Desperate for help!

[onlyaftrdrk]

Hey Guys!

 

I am a newbi, but I have spent the last 6 months learning and buying and I thought that after all this investment I would have a kick ass stealth setup, but my plants are terrible and I hope some of you guys who know better can lend some advice. I dont know what im doing wrong, so im going to have to tell you guys everything so sorry for the long read.

 

I am growing in a grow tent in the wardrobe, in nutrifields COCO (50% perlite from bunnings) using nutrifield nutes part A and B. I have a 400 W HPS that is sitting 22 inces above my plants (they get about 500-800 LMS, have tried closer but that just leads to burning), air conditioner on the outside of the tent blowing cool air in. Temps stay between 50 deg F and 80 degrees F. I have a fan and exhast inside the tent.

 

I have had three attempts are grows, and i start watering with nutes at about a week. The pots are quite large self watering so runoff is then sucked back up. I have a PH pen and EC Pen. PH is set to 5.5 -5.8 EC is set to 8-10. I have tried watering every two to three days, or when the COCO top soil starts drying. I water deeply with about 30% run off.

 

My trouble starts with either the plants starting to yellowing after a week and the older leaves start flaking off, so when i up the nutes they start burning. If they havent died by the second or third week they start going light green and then start slowly yellowing and generally look pathetic.

 

I just bought some nutrifields sea breeze. Hydro store sales guy told me it would help with shock.

 

Can someone tell me where i might be going wrong?

[Wrangler556]

Hey onlyaftrdrk,

 

Pics are a big help when your asking for help.

 

But, from what you've said, I have a few ideas.

 

 

Seedlings are very delicate fore first 2-4weeks. They can do completely fine on just plain water, in fact, most reccomend you dont fertilize at all for first 3 weeks. When you do fertilize, you give them a very weak solution, about 1/4 strength or less, for most nutes, that seems to be 0.3- 0.6 EC, so you might be just over feeding them. The little seed leaves that develop first, contain all the food they need to start off. When you do start nutes, you start weak, then build them up gradually over time, ie: 0.3, 0.5, 0.7, 1.0 etc... In a nutshell, dont give them anything but water for atleast 2 weeks I reckon.

 

Other things, seedlings dont like cold conditions, you said 50°F at night, you might want to put a heat mat under them to help them cope a bit better, also promotes faster root growth.

 

With air, dont have the air blowing right on them, as it dries them out, also cold air from a air conditioner might stunt them a bit. have it blowing at the ground, so it mixes with air in grow tent, then moves up over the plants.

 

And lastly, what size pots are you using? Little seedlings dont need big pots, as they dont have the root structure to use everything in the pot. Big pots make it easy to overwater, and furthermore, I reckon selfwatering pots make it even easier again to overwater seedlings, they are fine for big well established plants, but may hold to much water for the youngins.

 

You may want to put that light up even further to about 100cm/ 40inches, then lower it over time.

 

 

Well, thats my ideas from what you've said.

 

Goodluck mate!

 

Wrangler.

[onlyaftrdrk]

Hey onlyaftrdrk,

 

Pics are a big help when your asking for help.

 

But, from what you've said, I have a few ideas.

 

 

Seedlings are very delicate fore first 2-4weeks. They can do completely fine on just plain water, in fact, most reccomend you dont fertilize at all for first 3 weeks. When you do fertilize, you give them a very weak solution, about 1/4 strength or less, for most nutes, that seems to be 0.3- 0.6 EC, so you might be just over feeding them. The little seed leaves that develop first, contain all the food they need to start off. When you do start nutes, you start weak, then build them up gradually over time, ie: 0.3, 0.5, 0.7, 1.0 etc... In a nutshell, dont give them anything but water for atleast 2 weeks I reckon.

 

Other things, seedlings dont like cold conditions, you said 50°F at night, you might want to put a heat mat under them to help them cope a bit better, also promotes faster root growth.

 

With air, dont have the air blowing right on them, as it dries them out, also cold air from a air conditioner might stunt them a bit. have it blowing at the ground, so it mixes with air in grow tent, then moves up over the plants.

 

And lastly, what size pots are you using? Little seedlings dont need big pots, as they dont have the root structure to use everything in the pot. Big pots make it easy to overwater, and furthermore, I reckon selfwatering pots make it even easier again to overwater seedlings, they are fine for big well established plants, but may hold to much water for the youngins.

 

You may want to put that light up even further to about 100cm/ 40inches, then lower it over time.

 

 

Well, thats my ideas from what you've said.

 

Goodluck mate!

 

Wrangler.

 

 

Thanks! That helps a lot!

 

So first up, your probably 100% right about the pots. by letting them well up I am probably overwaterng them by accident which means the plants roots cant get oxigen. Thats an easy fix, and explains why older plants slowly go yellow and light green. Will have to get new pots tomorrow.

 

second, the air con is blowing almost directly onto the plants... I didnt think that would be a problem, makes sence so. So i will lift all the plants up above the air in intakes. THANKS AGAIN!

 

but the nutes i will have to keep giving them, im pretty sure thats the only thing that i have done right, because COCO is soiless, no nutritional value what so ever, the hydro store told me to start feeding right away but now i am tempted to wait for signes of low nutrient in the seedlings baby leaves before giving nutes.

 

ill think if i set my air con a couple of degrees higher then it might help with those lower temps... but summe is on the way so that wont be a problem for long.

[onlyaftrdrk]

so the problem has to be the humidity, right now it has none whatsoever... guess the air con is drying the air... would this cuase them to die?

