HELP! I'm experiencing leaf curl

[BrainDameEdge]

Thanks for looking at my post!!!

I'm experiencing leaf curl in my plants.

I started to soak them 24 days ago. I planted them in Super Soil Potting Soil 20 days ago. They are in Styrofoam cups that vary from 4-7 inches tall with soil about 1/4 inch short of the top.I started to notice the leaf curl about 4-6 days ago. They have been under 24 hours plain florescent light since they were planted but 11 hours ago, I put them under a ott-light. They vary from 7-10 inches from the light. I fertilized them around 2-4 days ago with Miracle Grow Tomato Plant Food. As soon as I noticed the leaf curl, I gave them a fertilizer. I water them with purified water every 3-4 days. They are well drained at the bottom. I still haven't seen any improvement.

I'm asking for help, not for someone to tell me that I don't know what I'm doing and not give me any useful advice. If you want more information please be more specific because this is what I do pretty much (and don't be a jerk about it please). This is my second time growing, I am not saying I got this down to a science I know like the back of my hand. Please consider that. Please don't condescend.

If I see any improvement I'll post back, THANKS AGAIN!!! Hope to hear from you guys.

 

[MynameStitch]

You might be experiencing a pH related problem, since your using purified water, you using RO water? tap? filter? Bottled?

Have you tested the PH run off of the plant?

If you are using a low ph water type and you have a soil mixture, depending on how often you water you may be having a range problem.

So first thing is I need to know what your soil mixture is, and if you tested the pH?

The problem started before you fed, so the problem has to be the soil mixture and pH not getting along.

How much MG tomato plant food did you use with how much water? I hope ya did not burn them, I used that with my first grow, you use like 1/4 teaspoon per gallon of water.

when they get bigger you use 1/2 teaspoon per gallon of water.

So I hope you did not burn them.

How often are you watering them too?

 

[BrainDameEdge]

wow, thanks a lot for your input. I appreciate it.

I did use 1/4 teaspoon (I may have used a bit less too) feed to one gallon water. I did burn a batch one time, so I am very cautious with feed.

I water the plants with filtered tap water and I water them every three days because the soil stays moist that long.

my soil mixture is ph balanced between 5.5 and 6.5. I have not tested the ph run off the plants, nether am I sure how to do that so I will research that a bit and try it out.

thanks again

 

[imnotcrazy]

Stitch is the lady to help ya

Only help I can offer: If that's you hittin the bong in your avatar, you're ASKIN for TROUBLE........IMHO

 

[Weedhound]

Two things come to mind....abnormal ph (you said it was balanced..(5.5-6.5). In soil both the water you use and the soil runoff should read between 6.2-6.8. I'd check both if I were you.

The other thing coud be overfert....sometimes the leaves will curl downward and the actual "burned" look doesn't show up for several days. If the cause IS overfert you'll need to flush the extra fert salts out.

Not overwaterng with your good drainage? Just to cover all bases.

 

[Weedhound]

The photos show some dark green leaves.....if that's not your light I would certainly wonder about overnute.....dark green leaves=too much nitrogen.

 

[MynameStitch]

THanks imnotcrazy
He does offer a very very good point about the avatar too.

5.5 and 6.5
that is a range of soil and soiless medium.
WHat brand of soil are you using?

THat is good you are careful about the nutes, mg can be good or bad depending on how you use it. MG DOES make good products, but they are useless if you do not do some research on using them first.
So everyone blames MG for being bad, I used them and I grew out 6 feet tall plants.

I wanted to go organic though.
I think with the pH range it may be causing the twisting.
How do you know the pH range is that if you have not tested the pH?

You water the plant and when the drainage comes out of the holes at the bottom you take that water and either get a digital pH pen, or get some pool pH test strips and you put them or it in the water to get your reading.


I need to know the brand of soil you are using though, each soil mixture weather it's soiless or soil has a different pH range the plants need to be in.

5.5 to 6.3 for soiless

6.4 to 7.0 for soil

 

[BrainDameEdge]

I put all that information on the first post about the soil brand, Super Soil Potting Soil. I will need to run a ph test on the plants. I will be making a trip to a pool store to get a ph test and I will get back to you. THANK YOU SO MUCH for your considerate help.

 

[MynameStitch]

Oh, my bad, I did not see that; never heard of the mixture before; I looked it up and found what is in it, it is not rich mixture, but it has lots of peat moss in it no lime.... so that means your pH range needs to be 5,5 to 6.3

Best range is 5.5 to 5.8
So if your range is going all up and down it would be causing the twisting.
Not sure how acidic your mixture is, depending on why kind of peat moss they use, they said Canadian sphagnum peat moss, this could be a range of pH
s depending on where in canada they got the moss from, range could be 3-5 pH.
Your plants are not burned, I could tell that just by looking at them, so the last thing is the pH not being stable.

 

[HeadyPete]

I would think that the ph is low, the peat is probably 4ish as stitch said, especially with no lime. Some dolomite lime in the next batch of soil can help raise and stabilize ph, plus add cal and mag.

If someone didn't mention it already, when you transplant, bury those spindly girls almost up to the first leaves to make them squat again. The buried stem will root. I would add 20% perlite extra to that potting soil next time. It looks pretty spongy and wet. Fungus Gnats love that......

When you mix your nutes, measure ph of water with, preferably a digi pen, or at least test strips from a pool store. If the runoff is low, you need to adjust your nute solution higher to compensate and balance it out to the desired soil ph.

Good luck

 

[BrainDameEdge]

I did a run off with some pool test strips. I also got a electronic ph, fertilizer, and nutrient measurer that did not work.

So with the pool strips, all my plants had pretty much the same measurements.

my water hardness was HIGH,

Ph was low, like way low... the test strips stopped at 6.8 and the color it turned was all ways way lighter than the 6.8 color shown.

the alkaline level was always high, like 160-180.

I got a lot of professional info from HeadyPete and MynameStitch, so thanks a lot. with these readings, I think my ph is low. I will experiment with all your advice and anymore given is golden. THANK YOU!

 

[MynameStitch]

Ya, if you can get a digital pH pen it will tell you what your pH is from your run off from those cups.

If you find pool strips that have lower than 6.8 you want to use those; make sure on the back of the bottle is has a range of pH's like 3-10 or something like that.

Like petey has said, I would get some dolomite lime to use; like raises the pH of the mixture to a safe level, but do not add a lot of it; small amounts is needed since your plant is small.

Also are you letting your water sit out before using it?
The electronic pH , are you sure it's not a TDS pen? How did you know your tap water is 160-180?
Is that PPM?

 

[BrainDameEdge]

Thanks for the advice ICmag.com users!!! I now have strait A leafs... Check it out!!!

 

[MynameStitch]

Wow, now those are some perfecto leaves there man, no tip burn no nothing!!
Congrats on getting them all fixed, you get your pH all worked out it seems ehh
What did ya do to fix it?