Yellowing / shriveling in veg PLEASE HELP!

[ChuckSlam]

This is my very first grow, and I received 6 vegging blueberries from a good friend. I was expecting to get clones, but to my surprise, the clones were already rooted from the hydroponic system of their previous owner. I was given the clones two days ago and they had about a foot or more of roots developed when I put them in the soil. When I received the plants, my friend sprayed them with some nutes (which I now wish I knew what kind and how much was diluted into the water he used). I have put the plants into the soil and watered them.

I expected them to go into shock after being transplanted into my soil, and after just two days of having them, their condition has greatly deteriorated- I've got yellowing and shriveling leaves, and one of my plants looks like he's on his very last legs.

I'm suspecting these were burned by the nutes. Or is it possible that my light could be hurting them? Also to be noted, I haven't yet put in the fan for the ventilation of my cabinet, though soon I will be using an 117cfm centrifugal fan. The inside temperature has been around 90 because I haven't gotten my fan yet.

So here's my setup. I have a 250w MH over them for vegging stored in a cabinet. They're sitting in small pots (and makeshift pots) with organic potting soil.

Here's a picture of the worst damage- this girl is as limp as a noodle and her leaves are badly shriveled.




Most all of the 6 plants are showing some leaf yellowing. I've got the plants somewhat propped up with ties, though I made sure not to have them too tight around branches. Here are some pictures of the yellowing.












Some of my plants are doing better than others, but if I'm going to lose one or two I need to fix the issue for all of them- I need to keep hold of these genetics because I have no idea when I'll be able to find more!

Here are the plants who are faring better.





Any help at all would be greatly appreciated. PLEASE help me save my babies! Thank you!

 

[Lofty]

eeek! chuckslam they need som serious tlc, the first pic looks like the soil is dry and shrinking and the poor bugger looks like its dehydrated. first thing i wud suggest is get the temp down, the temps drying them out and the new root base mite not be established yet, get some air flow in there. less lite until they root into the soil better, mayb use flo's.

put them in a humid tent prob better each one seperately ( put a clear plastic bag over them and hold it on with elastic band, keep them in that humidity until they recover.

let us know how u go on, but it's guna take time.

good luck!

 

[ChuckSlam]

Lofty, thank you for the fast response! They were due for a watering today so they did get some water in the soil at least.

I'm going to leave the door open on the cabinet so they can get some better air flow.

I don't have any fluoros, so this will be a problem. Is there anything I could do to my light (such as covering it with plastic) to lessen its abrasiveness? I want to give them LESS light without turning it off or buying new lights. Or should I just switch the damn light off for a couple of days?

Thanks again!

 

[Guest]

its stressful for a plant to change mediums or be transplanted....in other words you wound them when you do either...they take time to bounce back

 

[Guest]

they should be in wet medium when first transplanted and the soil should be wet

 

[Guest]

They are for sure underwatered and hungry for food. Temps are also pretty high. You need better airflow for sure. What have they been feed? whats your ph? These plants dont look like they have nute burn. looks more like they are under feed. But please tell me your soil run off ph and what ph you water at?

 

[Lofty]

its only a 250 lite so just move it away as far as poss, i wudnt turn the lite off but wud b on 18/6.

 

[ChuckSlam]

I don't actually know my PH. I bought a crappy PH tester from the store the other day, it's called a Rapitest or something. Anyways, I think the PH tester I got must be a dud or something because it always reads 7, and I doubt my soil is a perfect 7.

I'll have to get another PH meter soon.

On a separate note, the plants have not been fed since they came into my possession. I put them into Sunshine Organic Potting Mix and figured the nutrients in that would keep them held over for a while. If I'm mistaken, I'll definitely go and get some nutes asap.

And thanks, unicorn and Haze.

