plants drying out and dying from the top down

[aesoprock00]

Hey everyone. it's been a while since i was around here. i took a break from growing but came across some big bud clones and decided to get back into it. but now i'm having some issues.... and they are similar to issues i had before i took a break from growing.

a little background, i'm growing DWC in a small cabinet (similar to a C13 but a little smaller) under about 200W of HPS and 80W of floro tubes. temps are pretty high, which is the only thing i can think of to be the problem. but the thing is, i've had this issue before, and i thought heat was the problem, so i turned off some of the lights, added 2 large fans and temps dropped (though they are still high). and for a while, didn't see any of this ridiculous drying out.

the plant grew perfectly for the last 6 weeks of flowering, but now that i'm down to just 2 weeks, it is falling apart. it appears to be drying out from the top down and dying very quickly, and there's a somewhat strong hay smell to the air.

when i first noticied the top leaves drying, browning and dying, i checked the nute levels, which were higher than i'd like, and i changed everything out, which was 2 days ago (i'd planned to start putting in just clean water for a flush pretty soon), but now things are dying even faster, and the nutes seem to be fine. it's really sad to see this burning/drying/dying problem.

the plants are right near the lights, but they haven't been burned by the lights (a problem i've had before, and this looks nothing like it) it just seems like the nutrients aren't getting to the top of the plant and it's dying. and not just dying like towards the end of the flower cycle where some of the leaves turn yellow/brown and die off, the entire plant is dying top down, but from about the middle of the plant to the bottom there is no damage, and beautiful green leaves. roots look good, no sight of rot, water temperature is good.

any thoughts? i'll post pictures soon if they are requested.

 

[aesoprock00]

here's some pics...

 

[Sinfuldreams]

OH MY GOD!

OH MY GOD!

Someone help this poor guy out!

What nutes? Ph?

Wow sorry for your plants dude... I'd cut em I think.

Hope someone can help you
this is out of my leage.

Sin

 

[Guest]

Looks like over ferted? Its hard to tell in those pics but, the way a lot of those leaves are curling under and making a claw shape Im going for a over fert. Whats your ph? it could be ph lock or nute lock also.

 

[aesoprock00]

nutes are Flora Nova 1part. i've tried to keep my PPM right around 1100, though i'm lowering them now and will soon be using just clean water to flush my last 10 days or so. pH is dropped and fixed to about 5.5 everytime i add nutes, which is about every 3-4 days, and it could be an issue, but i can't see how it hasn't been an issue at all up until now, or why it is mimicing problems i've had in the past, even though i'm using different lights, and nutes this time. (i was using the GH 3 part GMB nutes before switching to the GH Flora Nova).

 

[Guest]

Im gonna say just flush em since your so close to harvest anyway.

 

[budrezin]

have you had a look at your root system?

 

[jaypee89]

try putting a glass of water in there to raise humidity a bit....?
i aint no expert, just what i would do =)

 

[Guest]

Not sure but it looks like they were chronically overfertilized. Somehow there was a build up of salt in the medium and it's sucking everything right out of the plant. You can try a good flush but it might be too late to save them. At least, if worse comes to worse and they don't make it, they are far enough along in flower to give you some bud. Sorry bro

 

[MTF-Sandman]

have you had a look at your root system?

That's kinda what I was thinking....high temps combined with water culture often ends up with root rot problems...

 

[Brother_Monk]

Is that little fan the only ventilation in there? Do you have anything pulling fresh air in when the cabinet is closed up? Get your heat issues under control man. Cannabis NEEDS lots of fresh air exchange for proper respiration. That aint a problem with your nutes buddy...you fried them with heat....again! Maybe you should make some kinda cool tube for that light. There's plenty of DIY ideas here. Look one up for christ sake. Sorry if this seems harsh, I'm just in shock looking at your plant.

BM

 

[smokeymacpot]

Is that little fan the only ventilation in there? Do you have anything pulling fresh air in when the cabinet is closed up? Get your heat issues under control man. Cannabis NEEDS lots of fresh air exchange for proper respiration. That aint a problem with your nutes buddy...you fried them with heat....again! Maybe you should make some kinda cool tube for that light. There's plenty of DIY ideas here. Look one up for christ sake. Sorry if this seems harsh, I'm just in shock looking at your plant.

