Problems

Hey all, got afew northern lights seedlings, well they are 5 weeks old now so i dont know if they are sttill classed as them' anyway ive had afew problems that seem to be coming under controll. The problem is that when i checked them this morning and one leaf just under the growing shoot is twisted abit and theres like bright green streaks on afew leaf tips and other places, not alot of them but its a problems none the less. Transplanted them the other day in i'd say a good gallon pots, they havn't been fed at all apart from the nutes thats already in the compost that said its safe for sowing etc.. but when i put them into they're new pot afew leafs tips burnt' so i was told to flush with 3 times the water as the pots to which i did, but there dont seem to be anymore burning on them so hoping thats sorted but theres those bright green streaks. im unable to put up pic's to which i know and understand a picture says a thousand things, i'd be really gratefull if someone could tell me what they may think or has had them selfs, thanks guys for reading this as i know its abit long but i want to give you the best description i can to try make up the no pics.

I know this gets asked a lot, but do you know what your ph is? The only reason I ask is I had
a similar problem and it turned out to be that my ph was 5.2

Its 6.5 going into the soil and about the same coming out the bottom, the water i flushed them with was done to a ph of 6.5, how did your plants do with the problem you had if you dont mind me asking.

scunkworm said:

Its 6.5 going into the soil and about the same coming out the bottom, the water i flushed them with was done to a ph of 6.5, how did your plants do with the problem you had if you dont mind me asking.

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Don't mind at all. It took about a week to notice any difference, but after I corrected the ph and added some micronutes, it perked up nicely. If your
ph is in check (and it sounds like it is) at 5 weeks old, I'd say micronutrient deficiency is a possibility. I'm certainly no expert, just going by personal
experience. btw..what are your temps like?

What is your water ec or ppm? If it is low i would suggest a little cal/mag and see if that perks it up? If you don't have a ec meter then do you live in a soft water area? Leaf twisting and small green streaks seems a little cal/mag deficiency, won't hurt to try a little and yes the soil should have enough ferts for a few weeks but 5 weeks is a long time and you seem to suggest that the plants are still small, at 5 weeks i get topped plants roughly 10/12 inches tall and very bushy. Are you sure your not overwatering too? Check into the cal/mag issue and your water if the ferts didnt perk it up.

Pics would make it easier, why can't you get some pics? All you need is a digital camera or at worst a phone!

Kingrow1 said:

What is your water ec or ppm? If it is low i would suggest a little cal/mag and see if that perks it up? If you don't have a ec meter then do you live in a soft water area? Leaf twisting and small green streaks seems a little cal/mag deficiency, won't hurt to try a little and yes the soil should have enough ferts for a few weeks but 5 weeks is a long time and you seem to suggest that the plants are still small, at 5 weeks i get topped plants roughly 10/12 inches tall and very bushy. Are you sure your not overwatering too? Check into the cal/mag issue and your water if the ferts didnt perk it up.

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Right on with the cal/mag Kingrow. I didn't have any so I used EJ Microblast and lime, but a lot of my problem was most definately ca/mg related.

Your problem look anything like this scunkworm?

No, not on the seedlings i got but one of my other older plants had abit of that so i cut every affected leaves i could see and it just went, (cross fingers it dont come back) some of the bottom leafs got hit first and the tips had the nute burn colour, so like i said a friend of mine told me to flush with 3 times the amount of water and did, then today the bits of streaks on differnt parts of the leaves some tips some other places. could over watering give these simtoms? onyl reson i ask is coz theres loads of drainage holes in my pots but when i was flushing it was taking a good 5 mins to drain out and it still hasnt dry'd yet, i put some canadian spagnummoss into my compost mix along with some garden lime, sharp sand and perlite. i was starting to think that they were hungry coz they havn't been fed at all and they are growing fair bit so that makes me think it dont need food coz evan after flushing they are still growing unless its using up the nutes that were already in the soil, but it said that it was safe for sowing.

Los Muertos said:

Don't mind at all. It took about a week to notice any difference, but after I corrected the ph and added some micronutes, it perked up nicely. If your
ph is in check (and it sounds like it is) at 5 weeks old, I'd say micronutrient deficiency is a possibility. I'm certainly no expert, just going by personal
experience. btw..what are your temps like?

