Slow Growth? Curling Leaves? Little Bud Development?

geko26

Member
I planted these random seeds on 4/18, so it's been almost 4 months right now. They've probably been on 12/12 for the last 2-3 months.

Air / Temp / RH: Circulation by a fan, intake, exhaust, temps average 75, RH average 60. Bring in fresh air, closet grow
Nutes: I feed FloraDuo nutes about 2x per week when watering, full strength
Lights: 1x150w HPS, 1x200w CFL (bloom bulb)
Plants are tied up a little due to excessive height growth, but otherwise would be around 5-6' tall.
Soil: FoxFarm 1/2 OF, 1/2 LW

Problem:
The leaves are very wispy-like, some are curled at the tips in circles, and bud development which was doing ok maybe a month ago seems to have slowed and isn't filling in as thick as I think it should be. The pots are VERY small for this size if you look at the picture. They're probably like 1.5gallon pots. I've never added any other nutes such as Cal-Mg or anything else. I don't know whether it's the light output (for these size plants) or if its something else. My main question is -- should I even keep this grow? Is it salvagable? Should I start over? I just got new seeds in and really don't mind trashing this grow if it's not going to get any better than this and take more months to finish. I'd rather just startup new ones in a DWC setup, but anyway, any help on this please would be great!

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calicat

Well-Known Member
I planted these random seeds on 4/18, so it's been almost 4 months right now. They've probably been on 12/12 for the last 2-3 months.

Air / Temp / RH: Circulation by a fan, intake, exhaust, temps average 75, RH average 60. Bring in fresh air, closet grow
Nutes: I feed FloraDuo nutes about 2x per week when watering, full strength
Lights: 1x150w HPS, 1x200w CFL (bloom bulb)
Plants are tied up a little due to excessive height growth, but otherwise would be around 5-6' tall.
Soil: FoxFarm 1/2 OF, 1/2 LW

Problem:
The leaves are very wispy-like, some are curled at the tips in circles, and bud development which was doing ok maybe a month ago seems to have slowed and isn't filling in as thick as I think it should be. The pots are VERY small for this size if you look at the picture. They're probably like 1.5gallon pots. I've never added any other nutes such as Cal-Mg or anything else. I don't know whether it's the light output (for these size plants) or if its something else. My main question is -- should I even keep this grow? Is it salvagable? Should I start over? I just got new seeds in and really don't mind trashing this grow if it's not going to get any better than this and take more months to finish. I'd rather just startup new ones in a DWC setup, but anyway, any help on this please would be great!

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Got a lot going on here. You have macronutrient toxicity 1st sign is the clawing of leaves. You have a ph problem prolly causing a salt buildup leaves are twisted. Noticed some cal/mag deficiencies. What I suggest to you in your next grow slightly ease your way to full strength of nutrient regimen. I would never tell anyone to trash their grow beause its a learning experience we all have gone through it it one way shape or form. You might wanna research pruning techniques. Not sure how many plants you ran I think I see three but with your light source wouldnt be enough to fill buds with that heigth profile.
 

Nizza

Well-Known Member
they look really stretchy, maybe more light? was all the bottom foliage dying as you grew it? this is a good indication you werent giving it enough light they look pretty tall for just a 150
 

geko26

Member
Ok so where do you think i went wrong then, just with the nutes? Yeah I'm running 3 of them, I didn't mean for them to get this large, they kinda just got out of control fast and I didn't act fast enough. Will they finish as-is and if so how long do you think it would take? 2 months or more? I'm going to exchange my current 2 lights out for a 250w HPS for the next grow, and probably get larger pots to transition them into. I'll also pickup some cal-mg and try to regulate my PH better, although it's been in the 6.5-7 range the entire grow, maybe I needed to flush the soil due to build up?

So, is there anything I can do to try to get them healthier? I think I learned my lesson here and kind of want to cut my losses if they won't yield much and won't finish soon, unless you think I should keep trying with these guys. I have had 3 successful grows in the past, but in different setups (DWC and a different intake / exhaust system, and better genetics seeds).
 

geko26

Member
Yeah, they did stretch a bit in the beginning. I had some problems with my lights mid grow. Yes, the foliage did die a little on the bottom. I really intended for them to be half this size, height wise, but I let them veg too long and had the lights too high for a period of time, so they stretched and then I guess I didn't have enough light for what they ended up growing into. I think that's where things started to go wrong.
 

SOMEBEECH

Well-Known Member
First how do you not know 12/12 period you say 2-3 months,As Cali says alot of stuff and for sure there Rootbound.Assuming you did not transplant,Your not gonna get Good results 4 months in those little containers with those size of plants.
 

geko26

Member
Also -- I think one of my biggest questions is -- what can I do now in the meantime to get things under control, and is it even worth it? Will they develop to maturity and just have a lower yield due to the problems above? If they will finish flowering into something I can get some smoke out of, then I'm ok with letting them go on for another month or two. What can I do now?
 

geko26

Member
First how do you not know 12/12 period you say 2-3 months,As Cali says alot of stuff and for sure there Rootbound.Assuming you did not transplant,Your not gonna get Good results 4 months in those little containers with those size of plants.
I assumed they were rootbound due to the small containers. Is there a chance they'll bounce back if I transplant now? I'm not sure what you're saying. I said they've been 12/12 for 2-3 months during bloom to give you an idea of how long I've had them flowering...
 

