Brand new caregiver in need of help.

[katiemarie]

Hi there everyone, Im a brand new caregiver an decided to join this site as oppose to all the others out there as it seems to have the most experienced and nicest growers. :) I hope someone can help me a bit.
As shown in the pics my room is 6 ft wide by 10 ft long, have 16 plants (on the table), some are strawberry diesel the tall woody looking ones (3) of them are master kush, have 2 skunk #1 and some bb diesels, the one on the floor is the purps, Im growing in a 50/50 mix of FFOF and Happy Frog w/ 30% perlite added. Supplementing with FF organics and looking for a good recipe for tea.
Have a 1000w hps bulb on them right now. I know tht tends to make them taller n stringy but I have another air cooled hood and have ordered a 1000w MH bulb. So should I hang the MH perpendicular to the one already there and move the plants half under each bulb? Cant affor a light mover yet. Will that be too much light? Can you give them too much light or will they just throw off any they cant photosynthesize? I also have a heat problem in there and have to leave the tarp somewhat open during the day with a fan running but I just went and got an intake and some flexible duct hose and ordered a cheap inline inductive booster fan. Im hoping that fan will be sufficient to cool it down by 5 to 10 degrees, but we'll see.
All the plants seem to have a nutrient def, some nitrate def and wondering if can give them a bat guano tea as a supplement to the ff organics? The man at the hydro store said since Im going organic nutes its impossible to burn them do you agree? but still they can get lock up right? If there not starting to look better in a week should I give them epsom salts? Im so new to this and its a miracle there not all dead yet lol Thanks guys any help would be appreciated

One last thing is I need a tea recipe w/ instructions on how to make it that contains mexican bat guano, Ancient forest, molasses and worm castings only as thats all I have and cant afford anything more right now.
Someone please help me with these questions, I will return the favor in good Karma LOL.
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[Alien Abductee]

I cant quite see the tips, are they yellow or pointing down? Claw like?

I know for me, 9 times out of 10 growing in soil and I run across plants like that its acidic soil or build up of salts throwing off the ec.

If you can post a close up I can dig alittle deeper.

 

[katiemarie]

They actually look much better today, they were yellow and some were pointing down they really are looking pretty nice, I think just needed nutes, which I gave them. Is it ok to give them the bat guano tea along with the the ff? What is your cure for salt build up? man I hate to sound dumb what is ec?

 

[Alien Abductee]

ok, id guess you are having a ph flux of up and down. When the tips yellow the ph is too high, pointing down and clawing the ph is too low.

adding nutes, which contains a buffer would fix it temporary and cause a higher flux a day or so later, causing lock out again. Or the salt build up is causing the EC to be high, both have the same solution.

What I would do is flush them with 3-4 gallons ph corrected to 6.5 on the next water cycle. That will clean out any left over nutes, ph down, or salts that have built up in your soil. I find keeping the soil ph correct is the single most important factor in healthy soil plants. if the ph is off, you can lock up your plants real fast.

Testing the water run off would defiantely tell you whats going on with the ph.

EC Is the electrical conductivity of the water in the soil. Lets say you add in nutes to water.. that makes it 1.5 EC. If you have a large amount of salts in your soil it can easily double or triple your EC, since salts conducts electricity. That could push it over the 3 or 4 mark making it lethal to your plants.

When your on your just water cycle, really water them.. let them drain really nice and use ph corrected water to ph 6.5 and you will find your plants much healthier.

 

[Alien Abductee]

I cant offer much advice on the nutes.. other than follow the manufactures advice.

 

[MTM]

Get rid of those fox farm nutes and get pure blend pro,its allready ph and ppm balanced when you use it,You will find pure blend is so much easier to grow with than all of the fox farm and earth juice products,Ive used them all and PB pro is great and keeps your plants happy.Those plants are not going to yield much and Im like you,they look iether nute burned or locked out.Get you some pure blend next run and your plants will love you for it,Id say over half the guys on this site use pure blend pro products....

 

[katiemarie]

new caregiver

Thanks for the answers, i will check into the pro nutes. Do you guys think I should use both mh and hps bulbs or just switch the hps thats on them now to MH. Both bulbs are 1000w...Did what you said and watered them really good last night. Im going to take more pics today to see if you think they are coming along better. The hardest part of this is getting the nutrients right ( for me at least) These plants are 4 weeks old and pretty sure they should be a lot bigger. I'm temp. disabled right now and am really disappointed in how their coming along as I have everything riding on these things doing good.
As far as nutes the guy at the hydro store said I cant over fert them as I am doing organic, can I give them a bat guano tea along with the the nutes? or is that over kill? Thanks again.

