Why did my plant die? (I can't diagnose)

[Cozy Amnesia]

A couple of months ago my roommate started growing a bagseed plant. He did everything wrong from what I have now learned: too large a pot, bad soil, bad nutes, not near enough light...then he moved home and asked me to "watch over it" a.k.a. keep it from dying. Here she is in her home:

A pretty piss poor job we did. I'm not totally sure on where I went wrong, but I know the lights were definitely not enough. What you can't see from the pic is that the top of the box closes (it's a carboard box) and aluminum foil reflects the light off the top. I didn't realize this at the time, but the plant was actually taking a sphere shape from a light source of 360* around the plant.

She was never really very healthy. At 6 weeks old, her stem was only ~4mm wide at it's thickest and IIRC she wasn't much over a foot tall . It wasn't very strong either, I had to tie her to a pencil I placed into the ground. Torwards the end of here life, but before she really got sick, her top set of leaves curled sideways and a couple other fan leaves curled in on themselves. Here are some pics of her when she was still looking alive:

Around a week or so into 12/12 after I waited a couple of days for the soil to dry up a little so I didn't over water, I fed her nutes for the first time (alaska moorbloom is what my roommate bought). I'm not sure if I used too much or not, but I filled up like half a shotglass and poured that into a quart or so of tap water and feed her. That day for some reason I didn't turn the fan on.

The next day it was over 30*c in the box, the leaves were all wilted and some totally dried up. I thought that it was the nutes, so I flushed a couple of gallons of water through the pot and turned on the fan to cool her down. The next day she was even worse, so I gave up and smoked what I could. Here's a pic the day this happened:

Was this a case of overwatering? stress? nute burn? Or all of the above?

I just want to be in the know on this one, so that it doesn't happen again, and also to find some closer in the tragic death of an innocent plant.

 

[dontstepongrass]

was air being circulated?

 

[Cozy Amnesia]

Yeah, you see the hole in the box from the first pic? I had a honnywell fan blowing into it from the outside. It kept the temps down untill the day I somehow unplugged it.

 

[dontstepongrass]

well if that's the case, you have a forced intake and no exhaust. i'd put a hole towards the top and have a fan pulling hot air out the top

 

[southpaw]

Hey Cozy, sorry the girl didn't make it. Yeah you did some things wrong, heck, a lot of things wrong, but I like your attitude and think you could do another plant proud.

First the autopsy.

You fried the girl to death with Alaska Morbloom. I know you did because I did this recently to a few garden plants and if they had been as weak as your girl was going in, they might not have made it. Unless you have extremely hard, high PH (as in 9+) water, throwing more than a tablespoon of either fish emulsion or Morbloom (read the label, derived from Phosphoric Acid) per gallon is going to roast plant roots. A teaspoon per gallon of 5-1-1 fish emulsion drops my 8.0+ tap water down to right around 6.0. A shot glass of Morbloom into a quart of water was a 12 times max dose. With a root system so weak she couldn't stand on her own, that was an execution. I doubt flushing a day later would help.

The saying goes that "organics won't burn", but fish emulsion definitely can, and Morbloom isn't even OMRI certified, I believe.

As for the reason she was so weak, you've got to get a better light system set up. That box looked cool, but it wasn't even remotely set up correctly. First, plain old flat white paint is a more efficient reflector than aluminum foil. Second, lights need to be mounted from overhead. Third, that spectrum looks like a 2700K fluorescent, which is wrong for vegging (At least 4100 K "daylight" or even better, a 6500K "cool white" bulb is needed.)

Since I get the sense budget is in play here, I'd suggest hanging at least a 45W blue spectrum CFL rigged to a DIY reflector. Look around here, I remember seeing a sweet mod to paper plates a while back. Ghetto but effective.

For bloom, be ready to swap out the blue spectrum bulb for a 2700K one.

If you plan on sticking with soil, I'd also suggest looking through a few soil grow diaries and getting a better sense for things like how and when to fertilize, how to ventilate a grow box, control height, and so on.

Don't let this discourage you. We all start somewhere. I'm taking the time out because your girl reminded me of some very sad lettuce plants I grew for a fifth grade science project. I've been there.

 

[Cozy Amnesia]

Thanks for all the help southpaw!

Hey Cozy, sorry the girl didn't make it. Yeah you did some things wrong, heck, a lot of things wrong, but I like your attitude and think you could do another plant proud.

First the autopsy.

You fried the girl to death with Alaska Morbloom. I know you did because I did this recently to a few garden plants and if they had been as weak as your girl was going in, they might not have made it. Unless you have extremely hard, high PH (as in 9+) water, throwing more than a tablespoon of either fish emulsion or Morbloom (read the label, derived from Phosphoric Acid) per gallon is going to roast plant roots. A teaspoon per gallon of 5-1-1 fish emulsion drops my 8.0+ tap water down to right around 6.0. A shot glass of Morbloom into a quart of water was a 12 times max dose. With a root system so weak she couldn't stand on her own, that was an execution. I doubt flushing a day later would help.

