Can't get my plants to look good.

[VapeIt]

Here are pics of leaves from 4 of my 24 plants.
I have @ 6 diff strains, all in Veg, 3' tall in Coco.
Using H&G Coco A&B.
Half the plants look fairly good.
These are photos from the worst.

This is something new that started this week.
Did I burn leaves from foliar feeding?
Are these signs of being root bound?
They were just transfered to a newly built sealed room.
Are they not getting enough fresh air/Co2?
My stems are turning deep purple fast.

Last week I cut the nutes out and used Kleerex for 2 waterings.
I use 5ml per gal on the nutes, not 7.5.
I use RO water and PH to @6.0.
I water by hand every 2 days.

Thanks for any help.

 

[altitudefarmer]

what's the pH of your runoff? Looks like nute lockout, phosphorous in particular.

 

[VapeIt]

I will check the runoff PH tomorrow.

Do you think they need a heavy flushing?

I vegged them for so long, because I was building the room. Now I want to get them healthy before switching to flower.

 

[altitudefarmer]

good idea to get them healthy before blooming. If your pH is off, it doesn't matter how much nutrients are in the coco. On another tip, I hope you didn't use straight coco- it needs to be mixed with vermiculite or something similar so it doesn't pack too tightly. Tightly packed mediums have a tendency to lock out phosphorous, if my thc-riddled memory serves me correctly.

 

[VapeIt]

I will look at the bag tomorrow and tell you the brand.
It is a pre-mix.
There were 2 options - 3x a day watering or 1x a day watering. I got the 1x a day, but they don't seem to need watering every day, so I do it every other day.

 

[altitudefarmer]

That may be the problem. Check it out when you get a chance. Soggy, packed medium is no good, no matter what it is. Hope this helped; update tomorrow. Peace

 

[justiceman]

That may be the problem. Check it out when you get a chance. Soggy, packed medium is no good, no matter what it is. Hope this helped; update tomorrow. Peace

Ya definitely check that run off like altitudefarmer said(PH and EC). How much run off do you get anyway? Do you regularly Calibrate your PH and EC meter? Whats the % of coco to perlite as I see some in one of the pics. Do you feed every watering or do you alternate pure water with nutes? Temps?

If you water to frequently soggy mediums will inhibit nutrient uptake. How do you determine whether they need water or not. Do you lift the pots and feel the weight compared to right after you water? Do you add any beneficial bacteria/fungi innoculants?

 

[Tr33]

CUrious about 3 things before anything.

1) How many watts are your plants under now, and how many watts before flipping?


2) Do you see any fliers in the room.

3) How many days into flowering ~20 or so?

What I see is Lumen shock or phantom Ca/Mg which could be Root Aphids.

 

[VapeIt]

Justice,
I calibrate my PH meter to 4.0 and 7.0. I do not have an EC meter yet.
I do not get much runoff. My plants are very dry by the second day and I lift and check the weight before watering. There is almost no weight and the plants are drooping pretty bad.

I do not know the % now - should say on the bag when I check tomorrow.
I have used Cal/Mag and Roots Excelerator. I have been using Azamax to get rid of gnats.

 

[justiceman]

Sorry what I meant to say was how often do you calibrate your PH meter? Or basically this is what I'm getting at. Is your PH meter on point with calibration right now?

Not too much run off ay? like just a very small trickle? In any case healthy run off should be about 15% of the solution you apply. It's possible that you are not fully saturating all of the medium, and are causing salt build up. If I were you I would try to get a hold of an EC meter so you can measure your nutrients on the tee. They can be acquired at quite the cheap cost. An HM digital TDS-3 goes for about 22 bucks on ebay.

It's also possible the the gnats are eating your roots at such a high pace that it's effecting nutrient uptake.

When you say you have used calmag. Does that mean you don't use it regularly? If you use R/O water you should always use calmag with every watering ESPECIALLY with coco.

Since your plants are drying out almost every day It might also be possible that they are roots bound and letting them get too droopy can also cause nutrient build up problems for the roots as well as damage the small root hairs that absorb the nutes..

The problem might very well be a combination of the above. I would flush them with pure water to try and correct lockout if It happened, and I would start using that azamax at full strength if you already haven't to get rid of those gnats ASAP. I would also start watering once a day. I will say though it's quite odd that you have gnats when you have to water as much as once every other day. they usually don't like dry mediums like that.

In the future I would start using some type of humic/fulvic acid to help prevent against nutrient imbalances and I would start adding bacteria/fungi innoculants to further protect your rhizosphere.

If it's not lockout they might just be severely underfed. Get that EC meter! Having a PH and EC meter is like having a lantern in complete darkness. You can still walk without them but you can't see where your going.

 

[uberstuber]

why so tall?

The pick I see is of a plant that is way too tall to be productive indoors.

 

[VapeIt]

AltitudeFarmer, - The PH of the runoff is very close to what I put in. Most were @6.05 runoff. I watered with 6.0 today. 3 of the plants were pretty far off. One was @7.0. What does that mean?

