Twisted leaves...Or am I paranoid?

[Headless Hornet]

I have six plants. Pics below are from the two worst.

Everything has been going well for the last two weeks....except..(3 days ago, checked cab and found all plants drooping and thirsty. Definite underwatering (i'd been worried too much about over-watering with such large pots, but the cabinet air is DRY). I gave them a heavy watering and they perked up immediately, but most are still not looking the same.

They seem a little droopier, and It looks like some of the leaves are twisting. If anything I'd guess PH too high (my biggest problem now) but I'm not sure if I should do anything drastic. I haven't fed nutes yet (soon) and i've been slowly trying to bring the ph down with a dilution of PH down during watering.

Any feedback at all would be greatly appreciated.



NL #5 What STRAIN are you growing?
Seed What was the establishing technique? (seed or clone?)
2 wks from germ What is the age of your plants?
3 inches How Tall are the plants?
1.5 gallon What size pots are you using?

soil mix (local brand with my addition of peat, perlite,vermiculite, worm castings, kelp,dolomitic lime, magnesium salts) Went very light on the additives. I don't think it's too hot, but I'm a N00B.

No nutes yet (fox farm at low strength soon)
PH runoff is 7 - 7.5 (I know, too high)
ph test strips used

watering every 3rd or 4th day (I have a lot of ventilation. dries out quick)
I water until slight runoff with RO water
250 Watt MH bulb with some Fluor side lights

1 foot or so from plants
Temp flux from 68 to 75 (i'm trying to bring it up a little)
I have a 425 CFM fan on speed control. Set to lowest setting now. I have alot of ductwork to push through

Humidity only about 25% trying to bring it up some
Reverse Osmosis water
No pests, no chemicals, nothing else weird.

Hornet's 250W Insulated Attic Cab (First Grow!)

 

[Headless Hornet]

The silence is deafening...

Does it mean that I shouldn't worry/change anything, or does it mean that no one has a clue?

Maybe I'm being alarmist, but I've put tons of work and research into my setup and I just don't want to fuck it up.

Thanks in advance.




First Grow (In Progress) NL #5

 

[sirgrassalot]

I'll bite, hey I think the soil is a little hot for those seedlings. When they had the fresh drink of water they perked up but as the nutes released they felt sick. I don't use anything but tap water so maybe there's a reason you're using Reverse Osmosis water. I don't know if that can cause your problem. Just rule it out if you know better. You should get the pH down but I don't think that's the problem here.

I just read this at Wiki not that it concerns your plants just wondering if you know.
Disadvantages
Reverse osmosis units sold for residential purposes offer water filtration at the cost of large quantities of waste water. For every 5 gallons of output, a typical residential reverse osmosis filter will send around 10 - 20 gallons of water down the drain although it may be captured and used for watering plants and lawns.

What water type goes down the drain has it been altered? Or is it still whatever water you started with?

It's always better to do one & watch how it reacts to treatment if in doubt. So hot soil deserves a flush with tap water if it's OK or try the RO flush with the other perhaps.

 

[Headless Hornet]

Thanks for the response sirgrassalot. I'm taking all your advice under consideration. The soil may be hot, but the plants have been in these pots for two weeks+ now. I have yet to do any feeding.

Btw, all plants look better today. I'm going to take everything slow while trying to get the PH down slowly. More than likely I was freaking over nothing but some minor stress or even natural phenotypic variation.

I use RO water only because I already have an RO unit. I always thought that RO was the preference.

You are right though, I understand that it wastes a lot of water in the process, but don't know how the mechanism works.

What is the consensus? Tap or RO? I know my tap water around here is very hard if that makes any difference in my choice.

Thanks again.

 

[HeadyPete]

PH runoff is 7 - 7.5 (I know, too high)

The deformations are from your out of whack ph. Runoff needs to run around 6.3. The ideal range is 5.8 to 6.8, but you should keep it in the middle.

Try to buy a digi ph pen asap. Accuracy to one decimal is important. A digi pen is as important as a hps for flowering, imo.

 

[HeadyPete]

Hard tap water provides calcium and magnesium to your plants, just depends what else is in it. My tap water is fine. I bubble it at least 24 hrs to get the chlorine out.

Get a water test of your tap water if you are concerned.

 

[sirgrassalot]

Headless Hornet I'm so fortunate not to have to test my pH since I started. My city water is an even 7. So it looks like another for tap water if it ain't funky & the cost of water yikes.

 

[MynameStitch]

I will have ti disagree with sirgrassalot and agree with petey, hot soil does not cause twisting, only pH and viral problems can cause it, but this situation it's clearly PH.

 

[Headless Hornet]

What to do, What to do?

What to do, What to do?

All the input is great.

I too, think it's probably PH, and regardless, I do know that my PH is too high.

The soil mix I used clearly had an alkaline PH. I should have adjusted it before planting, but this was before I realized the critical importance of PH.

So, what to do?

1. Water as normal (with 10% overwater) hoping the 6.5 PH water and the lower PH nutes will naturally bring things down?

2. PH adjust my water to 5.5PH with PH DOWN and continue normal watering?

3. Flush with PH DOWN adjusted water at 5..5 PH?

4. Transplant, replace soil with lower PH growing medium?

Plants really do look pretty good now, and are definitely continuing to grow.
Still, I do want to bring the PH down without shocking the girls.

as always Thanks to Everyone

 

[sirgrassalot]

I hope you get her in gear. Getting the chat going always helps it opens up ideas, more information & thoughts. We all agreed pH should be in check that's a gimme. This is why I don't pH it's too much work & keeping a perpetual takes enough of my time so I cut out all unnecessary actions & grow in a substrate that does it for me.

 

[ripOG]

I would adjust it to 6.5 and water normally.

 

[HeadyPete]

Gradually take your waterings down to 5.5, but check runoff every time and as it gets closer to ideal you won't have to adjust water ph so much. The lime in your soil will keep the ph alkaline.

 

[Headless Hornet]

Current Status

Current Status

Thanks to all for their advice.

I'm slooowly bringing down the PH with PH DOWN every-other watering. The friendly UPS man should be bringing me a "real" PH meter this week. No more aquarium strips.

 

[MynameStitch]

Wait till you see the difference how much pH does actually make.

those few points or even those mili points actually make the difference.

 

[HeadyPete]

They kinda look slightly overwatered/droopy. Are there holes in the bottom of the pots? If not, you will have standing water in that last inch of pot and roots don't like that. Are you waiting till the pot is light in weight before watering?

 

[Headless Hornet]

Heady Pete - The picture was taken right after a soaking. They perked up again over the next few hours.

There are maybe 10 holes on the bottom of each pot, the holes on the side are to further guard against wet feet. I also have about half an inch of course vermiculite on the bottom of the pots to promote drainage. I use the pot-lift method as well as a cheap moisture meter to guage my watering times. In these large pots, I try to be very wary of over-watering. I've had one episode of moderate under-watering (things in my cab dry out very very quickly)...As a n00b, I'm still trying to find a balance.

Thanks for keeping me on my toes.

 

[HeadyPete]

Cool, sounds good.