Leaves drying up / twisting / slow growth!

[HGsmoker]

Hey guys! I've got 4 plants going and I'm starting to run into some problems. Heres the details -

2 Sour Diesel
2 Sadhu (Mandala Seeds)
Growing for about 3 weeks
Pro-Mix BX soil
Poland Spring water
Advanced Nutrients Iguana Juice Grow (watered once so far with 3.5ml / 1gal water ratio)
250W MH at about 16in height
Temps - 85F/75F Day/Night
Humid. - ~35%


I noticed today the two bottom most leaves on one plant have started to dry up and become crunchy. They stayed mostly green though. One of the other plants did the same thing but started to yellow. I also have a couple twisted leaves.

Also, am I just crazy or do my plants look kinda small for 3 weeks? They're about 5 inches now and I looked at a picture from 8 days ago and they were at 4in! It shouldnt take over a week to grow an inch right?

 

[gratefuldawg]

I'd like to know too, cause one of my plants is doin this. I'm thinkin I over watered it.??

 

[HGsmoker]

im pretty sure this isnt from overwatering

 

[HeadyPete]

Almost most definitely from incorrect ph. There is great debate but I'm going to recommend you aim for your soil ph to be 6.2. I run mine at 6.5 in coco and they are great, but a little lower is okay.

You need to adjust your fert water to whatever value balances the soil at 6.2. If your soil is naturally 5.2, you need your fert solution at 7.2 to bring the soil up a point to 6.2.

The best way to measure accurately is test the runoff with a digi probe. They aren't all expensive $70 will get you a decent Milwaukee.

Almost guarantee your soil ph is too low and there is nutrient lockout happening. The lockout is affecting growth rate, especially with a strong light like your 250 mh. The deformed twisty leaves are a sure sign. The dull green decaying tips look like phosphorus def from lockout, and the yellowing/browning edge spurs are calcium def. These are pretty common defs with low ph. Promix is peat balanced with lime, but Iguana is almost surely acidic, and ph naturally drops over time due to microbial action with organics. Once the ph is correct, the new growth will be green and lush and vibrant. The damaged leaves will not heal and will continue to deteriorate and fall off. Let them fall naturally, the plant is using nutrients stored there. I would think once they start going again you will need to increase gro up to 5ml/ gal or so. If the bottom leaves start fading yellow, you need more grow (nitrogen). If the leaf tips start burning up hard, too much nutes. A little tip burn is ideal, although every strain is unique in it's needs.

If they were overwatered they would be dull dark green, droopy and listless. They are perky, so the watering is okay.

You might want to add a little more dolomite lime to your mix next time, or you might need some calmag if that spring water isn't hard enough. The need for mag and cal will increase during the first 4 weeks or so of flowering. You may need ph down to counter more lime, whereas you will probably use ph up now to correct this problem. Get both up and down to have on hand. They are usually cheap. Use Phosphoric acid as down to boost budding, and potassium hydroxide for up. Gro stores have this stuff. I also really like Grotek LXR gold fulvic acid as ph down. Lots of benefits to fulvic acid.

A bigger plant will require more nutes. The hotter the temps, the less nutes plants can use. The stronger your light, the more energy available to drive the plant's metabolism like an engine, the more water and nutes it will need. It's all relative.

Next transplant be sure to bury those plants almost right up to those bottom leaves. The newly buried stem will root and your plants will be more compact to support a big bud.

I would suggest you LST to get maximum bud from those plants. Basically you bend them over and secure them, then all the branches grow up and become big budsites. You can tie the branches to space them out, prune the scraggly ones 2 weeks after going to 12/12, and boom, lots of evenly sized fat colas. Best to start when they are healthy, but bend right when they need watering, as they are most flexible and least likely to break. If you do snap a branch bad, tape it, splint it, whatever to hold the branch back together, and it will heal.

Good luck

 

[chubbynugs]

Yeah looks like ph and it is probably causing lockout cause they look hungry but cant eat.

 

[HGsmoker]

thanks alot. awesome stuff!

ive done a couple grows and for some reason i seem to forget how important pH is. ive just never had many problems yet.

 

[Weedhound]

They look pretty nuteburned. I know several people having problems with the ph being too low with pro mix when they've tried it. It pays to check ph....both of your water and your soil runoff. Both should be between 6.2-6.8. But that right there looks burned.