 

[Alien Abductee]

Get rid of those fox farm nutes and get pure blend pro,its allready ph and ppm balanced when you use it,You will find pure blend is so much easier to grow with than all of the fox farm and earth juice products,Ive used them all and PB pro is great and keeps your plants happy.Those plants are not going to yield much and Im like you,they look iether nute burned or locked out.Get you some pure blend next run and your plants will love you for it,Id say over half the guys on this site use pure blend pro products....

Some nutes are easier than others for sure, but its not hard to work with any nutes if you put just a little more effort in. his nutes are fine, if he can control the soil PH and EC. My last grow I used nothing but miracle grow soil and tomato fertilizer and pulled baseball sized side cola's and a 1.5 oz dried main cola using cfls and leds. Its all about the ph and ec.

Understanding the conditions in your soil is the key. Pure blend is a great nute, don't get me wrong. it sets the soil ph perfectly, but that doesnt mean you cant control the soil ph and ec using something else. Its adds a little more work in the details.

As long as the plants are not in flower, you can easily salvage those plants. If they are in flower they wont harvest huge, but can get a return none the less.

I would take a plant, water it with 6.5 ph adjusted water. Collect the run off and test the PH and the EC is you can.

If the ph is below 6.0 or above 7.0, or the ec is above 2.0. continue flushing it with 6.5 water till the run off is around the same and the ec is close to .5 ec. That will give you a clean medium with no build up of nutes or salts. Even if it is correct in the 6.5 range, flush it till the run off looks somewhat clear this will remove any waste salts.

Give the plant 2 days, it should show signs of recovery and they will bounce back with vigor. When the soil dries out, feed with normal schedule of nutes. I would forget any add on supliments till the plants are vigorous again.

 

[Alien Abductee]

For plants that size, full strength nutes per manufacture recommendations. But only after you flush the medium. Without flushing whats causing the lock up, your not going to get the plants back to vigorous. adding in more nutes on a plant that's locked up just causes more problems since it cant uptake correctly, causes more nute buildup and heavier lock conditions.

 

[Alien Abductee]

Test the runoff every so often, if you cant. feed once, just water the next. On just the water cycle water it heavy to remove any salts. This will help with your nute inconsistency and make things much easier for you.

Again, adding nutes to a locked up plant or a ph unbalanced will worsen the problem over time and you end up where you are now.

You have to stabalize the ph and remove the added ec for the nutes to do their job,.

 

[Alien Abductee]

Sorry for beating a dead horse.. hehe.

 

[CrippledArcher]

I too ,am a total newb but the advice I have got here has helped me to slow my role and keep it simple. You have many more plants, but have you thought of using a very basic liquid seaweed, molasses and corrected ph water. Once I backed off trying to use all the guano and shit the plants did a 360 and took off. So then I asked more questions and went with a very simple 1/4 cup of 10-5-1 guano top dress to each plant and 1/4 cup per plant worm castings. So now the watering is about every 3 days and its a 1/4 tsp molasses 1/4 tsp seaweed and 1/2 tsp of lemon juice to bring my ph back to 6.2-6.5 and they are loving it.

 

[Alien Abductee]

I too ,am a total newb but the advice I have got here has helped me to slow my role and keep it simple. You have many more plants, but have you thought of using a very basic liquid seaweed, molasses and corrected ph water. Once I backed off trying to use all the guano and shit the plants did a 360 and took off. So then I asked more questions and went with a very simple 1/4 cup of 10-5-1 guano top dress to each plant and 1/4 cup per plant worm castings. So now the watering is about every 3 days and its a 1/4 tsp molasses 1/4 tsp seaweed and 1/2 tsp of lemon juice to bring my ph back to 6.2-6.5 and they are loving it.

ph of 6.2-6.5 is perfect for soil. Any nute will uptake fine in good npk ratios for the plant cycle.

Glad someone could chime in about the organic nutes.

 

[CrippledArcher]

ph of 6.2-6.5 is perfect for soil. Any nute will uptake fine in good npk ratios for the plant cycle.

Glad someone could chime in about the organic nutes.

