BigBudsBunny
Well-Known Member
once the leaf is damaged (brown/yellow)...it's damaged...it won't fix itself - look to new growth for signs
Weak plant, growth stopped, leaves turning light green and dry
- Thread starter roc5tp
- Start date
Sueet
Well-Known Member
Leave the leaves on until they are fully yellow or brown, because the plant will retrieve whatever nutrients she can out of the ones damaged beyond repair. That soil looks fine, tho if it were me I would have added a bit more perlite to make it more breathable.
Fenderbender
Well-Known Member
Ah if you're already looking out for that that's good, I'm just thinking about all the things that can go wrong when you first start out.. and well the main thing is pot setup, soil conditions, avoid overwatering, avoid overfeeding, although a plant can take lots of water and food but only at the appropriate stages and if she's strong big and healthy, don't cook the roots in a plastic pot in the hot Sun, and water can often be hidden problem so I just thought of mentioning it.
But if you get the pot setup right and the plant takes off it really is a whole different ballgame as then she will grow like a weed and you need to put effort in to tame her instead of trying to get her going.
I see that it has Sphagnum Peat Moss and Coco Coir listed as the first two ingredients. Then it is listing wood fiber followed by black peat and compost. The amounts of Perlite are minor, very minor.To be honest it’s just some average soil I bought in a garden shop, which probably was a mistake I should learn from.
Most likely this sort of potting mix is intended for growing house plants or summer flowers that might be put on a patio or porch. Those plants are not as demanding of fertilizer or nutrients as a Cannabis plant is when it gets larger.
Most likely the majority of the fertilizer that the manufacturer put in the soil has been used up and you as the grower will have to start a feeding schedule. Before that you will have to figure out why the plant is wilting and looking like it has not had enough water or looking like it has been over water. Often those conditions can look the same.
It happens to a lot of us. Once we learn what the various ingredients are and why they are added to a mix of soils it will fall into place. Plus, you can use this soil when transplanting some of the other plants I can see on your porch or patio.
- Thread starter
- #25
Can’t tell if she’s looking better or recovering at all. Many yellow/brown dry leaves, mainly the ones that were damaged already. At the seme time I don’t think she’s growing. It’s very hot, around 90-100 degrees these weeks.
BigBudsBunny
Well-Known Member
I'm not a soil farmer but it looks to me like it's saying feed me. It's moving up the plant using up what's in the dying leaves. I'll just throw out a few things - soil too wet?, lack of oxygen (soil compacted), lack of food? Any or a combo of these things can lead to dying leaves as either the roots struggle to uptake nutrients or there is a lack of nutrients.
just my 2 cents and probably not worth half that!
BBB
just my 2 cents and probably not worth half that!
BBB
- Thread starter
- #27
Hi BBB,
I honestly can`t tell, unfortunately. Plant was doing good, then something happened. Re-potted 2 weeks ago, roots looked healthy, all white, no bad smell. The soil looks OK, not too wet not bone dry either but probably could be more airy. I water 1 max 2 times a week when the soil feels dry.
I add BioGrow (from BioBuzz) that in theory should have nutrients. Why the plant can't take it from the soil, no clue.
It's really hot around here, 30-40 Celsius for weeks with high humidity as we live half a mile from the sea.
Moved her to the shade, bit now back in the sun about 5-6 hours a day.
I simply can't figure out what's going on and why she stopped growing.
Have 3 pots of autoflowers, about 3 weeks old but they also grow really slowly and are now turning light green.
For watering I use tap water but I let it stay for 24-48 hours before watering.
Sueet
Well-Known Member
It absolutely does look better than before. It also does look like it needs food - that could be a pH problem since you just put it into new soil. I'm too lazy to read back, did we determine, are you pH'ing your water/feed to 6.3? If not, that is definitely something you should work on doing, the plant needs a lower pH to pick up certain nutrients. We put it in at 6.3 and the soil slowly swings it back up to neutral at 6.8-7.0, and that swing up thru all the levels is what allows the plant to pick up the different nutrients it needs. You may possibly need cal mag too.
Some tap water is treated with chloramine instead of chlorine. Chloramines do not evaporate the way chlorine does by sitting, so check with your city to see which you have.
Light green means hunger. The source of the hunger is tbd, but it does need to be addressed asap.
Some tap water is treated with chloramine instead of chlorine. Chloramines do not evaporate the way chlorine does by sitting, so check with your city to see which you have.
Light green means hunger. The source of the hunger is tbd, but it does need to be addressed asap.
- Thread starter
- #29
Hi Sueet,
Thank you for your answer.
"...did we determine, are you pH'ing your water/feed to 6.3?". No we didn't. And as now I am running out of ideas tend to think that could be a problem. If I can believe the label on the soil bag it has a ph of 6.5. However my pH meter says between 7 and 8. Sama for the water. Not sure how much this device an be trusted though, I bought a generic one in a garden store.
