Please help, first grow not looking great

J

Jahelsk

New Member
Indoor grow in fox farm ocean forest with probably 35% perlite.
CFL's and two LED spots around 400ish watt total.

I use a trio of fox farm nutrients. Grow big, Big bloom & Tiger bloom. I also did one flush with Sledgehammer before flowering.

Right now it is in the beginning of the second week of flowering and growth has slowed and just not looking healthy. My other plant is looking much better and fuller. First grow, both from found seed..

I was first using R/O water and I was messing up the PH big time because I was using a cheap PH probe and I thought my PH was too high. Now I have a calibrated PH pen and I have a much better idea of what I am putting in. I switched to tap water that I let stand over night, but after reading about Chloramine and Fluoride in Los Angeles water I gave up on that. Now I buy Arrowhead spring water. It more $ of course but at least its clean and retains some of the minerals the plants need. I assumed I had a magnesium def, so last water I added a bit of epsom salts. Now, I am thinking it might just be lacking nitrogen.

The shriveled brown leaves in the center of the plant are from my LED spot that I had much too close to the plant. I didn't realize that LEDs can burn. It is all a big learning curve...but lots of fun.

Oh, I also did a bit of pruning a week before flowering. Mainly some fan leaves around the bottom of the plant that were touching the soil etc. I later read that that might not have been a good idea. But then again, I also just read some defoliation journals so who knows. There is almost too much info out there! ;)

I hope some of the experts out there can give me a bit of advise.

Thank you and happy growing!!
 

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jacksthc

jacksthc

Well-Known Member
your thinking too much

just give your plants tap water and only water when the top 4-5 inches of soil is damp,
don't pH the water or use R/O water,
don't use nutes for the next week
don't over water the plants
 
J

Jahelsk

New Member
I'm sure I am thinking too much, however it don't really want chloramine or fluoride in my plants. I don't drink this sh!t water, so why would I want to smoke it?
 
jacksthc

jacksthc

Well-Known Member
Jahelsk said:
I'm sure I am thinking too much, however it don't really want chloramine or fluoride in my plants. I don't drink this sh!t water, so why would I want to smoke it?
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sorry didn't know the water was this bad
good tap water has all the 2nd and trace nutes your plants need and is in a good ph range, so for most soil growers, plays with RO water, ph is just a bad ideal

you need to replace the 2nd and trace nutes with something or your going to have problems

maybe cheep bottle water is a better way to go
 
J

Jahelsk

New Member
Thanks you both. I think I'll continue with the bottled water. It's just two plants worth so the price is worth it to me.

I will look into some micro nutrients, thank you!
 
J

Jahelsk

New Member
A few more pics showing the two plants. As you can see, the other is doing much better.

The yellowing leaves with dark veins/burnt tips is apparent on both plants, but one is much more damaged.
What is the deal with those leaves? Too much or not enough nutrients?

I ordered some Sea Kelp 100 to possibly help with the micro nutrients.
 

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vostok

vostok

Well-Known Member
How exactly do you measure the ph in soil grows....you can't tho many noobs measure the runoff. As the soil acts as a buffer between the nutes and the roots its impossible,..as a result I agree with jacksthc ^^^ above, also feeding RO water to plants in soil ROBS them of that valuable calcium that surprise surprise plants do need.
Your pics indicate standard Nute burn, and surprise no (mg) def, so thats the good news, cut back your nutes by 1/3rd or until you see a noticeably improvement, but first the flush!
https://www.rollitup.org/Journal/Entry/flush-baby-flush.27513/
 
jacksthc

jacksthc

Well-Known Member
soil probe, runoff TBH never got what there talking about

maybe its a way of checking the ph is in range.

When I get problems with my leaves I check for bugs and if it not that, I flush the plants as it seems to fix most problems, just forget about ph and ec ect in soil as its likely to cause problems
 
vostok

vostok

Well-Known Member
Only the last 10 years have noobie growers been dragging expensive lab gear into their grows, indeed for years the DWC boys have been using Ph pool strips as a rough guide, only now do we see $600.00 - $800.00 DWC tools, but its ok, when you have a paddock of 600 quality plants and limited horticulture knowledge you don't take chances..
Just note tho cannabis has been growing fine for 1000's of years before man got out of his cave ...lol see them as pets you can't go wrong.
 
Alexander Supertramp

Alexander Supertramp

Well-Known Member
vostok said:
How exactly do you measure the ph in soil grows....you can't tho many noobs measure the runoff. As the soil acts as a buffer between the nutes and the roots its impossible,..as a result I agree with jacksthc ^^^ above, also feeding RO water to plants in soil ROBS them of that valuable calcium that surprise surprise plants do need.
Your pics indicate standard Nute burn, and surprise no (mg) def, so thats the good news, cut back your nutes by 1/3rd or until you see a noticeably improvement, but first the flush!
https://www.rollitup.org/Journal/Entry/flush-baby-flush.27513/
Click to expand...
There most certainly ways to measure the pH of soil. Just not runoff or probes. Any larger horticultural center has the needed supplies to do it properly
 
jacksthc

jacksthc

Well-Known Member
Alexander Supertramp said:
Matt is correct, your plants are both slightly nute burned and most definitely Mg deficient. You need to add Cal/Mag to your nute line up.
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good quality tap water and bottle water will do the job
if anything add something like plant magic magne cal+

just buy a small bottle and add 1ml per ltr after the flush, remember its only 2nd and trace nutes so the plant needs a small amount once every 7 days (max)
and I would stop adding the m&c 14 days before harvest
 
J

Jahelsk

New Member
vostok said:
Only the last 10 years have noobie growers been dragging expensive lab gear into their grows
Click to expand...
Well, I haven't been spending soo much. But I thought these tools would help out:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FJFEB2O/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
&
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007FMVOVK/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

But, yes I see your point. I just did a big flush of both plants last night. I hope the worse-off one bounces back.
The other one is blooming in full force and seemed to grow a few inches overnight after the flush.

Alexander & Jacksthc, I also ordered some Hydro Organics Cal-n-Mag plant food. I'll introduce a bit of that once it arrives.
Thanks for that diagnosis.

Greenlikemoney, thanks for the soil advise. I will try this next round. I have already learned a lot since I first sprouted these couple seeds a few months ago! I originally had the seedlings in Miraclegrow Organic Garden, which was full of bark & many many mushroom spoors. I quickly switched them to the fox farm soil when they were burning up in that horrible dirt.

Again, thanks for all the help and advise everyone. I am pretty happy with the grow so far, I think I just got too excited and added too much too soon. I was siked to see that I had lucked out with 2 females! Also, the sick one seems to be on the Indica side, and the thriving one on the Sativa side. :D
 
J

Jahelsk

New Member
Oh, one more thing. What should I do with the burnt and half yellow/brown leaves on the sick plant? Snip them or just let them fall of naturally? Thanks.
 
vostok

vostok

Well-Known Member
Tools
Yeah I got one of them Ph gauges from my DWC days, man thats very expensive also I had one of them 3.1 tools too, gives great info on of your plants need watering in deep pots and fun to play with but some models are not indicating well, test before buying.
You got FFOF then add 30% perlite to that pot, or you will be back flushing more and more! FFOF is hot and perlite dilutes that also avoids root compaction

leave the yellow leaves as a control point, discard the necrotic (brown/crispy) leaves
 
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