Plants keep burning, I don't know what to do anymore

[Virgin Ground]

yes, that would indeed help, as would making a tea of a cup or so of that soil and trying to brew even more microbes. Most outdoor soil is not going to be as highly mineralized as his good amended soil though, so its population of microbes would be much lower and probably lacking in fundamental areas, such as if the local dirt was light on phosphorus, the microbes associated with that element would also be in short supply. Great question though!

Yeah. I don't know if they are on lockdown there too and it is sometimes hard to source supplies in Africa as it is. This may be the most convenient way for him to get something into the soil asap.

Didn't realize that different microbes are associated with different elements. That is interesting.
Thanks for the response.

 

[Stoned Ape]

Water, literally changes daily, if it's not a controlled resivour style of public water

So to say nothing has changed is about as false as it can be

My tap water changes based on the area
Rain
Flooding
Heat
Aliens
Lots and lots effect it

Mine goes from 400-750 ppn depending on what's going on in my area


Listen to the great advice given

Get an RO system like a RO Buddy, and move on

The aliens messing with your water too Chris. Tin foil on your head won't even protect us

 

[Chrisx510]

I’m very very new at growing cannabis, but with my lack of experience I did do a lot of reading. A good amount on the more rarer diseases, and that’ll be crazy if this is right just because of my lack of experience... but can it possibly be this?

Stop Verticillium Wilt On Marijuana Plants Now!

Verticillium wilt on your marijuana plants? Verticillium wilt is a fungus present in the soil of cannabis plants. Verticillium can cause a lot of damage

www.ilovegrowingmarijuana.com

being verticillium wilt/fusarium wilt only because verticillium is a fungus that can live in your soil. That might be why it instantly pops up the moment they come out of the ground. Did you change your soil/soilless after the first batch of burn? I don’t even know if it’s possible to happen to indoor growing.. but yeah there’s my two cents worth of input

 

[SmokingWings]

I’m very very new at growing cannabis, but with my lack of experience I did do a lot of reading. A good amount on the more rarer diseases, and that’ll be crazy if this is right just because of my lack of experience... but can it possibly be this?

Stop Verticillium Wilt On Marijuana Plants Now!

Verticillium wilt on your marijuana plants? Verticillium wilt is a fungus present in the soil of cannabis plants. Verticillium can cause a lot of damage

www.ilovegrowingmarijuana.com

being verticillium wilt/fusarium wilt only because verticillium is a fungus that can live in your soil. That might be why it instantly pops up the moment they come out of the ground. Did you change your soil/soilless after the first batch of burn? I don’t even know if it’s possible to happen to indoor growing.. but yeah there’s my two cents worth of input

Verticillium Wilt and Fursarium Wilt are scary, especially in outdoor farming and gardening. It moves fast through a field, orchard or plantation, ruining an entire crop in a matter of days. It seems to move through a single plant so fast in a matter of hours a healthy plant goes from showing a problem on its leaves to being completely wilted with curling leaves and stems bent over. Like I said, it can be scary stuff. I have heard of it happening in greenhouses but rarely in an indoor grow of any kind.

 

[keith1975]

If your room is all sealed up and your running an exhaust fan it might pull the space into low enough negative pressure the ambient co2 levels are low but that would require a really good seal and a pretty tough fan so I'm going to bet against it.

I do have a suspicion that this is a factor. Is there a way to measure the air so I can know for sure? If I leave the main door closed 100% then the next morning there is a bit of a smell in the room. Not sure what it is. I always just thought it was fertizlizer

And I've planted 3 more seeds and I'm only using distilled water. If these 3 also burn like the others, then it can't be the water. Then it leaves me with:
- Air
- Pests

I doubt it's pests. Haven't seen any in ages. So my next guess is the air.

 

[keith1975]

Don't know allot about growing but my plants looked the same except the top white leaves, the bottom two thirds look the same and it was a pH problem with mine... Just sharing my experience good luck!

Mine has the same symptoms but I had a good PH in the water. The EC readings were the problem. Nevertheless, I'll know in about a week if the 3 new seeds I planted don't turn to a crisp as well.

 

[keith1975]

I have only read the first page of this thread, so far. I skipped to the last page to see if you had solved your issue. (I'll get back to read more later, but if I don't run soon, there's going to be a mess, lol.)

Quickly (for me) :

only read the

That doesn't look right, to me. Distilled water, the moment it comes out of the distiller / bottle is neutral, pH 7.0. And then, after you've opened it, it's going to begin drifting downward a little, because it's going to absorb some CO₂. However, that looks really LOW. I'd say it's halfway to being vinegar, lol, but the pH scale is a logarithmic one and I can't do math AtM because 99% of my brain is busy telling my bowels not to-- anyway, every whole number drop doesn't mean the liquid is twice as acidic, it means it's ten times more acidic. So 4,0 is 10 times 10 times 10 more acidic than freshly distilled water. I've heard of it ending up at like 5.9 occasionally.

Are you sure that you didn't accidentally test the pH of a bottle of "fizzy" water, instead? Because I just checked, and the pH of carbonated water appears to be in the 3 to 4 range.

Failing that, might there be some sort of microbial colony living in the "exit spout" of your distiller? Unlikely, I know, but...

I am assuming that you have made sure that your pH meter is functioning correctly, has been properly stored in between uses, has been calibrated recently, was then checked by testing the pH of a known substance (a freshly opened bottle of pH 4.01 buffer solution, et cetera), that you're using the correct calibration solutions (and doing a two-part calibration if the meter supports this), and so on.

Good luck, will read rest of thread later got to go

I was very proud of my readings, but now I don't know anymore. Maybe I didn't calibrate it correctly. I'll get back to you with more readings.

