Purple leaves, slow growth

SFV · Dec 13, 2016

Hello all. This is my very first grow ever and I seem to be running into problem after problem. I planted three seeds and they all sprouted and started growing quickly for a few days. However, growth soon began to come to a halt after that. It's been three weeks now and they haven't grown much at all (see pictures). Around a week or so ago I noticed that the leaves started to droop (one plant especially) and I chalked it up to overwatering. I let the plants dry out for a week until they were bone dry (and the sprouting leaves turned yellow during that time). I also noticed that the very tips of the leaves started to turn purple during this time, but it was very slight so I didn't worry too much about it. I figured it's time to start watering the plants again yesterday so I gave them seaweed water for the first time (I was just giving them clean Brita filtered water before, PPM 22, PH around 6.8, with the exception of giving them Fox Farm Big Bloom one watering a few weeks ago). Today the leaves (especially on one plant) are starting to turn purple all throughout the leaf. The logical thing would be to assume that the seaweed water did that, but they were already starting to turn purple a little bit before they ever had seaweed water. Everything I can find says that purple leaves is a sign of being exposed to the cold. However, this is an indoor grow and the temperature is always in the 70F - 80F range and the humidity is always in the 40% - 50% range. I just gave them plain Brita water again just now to try to flush out the seaweed water, but I'm wondering if there is another issue at play? It seems strange to me that the plants didn't continue to grow (not much at least) even after I provided more drainage and stopped overwatering them.

I'm using a grow tent with a 600W Viparspectra LED grow light 41" above the ground and Soilcycle organic potting soil.

Thanks for your help, and sorry for the long post.

P.S. The leaf on the one plant is twisted, and I don't know why.

chemphlegm · Dec 13, 2016

no worries. time to transplant, begin a scheduled half strength nutrient feeding program.
I dont like fox farm, but other do. I would suggest a botanicare product instead. transplant into some happy frog,
take a splash of your feed and mix with water, foliar feed for awhile, you'll be on track in no time!

they look good really

Tumbleweed_13 · Dec 13, 2016

I had a hell of a go at my first 3 weeks and it was also due to over watering. Once I transplanted them into 1 gal smart pots with coco coir soil, they picked up the pace. I'm not terribly fluent on nutes. I'm using a general hydroponics regiment. The purple I read is from a photosensitive chemical so possibly your lights and their schedule could be suspect. Looking good.

NuggODank · Dec 13, 2016

To begin if you're using a good quality organic potting mix you shouldn't need to add nutrients till after the first 3 weeks because the roots are to small to properly absorb what you're supplying and the cotyledons supply all the food needs to survive the seedling stage.
i Usually wait till the 2 set of true leaves sprout and the cotyledons begin to wither away before adding 1/5 nutrients every other week.
i also haven't looked up your soil but from the looks of it it doesn't have much perlite to help with draining and very large wood chunks which make the roots work harder to spread around. id look into some happy frog or personally what i use is Roots Organics + happy frog.
if you're having problems over watering in a small cup like that its gonna be harder for you once you get into a larger pot where there is more dirt to hold more water thus waterlogging your roots further. I would try to water lightly in circles around the stem of the plants as you want the roots to spread out towards the edges of the pot looking for water if you do decide to transplant to a bigger pot.
I hope this helps some. (ps if you dont already try to weigh out what your cup feels like directly after watering and then everyday as teh water is absorbed gauge the weight to see if your baby has drank all its water and is ready for more.)
Goodluck :bigjoint:

Tupapa · Dec 13, 2016

SFV said:
Hello all. This is my very first grow ever and I seem to be running into problem after problem. I planted three seeds and they all sprouted and started growing quickly for a few days. However, growth soon began to come to a halt after that. It's been three weeks now and they haven't grown much at all (see pictures). Around a week or so ago I noticed that the leaves started to droop (one plant especially) and I chalked it up to overwatering. I let the plants dry out for a week until they were bone dry (and the sprouting leaves turned yellow during that time). I also noticed that the very tips of the leaves started to turn purple during this time, but it was very slight so I didn't worry too much about it. I figured it's time to start watering the plants again yesterday so I gave them seaweed water for the first time (I was just giving them clean Brita filtered water before, PPM 22, PH around 6.8, with the exception of giving them Fox Farm Big Bloom one watering a few weeks ago). Today the leaves (especially on one plant) are starting to turn purple all throughout the leaf. The logical thing would be to assume that the seaweed water did that, but they were already starting to turn purple a little bit before they ever had seaweed water. Everything I can find says that purple leaves is a sign of being exposed to the cold. However, this is an indoor grow and the temperature is always in the 70F - 80F range and the humidity is always in the 40% - 50% range. I just gave them plain Brita water again just now to try to flush out the seaweed water, but I'm wondering if there is another issue at play? It seems strange to me that the plants didn't continue to grow (not much at least) even after I provided more drainage and stopped overwatering them.

