Help! Indoor grow going bad.

[Canadaloud]

Hey guys this is my first indoor grow and my plants began germination about a month ago, all at the same time. The two plants on the left (in fabric pots) seem to be doing just fine but the two on the right are acting kind of funky. I’ve been giving all the same amount of nutes and ph’ing everything. The two on the right got stunted and I think they may have been over fed. The littlest guy hasn’t grown in about a week and is and the bigger one has a bunch of spots on the leaves and the edges are burnt. At first I thought it may be because I under watered or the humidity was too low so I turned off my exhaust fan and began misting water to increase humidity now the two on the right almost look as if they have rust on the surface. Just to add the two on the right are the same strain feminized and the two on the left are two different strains both autoflowers.

 

[Nugg]

My guess is locked out long ago..ppm and pH go a long way with trouble shooting...I also see you have a spider light or similar...what wattage did you get? I'm looking at the 900..

 

[Canadaloud]

It’s the HLG 300. I try to ph my water at around 6.5 each time but I’ve been told that fox farms soil is pretty acidic. What should I do to fix the the lock out? And thanks for the reply.

 

[Nugg]

Oh..it looked different I reflection...my bad..pH is good.what do you water with?

 

[Canadaloud]

I water with a pump sprayer and I have been using tap water and tnb naturals down ever since I began to worry about the two seedlings which was probably a bit longer than a week ago.

 

[Nugg]

So no meter i take it... thinking your soil is to hot for a seedling...

 

[Dirtbag]

Are you just giving plain water? How do you water? To full saturation and runoff or just little bits at a time?

 

[Canadaloud]

No I don’t have a meter I was using a ph liquid tester. And I water with plain water until a bit of runoff but was using some nutes before the situation went bad. In the past couple days I’ve been misting them though so I haven’t watered them in a while because the soil is staying moist for longer.

 

[Dirtbag]

Gotcha. It's probably the feedings that put them off then, fox farm soiless mixes have a lot of nutrients already. Feeding plants in the first few weeks is detrimental in FFOF especially. It's also usually too hot for seedlings on it's own, people who use it successfully for seedlings I see on here mix about 30% coarse perlite into it to improve aeration and drainage, which also makes it a little less hot.

I'd say stick to tap water only depending on your source water, for at least a few weeks. And misting isnt really a great practice either. Do you have a min/max thermometer/hygrometer?

 

[Canadaloud]

Ok thank you so much for the feedback. I will continue to water with no nutes for a while and see if things begin to get better. I will post an update on the little guy because I honestly feel he might die. Maybe something wrong with his roots because he’s been on the same node for so long with no progression. Also just a quick question, howcome you say misting is a bad practice and do you think that’s why it appears that the bigger seedling has a rust like mold (or at least I think that’s what it is)

 

[oldskol4evr]

dirt bag is correct,the ocean forest is good for at least 3 weeks with plain water,honestly though the bags soil dont even look like it has been watered,how are you watering the plant with a sprayer is my question,plus spraying leaves a lot of room for burning your leaves,i couldnt tell and have to ask the cups,are there a lot of drain holes in the cups?

 

[Canadaloud]

I water the plants by spraying a lot of water on the surface until runoff comes out the bottom. I just transplanted the other two and haven’t really watered them yet but I think it may be a bit of a nuisance to water as it will take a while compared to a solo cup. I don’t spray the leaves until the lights turn off and I just began spraying frequently with water only. About two weeks ago i foliar fed them with bud juice and before that I used biocanna rhizotonic but I think the bud juice is what did it as it is high in macro nutrients.

 

[Canadaloud]

Also the solo cups do have very small drainage holes.

 

[Beachwalker]

It’s the HLG 300. I try to ph my water at around 6.5 each time but I’ve been told that fox farms soil is pretty acidic. What should I do to fix the the lock out? And thanks for the reply.

