First time grow, plant thin, brown cupping leaves

Hi all, this is my first time growing and first post, as i'm sure alot of you can tell, i started growing back in june and added 3 more plants in july, i have had problems with bugs.pests but got rid of them all eventually, i switched to flowering Oct 1, i flushed all my plants with distilled water, 3 gallons each the day b4 i switched to flowering, Can anyone tell me by looking at my pics why my plant leaves are turning yellow and black and cupping, they are falling off left and right, you can see how thin my plants are now, The mid to the top of the plants are fine it is mostly the bottom that is having the problems with turning yellow, cupping, and dying.

Below are the conditions when i switched to flowering on Oct 1, light cycle is 12/12

PH= 6.4
I am using grow flouros from lowe's, i think they are 45 watts each, and they r 8 of them
the temp stays at 80 degrees f constantly
There is total darkness in the room, absolutley no light in the room during 12 off cycle
I have fan circulation, and they do not blow directly on the plant
I water every 5 days, and add nutes every other watering, or as needed
i am using 12-55-8 super bloom nutes from lowes
I do spray neem oil on my leaves and soil maybe once a week to keep out any kind of bug infestation, i have not had any signs of mites, aphids or anything since using the neem oil.

also back in september when they were in veg my timer broke and my light's stayed on for 24hours for almost 2 weeks b4 i noticed the timer broke, would that affect the plants at all?
Let me know if you guys need any more info,

Those plants need more light is 1 issue , you have some serious stretch going on ...
the lower parts of your plants are getting little to no light from those bulbs also...

Looks like a heavy PH and heat problem, as well as other minor deficiencies. You cant solve the minors until you take care of the majors! Lower the temps man!! Most say 80F is fine, but its not. Try to bring it down to atleast 72. Also, check your run off nutrient for ph.

Thanks guys for the quick response, what do you guys recommend as far as the best flouros to use? 2 days ago i flushed my biggest plant and tested the runoff water and it was at 6.5ph, and the weird thing is i tested the nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium levels seperate from each other from the same runoff and they were all off the chart on the High end , what does that mean? do i have ph lockup? and if so how can i fix it? I have been growing for 5 months and i want to get at least a few nice buds out this crop, thanks again for all you guys help. Oh yeah and i will turn back my heater tonight and see if that helps also.

I have some advice to u :
1-use MH lamp (400w-600w or 1000W) for your veg
2-use HPS lamp (400w.....) for your flowering .
3-I used floros and get the plants were to small .
4-use ph between (6.20-6.80) if u use soil not hydro
best wishes
U can c my thread and journal to c my system I think its useful for u if u have some plants

neved said:

I have some advice to u :
1-use MH lamp (400w-600w or 1000W) for your veg
2-use HPS lamp (400w.....) for your flowering .
3-I used floros and get the plants were to small .
4-use ph between (6.20-6.80) if u use soil not hydro
best wishes
U can c my thread and journal to c my system I think its useful for u if u have some plants

Click to expand...

agreed, gotta give up some dough if u want good results floros dont cut it

where is the best place to purchse the lamps your talking about? i want to get them on my ladies as quick as possible. also ive read about having co2 in your grow room, how does that work? where can i get some, i have very very limited outside air coming into my room. i do not think they are getting enough co2.

HELP9 said:

where is the best place to purchse the lamps your talking about? i want to get them on my ladies as quick as possible. also ive read about having co2 in your grow room, how does that work? where can i get some, i have very very limited outside air coming into my room. i do not think they are getting enough co2.

Click to expand...

If you can get the HID lights like the other guys mentioned, then go ahead and get them. You will have better results, especially since you apparently like growing big plants. That said, you can grow nice weed all day long with flourescent lighting. You just need to grow plants that are well suited for them. Look into a small SOG or SCROG for your next grow if you can't spend the money on the HIDs right now. The lights you have right now don't have enough intensity to supply the lower parts of those tall plants with what they need. Even if your plants were half the size they are, you would still benefit from some supplemental lighting with CFLs.

