Nute burn to N def in a day? My plants need some help.

Hi everyone! First grow, first post I spent the last few weeks piecing together my hydro setup and finally got everything going a few days ago. Im only growing 2 plants right now(super silver haze) and they are very responsive to their environment. Let me give you a quick run down of the last 2 or 3 days and then Ill get to my problem. I am using a drip hydro system with rockwool and hydroton. Currently, the plants are under several CFL lights. I am using FoxFarm hydro nutes. I have 2 plants(in compliance with local and state laws), both about the same height, one is slim and sexy(Jenny) and the other is gonna be a burly girl(Helga). Helga has a thicker stem and more sets of leaves. Both plants have purple stripes up the stems, but I think theyre supposed to be that way(correct me if I am wrong).

I picked up 2 fully rooted clones from my friend in 1" rockwool cubes friday night, they were a little droopy from the trip home, so I soaked my 4" rockwool cubes in some ~5.5-6.0 ph water(I have a liquid ph kit, it isnt very exact), plugged them in, and put them into my dome for a day. They perked up nicely almost immediately and on saturday they seemed ready to go into their pots. Jenny, the smaller plant handled the move to the pots just fine, and even perked up a bit more afterwards, but Helga on the other hand bent almost double in less than an hour. Her stem felt like spaghetti and she looked a little wimpy. So I allowed the plants to have their first feeding and set the dome on top of the pots to try and hold a little humidity. After 2 hours or so, she was back on her feet looking strong, standing at attention.

Later saturday night, I went to check on them and noticed Helga's upper/middle tips were all yellowing. At that point I realized that I wasnt paying attention when I mixed my reservoir and mixed it almost full strength, so I flushed the plants really well and diluted the reservoir down significantly. I didnt get my PPM meter until sunday morning, and checked them first thing. After diluting the reservoir(to about 450ppm) I reset my timer so they would only get one feeding in the meantime until I could test, just in case. So after checking the res, and paying close attention to the plants, I thought they might be ready to go on feeding again and reset the timer to the normal schedule. This whole time, Jenny, the smaller plant, did not yellow on her tips and looked nice and happy, but at this point has 1 or 2 yellow tips.

So moving on a few hours on sunday, the yellow tips did not progress any more, but some of the serrated edges on Helgas leaves started to fade just a bit, but have not worsened, although some of the ends of the leaves(which had tips missing when I got the plants) are yellowing. So I assumed it was still over fed, but as the day progressed, both plants started lightening up on their lower leaves, looking like N def, from what I have been able to research. My plants are making noticeable changes in appearance over just a few hours, so I am having trouble figuring out what is up. First they look overfed, now they look like theyre underfed. And whichever solution I attempt could be in the opposite direction.

This morning, I checked my babies, and the yellow splotches are progressing up the lower leaves, but no more obvious yellowing of tips, or the serrated leaf edges farther up, but the upper growth is starting to yellow as well now, but splotchy. THe upper leaves are lightening, but do not really show up well in the pics.

I realize this may not be an extreme, or even moderate issue, but considering how fast these plants are responding to their environment I want to make sure I treat them properly. I did not allow them to feed overnight and did a light flush on them. I did not want to flush ALL the nutes away, so they can still try to acclimate, but I need to figure out if I should get them back on schedule, or continue flushing.

I hope I have managed to make myself clear on this, my first post. Ive found a lot of great info on this site and look forward to being able to contribute once I get better at this.

Small update: earlier this morning, when I took the pics above, I did another light flush in case they were overfed. I am noticing more yellowing, mainly on the larger leaves and they are showing up as splotches between the smaller outward pointing veins. It really doesnt show up all that well in the pics, but it is there. It seems to affect the larger, broader leaves based on size more so than their location, since the largest leaves are kind of in the middle area. It def doesnt look like nute burn anymore, but the original burn spots that showed up days ago havent improved noticeably, at least I dont think they have, but havent gotten worse. But the whole plant is moving more towards the yellow color. I think I am going to resume normal feeding schedule for today and see if it improves.

EDIT: Attached a new pic of Helga, she has developed more noticeable yellow over the last 2-3 hours(after another flush). Helgas veins in the centers of the leaves are looking less yellow now than they were yesterday though, I am assuming from the burn.

Here she is today, more yellow on the largest leaves, and a general lightening overall of the plants color. Now that theyre back on their feeding schedule, the leaves are standing straighter and taller than ever. Yesterday, my buddy hooked me up with some H&G Root Excelurator and some Magic Green, so theyve received a treatment with those, so hopefully that will help some too.

