in and comming out. Both are around 6.6. Can i trust litmus paper??