1st Grow - 135W LED - Having issues with leaves yellowing. Please Help.

Hi,

I am new to this community though I have been an avid reader of many of the threads on here.

I am growing 4 plants in a 2x2x4 foot growing tent.

I am having minor issues with each of them.

All have been potted in a mix of organic potting soil / pearlite / bonemeal mix to a 60/35/5 ratio, the soil does not specify exact PH, but says between 5-6, which is a little on the low end. The water supply in my city claims the water has a PH of 8.1 and this is the water I have been using.

The lights were originally about 6 inches or so from the tops but after yellowing developed I decided to move it to about 10 inches from the canopy.

I have sprayed them several times when they were younger, and because I was growing under 24 hours lights I also thought that might be what has caused the yellowing.

I have 3 Autos, sweet tooth, russian rocket fuel and bubbleicious, with a photoperiod tangerine dream in there too.

This is the tangerine dream And a close up of the leaves.

All plants are now under 20/4 lighting now BTW.

Here is a close up of the Sweet Tooth and I am wondering if this looks normal? As this is my first grow I do not quite know what to look for..


I will mention that several days ago I discovered crawling and flying bugs, I believed them to be fungus gnats and made up my own soap solution to spray the plants, and covered the soil with about half inch of pearlite, which 3 days on, seems to have done the trick, there are none flying around now.


There is a hole in the leaf, I could not see anything on the underside, or crawling around so could this be water/light burn?

I have noticed since turning the lights off for 4 hours, the condensation increases, and the plants end up covered in drops of water, do I need to address this with a fan, or an exhaust fan?

The other 2, are auto bubbelicous which looks rather spindly and a bit weak compared to the first 2, with minor yellowing on the new growth, also noticed red/purple stems.

Bubbleicious and under the canopy, not sure if that looks right or not?

Finally the tiny "short stuff" russian rocket fuel, germed all at the same time, yet its probably 1/20th the size of the biggest, is that normal?

No other issues apparent apart from its height?


Any help with any of these matters would be greatly appreciated.

Finally a picture of the tent with plants, and ideas welcome on the setup too.




I do not know the PH run off, I will buy a PH testing kit asap, I underestimated how important PH is.

Thank you for reading.

I didnt read the whole post but if i were you id go get some powered dolomitic lime and top dress the soil with it, id then get some distilled/reverse osmosis water and water your plants with that at a 6.6ph and id start them on some cal mag supplement and give them some vegetive nutrients, the dolomitic lime will neutralize the ph in your soil allowing you to bring it within the 6.0-7.0 range and not allow it to fluctuate greatly, do a top dressing of the lime every few weeks.

yep i would agree with sillicity. hes right on seems like a ph problem i would correct the ph first by useing dolomitic lime before adding anything else like cal/mag. do you use a high dose of nutes? or feed them a couple times in a row? if soo maybe the cause of your ph drop, i would add lime and flush very well and get the lime worked in well.

ps the plants look pretty healthy i would get to it as soon as possible tho.

Hi guys, must say thank you for such fast and helpful replies!

I have not really fed them any nutes yet, although the soil contained "slow release nutes" it was mixed with the pearlite etc. I did include some nutes in the most recent watering (yesterday) but do not think anything would show in the leaves yet?

Its 4-5-8 NPK rated, and I have only used about 1/5th of what is recommended, I assumed I was deficient in a few things, but have only used once and am waiting for any signs of improvement.

Should i look for another product with different NPK values?

As for PH, is it a case of it being too high at the moment? or too low? Will all bottled water be at the same PH or should i be testing this pre watering?

As for the dolomitic lime, I will get some tomorrow asap. Will that bring with PH either down or up dependant on its current value, or does it always make it more alkaline?

I guess I should wait a little while to flush, as I feared I had been under-watering them and gave them their first full watering/run off only 2 days ago? I gave the largest 1.2L and the smallest about 600ml. (this was enough to drip through all the bottoms) Prior to that, they maybe had 400-500ml in TOTAL over the course of 3 weeks.

My drainage too is not great, i had to drill holes into the bottom after the were potted as I realised they had no holes, could that be an issue?

Thanks again for the help, and I think they look quite healthy too, just getting nervous!

Have just ordered 2 85w CFLs 6400/2700k to aid with the grow - Is it too late to add the extra veg light now? (3 weeks into grow)

1. It does take a few days for recovery and signs of improvment when given nutrients.

2. i would find a different, more fast reacting, nutrient then what you have, your plants are vegging and do not need more potassium/phosphorous then nitrogen.

3. A combination of both a high and low ph, the low ph in soil would start causing lockouts and then by giving it a high ph like 8.1 itllmstart to bring the soils ph even higher causing a very wide range of lockouts

4. all water is different make sure you check ppm and ph before giving to a plant if possible.

5. dolomitic lime will neutralize/stat bring your ph to 7.0

6. duringa flush your plant gets over watered regardless, it doesnt matter if you water 5 minutes ago, you need to start this process fast to ensure no more advances of the problems.

Nice one. What would be an NPK rating you'd suggest I aim for? Heaviest in N? Also, nobody has mentioned the hole in the leaf, is that anything to worry about?

Thanks again..

no bugs? either light burning the plant when they are wet and or your plant might have had necrosis there and is now gone(unlikely), maybe a bug took a bite and left? either way if its that one leaf and it doesnt spread id not worry.

Silicity said:

no bugs? either light burning the plant when they are wet and or your plant might have had necrosis there and is now gone(unlikely), maybe a bug took a bite and left? either way if its that one leaf and it doesnt spread id not worry.

Click to expand...

op already mentioned crawling and flying bugs, root aphids.

There were fungus gnats, but I do believe they have gone, and don't think they leave marks of that nature? I checked under all the leaves and no sign of anything untoward.

Will get dolomitic lime tomorrow, and more fert, I know of one that is 7-7-7 would that be ok, or should I really search for one with more N?

Sorry for so many questions, and thank you for your replies

you didn't eradicate either fungus gnats or root aphids with soapy water.

but maybe it's a ph thing, good luck.

id look for a higher nitrogen to potassium and phosphorous like a 4-2-3 not no 7-7-7 even though itd probably work its just potassium and phosphorois arent needed as much during veg.

I just saw the comment regarding root aphids. Do you know if it would have been these? Or if they'd still be present? Up till then I had not even heard of them and now I am considering that is what was flying around the plants. They do seem to have gone, but could they still be living on the roots and could they be the cause of any of these issues?

How do I get rid of them if they are root aphids?

get a scope and look at the soil.

I also added a layer of pearlite onto the soil as i read this would tear the larvae apart when they came to the surface?

This is all new for me, so please any information is appreciated. I only "assume" I have gotten rid of whatever they were... if you can help with any suggestions, please do.


Thanks!

find out if its aphids first, freak the fuck out later after you've verified. they aren't as bad as people make them out to be but if it is aphids expect to spend some money.

Cheers sillcity, will check for one in that range

an easy method to killing gnats is to let your soil dry out more than normal like atleast an inch down.

or if you don't want to stress your plants like that mosquito dunks.