Sick Golden Tigers

I started three Golden tigers in peat pods and transplanted into larger pots with organic potting weeks later. Now the bottom leaves of the plants are turning black/brown and crumbling. I was hoping my Ace Seeds buddies could help me bring these Tigers back to health. Your advice is always appreciated!

Looks like the ph in the soil is sliding off. Did you reuse old soil or dose them with a great deal of nutrients? I'd pull em out of the pots, shake off the loose soil and put em in a new batch of happy frog with a healthy dose of dolomite lime.

Give them only water for the next 2 weeks.

Did you fertilize them? In that amount of soil they had food for a month easily.

Clean that dirty tray as dirty environments tend to get problems.

You may as well cut off that fried leaf now in the 2nd pic.

Azure said:

I started three Golden tigers in peat pods and transplanted into larger pots with organic potting weeks later. Now the bottom leaves of the plants are turning black/brown and crumbling. I was hoping my Ace Seeds buddies could help me bring these Tigers back to health. Your advice is always appreciated!

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Super crispy. People consistently overestimate how many nutes and which nutrients plants need and when.

I would grow them in coco coir, and use 50/50 regular nutes and high p/k (like Plagron Green Sensation 0-9-10 or Atami B'Cuzz 0-20-30). Use 0.2 EC for both nutrients (0.4 total), on top of your water EC, and a pH of 6.0. (Add a drop of root stimulator for even better results, although it's not necessary.) This is for coco coir.

The reason is that young plants need a lot of P is to develop their root system. The extra K thickens the stem, which allows more water and nutrients to be exported from the roots to the foliage. This in itself also speeds up the plant's metabolism.

At the same time, P and K cannot burn your roots like N or Mg can.

What you have here is a plant that was transplanted in soil that was too hot. If you want to transplant into soil, you should always make sure that the soil the rootball comes into contact with is very mild - milder than the rootball itself. Otherwise, you get rootburn from transplanting.

(UPDATE 12/29/2016)

Also, all soil that has been mixed, land that has been worked and even coco coir right out of the bag, need to rest before it's used. Especially new soil and also coco coir need to be watered thoroughly with the right pH water, and left to sit for a a few days for coir, weeks for soil, the longer the better. Most bagged media need time to hydrate. If they don't they absorb the moisture right out of the root hairs.

And perlite needs to be treated by putting it in a tub and putting in enough warm water until it floats. Let it stand for 10 minutes and scoop up everything that floats. What is left looks like old school wallpaper glue and would have turned your medium into cement over time.

I agree with Terpene. The quickest way to nurse them back to health is to gently take them back to bare roots and then transplant to good soil. Also take off the worst leaves to help avoid mold issues, but not all leaves that look bad until new growth is taking off. Keep them away from strong light until they recover.
Good luck I hope you can save them.

Also you said you started in peat pods. If you mean jiffy pellets ? Nothing but trouble for MJ. stay away from them to start seeds.

Peace GG

Peat pots are notoriously hot. Stopped using them years ago.
Agree with others.....hope the vigor takes hold.
Good luck!

Hi Azure,

Looks like your seedlings don't like too much the new soil, maybe the soil mix is too hot with nutrients or maybe the ph is incorrect (or both). Try to water them only with destiled water in correct PH only when the soil is really dry (respect wet and dry cycles so the roots can adapt better to the new media), maybe add just a little of Rhizotonic to improve root system in the waterings, and let the plants naturally recover until the seedlings can grow up a bit more and their roots can take the nutrients of the new soil.

Please, keep us updated with your progresses.

Seriously great responses here.
Nice to know us noobs are being helped along.

I replaced the soil last night. I shook most the generic house plant soil loose and replaced it with some Happy Frog. The Golden Tigers actually had great root structure.
Today the Tigers look ok. Not drooping or fatigued from transplant shock.
Let's see what happens in a few weeks. I think we got to them just in time.
Thanks everybody!

Azure said:

I replaced the soil last night. I shook most the generic house plant soil loose and replaced it with some Happy Frog. The Golden Tigers actually had great root structure.
Today the Tigers look ok. Not drooping or fatigued from transplant shock.
Let's see what happens in a few weeks. I think we got to them just in time.
Thanks everybody!

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If you water the plants, please try a very mild solution (0.1 EC, 0.2 EC) with a high P/K fertilizer. This will stimulate the roots to find all nutrients in the Happy Frog. Ironically, by raising the P/K it also makes the soil milder. Cheers.

look badly burned from to many nutrients! Lay off the hot sauce!

Glad to see they made it.

That's great. Nice to see how you can tell there is new growth (new roots) when the newest branch looks silvery. And a beautiful sativa leaf, by the way.

TanzanianMagic said:

That's great. Nice to see how you can tell there is new growth (new roots) when the newest branch looks silvery. And a beautiful sativa leaf, by the way.

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The leaves on one Golden Tiger appear to have a heavy Thai influence and it is branching like crazy.
The other Golden Tiger is growing like a regular Christmas tree style and has a strong odor even for its young age.
This should be fun for sure.
I'll keep you guys updated!

Hi Azure,

I'm glad to know that the new soil and the tips from the growers helped to improve the health of your plants. The Golden Tiger in your post #12 looks indeed very thai.

Best wishes for the rest of the cycle!