 

[HGsmoker]

yeah, i knew i burned them, but its the lower leaves that are just drying that were confusing me. ive been giving em pure water for a while. this is only my 4th grow and i have a few things i really need to work on. mainly getting pH, nute strength and harvest time right.

the Iguana Juice bottle also confuses me. The bottle itself says use 15ml/1gal. But the company put a little sticker over that. it says 3.5ml/gal. To try and be safe I went with the 3.5ml/gal ratio. They dont need a gal of water yet, about 32oz fills them all. So it was really about 1ml/32oz is what i fed them. And they STILL burned?

 

[Weedhound]

Yeah, they're a little young for a bunch of nutes. Can't be a jewish mom to them, lol.
You can buy some very cheap liquid ph testers at your pet store which will do fine for you to check ph without spending a bunch of $$ if you are growing in soil.

Good luck.

 

[HGsmoker]

anybody know the ratio of water / pH test solution your supposed to use? I lost the thing that came with the kit that gives you the right amount of water to test.

The bottle says use 3 drops pH solution, but i dunno how much water to test with.

 

[HGsmoker]

delta - it sounds like you've been giving me some great information, and i thought this up until you said to you use urine. now i may not be able to feed my plants properly yet, but i do know that im surely not pissing in my plants....and then smoking it for that matter.

ive heard a couple people bring this up, and then get yelled at by many others. either way, ill stick with the organic nutes.

ive also never heard that you dont have to worry about pH with pro-mix. ive actually always heard that pH is ALWAYS important.

 

[MynameStitch]

HG, you don't piss in your plants, you dilute it; give this thread a read, urine is a great fert to use on your plants man, I know it sounds gross, but I have seen some really good plants grown with urine when used properly!


Urine as a Fertilizer... an OG refugee thread

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=21381

You do have to worry about your pH with promix, the kinds of nutrients you use also plays a part with promix pH and your water, since it's soiless.

 

[MynameStitch]

Dude, you sound like a kid man or a guy trying to go door to door selling nutrients lol

 

[MynameStitch]

Does not matter how many years you smoked or grown, there is still stuff you can learn and I live by that moto. Like I said, not everyone is you, so just because you don't use them or need them does not mean others don't.

All strains are different too, so there is absolutly NO way in hell you can grow every strain in promix reguardless if you use the nutrients you listed in the other threads and not use pH testers.

So unless you have grown out every strain, I would take your word for it, but every strain of pot is different and not all can handle pH swings like others let alone the same requirement of nutrients some can handle.

So again, that is why I am telling you it's BS. If it's too good to be true, then it's not true. There is nothing in life that involves, set it and forget it there is always going to have some kind of problem when you have that attitude towards stuff.

And like I said, what works for you may not work for others, this being the fact they are using different nutrients and different strains and have different growing conditions, let alone not everyone is going to drop what nutrients and time and money they have just to go out and buy the same stuff you listed.

 

[MynameStitch]

Didn't you say what first?
I am not imitating anything you have said, cause everything you are saying is bullshit and I speak the truth.

 

[HeadyPete]

they are not burnt, that little bit of Iguana is not enough to burn. Iquana (4-3-6) is pretty mild organic fert, especially the less than half dose he fed. I start feeding my seedlings after week one, plus I use BioBizz dry nutes in my soil and they love it. Organic ferts need time to break down and become available so what you feed today will not be available to the plant till next week. Keep that in mind.

They are nute deficient from ph lockout and if someone tells you ph doesn't matter then I suggest you seek another opinion...unless they figured out something about plant care that the world's plant scientists missed.....ph is critical to understand and control.

Those plants are old enough to feed but they are stunted because of the ph.

Test the ph before you do anything or you will kill them.

 

[HeadyPete]

Stop spamming with that happygirl url all over the place unless you want to get banned for it......

 

[HeadyPete]

Listen Mr.15 posts, you need to learn some respect before you come in here and hassle the experts. Why aren't you at your happygirl helping peeps?

 

[MynameStitch]

Hell ya, I agree there!!!!

 

[HGsmoker]

Thank you Heady and Stitch. I've seen you guys around and know you give some great advice.

I know pH is damn important, im just a stoner and forget. i need to go get a new kit.