 

[EZlistener]

a fan will bring temps down also you need air flow, but your medium is TOO DRY , try to keep it moist, don't turn your light off just hang it higher if poss

 

[Guest]

Whatever you get to feed em start out at half strength and work it up to full over 2 weeks. Your soil ph needs to be 6-6.5. Same with the ph you water and feed with. Also, dont feed them till they perk up a little. But, they are hungry thats for sure so you do need to get nutes. LOWER your temps as I said. Get that fan up for ventilation soon as possible. That first pic is breaking my heart man. That plant is dry as shit. They need water! That should be your first concern then the rest of the issues stated and then you can feed half strength nutes.

 

[MTF-Sandman]

Ditch that PH "meter"...they are useless crap. You can get a decent economy digital PH pen off ebay for under $30...VERY worthwhile investment.

Definitely time to hit em with some weak nutes as well...they're showing mag and N defs, so make sure your nutes regimen will take care of those needs.

 

[Legit_User]

. Your soil ph needs to be 6-6.5. Same with the ph you water and feed with..

Yikes..
I wouldn't go below 6.5.
6.7-6.8 would be perfect.
Stay peaceful

 

[beancounter]

people put way too much into PH when growing in soil.. It's important, but it doesn't fluctuate as easily as people think, especialy in any well made/decent potting mix, soil or soiless (peat-based, etc)..

in my experience as long as u keep the water/feed going in somewhere around 5.8-7.2, you should be fine.. unless u are vegging long in the same old medium, or reusing your medium, in that case some dolomitic lime should be added to help restore the medium's ability to buffer PH.. 1 cup per 5 gallons of crushed dolomitic lime is fine for reusing.. if u are vegging forever in a big pot of soil, top dressing and watering in will work aswell..

about 50% of the issues i see online are jus simple underfeeding.. the internet can scare ya a bit about feeding, especialy when using nuetral mediums with no nutes.. roughly 20-25% are under/overwatering and enviro stress related, and about the same amount are from over feeding.. pests and other stuff make up the rest..

hydro is a dif animal, PH is critical..

Don't get me wrong either, i do believe u should PH your water/feed before giving it to the plants (i like 5.8-6.3 for peat based soiless, looks similar to his mix, and about 6.5 for soil), but if it's between 5.5-6.5 for soiless or 6-7 for soil i don't bother PHing it too much as i feel adding the PH up or down is not worth the time/effort, and putting additional crap in yer mix.. i've tried both ways (rough and exact), and as long as u use good medium and do regular transplants, u shouldn't have any PH issues if u have water from high 5s to low 7s.. hell, i have never had PH issues in 6+ month old vegging mother bonsias in 3" pots, using the 'rough' method..

but by all means, if yer newer to growing try to be as exact as possible... then if there is a problem u know that PH isn't causing it.. but once u get used to yer setup u will find the ranges that u can work fine in.

I highly advocate the purchase of the same 'under $30' PH meter as mtf suggests.. the Hanna 'checker' for $25ish is a wicked deal, and pays for it's self in time over the $10 liquid kits in a couple wks, it gets boring very quickly when needing to take multiple reading to dial in a mix using a liquid test kit, but they do work if need be..


But specificaly, about this grow...

That medium to me looks fresh and quality, he could probly go the 1st month with unadjusted PH tap water without causing problems, as long as he waters and feeds them of course.. lol

I agree with the others.. they're thirsty mostly, hungry 2nd.. N and mg mostly, but any good well balanced veg nute should do the trick..

You wanna saturate the medium of each pot fully, with maybe 1/4 strength nutes max, giving some runoff (10% is fine IMHO, especial in new medium).. humidity domes on each of them may help save some that are close to dieing, use bags, cello, anything.. Once u have watered and they perk up, let the pots dry out and get light (maybe 70% dry roughly, don't let it go too long and risk stressing them again), then feed them at 3/4-full strength nutes on that watering, and go from there.

ALL just my humble opinion of course.

good luck..

 

[ChuckSlam]

Beancounter, thanks for the informative response. I've turned the light off and given them a good watering, they seem to be doing better already. I'm going to proceed with that humidity thing on the first dying plant. Thanks so much everyone.

