I'm about to give up this grow...

[SweetIndica2]

Hi, basically i've been having problems with my plants since they were about 2 weeks old. I have tried almost everything, and i can not figure out what the problem is. I am growing 3 strains at once also, so i know it's not the strain...i am having problems with all of them.

Here are the main problems in a nutshell:

Slow growth- the plants are about 70 days old, and look like litttle bonsais almost. The leaves are tiny, although they are all 7-9 fingered mature leaves, they are no bigger than a few inches. It looks as if something is holding them back.

Yellowing- The yellowing is appearing on the lowest leaves first, and looks like it may slowly be moving up although it's mainly the bottoms. The yellowing is starting from the tip of the leaves and seems to works its way down the leaf. Some only have yellow tips, others are a pure light yellow color.

Burning- Some leaf tips were showing burn signs, although that problem seems to of gone away. It's just weird they were showing signs of overferting and deficiency at the same time.


Heres all the info as fas temps, ph, etc:

Temps are an average of 65-70 degrees...i know it's not super warm, but i've grown plenty of strains in even lower temps with no problems.

Humidity is 25-40%...but usually doesn't go above 30%. Again, i've grown in the same environment before (general area, with same weather) and never had any problems with humidity. I know humidity is my friend in veg but i don't see how this could cause any problems.

PH is adjusted to 6.5-6.8. I use the test strips though since my ph pen broke, so i can't get a runoff reading at the moment. Although, i have used this soil mix before and the ph was always fine on the runoff.

Watering- I water whenever they are completely dry. I use the pot lift method to see when to water.

Nutrients- I was only giving them 5ml per gallon of pure blend pro grow and 1/8 tsp epsom salt...but when i saw the nute burn (possibly lockout?) i stopped feeding them nutrients, only ph adjusted water.

Pots- They are all in 5 quart containers, i have grown plants up to 2 feet tall in these until i needed to transplant with no problems, so since these plants are only 8-12" tall, i don't see how they could need a transplanting.

Soil Mix- Soil mix is scotts unferted potting soil with 30% perlite. I have used this mix before with no problems. It's not the greatest soil, but i don't see why it would be causing problems all of a sudden.

There are also some small fruit flys i noticed flying around, there are no signs of pests so i'm assuming fruit flys will not harm my plants? Just figured i'd make sure.

Well, thanks in advance for anyones help.

 

[MTF-Sandman]

There are also some small fruit flys i noticed flying around, there are no signs of pests so i'm assuming fruit flys will not harm my plants? Just figured i'd make sure.

lol...unless you've got decaying fruit in there, those are probably fungus gnats - Treat em with some BTi. They're feeding off the roots, so that could be part of your problem.

Sounds like a cumulative effect of everything not being ideal IMO...

Raise your temps & RH, lower your PH a little, kill the fungus gnats and get them in some better soil.

How often are you watering them and what's in the Scotts mix?

 

[Blackvelvet]

Too cold. I will be back later to give you some fert rates. For your safety and mine, I am too drunk to do this now. lol. :friends:

 

[Mr.Tighteyes!]

Never Give Up! Just keep trying.

 

[Blackmelo]

temps seem fine to me. That will not be the problem.

Ph strips are known to be unreliable, unless you are feeding as many drops as you were when you were accurately testing your ph, that is most likely the issue.

By the sounds of things you know all the basics about growing weed which is good.

You said that your plants looked like they were suffering from a burn and a deficiency at the same time which is pretty much a guaranteed indication of your ph beeing wrong.

I have heard of so many people braking their ph meter I would not even bother getting a new one, soil testers and ph strips are no good either.
The only durable, reliable and cheapest way of testing your ph is with a ph testing solution like this one:
http://www.growell.co.uk/p/0123/Manual-pH-Testers.html

My advice is to double check your ph and make sure that is not the problem right there.

Fungus gnats will eat at your roots a little but will hardly cause symptoms like you are descibing.

 

[Guest]

whatever it is can be remedied and your plants will turn around for you

no worries

 

[Blackvelvet]

I'll just take the answer away since your so ungrateful.

 

[Ono Nadagin]

PH is adjusted to 6.5-6.8. I use the test strips though since my ph pen broke, so i can't get a runoff reading at the moment. Although, i have used this soil mix before and the ph was always fine on the runoff.

Soil Mix is scotts unferted potting soil with 30% perlite. I have used this mix before with no problems. It's not the greatest soil, but i don't see why it would be causing problems all of a sudden

Ph is too high for soilless mixes. Optimum ph is 5.6 to 6.2 Adjust fert water ph after mixing to about 5.8 to 6

hmmm

 

[SweetIndica2]

blackvelvet- your an idiot, stop spreading around mis info. I see you have another handle again, as usual. The temps are not the problem, they may not be the best but i know for a fact mj can handle these temps. The mix is a soil mix, not soiless as stated.

And no shit i was ferting too weak, go read my post again. 5ml is plenty for when i started feeding them, the reason i never raised the nutes is because they started showing alot of signs of overferting and the nutes seemed to worsen the problem.

blackmelo- i've been feeding about the same since i broke my meter. I mean obviously it varies a little, considering sometimes i don't fill my watering jugs quite as much, but from what i've noticed i don't seem to be using any more or less than before. BTW, i'm not using strips, i'm actually using the drops as you posted...i kinda typed this in a rush and wasn't thinking. While i'm sure the ph isn't exact, i believe the drops are accurate to .2.

I can not figure out what the problem is, i've been growing for plenty of time with no problems. The only thing different is, this grow i moved it to another section of my house.