I am looking into the options how to lower the pH level of the soil, I am totally new to this. So far I read sulphur is an option but it takes time, so I'm looking now to find a quick(er) fix if that exist at all.
Also just in case I will quit using tap water to see if that helps. I reckon distilled or even mineral water could be a better option?
The soil does not look compacted at all. Because of the amounts of Peat Moss and Coco Coir being a lot more than the amounts of natural soil I am thinking that the soil is not damp enough to supply the plant with the amounts of water it needs. The plant cannot take up and use the fertilizers that have been added if there is not enough water.
If the temperatures are high then the plant is loosing water faster than it should and it might not be able to replace the lost water because there is not enough left in the soil.
I am thinking that a maximum of two watering sessions a week is a problem. It might be better to with 4 waterings a week.
Do not worry about the pH of the soil. The company that put the soil mix together has no reason to put the wrong number on the bag. And, a 6 to 7 pH number on commercially made potting soils is normal.
Check the pH of the water. That is the important number at this point. The pH of the soil is constantly changing going up and down as the amounts of water in the soil mix change and as the micro-organisms do their job with the available nutrients.
When growing in a more natural mix in the soil the recommended number is a 6.3 pH. When the mix is high amounts of coco and peat and lower amounts of compost then that number changes towards a 5.7 pH. Consider doing a "crash course" and read everything you can on hydroponic style growing when the grower is using peat and coco mixes similar to what you have in the pot.
Sueet
Well-Known Member
The bag says 66% organic matter, would that not be considered soil? Do other countries also list ingredients in the order of their quantity? I've always wondered that. If this is a hydro medium, then my bad, sorry and thank you for correcting me.
As @SmokingWings said above, it isn't the pH of the soil you need to correct, it is the pH of the liquids/feed going in that needs to be pH'd. The soil is set at a particular place for a reason. and the liquid overrides that soil pH for the duration that it is 'wet'... allowing the plant to experience each different level of pH and get whichever nutrients are best available at that particular level. When the soil becomes dry then it is back to the pH that it came with. If you look up 'pH nutrient availability' you will see charts that show which nutrients are most available at which pH levels. Note that there are two versions, one for soil, and one for hydro. (I am not clear on which you should use at this point)
I may have been mistaken to direct you to pH to 6.3 because your soil is acting more like a hydro medium than a regular soil. This may mean you need to lower your inputs to 5.7 and possibly you may need to be feeding daily... But then again, I have no experience actually using that sort of mix, I've used just soil, or just coco (and the way you treat them are worlds apart) so I'm not confident on what to tell you is the 'right' way to do it in that mix you have.
If your mix is in fact more hydro, you almost certainly need to get/use Cal-mag. If you do, make sure you put it into the water some time (10 or more minutes is recommended) ahead of adding your nutes.
Coco Coir and Peat Moss are organic matter. Thing is, under normal conditions it will take the peat about 2 to 3 years to decompose or break down to its base nutrients that would help feed the plant. And from what I have read the coco can take 20 years unless it is put into composting piles that are mixed specifically for the material and then it can take 5 years.
The above is one of the big reasons why hydro growers using coco and/or peat mixes end up having to water and feed pretty much every day no matter how how large the pot of soil is and the size and age of the plant.
And why those growing in a mix that is predominantly a compost or dirt based mix can get by for weeks when the plants are younger and smaller.
I have wondered the same thing. In this case though after reading the small print buried in the soil companies web site I have to go with that it is not a natural soil and it would be better if were treated more like a hydro mix would be.
I was taught that it was soil if it was a dirt base with peat and Perlite mixed in. The definition being used these days has changed to where it is soil if it can be used for filling pots to hold plants. Now-a-days we have hydro soils and peat based soils and compost based soils and they are all "soils".
Went through hours and hours of reading on this over the last few years. The question of "what does soil mean" varies a bit but settles down to if it can be used to grow a plant it is soil. It does not matter what is being grown whether it is Cannabis growers or tomato farmers or a home gardener with flowering plants on their porch.
While we are at it, one of the things I see in the growers photos is that the roots are looking white and healthy but they are not long nor everywhere. They are a smaller root mass than what those who follow the watering techniques that are described in Emilya's "Watering a Potted Plant" thread. . I often feel that Emilya's method is a variant on a hydro grow which is using a dirt soil with near hydro watering amounts. She is getting root masses that wrap all around the edges of the pot in two weeks with massive growth spurts that produce larger plants at the same time. That is why growers who follow that method can be putting photo-period plants into flower within 4 weeks of the seedling stage. And some of the auto-flower growers have larger plants by the time the plant is ready to start flowering at 3 or 4 weeks.