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im in a 30% soft water area, i havnt got a ppm meter' the nutes i got, well theres two types coz i wanted the seedlings to go organic and got some bio bizz, heard someone call it bio heavan, the orther nutes i got are advanced' a 1 part nute with everything init as its hydro feed, im growing in soil, if ive already said that sorry) lol
I was told to feed by going off the packet which said 4-5ml per liter of water, i started the older plants i got off with them at 1ml into 3 liters of water, they are two and a half months old now' 2 of them wre topped and pinched, and on a 24/7 lighting for afew weeks and they just seemed like if they were not growing so i put them back to 18/6 and they just took off and are a good size but im only up to 1 + a half ml now, sometimes i wounder if they are having enough food but if they wasn,t then they wouldn't grow and be stunted growth i'm right?
Its a mad one and i wish i could get some pics up but really unable to coz of computer problems.

Kingrow1 said:

What is your water ec or ppm? If it is low i would suggest a little cal/mag and see if that perks it up? If you don't have a ec meter then do you live in a soft water area? Leaf twisting and small green streaks seems a little cal/mag deficiency, won't hurt to try a little and yes the soil should have enough ferts for a few weeks but 5 weeks is a long time and you seem to suggest that the plants are still small, at 5 weeks i get topped plants roughly 10/12 inches tall and very bushy. Are you sure your not overwatering too? Check into the cal/mag issue and your water if the ferts didnt perk it up.

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sorry this is the person i ment to quote

The sphagnum peat moss proably holds a lot of the water in the soil and especially if there was already peat in the compost as well. Tip burn on the lower leaves is not normally nute burn, could be overwatering but a healthy plant should overcome this quick. It is so hard to tell without pictures. You say you add lime to the soil, do you do this when you are potting up or way before to give the lime chance to work? What lime and how fine is it? A very fine lime might work quicker. Still sounds like a cal/mag problem there especially with the soft water, depends on the liming of the soil i guess. Epson salts is pretty easy to get hold of for the mag. Don't want to overdo any of these so i'll leave it up to you. Get back about the lime, might not be that fast acting or fine enough grade to start working in the seedling/veg stage. Shame we can't get pics!

so i don't know too much about compost, and would like to hear what someone who knows about it thinks - but it is possible that the thorough flushing you gave it flushed the nutrients (at least, the ones that had been processed by microbes and were made ready for plant to take up) out and left it hungry. This makes sense in my mind. Also it is not unlikely that it's a calmag issue, esp magnesium def is one of the more common deficiencies.

Then again, I doubt if flushing actually made your compost soil lacking in nutes - my wild guess (and really I don't know much about it) is that perhaps the compost needs to be "processed" now into nutrients (chemical elements) by bacteria and fungii, and if your plant is hungry now, then perhaps adding some soil life to it will overcome this deficiency. The best way to do that, I recommend making aerated compost tea - it's a very good thing to do in organics regardless, and people report excellent results. It's also quite easy and cheap - all you need is some fresh compost and an airpump. and molasses or honey or brown sugar. real easy

then again, research before you do it, and be careful. I think it's quite strong and could even burn your plants. Test it on your oldest plants first at low dilution rate, if you think it will be beneficial. if it works, use it wisely on other plants as well.

another easier option (and perhaps less drastic) is just feeding molasses or honey into the soil. It will arouse life in your soil that helps to decompose the compost and feed the plant. I'm pretty sure they will love it.

what do you, other people, think? also worth asking in the 'organics' section of these forums.

Thanks asaph will do, like i said to you yesterday thatit seems to be geting over what ever was wrong and now today that mad bright green colour, the best way i can describe it is that know when your spray painting out of a can, and when you take your finger of the trigger but your arms still moving across whatever your sparying and you get that not full spray but less trasparent then little dods it that makes sense to you? if like your rubbing something and it gets transparent before it tares, i bet your thinking to your self now whats he smoking. lol

what about the leaf veins, do they remain green within the streaks? does this happen to older/bigger or younger/smaller plants? bottom/middle/upper leaves?

what you said about leaf curling is what brings mag def up to mind. what about the growing tips of the plant, they look normal? perhaps a bit more closed than usual?

I'm with the cal/mag deficiency, would try this first probably, rolling leaf edges and twisting leaves, stunted growth.

MY plants are 3weeks old and the tips look like nute burn but I haven't fed any nutes. Any advice?

marijane89 said:

MY plants are 3weeks old and the tips look like nute burn but I haven't fed any nutes. Any advice?

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advice:
start your own thread, and give as much detail as you can about your plants and your soil/other medium, as well as watering. post pics if possible

asaph said:

advice:
start your own thread, and give as much detail as you can about your plants and your soil/other medium, as well as watering. post pics if possible

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I would but since you guys are already helping some out I decided to jump in lol and If I start a new thread its just gonna flood the forums.

"I would but since you guys are already helping some out I decided to jump in lol and If I start a new thread its just gonna flood the forums."

Thats random!?