Still a newby but so many tea recipes so many people pushing brand names,I just stepped back and went with the KISS method and they turned around so fast I was shocked. With so much new growth trying some simple lst now because every day new branches new growth :whew

 

[Alien Abductee]

Still a newby but so many tea recipes so many people pushing brand names,I just stepped back and went with the KISS method and they turned around so fast I was shocked. With so much new growth trying some simple lst now because every day new branches new growth :whew

I think over doing everything is something we all faced when starting to grow. I am switching to hydro after 20+ years of soil growing and even I over fertilized. Maybe its the human condition hehe.

 

[Dunge]

My sense is that you are trying to do too much and possibly responding to stress symptoms that may have been event driven from some time ago, and thus are not something that requires response.
First off, how likely is it that you are having salt build up in relatively new plants? Not very, I think.
I say this largely based on my inability to see anything of value from your pics so we are offering advise based on your observations and fears. This is not a slap at you, but just what it looks like to me. I am new enough to remember well how slowly plants will grow when you try to watch their every move.
The most common problem in your circumstance is over watering. Conventional wisdom wants the root zone to dry significantly between waterings to encourage root expansion. Not so dry that you get leaf droop, but just short of that. A good tip I picked up here is to lift the pots a bit. They should feel almost empty when they need water. Water heavily then do nothing for days. It will feel like weeks, but these are plants and they can be shockingly slow.
You have plenty of light. MH for veg then HPS a few weeks into 12/12 flowering.
Please don't stress. Your plants look good enough to me and your soil mix should be forgiving.
Oh, and when you get mold or mites of aphids, then the farm will ride to the rescue.
And, read up on curing. I have come to believe it is as important to quality product as any other phase of the process.

 

[Alien Abductee]

My sense is that you are trying to do too much and possibly responding to stress symptoms that may have been event driven from some time ago, and thus are not something that requires response.
First off, how likely is it that you are having salt build up in relatively new plants? Not very, I think.
I say this largely based on my inability to see anything of value from your pics so we are offering advise based on your observations and fears. This is not a slap at you, but just what it looks like to me. I am new enough to remember well how slowly plants will grow when you try to watch their every move.
The most common problem in your circumstance is over watering. Conventional wisdom wants the root zone to dry significantly between waterings to encourage root expansion. Not so dry that you get leaf droop, but just short of that. A good tip I picked up here is to lift the pots a bit. They should feel almost empty when they need water. Water heavily then do nothing for days. It will feel like weeks, but these are plants and they can be shockingly slow.
You have plenty of light. MH for veg then HPS a few weeks into 12/12 flowering.
Please don't stress. Your plants look good enough to me and your soil mix should be forgiving.
Oh, and when you get mold or mites of aphids, then the farm will ride to the rescue.
And, read up on curing. I have come to believe it is as important to quality product as any other phase of the process.

If he is having a salt build up issue, it doesn't necessarily have to be waste salts. Unused nutes can build up into salts as well, since soil tends to latch on to nutes and bind.

If the intake of the nutrients is locked, left over nutes will build into salts and 21 days is plenty of time to do so, Especially if the nutes are not uptaking correctly and its over feed or under watered or any combination of the 3.

 

[Alien Abductee]

More often than not, soil problems occur when the ph of the soil drops below 5.9 or rises above 7 causing lock up. Any nutes added will salt up causing EC problems.

Correcting the PH usually resolves any nutrient problems, flushing will remove any built up nutes or waste and lower the EC.

Unless both are corrected, the plant will not recovery fully.

 

[CrippledArcher]

True, I think he should go with the first set of advice, Get all the water to 6.2-6.5 flush. They have a soil NPK and PH testers very cheap you can get those at Home Depot any standard shops, once you get all that in line wait a few day look for them to spring back. After that maybe try a very basic water feeding and see how the do. Again I'm still a rookie but have learned LESS is MORE,From the Great Farmers here !

 

[Alien Abductee]

True, I think he should go with the first set of advice, Get all the water to 6.2-6.5 flush. They have a soil NPK and PH testers very cheap you can get those at Home Depot any standard shops, once you get all that in line wait a few day look for them to spring back. After that maybe try a very basic water feeding and see how the do. Again I'm still a rookie but have learned LESS is MORE,From the Great Farmers here !

Cant stress that enough. Knowing the conditions in your soil is absolutely the most important piece of information a soil grower can have.

Shaker tests for ph work fine too and are cheap at any hydro store.. my stores gives them away if you make a purchase.

you can control the ec by just watering heavy between feedings, just make sure your soil drains well enough and you should be fine.

When you do run into a lock up problem, flush.. flush.. flush.. you will have nute build up due to the nutrients being locked, a lot actually if it stays locked up for any period of time. Ive seen ec skyrocket after just 4 days.