27 days in flowering - looking bad - pictures - can anyone help?

I know I have made a lot of mistakes on what will most likely be my first and only grow. I have a distinct disadvantage in growing, I am sight impaired. To see something clearly, I have to have my nose within an inch of the object. That gives me a very pleasant smell, but I will miss seeing things that a person with good sight would see right away. I’m sure that my plants were showing symptoms long before I noticed them.

Let me tell you about my grow.

Oct 1 planted bag seeds (pretty good stuff) in moist 60% miracle grow potting mix, 40% perlite.

Oct 6 seeds came up.

Oct 18 transplanted into 5 gallon buckets of miracle grow potting mix and placed under 600W MH. I know now that I transplanted too soon, and should not have gone to 5 gallon size on first transplant.

Nov 5 since I transplant into too big of a pot, it took until today for the plants to use up the water that was in the soil. For the first time since they were transplanted 18 days ago, I fed/watered them today. Before today the only nutrients they had was whatever miracle grow puts in their mix. I watered them with 6.8 pH water with 1tbsp GH Flora micro mixed into 5 gallons of water, 1tbsp GH grow, 1tbsp GH bloom. The EC of this solution was 1.5, and I gave each plant 1 gallon of it.

Nov 6 Changed light to 12/12 600W HPS

Nov 12 Watered plants with clear water 6.8pH.

Nov 13 removed males

Nov 15 Watered plants with clear water 6.8pH. I have been cautioned about overfeeding and burning them, so I’ve been afraid to feed them.

Nov 18 fed/watered with 5 gallons water, 2tbsp GH Flora micro, 1tbsp GH grow, 3tbsp GH bloom. pH 6.2, EC 1.8. gave each plant 1 gallon.

Nov 22 I noticed a problem with my plants. The leaves were curling, twisting, turning yellow, getting brown patches, etc. Since I had just fed them 4 days before, I assumed that I had overfed them, so I flushed 5 gallons of water thru each one. I know now that wasn’t enough water for a thorough flush, but I learned this after I did my flush.

Nov 27 nothing has improved, worse if anything. I watered again with clear 6.8pH water.

Nov 29 still no improvement. Watered again with clear pH water. I posted pictures on RIU and two people responded back to me that I had a magnesium deficiency, and advised me to add Epsom’s salt.

Nov 30 went and got Epsom’s salt and mixed up a 2% E salt solution and sprayed them down good after the light went out. I also mixed 3tbsp E salt in a 5 gallon bucket of water, added 2tbsp GH micro, 1tbsp grow, 3tbsp bloom,1tbsp Bcuzz Bloom and gave each plant about a quart of it, (I had been giving them 1 gallon) and added additional water to the ones that needed it.

Dec 2 watered again clear water pH 6.8

Dec 3 I did some testing tonight. I have seen some of these questions asked when someone was looking for help. I don’t know what is relevant, and what isn’t, but I will give as much info as I can. If someone needs additional information in order to help me, just ask.

Here are some pictures of the plants now



I have two different type plants, 3 short bushy plants, and 2 tall less bushy. The shorter ones are about 32” and the taller ones 52”.

The humidity usually runs between 20 – 55%, it did get up to 76% the night that I sprayed them down with E salt.

The temperature ranges from 69 – 86*F

I have two 465CFM exhaust fans set on thermostats, first one comes on at 79*F, second one comes on at 85*F.

First fan runs most all of the time that light is on, second one runs less than ¼ of the time the light is on.

Is air exchange needed at night? Should I run an exhaust fan at night?

Two 16” oscillating fans run on high 24 hours a day to move plants around and toughen the stems.

Grow room 232 cu ft but only using half of it, divided by black/white poly .

I tested the run-off water tonight. pH going in 6.8, coming out 5.6

Does this mean that I need to raise pH of the water? How much?

I don’t know if it means anything or not, but I tested the EC of the run-off also.

The EC of my clear water is 0.1

After adding 3tbsp of E salt to 5 gal of water, the EC is 2.7.

2.7 EC going in, the run-off EC is 4.3. this probably is insignificant

Does this mean that it has too much nutrients, or is there something else that is washing out of the mix that registers on the EC meter?

What is wrong with my plants?

What I should do from here? The E salt appears to have helped some of the problems, but certainly not all of them.

Should I keep adding the E salt to the water, if so, for how long?

Should I foliar feed them again with the E salt solution? If so, for how long, and how often?

What about feeding them? Am I feeding them too little? Should they be fed every other watering, every third watering, or what? What strength (EC)? Am I being paranoid about burning them?

Any help is appreciated.

Here are pictures from before E salt treatment.

c.low - first, I am a new grower, but will give you my 2 cents because no one is responding to you. I didn't see any holes in your white 5 gallon buckets..... if there are not any, this is probably your culprit... and you could have root rot if there is water build up in the bottom of the bucket, or your roots could be drowning. Next, if there is buildup of nuts/epsom salts, or whatever else in your soil, I was taught to flush with 6.0 ph water.... the water needs to be 6.0 because it has to be acidic enough to eat up or "flush" the buildup... your ph of 6.8 seems too high... i have all my plants at 6.5, unless i'm flushing, then it's 6.0.... but the strain can have a bearing on that. If you don't have holes in your buckets, drill some NOW! Oh and one more thing, you will see posts all over RIU with people having problems like yours and the only common denominator is the "miracle grow" soil. A ton of growers say don't use it for mary jane. Again i'm new, just my input - hope it helps.
good luck to you.
kiki

yeah bro your hitting them with alot of water with mg u wanna wait till it almost bone dry.

thanks for responding kiki. I do have holes in the buckets. The biggest drill bit i had was 1/2" so they are small, but there are there, about 15 per bucket. I have also come to the conclusion that miracle grow was a mistake.
thanks
c.low

im a hydro grower, but twisty leaves, yellowing, hook leaves in my system was caused to low of PH, my meter was broken. I know soil ideal PH should be 6.5, so your PH being so low is most likely your problem.

I have no clue about fertalizing in soil, can someone chime in with if his nute levels are ok, cause if they are, im 99% u have a low PH issue locking out needed nutrients.

Sorry to hear your eyes suck, but dont give up once u get it right it such a fun and rewarding hobbie.

I don't water them until they are dry. I go by the weight of the buckets. when they get real light, i know they need water. I've let them go a little too far a couple of times and they had started to wilt, but they came back ok after watering them.
thanks for responding
c.low

thanks pataloc, i was wondering if that was the problem after i found out how low the pH of the run-off water was. My eye problems have been going on for almost 20 years. I somewhat gotten used to it. I've learned different ways to do things. For my computer, I've got a 32" monitor with the resolution set to 800 X 600, It makes everything BIG so i can read it.
thanks again
c.low

They look burnt too me. MG soil has time released ferts in it and you are adding ferts to the water. I would say flush it but it may release too much fert in the soil mix. I do not use MG soil so I can not tell you what to do. But I have burnt my plants with high ppm and it looks like you have the same problem. Good luck.