BM

im thinking the same, the plant is FAR FAR too close to the lights and the plants have been cooked.

raise the lights and add ALOT more airflow.

im not sure how much of the plant will continue growing or recover... bad luck dude, should have caught this sooner!!

 

[Guest]

He's in a cab, can't raise lights.....BUTTT dude serously scrog or FIM them ladies. The stretch is crazy for a cab grow.

I see compounding problems. PH looks off. Overfert and heat stress.

I wouldn't waste time with them, what buds are there look toasted and very airy. Unless your very hard up for smoke, I would cut em and chalk that one up as experience.

Fix heat and airflow probs. Make sure your PH meter works and is calibrated, and go again. just pay a bit more attention to them ladies.

 

[damakkus]

What do your roots look like? I think you may have root rot. What are your water temps?

I am sorry but those are not going to make it. Looks like toast. Id salvage what I could. Good Luck.

 

[smokeymacpot]

i dont know how you guys think you can see overferting and bad ph, that plant is cooked from heat. ive seen plants get too near to hps lights before in a poorly cooled cabinet and it cooks the plants and they go bone dry just like the picture.
you can clearly see the top half of the plant is cooked, including the buds.

it needs tieing down NOW (and not so far that he snaps all the stems!!), plenty of water and more fans to remove the heat!!

a fan blowing across the hps bulbs is needed as well!

 

[Guest]

Look at the lower leaves bro. See them cupped under, looks like a claw almost. Thats a tell tale sign of a jacked up PH.

And why tie down now? Those plants are toast. He'd be better of scrapping and going again after he gets his problems fixed. Plants in that bad of shape so close to finishing will never recover. They will continually get worse.

 

[Guest]

Yup heat stress to the 3rd power. forget about all that ph and over fert nonsense. Your plants are cooking. A dead give away shoulda been the strong hay smell that u noticed of a sudden. I had this problem with one of my ladies late into flower and was alerted to the problem by the hay smell. Luckily I keep close tabs on my plants and discovered the problem within 2 hours of one plant being too close to the light. Heres what the top looked like before and after 2hrs of being too close to the light.




Its unfortunate that u let them cook to the point at which ur plants are now. And to be honest they dont seem salvagable. And if u do decide to smoke them, they will taste horrible. like burnt stress and be harsh as fuck. My advice is dont veg longer than 2 weeks and if u must then top them so they grow bushy as opposed to vertical and or use a scrog method. Good luck on ur next grow.

 

[damakkus]

Come on guys. Take a real good look at those pics. Do they look like they have two weeks left? Wheres the bud? The plant has been going through a slow death and it is now over.

When you have root rot, pH nutrients its all out the window and your plant dries up slowly to a crisp if you are not on top of it. He is running DWC, what are the water temps? Do you have any pics of your roots? Are they white? Brown perhaps? Slimey possibly?

Curious, Do you have any pics from last week perhaps of this same plant?

 

[smokeymacpot]

Look at the lower leaves bro. See them cupped under, looks like a claw almost. Thats a tell tale sign of a jacked up PH.

And why tie down now? Those plants are toast. He'd be better of scrapping and going again after he gets his problems fixed. Plants in that bad of shape so close to finishing will never recover. They will continually get worse.

dont be soft, that cab was roasting, you cant point and say "bad ph and overferting" when the plant is half dead and late on in flower. i also dont see any close ups of the leaves...

and i meant if there is anything salvagable to tie them down. the tops are certainly dead (can cut the crap off), but further down there may be some bud left.

 

[aesoprock00]

absolutely folks. i agree with everyone that these plants are cooked and fried and every other metaphor you guys threw out. i'm chalking this one up to experience again. i'll make some hash out of it or something. no big deal. i've got a bunch of clones very healthy and ready to start anew.

a cool tube is the first thing i'm gonna look into. and i'm going to fix my buckets, i've got to keep the temps down in them. as well as add more ventilation to the cabinet. and it's not just one little fan, there are 4 exhaust in the cab now, with 2 intake holes for passive intake.

and it's not that i 'let this happen', well, other than by not training better or ScrOGing. the burning really only started about 3 days ago, and at this point it's really too late to do anything to salvage. it just happened too quick. i think it's a combination of things, i just needed some folks to yell at me a bit.

Thanks everyone. back to the drawing board for now.