Trying to fix someone's mistakes: should I be worried?

[cjb]

We received some plants that someone else was growing just for kicks, and they were not treated very well. I have no idea what the soil is; they probably weren't given any nutes, vitamins, or hormones, and they were badly lit.

We put them in a lightbox that is properly ventilated, lit by CFLs, 4x18w for now, we have good PL-L's on the way but this will have to do until those show up in the mail next week. Temps are between 78 and 82 in the box, 25 to 35% RH. I have the lights about 1" away from the 2/5 plants that are doing "well", and 2" away from the other 3 that are not so hot.

First question: All of the plants have bad-looking "old" leaves that were the ones they grew before they dropped on our doorstep. They are drier, some have actually half-died and turned crumbly. See photo:


All of these plants are popping new leaves on top, though, now that they are properly lit and watered. Question: Should I be worried about the lower leaves that seem to be dying, or is that just the plant deciding to focus on the new leaves that are right near the lights and shutting off the old leaves? If so, should I just let them die, or should I trim them off with a razor?

Here's another one (sorry for the terrible focus, but you can clearly see that the top leaves are healthy and the older leaves are dying)



Next question: I want to transplant them into known good organic soil in better pots (they are in POS 4x4x8 plastic pots that have cracks right now). Is this a bad idea for some reason? I am waiting for one of them to repair a crushed stem before I transplant it (it seems to be doing OK, popping new leaves at least) but is there any reason for me not to just go ahead and do the others?

Thanks in advance for any input.

 

[KMK0420]

I'll give you a very realistic view...

Toss em.

Reason?

You can spend a lot of time & energy on transplanting them or attempting to get the roots to recover from the lack of nutrients/shitty/corrosive soil, and then hope it's even a good strain...

Get new seeds...bagseed...from seed boutique, wherever. once done, get proper soil, germinate properly in or out of soil, and feed properly. most seedlings don't need anything if it's in decent soil (FFOF for example).

I've started seedlings out in plain coco and they grew just fine...the first sets of leaves are nothing to worry about...they will shed those easily during first few weeks of veg anyway.

If you are bound in taking on such an iffy task, then yes i would say transplant ASAP, water and slowly introduce a feeding regimen. When in new soil, that is. and just hope. CFL's aren't what i use, i go straight HID....CMH & HPS.

I've learned so far...leave on the leaves. The plant still pulls micronutrients and whatnot from those leaves. Unless they are completely dead, don't touch em. When they're dead, a simple touch or tap and they will fall right off. the absolute first sets of leaves i always brush off. my plants have always thrived...

 

[opt1c]

u know the strain? i'd give em a week in their current conditions; then i'd transplant into slightly larger containers and i'd sink the stems of the plants quite a bit; bury them an inch or two in the soil depending on their current stretch; they should start growing some roots and take off from there; i helped a guy out once and i still keep the mom i rescued in my stable.. just make sure they don't have any bugs on top of everything else. they look a lil young to be stressed with a transplant so soon in my opinion

 

[cjb]

No idea on the strain. No bugs that I can see. Will update in five days or so, when I transplant.

KMK0420 - We will start from new seeds the next grow, the main point in continuing this is to work out the kinks of the grow setup (this is a new setup), and I'm going on vacation this winter so I couldn't take care of them, I'll start the real grow after that.

 

[dubwise]

I agree w/ KMK....however, it's not a bad idea to do a run and find out what you're weaknesses are....however, it's hard to tell where some of your weaknesses are at if you have crappy genes. I'd transplant into a new medium (soil, whatever) and go from there. You'll get to know exactly what is in it and will be able to better give miss mary what she wants.

 

[KMK0420]

I agree w/ KMK....however, it's not a bad idea to do a run and find out what you're weaknesses are....however, it's hard to tell where some of your weaknesses are at if you have crappy genes. I'd transplant into a new medium (soil, whatever) and go from there. You'll get to know exactly what is in it and will be able to better give miss mary what she wants.

exactly.

cjb...you sound exactly like my friend who wants to grow ghetto "just to work the kinks out"...when you don't see how the cannabis plant flourishes, you won't get to learn the basics or even anything advanced (IE, micro nutrients, feeding with molasses, etc.)...get good soil, start from the ground up and you will learn more than anything you can learn right now.

start out good, here's what you get in just a simple 2-4 weeks from seed:

 

[dubwise]

dang KMK those babies look lush!

 

[cjb]

Looks good KMK!

We will "start fresh" soon enough. Reason we're not tossing these is that we can't start fresh right now (going on vacation over the winter, so they would die). It's a "just for fun" thing at this point; the total investment has only been like $20 for soil, since we have nutes and lights already for my vegetable/herb garden.

Here's the updates: We transplanted after about a week. The one with the crushed stem had healed up pretty well, the others seemed to be liking the improved lighting. It's now been about 5 days in soil for the smaller 3, and 8 days for the larger two.

One plant out of five is doing really well, as far as I can tell. This is one of the smaller ones that got trans'd 5 days ago. Looks like this:

The three "largest" ones (2 in new soil for 8 days, one for 5) are showing yellowing. From the base of the leaf out, new leaves first. Water pH in is ~6.8, soil pH shows ~6.5, need to do a runoff test at next watering tomorrow. Harder to see in the photos than in real life, cause I didn't take the time to properly white-balance my camera. For reference, the large green leaves on the plants below have a color very similar to the leaves on the right in the plant above. The inner new growth is very visibly yellow.

One of the ones that shows this has a small patch of death on its tip:

The lower leaves on the other one are slightly withered-looking:

From my reading, this is N, pH, or a temp difference problem. Am I right? Which one would you lean towards? Temps are about 65F dark, 80-81F hot, with the max hot temp at 86F and the min temp 62. I know this is not ideal, but they are in a space that is hard to regulate. Would it make a big difference if I did research/work to the space to make the light temp lower and/or the dark temp higher, or do these photos point more firmly to a nutrient problem?

 

[medmaker420]

I want to look at this from another point of view.

Do you trust the people who gave them to you? Enough to trust them with your security?

Reason I ask is, what if they talk about how they gave you them to others?

Another thing, I have done something similar and the person felt as though they SHOULD get some of the end product because they gave the plants to me. In the end it is a possible argument either way.

I would worry more about the security and potential ending issues first then focus on how to make them grow/live.

If they are not solid friends, as in people who CURRENTLY grow and you both are on the same level then great BUT if you are just friends who will come and go I would tell them you culled them even if you didn't and never bring them up again.

 

[cjb]

If they are not solid friends, as in people who CURRENTLY grow and you both are on the same level then great BUT if you are just friends who will come and go I would tell them you culled them even if you didn't and never bring them up again.

Already done.