Yellowing, brown spots, young seedlings

OK guys something has gone wrong and i need some advice.

Last week i came home after working away to find my auto watering system failed and the pots were dry and my girls looked very sad. They were curling slightly and looked a touch yellow, but i gave them a good soak and by sunday night they had perked up a bit.

I left them for the first time on a 18/6 cycle instead of 24 hours, and now coming home tonight, disaster.

The pots were a bit dry, but still some moisture in them, but the plants look...well, see for yourself.



The second one you can see has had the worst of it. The first and last pics you see some brown spots. The forth one, however, while a touch yellow and a wee bit curled down, is surprisingly healthy looking.

Today i got to use my PH meter for the first time and checked the tank. UH OH! It registered a PH of 8.9. I preyed it was wrong, checked it in the PH calibration solution and it was cock on. What makes it worse, i had just watered the plants with this alkaline shite! I checked the PH of my water butt outside and even the rain water was high, at 7.8, but i thought screw it, it is still more acid than the stuff i just fed my poor babies.

I emptied the tank and filled it back up with the rain water. I then soaked and flooded the coco in the desperate hope that my poor girls will get something a little closer to the PH they need.

Now from these photos, does this look like typical under watering and PH stress? Whats with the crazy blotches? If there something else my girls have been subject to?

The temp was 22.4 degrees C, humidity was at 45%, 50% after i watered them and probably a little higher now i flooded the place. It is late at night here, and the hydro shop isnt open till the morning, and i dont have any PH down.

What would you guys suggest? Get the PH to a 6.5 and give them a good watering again? I havent started feeding nutes to them yet, would that help? Or would i just stress them out more?

I feel like such a bad dad =(

Bump, any advice before i leave for the hydro shop?

Today i got to use my PH meter for the first time and checked the tank. UH OH! It registered a PH of 8.9

Click to expand...

And thats your whole problem your PH is thru the roof, should have had the meter from the start in hydro. They wont recover.

Seriously? =( One still looks healthy, i shall concentrate on that one plant. Thanks buds. I shall try to save them all, ill give it another week then cull the straglers.

Lowered the PH to 5.8 and added a tiny bit of nutes to the mix. Lets hope they respond.

Well i checked them this morning and they didnt look any worse, which i suppose is a good sign. I have given them a thorough watering and also cut off the first set of true leaves where they were badly damaged. I am hoping this will let the rest of the plant get the attention. The new leaves look green so lets hope they can cope. They are back on 24 hours of light now from 18/6 and i will update on friday when i see them again.

This is a valuable lesson learned. Didnt realise something that is a weed would be this responsive to bad PH levels, specially since it was rain water. Fingers crossed at least one survives so i can take cuttings.

Have never given plants that young nutes before.
Would be careful about cutting up plants that young as well.
Just keep the original problems under control (ph and watering) and they will be ok.
Any stress early on in a plants life will have some negative effects on it's future.
Just try to keep those stresses to a minimum.
Have had plants get stressed early on turn into excellent plants before.

Thanks Hank, i hope they turn out ok. I will see them tonight for the first time since i last posted. To be honest, i expect them to be dead. I have made 2 major mistakes from the start. I potted them up way too early and didnt check the PH. I know now never to make these mitakes again. But for my first grow, i am happy it was only 5 plants and i didnt destroy £100 worth of seeds with a larger number lol.

If they make it, i will just veg them and use them all as mothers, and turn to hydroponics/aeroponics for the clones.

They survived =D

Good to hear.

2 in particular have gone a nice deep green and shown more growth in the past week than they have done since they sprouted! the other 3 are growing, but still a lighter green. Just got to keep an eye on them. I think another few days and it would have been too late.