 

[keith1975]

IT'S THE PH!!!!

I left water in a bucket for about a week now thinking that the sun might make the water more pure. I tested the water and the PH is 8. I thought that's pretty weird, but could be because of a bunch of reasons, including that Isopropyl was stored in this container ages ago.

So I go to the tap. This time taking a much bigger water sample size. And what do you know... the tap water is PH freaking 8.

All signs point to it being PH, and now this possibly confirms it.

I should have a final answer on this in the next couple of days. But I do have more questions:

1. The plants that are burnt, do I throw them away or try to salvage them with distilled water?
2. I was told I need an osmosis buddy or some device that can distill water for me. Any ideas how to get something like that during lockdown? I just don't see myself boiling 20 liters of water every day.

THANKS FOR EVERYONE THAT HELPED! So happy it turned out not to be alians ;-)

 

[SarahJane211]

I just don't see myself boiling 20 liters of water every day.

Why do you think boiling water would change it's PH?

 

[keith1975]

Why do you think boiling water would change it's PH?

I googled "how to distill water" and the first Youtube video showed a guy boiling water so that it evaporates and collects in another container. Is that unnecessary? Is there an easier way?

 

[Nunyabiz]

Toss a few orange peels in the water and a few drops of pH down.

 

[SarahJane211]

I googled "how to distill water" and the first Youtube video showed a guy boiling water so that it evaporates and collects in another container. Is that unnecessary? Is there an easier way?

Easier to add a pinch of citric acid IMHO.
Distilling water is quite an effort, much more than just boiling it, condensing coils and collecting, all an effort.

 

[SmokingWings]

Toss a few orange peels in the water and a few drops of pH down.

Why the orange peels?

 

[Nunyabiz]

Why the orange peels?

Citric acid

 

[SmokingWings]

Citric acid

I thought maybe to offset a smell coming from the pH Down product you were using. I did not think that there was enough citric acid in the peels to be noticeable unless using a lot of them.

Went and looked at a couple of web pages and did find this one in case you, or anyone else, are interested....
Citric Acid Production from Orange Peel Wastes by Solid-State Fermentation

 

[Virgin Ground]

And I've planted 3 more seeds and I'm only using distilled water. If these 3 also burn like the others, then it can't be the water. Then it leaves me with:
- Air
- Pests

Did you switch to a seed sprouting medium??
If you didn't change your soil and your new seeds burn it is more than likely because it says on your bag of soil that you shouldn't sprout seeds in it. It is too strong for them.

How are they?? Did they come up Keith??

 

[Nunyabiz]

I thought maybe to offset a smell coming from the pH Down product you were using. I did not think that there was enough citric acid in the peels to be noticeable unless using a lot of them.

Went and looked at a couple of web pages and did find this one in case you, or anyone else, are interested....
Citric Acid Production from Orange Peel Wastes by Solid-State Fermentation

I haven't used orange peels for about 3 years because I've been using RO water.
When I did use them I was making smoothies everyday and had tons of orange peels all the time.
I checked my water for Chlorine and Chloramine before and after orange peels and it did lower the chlorine to an acceptable level within 30 minutes.
I used about 2 oranges worth of peels to 4 gallons of water

 

[keith1975]

> Did you switch to a seed sprouting medium??

I did not. Sprouting is not the issue. They do sprout and have sprouted for the last 3 years. Something has changed that's making everything die, and I can't figure it out. And I don't think it's the water either. The new seeds are taking forever to grow, and it seems there is some burning already appearing. Which means I can only assume it's the soil again.

I planted another seed in a rockwool cube and I'm going to see if I can nurture the seed in that medium til it's MUCH bigger, so I can rule out the possibility of it being the soil. If the seed also fries in the ROCKWOOL, then I have nothing left to think that the entire grow is cursed (or probably an air issue somehow).

> If you didn't change your soil and your new seeds burn it is
> more than likely because it says on your bag of soil that you
> shouldn't sprout seeds in it. It is too strong for them.

But why suddenly? Same dirt, same water, same everything has worked for 3 years. Now suddenly this. A part of me really thinks it's going to turn out to be something like the air.

> How are they?? Did they come up Keith??

Out of the 3 seeds I planted, 2 are showing signs of burning. But it might be the neem oil I used. But I dont think so. 1 of them seems "normal", but all three are growing VERY slowly. Usually, I have two big leaves within a week or two. These 3 are still tiny. I think they are going to die as well.

I can't tell you how this is depressing me. I've wasted about 400 USD in seeds. Not to mention thousands of dollars trying to make my grow room better. And after all that effort, I had better results with my previous rotting tents.

Very close to giving up. Not even the mite problems I had in the past has managed to crush my spirit this much.

 

[keith1975]

2 of the 3 seeds I planted are turning yellow and burn-y. I'm guessing the 3rd is going to follow suite. So I no longer think the water plays any factor. It can only be the soil, or somehow the air. I still have this outlandish theory that my extraction fans are too strong and that is somehow not giving them enough air.

But my new guess is the soil. The same soil I have been using in the same way for 3 years, is now turning my plants into fried crisps.

I'm really losing my mind. I wasted the entire summer.

 

[keith1975]

We have 1 little fighter! It's not dying!

I believe the others died because there was still too much PH in the soil. But it's looking on the up. Some of the clones I took are growing a lot better now as well. Not making many leaves yet, but the roots are growing like crazy. Hoping I'll see them turn into something worthwhile soon!

I am starting to think that the problem is water. Nothing else. Going to stick to my distilled water. And then get a better solution for the water after lockdown!