 

[ChuckSlam]

A quick update, everyone.

I grudgingly turned off the light last night because the temperature was just breaking 90. After watering and putting a humidity dome over the one in bad shape this morning, I noticed the humidity was up from the previous 30 to around 45 so I was happy to see that. The damage hasn't seemed to have spread, the two waterings I gave them (yesterday and today) seemed to have stopped the damage but most all of them still show atleast a little bit of yellowing. The almost dead one is still almost dead, but hopefully he'll fare better under the humidity. I don't want to risk feeding them nutes for a while, because like beancounter I figured they would have enough food in the organics in the soil for atleast a week or two. Today while I leave the light on I'll keep the door open so the temp doesn't get too high.

The thing that worries me is my 250w MH is about 3 feet from the top of the pots that the plants sit in... but I held my hand at the leaves' level and the light didn't burn at all, it was just slightly warm (with the doors open).

I was thinking about just covering the reflector with white plastic to reduce the light's abrasiveness. Anyone ever try that?

 

[ChuckSlam]

Day 4 Update

Day 4 Update

The first, most badly damaged plant has been in the humidity dome for more than a day now, and while the plant still looks deteriorated and close to death, on the upside it has two little fresh fan leaves on it which aren't showing the deterioration like the rest of the plant. Here's a shot of her today.





I had another question to ask. Some of the lower leaves on this plant are yellowing. If they get much worse, should I go ahead and cut them off? I've read that leaving dead leaves can contribute to mold. Here's a shot of her:



Here's plant #3 and a photo of one of its yellowing leaves. Do you guys agree that the color is slowly reappearing here, or is this just hope speaking?






Plant #4 - also showing dying leaves towards the bottom of the plant, and healthier green ones towards the top.



Plant #5 - some yellowing leaves but I hope they'll pull through without turning dark yellow like plant #2



Plant #6 - the healthiest contender



On the whole the plants seem to be in slightly better condition, and I'm happy to see the leaves (green ones atleast) reaching up towards the light. I'm just hoping that underneath the soil those roots are rooting well and getting the food they need out of the fresh soil here.

 

[Lofty]

yellow leaves molding is a prob but u'll c it clearly if that happens, and leave that u can recover, go for it, giv a chance, as far as the lite goes its not just the heat but lite pollution, especially wen the leaves go yellow and they've got no clorophyl in them.

use a small fan and blow it over them, dont be scared of keeping humidity up a bit, keep som trays of water near them.

well done, good recovery man.

 

[ChuckSlam]

Day 9 Update

Day 9 Update

The plants seem to be doing alright. The yellowing problem hasn't fixed, it seems like the leaves that were yellowing are all slowly dying off but the plants on the whole, aside from that issue, seem to be sticking it out. I figure they're still recovering from the transplant and will start showing more growth increasingly over the next week or two. I have a couple of things I'm wondering about.




As you can see from the pic above, I've got some browning/curling on some of the newer fan leaves in one of the plants. I'm wondering if this is related to the light in the cab. Up until a couple of days ago, I've had it on but covered with a white plastic bag to lessen the light's abrasiveness. But now that my fan's finally hooked up, I'm hoping they can take on the full light without getting burnt up. Is this light burn or a deficiency?

Here's that same plant zoomed out:


Here's Plant #3





Plant #4





Plant #5
These are all supposed to be clones of a blueberry mother, however the fan leaves on this plant are very differently shaped than the other. Is there anything I could accredit this to aside from this individual plant being from a different background? Anyways, atleast it's growing well.



Plant # 6 - Here's my first casualty. The one I opened this thread with shriveled up and its leaves were all rotting so I just gave 'em the chop. He's just sitting here 'till I decide what to do with him, though I figure this one is long gone.



Since the centrifugal fan is cooling my 250w light the temps are a little bit more bearable, yet still very high at 87 degrees with a dry humidity of 30%. Atleast they're getting more air circulation.


Any feedback, anyone?

Thanks!