Uberstuber - I did not plan for them to get to 3' tall, but it took me longer to finish the flower room than was planned. Do you have any ideas about my leaf problem?

JusticeMan - I calibrate every couple of weeks. I am probably not watering enough. I doubled up on the amount of water today, I also increased the Cal/Mag.
The medium is RedyGro from Botanicare - 1 watering daily version. No mention of the ratio on the bag.
I think I have finally finished off the gnats. Did not see any today. I flushed last week with Kleerex (sp?).

tr33 -
1) How many watts are your plants under now, and how many watts before flipping?
They are still in veg until I can get them a little healthier. They are under 2 - 425w 8 bulb floros. Until last week all 24 were under 1 of those lights.

2) Do you see any fliers in the room.
gnats? I think I just finished them off. Nothing else flying.

3) How many days into flowering ~20 or so?
No, just just finished the flower room - a month late.

Thanks everyone. I will transplant to 4 gal buckets Sat and see if they perk up.

 

[Seamaiden]

Justice,
I calibrate my PH meter to 4.0 and 7.0. I do not have an EC meter yet.
I do not get much runoff. My plants are very dry by the second day and I lift and check the weight before watering. There is almost no weight and the plants are drooping pretty bad.

I do not know the % now - should say on the bag when I check tomorrow.
I have used Cal/Mag and Roots Excelerator. I have been using Azamax to get rid of gnats.

First, reread EVERYTHING altitudefarmer has told you here, then search more of his posts. Second, stop doing that^^^^! Feed at least daily to the point of 20% run-off *minimum*. Third, you need to learn a bit more about working with coco, there is a learning curve but it's not too steep.

Someone else at another site shared this link, and it's one of the best I've seen to date for new coco growers. I guarantee that you won't be too far into this before the light bulb goes off and you say, "Oh MAN! So *that's* why _______________!!!!"

Then you'll smack yourself in the forehead.

Here, read it.

 

[VapeIt]

Seamaiden,
I went to watering every other day, because in a previous thread - I was told I was over watering.

Anyway, I need help. Are you using Coco in Hempy buckets? I thought I read that in another thread.

Thanks.

 

[VapeIt]

PH of nutrients help.

I am using H&G Coco A&B, Cal/Mag and Roots Excelerater.
I am mixing these into filtered RO water.
How long after mixing does it take to get an accurate PH reading?
I make a new batch each time I water. But I have found that if I get it at exactly 6.0 at first, an hour or 2 later the PH is different.

Thanks.

 

[Seamaiden]

That's called pH shift or drift, and if you're using unfiltered water then it's a much more likely, and difficult to control, phenomenon. RO/DI water has been stripped of the minerals that buffer pH in any range, but usually buffer it high. Remove those, and it's suddenly very malleable in terms of shifting pH and keeping it shifted.

Seamaiden,
I went to watering every other day, because in a previous thread - I was told I was over watering.

Anyway, I need help. Are you using Coco in Hempy buckets? I thought I read that in another thread.

Thanks.

Pure perlite in the hempies, coco DTW w/perlite mixed in at about... oh I'd say it's about 30% perlite mixed in.

Feed's got to be able to drain away. Once you get it like that feeding daily won't present any problems.

 

[altitudefarmer]

Hey bud, I'm not sure why just a couple plants were way off; could be a number of things. True Grit has recently converted to coco, and his threads are very informative. Try reading some of his stuff. I'll look too, if I see one relevant, I'll post a link. Try taking notes on what you do yourself and how the plants respond. Take a few and water them a little more; see what happens. Be sure to take notes and designate names or something for your gals. You'll forget what you added, or what you did. I promise. LOL. Peace.

 

[xX Kid Twist Xx]

to me them plants look like they need a good feed. i would up your dose of cal-mag as well. the stems are so purple it looks like thats the way they are supposed to be. cut all the lower bottom growth off as well, the plant being 3 feet tall light wont do them lower buds much good. also don't let the pot dry completely out let it get close but not bone dry. when the plant is dry give it a quart(them big Gatorade bottle sizes from the gas station) of water before you feed it as well. lower growth that doesn't get much light tends to die off quicker then growth receiving full light. I see signs of a potassium deficiency as well as magnesium and calcium.

 

[VapeIt]

AltitudeFarmer,
It could be because I have @6 diff strains. Or because when a few were young (12") they took a pretty bad fall and the roots may have never recovered, or???

Anyway, they were given to me 2 months ago in Coco. I need to grow these out, but my next run may be DWC buckets with Hydroton.

Seamaiden, what is DTW? Can I use ReadyGro like I have in Hempy style buckets? I am looking for an easy way to get this batch through flower.

KidTwist, How far up should I trim the lower leaves?

 

[xX Kid Twist Xx]

cut the stuff thats circled in red. the little branches of the main branch.