Wow I had no idea that small amount would burn her! I remember the bottle saying something like "for indoor plants use 1 ounce per quart" or something like that, so I thought I was in the clear. I guess I have to be more precise! I always learn the hard way...do you have to be that careful with all ferts that are made with chemicals?

The saying goes that "organics won't burn", but fish emulsion definitely can, and Morbloom isn't even OMRI certified, I believe.

As for the reason she was so weak, you've got to get a better light system set up. That box looked cool, but it wasn't even remotely set up correctly. First, plain old flat white paint is a more efficient reflector than aluminum foil. Second, lights need to be mounted from overhead. Third, that spectrum looks like a 2700K fluorescent, which is wrong for vegging (At least 4100 K "daylight" or even better, a 6500K "cool white" bulb is needed.)

IIRC, there was one cool blue and one that was more reddish (I don't know that kelvins, a friend lent them to my roommate) and the third light was a "plant a aquarium" light I bought for the flower cycle (which she was in when I took the pic). This next grow I'm buying a 150w hps.

Since I get the sense budget is in play here, I'd suggest hanging at least a 45W blue spectrum CFL rigged to a DIY reflector. Look around here, I remember seeing a sweet mod to paper plates a while back. Ghetto but effective.

For bloom, be ready to swap out the blue spectrum bulb for a 2700K one.

If you plan on sticking with soil, I'd also suggest looking through a few soil grow diaries and getting a better sense for things like how and when to fertilize, how to ventilate a grow box, control height, and so on.

I plan on using coco. I'm not sure on what brand of nutes I'll use, just whatever they got at my local hydro shop thats good for coco. Hopefully they have something specific, if not what nutes should I use?

Don't let this discourage you. We all start somewhere. I'm taking the time out because your girl reminded me of some very sad lettuce plants I grew for a fifth grade science project. I've been there.

Thanks for the support!

 

[Cozy Amnesia]

SOIL:

How long has this problem been going on? I ended her suffering after two days of an increasing lose in vitality -- she was simply dying
What STRAIN are you growing? bagseed
What was the establishing technique? (seed or clone?) seed
What is the age of your plants? ~6 weeks
How Tall are the plants? ~15"
What PHASE (seedling, vegetative or flower) are the plants in? flower
What Technique are you using? (SOG, SCROG etc) none
What size pots are you using? (Include how many subjects to pot) i think it was in a 3 gallon, maybe bigger
What substrate/medium are you using? What brand of soil mixture are you using?(percentage of perlite, vermiculite...etc?) 2:1 Miracle grow potting soil and peat moss
What Nutrient's are you using?How much of each with how much water? How Often? *Knowing the brand is very helpful* I foiler fed with Terracycle plant food (It didn't list the N-P-K but had that stuff in it) once a week and feed ~one ounce per quart of Alaska Moorbloom (0-10-10) only once
What is the TDS/EC/PPM of your nutrients used? no clue
What is the pH of the "RUN-OFF"? no clude
What method of pH test was administered? Using Strips? pH pen? none
How often are you watering? once every two to three days I would giver her a quart of plan tap water, nothing added to it
When was your last feeding and how often are you feeding? once a week
What size bulb are you using? two 20" and one 16" floros
What is the distance to the canopy?5" at it's closest
What is your RH Factor? (Relative Humidity) no clue
What is the canopy temperature? 25-30*C ( think thats like 80-87*F)
What is the Day/Night Temp? (Include fluctuation range)25*C at night and 28*C during the day, but sometimes would go as high as 30*C depending on if my AC was on or not
What is the current Air Flow? (cfm etc.) no clue, but air was definitally exchanging because when the fan wasn't on, temps would rise
Is the fan blowing directly at plants? yes
Is the grow substrate constantly wet or moist? yes
Is your water HARD or SOFT? I think it's around 140ppm
What water are you using? Reverse Osmosis (RO)? Tap? Bottled? Well water? Distilled? Mineral Water? tap
Has plant been recently pruned, cloned or pinched? pruned a little
Have any pest chemicals been used? If so what and when? no
Are plant's infected with pest's? i don't think so

Ok there are a lot of obvious mistakes easily recognizable in that info. My roommate bought the pot, soil, nutes, and lights, and he made the box. I was in charge of feeding and watering in the second half of her life because my roommate skipped town.

I'm just wondering if one thing cause her to die or if it was a combination of all factors. Southpaw thinks I shocked her with too much fertilizer, but I (roughly) followed the manufacturers instructions. Can any one else give an opinion?