Another problem is that a HID light is going to make your temp situation even worse. 80 degrees is hot, and it would jump to over 90 if you added those lights without addressing the ventilation issue first. You need fresh air coming in, a fan to circulate that air, and then a way for the hot/stale air to escape.

You don't even need to think about adding co2 to that grow. You need a sealed room with proper ventilation of the lighting and the room itself in order to hold it in long enough to do anything. Skip that sort of thing right now and just concentrate on setting up a good basic grow area. Some reflective walls, adequate ventilation, a little more light...

ok well im not going to get into the HID/CFL light argument.

first, is that foil? get rid of it. if you can get more CFLs, hanging ones, or something to give them light at different heights, do it. stay away from HIDs for now, your heat is too high, more on that later.

your ph is fine for dirt. i like to keep mine a lil higher, 6.7 or so, but whatever. seeing as how the pH is fine, then the decay on the leaves is either nutrients or heat.
Nutrients:
cut back a lot. better yet, get something else. wtf is 12-55-8? thats more than 50% phosphorus. i use a mixture for blooming that ends up around 3-6-6 and i still use that at 1/2 strength (and every 4 days).
you gotta think of it like this. 10 pounds of that fertilizer is 5.5 pounds of phosphorus, 1.2 pounds of nitrogen, and .8 pounds of potassium(potash). thats so much phosphorus!
get a variety of nutrients ( i have like 5 or 6), and make a (diluted, low strength) soupy mix that you (and your plants) like. but make sure none of them have any numbers like 55 in the NPK rating, that seems crazy, hell i have one thats 9-2-3 for veggin and i still think thats a lil heavy on nitrogen...

Heat:
whats up with the 80 degrees tho man? thats hot hot. even with CFLs, do you not use AC in your home? i have the AC on, and 2x 85w CFLs, and 6x 35w CFLs and my babies stay at 70-75 degrees
with heat that high, and not using HID lamps, your best 5 dollar investment (or free if you find one in your house you can rinse out and use) is a spray bottle, put some cool water in it, and spray them bitches! cool them off! dont drown them, just a few mists every now and then to reduce the heat, and moisturize the leaves a bit.
try turning your fan on those plants, lower speed. that will stunt growth upwards a bit, but produce bushier plants with thicker stems.

good luck dude, hope this helps.

EDIT: and no, 24 hours of light during veg is ok, thats whats i do all the time, mine get 24/0 from sproutings, til i move them to the flowering room.
when the light comes on, ill post a pic of what i got going, also in 12/12 since the first of october. also under CFL lighting, theres buds everywhere on mine. i think your toxic P levels are fucking them up

thanks guys, i need all the help i can get, the 12-55-8 is something i got from lowes, i read that more phosphorus is needed during flowering but i think i over did it with the phosphorus lol, I lowered my temps to around 75-76 degrees, and gonna get some more CFLs to hang on the sides, front, and back. I do have ac in the room, without that my temps would probably sore to 100f, Also what is a SOG or SCROG? Thanks again guys for all the help, I will put up some more pics in a week or so and hopefully the ladies will look a lot better :}



Where can i get a good ph tester at? i had to use the tube ones with the dissolvable tablets from lowes, but would like to have a more accurate one, i cannot find one at any hardware/garden supply store and i do not wanna buy one online if i don't have too.

SOG and SCROG are two different ways of growing that are well suited for flouro lighting. SOG is Sea Of Green, and the point is to fill the grow area with an even canopy of smaller plants. The usual goal is to harvest one big fat main cola from each plant. This is how I grew years ago, using banks of flourescent tubes like you are. You get less yield per harvest, but you also have quicker turn around because you are flowering the plants as soon as possible, so the veg times are shorter. SCROG is SCReen Of Green. It's the same idea, to concentrate that light over a nice even canopy of buds, but you train the plants around a screen to accomplish that even canopy. The veg times are longer because you have to grow the plants large enough to fill the screen, but you get a ton more bud from each plant. There is lots of info on each method around the forum. Do a search for each term here and Google them too.