I'm using a grow tent with a 600W Viparspectra LED grow light 41" above the ground and Soilcycle organic potting soil.

Thanks for your help, and sorry for the long post.

P.S. The leaf on the one plant is twisted, and I don't know why.

View attachment 3852557 View attachment 3852558 View attachment 3852559

What the guys above say is good advice do that but in the meantime u get ur products try this., First that soil looks bone dry., Try to keep it moist but not damp., Also get ur ph to 6.3-6.5 check ur runoff ppm., Also u can get epson salt at Walmart for a dollar, and grind some egg shells and put one teaspoon of each in a gallon of water., And ohh. Almost forgot STOP using filtered water and start using RO WATER., Reverse osmosis. GL

Tumbleweed_13 · Dec 13, 2016

Word on the RO water. It's hella cheap to buy by the gallon at wal-mart. It's easier to measure out PH and nutes in the gallon containers and also easy to track usage.

SFV · Dec 13, 2016

Thanks for the help guys. From stuff I had read before, I thought it was too early to transplant, but I took your advice and did it, and in one of the cups the roots were wrapped in circles around the bottom of the cup, so it was probably good that I transplanted them. They are in one gallon smart pots now. I did it before seeing the post about getting a different soil though so they're still in the same soil. Now that I've poured out three gallons of the soil, it doesn't have those big wood chunks though. I think they were all on top of the bag of soil or something (I opened a new bag when I first planted them). Is distilled water the same as RO water? My tap water is extremely clean, even before being filtered (PPM 33 or so). I do have some distilled water that I can use though, so I'll start using that.

NuggODank · Dec 13, 2016

Personally my Tap water is also clean so I use that. Distilled water is not good for the plants because its stripped of its natural minerals which the plant benefits from I ran into nutrient def issues with distilled water. Tap is fine. They are plants which all grow fine from tap water

SFV · Dec 13, 2016

NuggODank said:
Personally my Tap water is also clean so I use that. Distilled water is not good for the plants because its stripped of its natural minerals which the plant benefits from I ran into nutrient def issues with distilled water. Tap is fine. They are plants which all grow fine from tap water

Thanks!

Tupapa · Dec 13, 2016

SFV said:
Thanks for the help guys. From stuff I had read before, I thought it was too early to transplant, but I took your advice and did it, and in one of the cups the roots were wrapped in circles around the bottom of the cup, so it was probably good that I transplanted them. They are in one gallon smart pots now. I did it before seeing the post about getting a different soil though so they're still in the same soil. Now that I've poured out three gallons of the soil, it doesn't have those big wood chunks though. I think they were all on top of the bag of soil or something (I opened a new bag when I first planted them). Is distilled water the same as RO water? My tap water is extremely clean, even before being filtered (PPM 33 or so). I do have some distilled water that I can use though, so I'll start using that.

No., I will suggest using ro

SFV · Dec 14, 2016

Hey guys, I checked the plants this morning, and the plant with the purple leaves seems to be turning a lot more purple (see picture). The other two are around the same and just have purple on the tips of the leaves. What could I change about the lights? I have them as high up as possible and on an 18/6 schedule.

The plant that's getting worse:

The plant that's about the same with purple on the tips:

Lordhooha · Dec 14, 2016

SFV said:
Hey guys, I checked the plants this morning, and the plant with the purple leaves seems to be turning a lot more purple (see picture). The other two are around the same and just have purple on the tips of the leaves. What could I change about the lights? I have them as high up as possible and on an 18/6 schedule.

The plant that's getting worse:
View attachment 3853508

The plant that's about the same with purple on the tips:
View attachment 3853507

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and it's an issue with that Costco soil. I was in some different soil here recently had the same issue. Went back to my greenfields, original and promix bx mix I make and issue went away.

NuggODank · Dec 14, 2016

Lordhooha said:
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and it's an issue with that Costco soil. I was in some different soil here recently had the same issue. Went back to my greenfields, original and promix bx mix I make and issue went away.

