Newbes First Grow, Need Help!

[riverrat]

Hi all.

I'm a newbe on my first ever grow. I have been lurking and searching through all the postings trying to learn all I can. Many thanks to all those kind folks who lend their expertise and time to help out us fledging botanist.
I am currently on week 4 since I planted my sprouted bag seed. Here is my setup:

Flood & Drain Hydro System
400 watt MH lighting running 24/7
Base Water: Out of the tap at about 6.9 PH & 70 PPM. Can smell chlorine out of tap, let sit 24 hrs
Nutes: Botincare PowerPlant grow (3-1-4)

Here is my story, First three 3 weeks I had no TDS meter, mixed nutes per label for seedlings, ¼ oz per gal. Plants did great. End of week 2 plants looking good, I change out nutes and up the mix per label for young vegging plants, (1/2 oz/gal ) notice some brown rust looking areas on older fan leaves, leaf drying out and turns crispy. Thinking I might have light too close I move light up a bit. No improvement, actually getting worse, more lower leaves showing spots and drying out.

Borrow TDS meter from friend, check nutes, reading about 1700 PPM. Humm, nutes to hot I think, must be nute burn. Flush with PHed plain water for 2 days Dilute nute mix down to 700 PPM. After another 2 days no change, more spotting and drying leaves. Search through plant sickness guides, read through many sick plant post, and start thinking I got a Mg def. At least that what it looked like. Read that Epson Salt will fix that. Try to find out how much salt to add. From the forums I find a recommended amount any where from 1 tablespoon /gal to ¼ to ½ teaspoon per gal. I go with a bit less than 1/2 teaspoon/gal. After 2 days no real change, lower fan leaves still turning. Humm, what now? Plant tops still look good although growth has slowed. Me thinks maybe nutes were too weak and plants are starving for food. So change out nutes and mix to recommended amount for mature vegging plants. 1 oz/gal. PPM now reads 1750 PPM. After about two hours plants looking worse, tips of growth are curling more than before. So now I’m stumped, I know it’s not a PH problem, I keep it between 5.8 and 6.1, Room temps are ok at 70-75 F. Got fans running so plenty of air, Humidity is lower than I’d like. Running around 35 to 40 %.

So now I’m waiting on fresh water to de-chlorinate and I gonna flush again and lower the PPM down to about 1000. Still thinking I got a MG. def. and might try the Epson salts again at a bit higher concentration.
I’ve included some pictures. Sorry about the poor quality, had to take them with a video camera.
So whatta ya’ll think. What am I doing wrong? This was just a test run, but now I’m attached to my babys and want to do well. Any comments would be welcome.


Lower leaf of the runt


Growing tip of tallest plant


Lower fan leaf


Fan leaf of other runt

Another shot of tallest plant growing tip



Another lower fan leaf of second best plant


Shot of branch grow tip


Overview of plants

 

[100outof100]

What is your water temp at? I mean I had almost identical problems (Not as extreme as that dead leaf) with the clawing and all! I dont know if it was shear coincedence or luck but i cahnged a few things. I lowered my water temp (from 24c-18c) lowered my nutes dosage ( For you 1200ppm is WAY to high...theyre only babies! put back to 700) and try to cut DIRECT air flow to the curling leaves, My fans were too close and thats what caused it. Moved the fans back and oscilating, lowered the water temps and nutes.

Like I said i dont know if i was lucky or not, but it worked for me

Goodluck bro

 

[riverrat]

Not real sure what my rez temp is, need to get a temp probe on it, but I think it's running bit lower than the room temp at 21C. I'll cut back on the fans, lower the PPM and see if that helps. I need to take some clones and try my hand at that, but I don't want to be cutting on the plant until it's healthy.
Thanks for your reply!

 

[100outof100]

Best wishes, Hope it turns out for yeah. If not you know where icmag is And endless amount of knowledge it is here

Goodluck! Stay High and be safe

 

[riverrat]

Thanks, anyone have an idea on a recommended Epson Salt concentration? I've read anything from 1 tablespoon/gal down to as little as 1/4 teaspoon/gal. Quite a range. If I go with the higher recommendation will it hurt/kill the plants?

 

[sproutco]

I can see the overfert in some of the leaves. They appear claw shaped. Your problem may be in the way the plants are being irrigated. 1/4 teaspoon epsom per gallon of water = 30 ppm magnesium. Normal range is 30-50 in hydro. Remember there is probably mag in your normal ferts already.

 

[riverrat]

I'm using a flood and drain system in 6 inch rockwool cubes, feeding for 15 min, 3 times a day.

According to the nutrient calculator, at a concentration level of 15ml/gal ( recommended for mid-size vegetative plants) which is where I'm at now, the PPM for Mg is 23. So I guess a dose of Epson salts at about 1/4 teaspoon/gal would be appropriate. I'm about out of the Botanicare PowerPlant nutes and I'm thinking of switching brands. What would you guys recommend? I'd like to find a nutrient brand that's simple to use and doesn't require a lot of additives. I saw a friends grow and he musta had $1500.00 worth of boosters, enhancers, sweeteners, and other associated crap in his cabinet. I don’t want to make it that complicated.

Plants are looking a bit better this morning. But I’m back to the nute levels I was at before so I don’t know if I’ll see much improvement. Other than dropping a bottle of ice in the rez and, I don’t know, increase / decrease my watering schedule? I’m at a loss as to what to do. Overall I’m happy with the grow, after 4 weeks from seed and my best plant is over 12 inches tall, quite bushy and filling out nicely. I just need to fix this nute issue before it really starts to get out of hand.

Thanks for your reply!

 

[sproutco]

23 ppm magnesium is too little. Try adding 1/8 teaspoon gallon epsom salts to boost level by 15 ppm. 23+15 = 38 ppm magnesium total.