Sick plants

[GanjaGoon]

Hi everyone,

I'm about 1 1/2 weeks into my first ever grow. I began reading up a few months ago, and most of the info I learned was from Overgrow. Of course I was shocked and saddened when I found out about RC and the fate of overgrow, but also happy to find this forum. Anyway, my plants are not looking good (they look even worse in the pictures than they do to me normally) and I was wondering if anyone might be able to help. A little background information on my grow:

- There are five total plants, three of which were planted about 2 weeks ago and sprouted last Wednesday (Jan. 25th), and 2 of which were planted later and sprouted about a week ago.
- The strain is Nirvana's northern lights 5 x big bud
- They are all in approx. 1 quart pots (a little under, like .9 quarts)
- The temperature in my grow room (under the lights) is in the low 80s
- The humidity is normally around 30%, with a humidifier I can get it in the low 40s.
- I'm growing in my closet under a 150w CFL and 2 80w shoplites
- My current soil is Scott's seed starter (0.0-0.01-0.0) cut with 33% perlite. At first transplant I will switch to FoxFarm Ocean Forest
- I water the plants based on the weight of the pot, but usually that means every 2-3 days. I usually water approx. 8 ounces (with distilled water), which is enough that I start seeing runoff at the bottom of the pots.

From about the beginning of this week I started noticing a curling upward of some of the leaves (I read about this and determined that it was probably either a Mg deficiency or a low pH problem), which I was able to solve somewhat by adding epsom salts to my watering. I also tested pH and found the soil to be quite acidic. I've been adding pH up, and when I tested the soil today it was close to neutral. In the last few days I've started to notice a yellowing of the leaves along with drooping, and so the biggest three plants were watered today with about 1/3 strength of FoxFarm GrowBig. Hopefully this wasn't too early to fertilize, but I remember reading that fertilizing should begin when the bottom leaves start turning yellow. I don't think the problem here is with overwatering, since I only water when the weight of the pots is very light and the soil is dry. Could it be that I need to transplant into bigger pots? If anyone has any ideas I would love to hear them.

Thanks to ICmag for being such a good host to all the lost OGers -

Here are a few pics:

 

[Guest]

i don't think they need to be transplanted yet,if you are watering every 3 days then they should be ok.i think it was ok to feed the bigger plants some food.make sure you follow a schedule on feeding,the next time you water the big ones feed them straight water,then on next watering you can add some grow big.also i would suggest addin in 2 tablespoons of dolomite lime per galoon of soil to the top of your soil.to stabilize your ph will make things go alot smooother.when you transplant i would also add it to your soil mix.what was the ph of your soil?

 

[GanjaGoon]

drgreenthumb123 - thanks for the info. I'm definitely planning on adding lime next time - I forgot to do this initially. the pH of my soil was around 6.0, but I was able to raise it to almost 7. I don't have a digital reader, so these are estimates. Any ideas on what is causing the discoloration and drooping?

 

[Guest]

looks like they need food.your 1/3 strength mix should get them green again.i would start feeding all of the plants.also a good way to check your watering is to fill another bucket the same size with soil and lift this will give you your dry weight.you want to be close to that before you water

 

[el chef]

actually, they are kicking ass for 1.5 week old seedlings.......

i'm kinda jealous, because mine are never that big or healthy lookin at that age...

but ya, they look a little hungry. i would feed at 1/4 strength next watering, and see how they do.

they really do look great for their age.

 

[Guest]

looks overwatered if anything, stir the topsoil with finger down to at most 2 inches and you want it to be pretty dry to the touch. Get a fan on them to if you dont have one and drop the watering down as mentioned above until leaves are drooping from no water almost. limp down more than curl down when overwatered.

 

[Verite]

Imo those plants are too young for a mg def but youre right about the guesstimate on the ph, get a meter and you wont have to.

 

[GanjaGoon]

Well, I ended up transplanting three of the plants on Monday, and they already had some severe yellowing. Now 2 of them are basically dead (one in larger pot, one in smaller), and two more are dying. One is healthy, although its a very dark green, which makes me think I may have overfed it (too much N). It sure is a fine line between underfeeding and overfeeding. The plants that died appear to have an N deficiency. The problem I think is that I was using a soil with no nutrients at all, and my plants needed to be fed sooner than the standard two weeks that is often advised. By the time I fed them it was too late. Also, I had a pH problem early on, and may not have solved it soon enough. Hopefully, this one plant will survive and turn out to be female...