Thats what i was saying that soil doesn't look optimal. very little perlite too chunky in my opinon

SFV · Dec 15, 2016

Ok thanks, I'm going to buy some different soil then. Should I get Greenfields? I've also heard Fox Farm Ocean Forest Soil mentioned a lot.

SFV · Dec 15, 2016

I can't believe how fast it's getting worse. I'll be getting new soil as soon as I can tomorrow morning. I just hope it's not too late.

I

SFV · Dec 15, 2016

I picked up some Fox Farm Ocean Forest soil today and transplanted them to the new soil. The purple leaf is now turning brown, but even if it dies, hopefully the other two will start growing faster. I may have messed up by spraying the soil off the roots off with water, because when I replanted it, all the roots were kind of clumped together because they were wet. I only did that with the diseased plant though because I didn't want it getting nutrients from the old soil.

Lordhooha · Dec 15, 2016

SFV said:
I picked up some Fox Farm Ocean Forest soil today and transplanted them to the new soil. The purple leaf is now turning brown, but even if it dies, hopefully the other two will start growing faster. I may have messed up by spraying the soil off the roots off with water, because when I replanted it, all the roots were kind of clumped together because they were wet. I only did that with the diseased plant though because I didn't want it getting nutrients from the old soil.

I personally left the old on mine just shook them off a bit. They should be fine though. Hopefully that helps like it did for me. My issue is where I live the guys at the local shops give me crap to demo all the time, not a bad problem to have but out of the two soils they gave one being mostly coco based and the other being a super soil. The coco based had weird issues. Those I transplanted into my regular soil. The super soil plants are digging it heavy.

CaliSmokes · Dec 15, 2016

SFV said:
I picked up some Fox Farm Ocean Forest soil today and transplanted them to the new soil. The purple leaf is now turning brown, but even if it dies, hopefully the other two will start growing faster. I may have messed up by spraying the soil off the roots off with water, because when I replanted it, all the roots were kind of clumped together because they were wet. I only did that with the diseased plant though because I didn't want it getting nutrients from the old soil.

If you ever have another pot filled with roots, don't be afraid to "massage" the sides and bottom and free up the roots right before you transplant. It's best to let the soil dry out before transplant as well. I personally wouldn't have sprayed the roots either.

tstick · Dec 15, 2016

SFV said:
I picked up some Fox Farm Ocean Forest soil today and transplanted them to the new soil. The purple leaf is now turning brown, but even if it dies, hopefully the other two will start growing faster. I may have messed up by spraying the soil off the roots off with water, because when I replanted it, all the roots were kind of clumped together because they were wet. I only did that with the diseased plant though because I didn't want it getting nutrients from the old soil.

FFOF is VERY heavy soil. Whenever I've used it, I've added about 50% more perlite (by volume) to lighten it up and make it drain better. But it's still probably better than what you were using.

I dunno, man. That little thing has been through a lot in its short life!

Give it nothing but pure water...no feeding it -especially in FFOF soil...75-80 degree temps....good air movement....fresh air...good drainage...

As far as training yourself to use better watering techniques, do this:

Weigh the container with just barely damp -think "chocolate cake" -(moist but easily-crumbled) soil in it.....

Next, water the container and allow it to drain well...

Weigh the container again...

As the plant dries, the weight of the container will lighten.

When it gets back to the starting ("barely damp") weight, then you water again.

I am presently using soil in a 5 gallon smart pot, and it weighs about ~24 pounds when it's just been watered and 17.5 pounds when the soil is "dry" (barely damp). I usually give it a full gallon (which is 10 pounds) of water each time. That means that the soil is holding about 6.5 pounds and 3.5 pounds is draining out, immediately. Using this method has allowed me to get well-developed root systems that can easily process a gallon+ of water per day in a 5 gallon smart pot!

The water should drain quickly through the soil at that stage of growth....(As root systems become established, the dense-ness will slow the drainage...but by that time, you'll have a root system that will suck up water like a sponge!)

Good luck!

AimAim · Dec 15, 2016

tstick said:
. I usually give it a full gallon (which is 10 pounds) of water each time. That means that the soil is holding about 6.5 pounds and 3.5 pounds is draining out, immediately. Using this method has allowed me to get well-developed root systems that can easily process a gallon+ of water per day in a 5 gallon smart pot!

FWIW a gallon of water is 8.35 pounds, not 10 pounds. If you are going to toss numbers around make sure they are somewhat accurate.

Purple leaves, slow growth

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