First off.. If you just started growing your plants. DONT GIVE THEM NUTES. let them get nice and strong for the first three to four weeks and then start giving them nutes. The reason they're yellowing is cause they're being overfed. Give them less water, let the soil (if thats what your using) dry out a little and then rewater. If your using a hydro set well then.. Not sure what to tell you. Of what i know of hydro set's i'm going to assume the plants need to get used to it. But if you changed a plant from soil to hydro even if its just a clone. You will experience anomalies like that.

Im using a drip hydro setup(rockwool/hydroton). These plants have never seen soil. The clones were well rooted by the time I got them in 1" rockwool cubes with about an inch of growth extending out from the cube. They were also about 8" tall or so. I want to say they were aobut 7-10 days old by the time I got them. I transplanted them to larger cubes and potted them after they recovered from the move. I have a few friends who also grow hydro who have told me, and from what Ive seen on here, 1/4-1/3 nutes are what I should be running for the first few days to a week or so once they are well rooted so they can acclimate to the nutes since they are using the stored nutes from mommy. Although the first feeding they got was full concentration, my fault, I diluted it to about 1/3. At that point I got worried and did the flush thing and did not feed them for a while, just water flushes. They did not respond too well to that and got pretty droopy and lackluster, and for lack of response on here I went back to a normal feeding schedule just to see what happened. And yesterday I had my friend come by and check it out and he doesnt think they are getting burned either. It seems just the largest leaves are yellowing at this point, and only on my larger plant. The smaller plant has not gotten any more yellow, but just today the big one has more noticeable yellow in the largest low leaves, like it is robbing nutrients. The yellowing is not along the tips anymore like all the pics I have found of burn. It started as splotches between the small veins going outward, nearest the ends, and started progressing inward. I am no expert by any means, but Ive done a lot of research and I feel pretty strongly at this point they they are possibly underfed. My plants do look stronger today despite the growing yellow. They look taller, the new growth at the top looks bigger than it did this morning, and some of the leaves are standing much straighter than they ever have. My upper leaves are not yellowing anymore, but the large lower leaves are getting noticeably worse on my larger plant. Today is the first signs of growth I have seen out of them. I did add the Root Excelurator last night, and I hear fantastic, amazing things about that, so it may be helping. I also used a spray solution of Magic Green which my friend said will help add nutes if they need it, but should not burn the plant. Also, the main, central veins are not completely yellow anymore like they were.

I am hoping that the reason my larger plant is yellowing and not the smaller is because it is starting to draw nutrients, and the diluted solution isnt enough. My friend seems confident that they will spring back and are just stressed and acclimating. I hope he is right, and I trust his judgement since he has been growing a while, but discussing things like these helps me learn more as well, and I wanted to pick more brains.

Here's a better look at the whole plant. You can see just one set of leaves is yellowing badly, the others seem to have not gotten any more yellow after the initial tip burn, and in fact, this plant looks like it has grown, but i could be imaging it.

On a side note, should the Magic Green make things smell funny. I noticed today when I went into the basement, there is a different smell about that I havent noticed before. And this whole setup has only been in use for 4 days or so from new, so I dont imagine I have any nasties yet.

ur plant is obviously hungry
u need to feed it

moash said:

ur plant is obviously hungry
u need to feed it

Click to expand...

Thats what I am hoping. If you missed it, I just edited my previous post and added a better pic. Ive currently got them on a regular feeding schedule (30min every 4 hrs) but still with the diluted nutrient solution.

Your clones can definitely start getting fed. They're not seedlings, they're clones, so once they have a good root system, they will need food right away. I would bring the ppm level up to around 900 to start making them happy with a ph between 5.7 and 6.1. I think BioChemx was under the impression that they were from seed, or came from soil, which isn't the case. Also, check with your friend that gave you the clones, because I'm sure he/she would know more about he intricacies of that particular strain.

Actually my friend who gave them to me didnt know much about them, but got them from a friend of his who runs a grow for dispensaries, and he said it had great genetics. I did a lot of research on this particular strain(super silver haze), and actually learned him a little But he has been growing for years in one for or another, just not this particualr strain. I will up the concentration a bit today and see how they fare

Super Silver Haze is going to be a more challenging strain for a beginner, but I have faith. As long as you keep an eye on your ppm levels, and ph levels, you should be fine.

I originally had a few G-13s lined up originally, and am still really disappointed that deal fell through since it is my absolute favorite. Ive never actually even smoked this strain, so I hope I like it since I generally prefer a heavy indica, but SSH has such high marks, I think I will like it. I check my ppm and ph at least 2-3 times a day and dote on the girls. I talk to them and play them music and give good vibes. Plus I love challenging new hobbies and am a bit of a perfectionist, so I think it should work out well But I will be asking questions around here for sure. Great site.