Please help! I can't figure out what is ailing my plants

[caster86]

Hi everyone,
This is my first post so ill try to be a thorough as possible.
SOIL GROW

Strain - carmelicious
# of Plants - 4
Grow Type - Soil
Grow Stage - Vegetative
Bucket Size — 10" diameter x 8" deep pots
Lights — high output florescent
Nutrients - originally in the soil
Medium — moisture pro soil
PH — 7-7.5
RH - 50% to 57%
Room Temperature -78 to 84
Solution Temperature -65 to 69
Room Square Footage - 2' deep x 6' long x 8' high
Problem - The leaves of my plant, starting from the bottom and moving up, are beginning to display light green waxy blotches. These eventually begin to turn brown and then the leaves start to curl/twist upwards followed by death. Based on the pictures attached does anyone have any suggestions of what could be the cause of this?

I've been growing 4 plants indoors for nearly 2 months (vegetative state). They are in pots (10" diameter and 8" deep) with a moisture pro soil mix using high output florescent lighting. The air indoors has felt humid so I've been trying a damp rid moisture absorbent to combat that. I bought a soil ph meter but it reads 7.5 no matter what soil I put it in (including a hot pepper plant), though this may be due to tap water that is slightly basic. There do not seem to be any insects. I've been watering every 4 or 5 days going by feel and the fact that the soil I have stores water a little to well. I haven't used any fertilizer besides what was originally in the soil, and one treatment of miracle grow African violet at ¼ the recommended dilution administered by foliar feeding (Nitrogen 7%, phosphate 7%, potash 7%, boron 0.02%, copper 0.05%, iron 0.1%, manganese 0.08%, and zinc 0.05%) to see if any positive effect would occur. Finally the plants are in a small room/closet that is 2' deep x 6' long x 8' high. I have 4 plants (2 are exhibiting these symptoms and the others are okay for now).
One plant has symptoms to the 4th tier of leaves, and the other is only on the first.

 

[Alkhemist]

howsit bro!!

it seems to me that your ph is too high- running the risk of nutrient lock out. try adding dolomite lime or lime to bring the ph down... sprinkle a small handful over the surface and water in. correct your ph levels and i am sure you will find your plants responding and returning to good health.. aim to get your soil ph below 6.8 and preferably at a max level of 6.5... ideally you want it around 5.5-6.5.

you can purchase a variety of ph meters from your local garden store.. from liquid to digiTal.

you can also try to make a DILUTED nutrient solution and use as a foliar spray to feed directly into the leaves. try feeding 3x per day with this foliar spray while you bring the soil ph down to normal levels.. of course, spray during "off" cycle or in the afternoon when the mid-day sun is past and the hottest part of the day has receded.

i hope this helps!! all the best with your plants recovery!

 

[Alkhemist]

sorry, forgot to include another option, of flushing your plants soil out... but DEF purchase a soil PH testing kit and gauge your ph levels carefully. you can flush by merely running fresh water through your soil mix to clean it out of excessive acidity or especially too much nutrient(=nutrient burn of the roots)... run it through for a good 10 mins or so- just let it all flush out the bottom then put drip tray back in and add lime to surface. some ppl, thinking their plants are suffering a mineral or nutrient def, will add more nutrient to try to remedy this.. but not knowing that the ph level is TOO high and locking out nutrients still run the risk of adding stress to your plants by burning the root system with excess nutrient levels. this is where the flushing comes in handy

good luck!

 

[Smokemupm8]

Hello mate,
I m also going to suggest that Flourescent lights arent real good for growing.. Or do you mean a CFL??
Either way, you need 6500k's CFL's for Veg and 2500k's for flower..
Your Ph must be about 6.4-6.8 in soil for them to grow ok.. A good soil mix is essential. Watering habits need to looked at, are you watering too much/not enough?? And how far are your light s from the plants? And im not sure but i dont hink its too good to foliar feed nutes , as if somethings too strong it may burn em.. I do not know for sure, but also too if your spraying water or such on leaves while lights are on, think that can cause the lighter spots.. I get some a little when i the leaves sweat onto each other, when it dries it appears a little like one of ur pics..
Hope you sort it soon mate. Goodluk, Smokem..

 

[Alkhemist]

thats right. using a foliar spray would most definitely be done when lights are off, ive used foliar spray in hydro when transplanting cuttings from soil to hydroton, they would suffer a shock and exhibit deficiency symptoms, i would use foliar spray at a DILUTED mix(1:10?) and only when lights were off, it worked well to correct other grows ive done WHILE LIGHTS ARE OFF loL, i cant emphasize that enough when correcting nutrient lock out due to acidic soil, it gave the plants nutrients whilst the ph levels were brought down and they werent able to receive the nutes they needed.. they recovered well.

could be a watering issue you think? it looks kinda like the plants roots have been sitting in water for far too long... ive had plants like that in a sog grow i did a while back, the roots would penetrate out of the bottom of the bottles i was using and were sitting in the nute excess at the bottom, they started to look a little similar to that before i realized the roots were sticking out of the bottom... i made sure there was no excess and transplanted them into slightly larger bottle and they recovered quite well...

anyhoo, hope they come away for ya bro! goodluck!