[Wrangler556]

Good stuff,

 

Just clarifying, dont get me wrong, you can give them nutes right from the get go, but like I said, it has to be weak. Sometimes, they look like they need a feed (Over fert can look simlilar in young plants), so you give em more nutes, the problems doesnt go away, cause your burning them.

 

Also, what water are you using? Common household tap water usually contains enough disolved solids to support a seedling for quite awhile, sometimes they even contain too much, or contain to much chlorine and sodium(salt) depending on the qaulity of your local water supply. - leaving the water to sit in a open bucket for 24-48hrs evaporates some of the nasty stuff.

 

My advice would be to be careful with the nutes, almost all the posts on this forums, ive noticed people saying dont give nutes for first couple of weeks. Also be wary of what some grow shop staff say, they are focused on making money, not your plants, the more stuff they get you to buy, the better off they do some know their stuff, but some dont know a thing about growing, and if their legit, they certainly wont know anything about MJ plants.

 

You'll get he hang of it bud, trial and error till you find what works, believe me, I tortured my first couple of plants to no end, but you'll get the hang of it soon enough

 

Hopefully some of the seasoned growers on here will chime in with some better advice, im just relaying what ive learnt so far

 

Wrangler.

[onlyaftrdrk]

Actualy its the best advice ive had so far aside from hey read the FAQ etc

 

Good stuff,

 

Just clarifying, dont get me wrong, you can give them nutes right from the get go, but like I said, it has to be weak. Sometimes, they look like they need a feed (Over fert can look simlilar in young plants), so you give em more nutes, the problems doesnt go away, cause your burning them.

 

Also, what water are you using? Common household tap water usually contains enough disolved solids to support a seedling for quite awhile, sometimes they even contain too much, or contain to much chlorine and sodium(salt) depending on the qaulity of your local water supply. - leaving the water to sit in a open bucket for 24-48hrs evaporates some of the nasty stuff.

 

My advice would be to be careful with the nutes, almost all the posts on this forums, ive noticed people saying dont give nutes for first couple of weeks. Also be wary of what some grow shop staff say, they are focused on making money, not your plants, the more stuff they get you to buy, the better off they do some know their stuff, but some dont know a thing about growing, and if their legit, they certainly wont know anything about MJ plants.

 

You'll get he hang of it bud, trial and error till you find what works, believe me, I tortured my first couple of plants to no end, but you'll get the hang of it soon enough

 

Hopefully some of the seasoned growers on here will chime in with some better advice, im just relaying what ive learnt so far

 

Wrangler.

[Wrangler556]

Humidity can play a major factor also

 

Depends what sort of aircon, some like evaporative coolers increase humidity, whereas others can dry it out.

 

Do you have a hygrometer? There would have to be some humidity, even in the middle of the desert, theres a reading of Hum.

 

Humidity should be somewhere between 40 -65% for them to be comfortable during seedling/veg, and 40-50 for flowering.

 

One of the best advice I read anywhere to measure stuff in general without all the fansy gadgets, is if you can stand in the grow room, and it feels nice and comforatble for you, then it should be for the plants. If its too hot/cold, dry, windy etc, plants may not like it.

 

Wrangler.

[onlyaftrdrk]

its an acutal air conditioner, and it on my little gadget it has read 0% humidity for the past 2 weeks... i just didnt think it would be much of a problem.

 

So now i have sprayed mist, hung a wet towel and put abucket of water in thre and for now its 55%... ill recheck in the morning but i hope that was the missing ingrediant :-) would explain why some of the leaves look like they are missing chunks and drying out for no reason.

[Wrangler556]

I just noticed my thread I started couple months ago is sitting right below yours, I had all sorts of problems being a noob, overwatering, over ferting, light too close, wind blowing on them etc, it was in a grow tent aswell. over time I got it right, it took awhile, but they are growing great guns now/into flowering.

 

Just thought it would be worth a read, along with other threads. Way I learnt is just reading these forums, looking for anything that may be similar, or even the grow diary section. You get to see what people did to fix, or not fix problems, you see various people's advice, then adapt the ideas to your situation.

 

These forums are a great source of knowledge on MJ growing and the like, lots to be learnt, just read as much as ya can

 

One other bit of advice before I go hit the bong and go all stupid for the night: As a new grower, you tend to over worry about the plants too much, and makes changes to stuff to hastily, hence not giving the plants enough time to actually show you if your doing it right. Just remember, at the end of the day, it is a weed, and for the most part, will take care of itself. MJ plants are tough little buggers, and can adapt to extreme conditions or something being off, but if you do something for them, then the next day decide it was the wrong thing and change it again, problems will persist.

 

Im off, goodluck mate.

 

Wrangler.

[John Citizen]

hey mate,

 

i havent read through most replies so apologies if this has already been mentioned: In addition to nutrient strength, air flow, proximity of light source etc - what is the temp of the nutrients you are feeding your girls? I recently ran in to some yellowing issues myself (developed plants changed colour overnight and the health of my girls became worse rapidly). I run a tight set up when it comes to enviromental conditions of my room, some trouble shooting narrowed down the source of my problem to either nutrient type (which was unlikely), room temp and/or nutrient temp. I started with nutrient temp, 1 day after whacking a standard aquarium heater in my tank set to approx 22C my girls had done a complete turn around and all leaves reverted from their worrying pale yellow colour to deep green with lighter green new growth. Again, im not saying this is the source of your problem/s but worth checking. I live in the south of Aus so our winters can be harsh compared to other states; i can confidently say temp of nute tank is not a concern from October-April but i will never go without again during the frosty months.

Good Luck

JC