Looking for help with plant illness

[nothernbud]

Using crop king seeds one year old. Started with a cheap led now switched to a 315w cmh. Both plants seem to be growing slow. Planted in early October. Miracle grow soil and fertilizer. Both are auto flower and one is taller and thinner than the other and one is short and bushy with dark leaves. Not sure what’s going on besides my cheap ph meter telling me it’s just over 7

 

[Papageno]

You have overfeed. You have multiple signs of not just over feeding but toxic problems from so much continuous overfeeding. The soil is toxic likely and possibly you have locked out some nutes now. It is likely unkind to the roots right now in there.

Very common with beginners...but it is clear you have been overfeeding for weeks for it to be that bad on some of those.

The nitrogen toxicity is high enough to cause the leafs to droop... so that plant will stop growing soon if not already.

Since these are in veg you can fully recover and get great yield...but most everything there will go away... if you do it correctly.

There are 3 paths...ignore me. Fix it propper or try to flush it and finish it.

The easiest is ignore me...somone else will give you easier advice.

The second easiest is to do an extremely common thing people do for many reasons even when all the chemistry is correct in the pot which is called a flush. You wash out all of the built up salts and problems in there then continue on.

The harder and better thing to do if you want to keep her is fix her, then whack her back and regrow veg and bloom a healthy girl.

People go too fast and bloom garbage and get garbage. You should slow down and try again. And it is faster to fix those than really to start over. And you will learn a ton. You can flush those and in a day they are back and whack em back and in a week you are vegging again and in 3 you can start bloom with a monster rootball.

I personally try to keep a pile of clones handy so I can pitch plants I screw up.

Your pH is going to be a mess in those. You pots need a flush I don't care what anyone says.

 

[nothernbud]

Ok well that’s goood to know. I didn’t think I was over feeding but then again I’m here asking for help. I fed once when I transplanted and once last week with spray. Would you be able to give me some instructions on how to flush? And then what would I do after I that? What do you mean cut then back to reveg?

 

[Emilya Green]

I agree with our dear sweet idiot... it is over fertilization. Consider this. Miracle Grow is called that because it has a LOT of fertilizer in it... 6 months worth! You don't need additional nutes while in veg... in flower you will need to supplement a bit. Flushing means running 3x the container size in water through the container... a 3 gallon needs 9 gallons of water flowing through it. This "flushes" the added nutes right out of there, and effectively activates the nutrient pellets imbedded in the Miracle Grow. After that, sit on your hands and do nothing until the plants recover and use all that water. You shouldnt have to water for days. Ignore our friend's ravings about chopping up your plant... take a deep breath and continue on. lol

 

[Killian]

My thoughts is your ph. If your ph isn't right your plants can't take up the nutrients and your plants will have all kinds of deficiency problems like the ones in your pictures. By the ph kit the one with the little plastic vial and the chemical with the color coding on the bottle its cheap and its a good double check for your pen. I would shoot for 6.5 and stay as close to that range as you can. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Emilya Green]

My thoughts is your ph. If your ph isn't right your plants can't take up the nutrients and your plants will have all kinds of deficiency problems like the ones in your pictures. By the ph kit the one with the little plastic vial and the chemical with the color coding on the bottle its cheap and its a good double check for your pen. I would shoot for 6.5 and stay as close to that range as you can. Just my 2 cents.

Here I go again... 6.5 is not a range... it is an arbitrary number in the middle of the range that is recommended that we sweep through every time. The only way to sweep through the range is to start out low and let your medium drift the pH through the range. The recommendations of setting pH to 6.5 is hurting too many soil grows for me to sit still and let this myth go on... there is NO sweet spot in the 6.3-6.8 range... or for that matter, in the hydro range of 5.5-6.1either. Set it at the appropriate end of the range for your medium, and let it drift.

 

[nothernbud]

So if I plan to flush how do you guys do it in the house? Can I put the pot in my laundr my sink and run the tap slow for awhile or should I be looking for another way? I would guess my pots are close to 5 gallons each

 

[Killian]

How do you know which way it will drift.

 

[Papageno]

Bathtub...15.minutes or so constant run as fast as the pot takes it without overflowing...

Really you want to see clear water for a while and the whole thing is soaked.

Wash everything out... I was told 5x pot size or 10 to15 min. I find it depends on how dense my root ball is. Get it fully soaked and run it through a good while.

Clear out all the bad stuff. Then she will be fine.

I tend to over do it and go another step fuether but you probably don't need to do that yet.

 

[Papageno]

Oh and then yeah ai top off and finish with a bucket of pHd water...that is part of the extra stuff I do... I add tea after a flush but let's not go there yet. If you have MG soil just flush till the cows come home.

 

[nothernbud]

I better drill some extra holes in the bottom of my pots first. So after flushing will that rid my soil of all nutes and I’ll have to add once it drys out? Also if I continue to use mg soil would I be better off to use plant fortifier Cannabis rx spray instead of granular fertilizer so I don’t over do it?

 

[Emilya Green]

How do you know which way it will drift.

it will drift to wherever it is buffered to go to

 

[Emilya Green]

So if I plan to flush how do you guys do it in the house? Can I put the pot in my laundr my sink and run the tap slow for awhile or should I be looking for another way? I would guess my pots are close to 5 gallons each

it would be hard to guess under a tap what 15 gallons looks like... best to go old school, one gallon at a time

 

[Papageno]

Well...funny you should ask...emmy and I used to teach this whole watering thing then she wrote up a sticky and it is I think moved to the soil section. Lots to know about watering. I recomend it however it is explaining what I would call propper wattering... that may not be efficient wattering. I get laughed at by some cor doing it the way emmy explains. I have done it many ways. I never was much on big time run off until I saw what people do wrong here. I was like well why not. It can't hurt.

But...the short is... no drain growing is more difficult. Similar to growing in a super tiny pot vs a huge pot or big light over a small one...there are lots we can do that make the grow simpler which means higher or possibly better yield.

Watering with run off to prevent problems makes life much easier.

I use rocks in my pans

rocks1

• Papageno
• Feb 21, 2016

 

[nothernbud]

That’s neat. So you collect the extra water and reuse it back in your plants? I always water with a smaller container so I don’t over water but rather just water more often

 

[Emilya Green]

VI has some unique ideas... I was always taught NOT to put runoff back into the containers... it messes up the pH and adds all sorts of debris that had been flushed out, back in. I was also taught to keep my hard earned nutes in the container, and to just water to the point of runoff, and no more, and in a synthetic grow to expect to have to flush a few times... its all part of the game.

 

[Papageno]

No if I am lucky it runs up my humidity and goes away. If not it needs to be dumped...which is not that hard. Or if the plant is big I use a towel to sop it up. The stuff down there is not good really.

I try to keep the run off smallish for that reason. But in a good environment it evaps fast. It is good to have some come out every time. But for me that was a hard habit to create. I still don't always do it.

 

[Emilya Green]

That’s neat. So you collect the extra water and reuse it back in your plants? I always water with a smaller container so I don’t over water but rather just water more often

Are you letting your plants dry out between waterings, like all the way to the bottom and no water weight at all?

 

[Papageno]

Th real deal isn't that it is always bad
..it is that run off isn't always good. And you must maintain sterile pans and the whole 9 yards.

There are a lot of give and takes...compromises. I like to load up my soil naturally and stand back and see if it works these days. I can always flush and fix.

 

[nothernbud]

Boy maybe I wasn’t watering enough the soil wasnt even taking water at first it was so dry. After i transplanted i watered about a litre or leas and it looked terrible.