Fox Farm soil is not acidic, the pH is right about 6.5 out of a fresh bag and the PPM is under 500

 

[oldskol4evr]

Also the solo cups do have very small drainage holes.

got a pic,i put a bunch of them in there,i use a heated nail,you want that water to leave,if the cup isnt drying like it should probally stopped up holes it there tiny holes

 

[oldskol4evr]

I water the plants by spraying a lot of water on the surface until runoff comes out the bottom. I just transplanted the other two and haven’t really watered them yet but I think it may be a bit of a nuisance to water as it will take a while compared to a solo cup. I don’t spray the leaves until the lights turn off and I just began spraying frequently with water only. About two weeks ago i foliar fed them with bud juice and before that I used biocanna rhizotonic but I think the bud juice is what did it as it is high in macro nutrients.

ok just had to ask,cant see why but your method,but note the edges of the soil are pulled back,at the stage your at you could water the whole bag,then lean pot towards you to tell when they need water again,i just cant see how your getting enough water to the whole root system using a sprayer

 

[Beachwalker]

got a pic,i put a bunch of them in there,i use a heated nail,you want that water to leave,if the cup isnt drying like it should probally stopped up holes it there tiny holes

That's what I see too, looks like he was over-watering them, but now he's going the other way keeping them too dry by only spraying them

I'd recommend you up-pot them, adding 25-30% perlite into some new Fox Farm and start watering them properly using a wet/dry cycle, good luck!

 

[THCMonster]

See the yellow tiger stripes in between the veins of the leaves, 9/10 its caused by magnesium deficiency, even though other deficiencies can cause similar affects, there are usually micro nutrient which you definitely shouldnt be deficient in. I would recommend just feeding them a little extra Cal-Mag, usually you dont have to with fox farm because they ph buffer with Dolomite lime, but you never know.

When you working with charged soils like foxfarm what you might be feeding in might be 6.5ph, but it may change once its been sitting in the soil.

If you have a PH meter or PPM meter test the run off to what the run off comes out at. Back when I ran happy frog (foxfarm) I had a couple bags that came out at 5.5PH! Really hurt my crop... Started getting deficiencies like crazy. Not all the bags tend to be identical unfortunately, and over time the PH buffer they put in there gets depleted.

If your PH run off is too low just get some dolomite lime and sprinkle about a tablespoon or two into the water when you go to feed, over time the PH will naturally rise back up as well as give you extra PH buffering and time released CAL-MAG.

I even still mix that even with my coco and never had to worry about adding any extra CAL-MAG anymore! Its a great product.

As the soil gets hot or acidic, the dolomite lime neutralizes it, but be careful you can over do it. Just a couple tablespoons at a time thats it!

Also i wouldnt give them nutes... There is plenty in the soil! You are probably creating a lockout... Give them just plain water!

You shouldn't have to ever give plants extra liquid fertilizer when theres already nutrients in the soil itself!

Wait until the soil get depleted of nutrients before adding liquid nutrients, or else go with something like Pro-mix if you want to give nutes!

 

[THCMonster]

you this as a guide too for the future!

 

[dire wolf]

Gotcha. It's probably the feedings that put them off then, fox farm soiless mixes have a lot of nutrients already. Feeding plants in the first few weeks is detrimental in FFOF especially. It's also usually too hot for seedlings on it's own, people who use it successfully for seedlings I see on here mix about 30% coarse perlite into it to improve aeration and drainage, which also makes it a little less hot.

I'd say stick to tap water only depending on your source water, for at least a few weeks. And misting isnt really a great practice either. Do you have a min/max thermometer/hygrometer?

Hey dirtbag , hello , i wanted to interject for a min about the misting , in a few of my posts ive recommended the use of them in seedling ,young plant situations. I wanted to explain that a little more clearly , i think they can be helpful in a situation like this, if the new grower holds his fairly dry solo cup in his fingers and with the other hand , they spray just the medium , they can get a super gradual "feel" for the weight and amount of water that goes into the cup....as opposed to just pouring water in the cup , then lifting to find they soaked the cup and oops, overwatered. if they coontinue to overwater.by
the 3rd overwater mistake , they can jeopordize the health of the plant.
I wouldent recommend the foliar spraying with lights on as it can burn....
Just wanted to throw that out there