I'm not sure exactly what's in the soil, but it looks like a fairly simple unferted potting soil. It is pretty heavy and does hold a decent amount of moisture, but i've used the same soil with the same perlite mix before and i had no drainage, etc. problems with the soil. I am going to transplant them into some better soil in a few days anyways though, while the soil works fine it's never looked that great to me so i will try and find some good organic mixes around here.

 

[Guest]

dont listen to black velvet he dont know anything but numbers from a book. hes never grown hes just tyring his experiments on your plants. if it messes up he dont care. hes ruined my first 2 grows as i didnt know any better and lidtened to him.

 

[Verite]

Too cold. I will be back later to give you some fert rates. For your safety and mine, I am too drunk to do this now. lol. :friends:

And I think we found our reason here.. maybe blackvelvet/sproutco should find a forum where he can help alcoholics get their drink on.

 

[budhownd]

And I think we found our reason here.. maybe blackvelvet/sproutco should find a forum where he can help alcoholics get their drink on.

 

[thc43]

hello.

Is alittle hard to say i have no experience with either fertless Soil or PB ferts.

But from a pic a could steer you in a decent direction.

lower yellow leaves, slow growth (70 veg), watering only when pots are dry makes me think you have a few issues going on.

Firstly letting pots dry out regulary can cause spots and over fert like problems with yellow leaves that quickly fall off. All plants do it see what happens when you dont water roses for a week then give a heavy feed, sick or dying leaves dont get better but continue to get worse then fall off. As the plant drinks the soil dries out using more water than nute salts. The salts the plant cant/ doesnt use build up faster than they should if pots where flushed or ran waste at 20% without ever drying out.

stunted growth ive seen with too much PK in early flower, too strong nute ec and hormone problems eg reverting from veg/flower/veg.

Are any or lower leaves very small and leathery looking?? while next leaf up looks fine(overfert/ salt build up) imo. But the yellow leaves make me thin under fed and or letting soil dry and root tip death.

 

[Legit_User]

A few flys could mean hundreds of gnat larvae. They will absolutely stunt growth. No roots=no growth. It will also mimic a nute deff.
If your not totally organic and not running beneficials then h202 will work too.
Aerate the soil the first 2-3 inches and let the pots dry out in between watering.
Sticky traps work too.
Stay peaceful

 

[Guest]

I see blackvelvet/sproutco/hotgurl/stonewall is still at it. Ya know what sprout/velvet I noticed the neg rep you gave me for knocking out some of your other handles in the last few months and you do it again and well I guess you will see. I will say it again STOP GIVING PEOPLE BAD ADVICE!!! I thought this shit stopped so I have been quiet in the infirmary but in light of your neg rep throwing bad advice giving sorry ass you awoke the GIANT once again! now, as far as the the problem sweetindica, I think THC43 and Legit user gave you a good idea of what is causing your problem. It is most likley a combo of all the above suggested problems. Kill the gnats and larvae or the problem will continue.

 

[Guest]

what kind of light are you using

 

[SweetIndica2]

thc43- I don't think it's when i'm watering bro, i've watered my plants hundreds of times before. I will admit, getting watering down to a science takes awhile but i've gotten a feel on how to water over the years. I water them when they are fairly dry, but not completely. I use the lift method, when theres probably 10% of the water left in the pot...i water again. It's about every 5-7 days.

haze- thanks, they don't look like gnats..although i've seen many different looking gnats. They do look a little too small to be gnats though. But, i could be wrong. The thing is, a few weeks ago i started spraying the plants down with a mix of neem oil, dish soap, and water...the mix was the suggested dose on the bottle (dyna grow). I sprayed the tops of the leaves, undersides of the leaves, and the soil making sure i got everything. Even after about 5-6 days of spraying the plants, the gnats didn't seem to die at all...and the few that did were maybe 5% of the amount in there. If they are gnats, how am i going to get rid of them? Does neem oil just not work?

brain- 1000w aircooled hps w/ hortilux bulb. Sorry, i forgot to include that in the original post.

 

[Guest]

I have had mixed results with neem oil. I know the brand safer makes a 3 in1 spray that is OMRI listed that will destroy those gnappy headed hos's! It is safe to use on all fruiting and vegtable plants up to 3 days before harvest.

Oh yeah its at home depot.

 

[SweetIndica2]

Thanks for the info. I have to go to HD to grab some things anyways to i'll try and grab some of that while i'm there. I've heard the neem works good, but i never really looked if it worked on aphids. It didn't really seem to do much of anything except maybe kill 5-10% of the flies, and even then i'm not sure if it was the neem oil that killed those ones.

I still want to make sure i know exactly what type of bugs they are also. They are very tiny bugs, maybe the size of a pin head. They have black bodies and it looks like two tiny clearish wings.

I will try and get some pics if possible of the bugs, but idk if i can get close enough with my digicam, unless i had an slr.

In the meantime i stopped using the pure blend incase it's old, as it didn't seem to be doing anything and i watered them with some chemical nutes i had laying around. These are slightly old also though, so if these don't work i am going to buy brand new nutes. It sucks because i bought the pure blend which was supposed to be brand new, but since there was never a mfg date on it, it could be fairly old for all i know.

I am also going to transplant all of them into 3 gallon pots with a new type of soil. This soil never gave me problems, but it doesn't look the greatest so i want to make sure.

I will give updates, i just hope i can fix this problem soon. I have been trying for 3 months to correct the problem, it's a nightmare.

 

[Blackvelvet]