SOMEBEECH

Well-Known Member
Dont know its tough call not knowing how long they have been Flowering.They look Sativa dom,10-12 weeks flower.IMO id give another 2 weeks,but really dont think your gonna see alot of improvement with all the issues you have going on,your call.
 

geko26

Member
Dont know its tough call not knowing how long they have been Flowering.They look Sativa dom,10-12 weeks flower.IMO id give another 2 weeks,but really dont think your gonna see alot of improvement with all the issues you have going on,your call.
Yeah that's the thing, even if I corrected anything I could now, I feel like they've already stressed for so long it wouldn't do any good. At the same time, throwing out 4 months of work is tough lol. This is the first of 4 grows that this has happened to with me, so I guess it was the one to teach me these lessons. Good thing they were trash seeds, at least I didn't waste that much $, just time :(

Thanks for your guys' feedback and help.
 

SOMEBEECH

Well-Known Member
I assumed they were rootbound due to the small containers. Is there a chance they'll bounce back if I transplant now? I'm not sure what you're saying. I said they've been 12/12 for 2-3 months during bloom to give you an idea of how long I've had them flowering...
Well is it 2 or 3 big difference in Flowering,Like 30 days.I myself woundnt waste anymore time,and get started with the DWC.Also id never try to grow and flower my soil grows in 1 container,unless its 5g plus.In my soil grows i vegg in a 1g then transplant to 3g smart pots leave in vegg for a week then move to flower station.
 

geko26

Member
Well is it 2 or 3 big difference in Flowering,Like 30 days.I myself woundnt waste anymore time,and get started with the DWC.Also id never try to grow and flower my soil grows in 1 container,unless its 5g plus.In my soil grows i vegg in a 1g then transplant to 3g smart pots leave in vegg for a week then move to flower station.
Yeah it's definitely 3. I planted on 4/18, bloomed around 5/20. So in a week, it'll be 3 months. I already chopped the 3 of 'em down, writing down notes to remind myself in my next grows what not to do and what to check for. Time to get my DWC system out of the shed :) I usually grew in hydro until this recent grow, I tried soil. Not to knock soil, but I think i'm just going to stay with hydro setups from now on, even though they require more maintenance, i feel like its easier to monitor and care for the plant. I flushed the 3 pots after I chopped the plants and the PH from the runoff is at 5 even, so I guess I did have a PH problem as well afterall in addition to the other issues. I'm about to pull them out of the pots now and take a look at the roots, although I'm sure based on the plant size they're going to be very cramped! Like you said, I probably should've transplanted right before switching from flower to 5 gal pots, and did a better job w/ the PH and nutes and they may have turned out differently :(. If I do soil again i'll check out those smart pots you were talking about. Thanks again
 

SOMEBEECH

Well-Known Member
Wish you had checked PPM of runoff.At 5ph they were in complete lockout of nutes.So you gonna do DWC? What you got a single or multi meshpot?
 

geko26

Member
They were at 2.2k TDS. I'm not sure what that equates to for PPM, but in my past grows I usually would keep it around 1k. Yeah I think I'm going to do DWC, I have 2 single 5gal DWC systems, although I just started to germinate 3 seeds so I may buy 1 more. The only thing I dont like about my DWC's I have is that the water doesn't circulate like in a drip system. I thought about converting them to drip systems... I usually just manually take water from the res and pour it over the hydroton to simulate a drip and to give the roots up top a little water instead of relying solely on the bubbling getting the roots on the bottom of the basket wet, at least until the plants are large enough and the roots start to submerge, then I stop simulating the drip.
 

Slipon

Well-Known Member
Im to lazy to read it all .. and Im sure you allready got lots of oppinions here .. I would just say one thing based on them pics .. Nitrogen toxien !

need to cut it when they start to flower and maybe do a flush if you got lots of salts left from veg ..
it will use some the fist two weeks of flowering .. so its ok to leave some left in the soil the plant can use up .. but never add more after them two weeks .. its need high P. and some K. insted ..


good luck .. it will still yild .. but not as mouch .. learn from it for your next grow .. as somebody els said .. most of us have been ther or sumthing similar ..
 

SOMEBEECH

Well-Known Member
@GEKO,I just got one from GH products has a Coco lid,as a basket to hold hydrotron.Has drip ring,but have read can cause Stem rot if left on after roots hit water,or gets water on stem for long periods of time.Guy at hydro store said id be fine tho.I started some BB in FFOF for 3 weeks in solo cup,then cut bottom out of cup put in mesh pot with pebbles about 1 inch under then filled mesh pot and put in the Coco baskett and covered with the hydrotron.Took 6 days and there off and running.
 
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