Please Help - Leaves Drooping and Slow Growth

[DjEclipse]

im curious to see how he transplant them myself

I hope to get there one day and I will let you know/ post pics of how it goes and if the root ball is as good as they claim it to be.

 

[DjEclipse]

To each his own Beachwalker! If it works for you then go for it, but like said in my comments i run CO2 you NEVER use negative air pressure when running CO2! Plus there are pros and cons to both methods! But for the record positive air has far greater pros then cons

Reasons Positive air pressure is better:

1) Balancing Humidity, Temps, and Air flow- because when you exhaust air out you are displacing the air outside of your room which you lose the benefit of controlled ambient air because all the ambient air is outside ur tent/ room now.

2) If you put a HEPA filter to the intake fan then no external Bacteria/ Mold cannot adequately thrive (look up how they setup sterile science labs if you dont believe the statement)
3) It cycles the Co2 if being used because the co2 that gets pushed out of the tent getting blown back into the tent, but in negative pressure you lose your CO2 the moment you exhaust air outside your room any CO2 that builds up is now gone it will not come back into the room faster then you are sucking it out.

4) when you create a negative air pressure you are basically making a vacuumed space... And in any vacuumed space you have lack of oxygen because the oxygen is getting displaced faster then it can come back into the room, since your roots thrive on oxygen this concept is counterproductive as well as any beneficial microorganisms thrive in aerobic (oxygen rich) environments, thus making negative air pressure rooms a breeding ground for anaerobic bacteria and fungi!

The only con to positive air pressure is that you cant vent the smell like you do when you exhaust... But thats why all the big time growers do recirculating carbon air filter.

Seeing as these are scientific facts and have been tested, tried and are true i will wait for your reply on source material that contradicts my info!

Look forward to your reply Beachwalker!

I have done some reading and it seems the main reason for negative air pressure is to control smell when using a carbon filter. I also read that large grow's and small tent grows can have different needs.

What THCMonster says does seem to make a lot of sense when you forget about smell as an issue. But when the smell starts to get bad most of us using small grow tents will have to control the smell and it seems slight negative pressure is what handles that best.

It seems that the small grows are normally in areas where smell is an issue and the best way to control that is to have negative pressure inside the tent so all air existing will have been forced through the carbon fixture. I am guessing since this is what works best for smell it deemed as is the best way to set up an indoor grow tent.

I haven't found any article comparing positive pressure vs negative pressure that was talking about what is best for growing the plant regardless of smell. All articles and posts state controlling smell as the reason for negative pressure inside the tent.

For now I have turned off the exhaust fan, and have the crappy clip on fan blowing out of one of the top ports. It has allowed me to keep the humidity up and with it much less effort on the heater to keep the temp's up.

Humidity is now 50-55% and temp's are 72-75deg F.

The pots seem to he holding their moisture much better now as they are only down a few grams since watering yesterday. Normally they would be down almost 100g by now.

I think I may have to buy a smaller 4" fan and use that until the plants get larger and humidity is actually an issue at which time I can switch to the 6". The 6" fan was definitely too much for the tent conditions right now.

As said in a post above, they are getting taller so maybe that is a good sign.

I still have to buy a PPM meter and PH meter.

I am planning on not feeding until I need to transplant out of these small seedling pots.

I will post pics in a few days and maybe you guys can share your thought on how they look at that time.

I appreciate all the replies.

 

[m8ty]

@m8ty,

Thank you for the reply. I was wanting an opinion on the light and light height/ lux at leaf level. I moved the light up to 40" above leaves. Will the leaves recover or will only new growth look better after moving the light higher?

At what point do I know I need to move the light closer? When the plant gets a few nodes?

Just with moving the light over the past 2 days the plants have stretched taller/ How tall is too tall?

The light claims it can be adjusted with the lenses and can penetrate 10.to 15 percent more as well as the plant absorbs 90+ percent of the light compared to 15 percent when using HID.

That sounds like an aweful lot of light for small plants that usually go under a 24 watt two foot T5 and a seed starter tray, you need to figure out how the lensing works so you can make it less intense and keep the light up as high as you can get it and never lower it again, let the plant grow up into the light as she gets bigger.

Watch for the new growth the old growth will not improve.

 

[Dan789]

As of 20min ago I made the following changes as well as the tent configuration I posted above.

Large 6" Exhaust fan - is off. Turning it off seems to be the only way to keep humidity in the tent.

Oscillating fan - is on to circulate air in the tent.

Small clip on fan is now blowing air out of the side of the tent at the top. It has very little air flow.

One suggestion, remove those solo cups from under that humidifier, sooner or later that will fall over and you don’t need more shit to deal with...

 

[DjEclipse]

One suggestion, remove those solo cups from under that humidifier, sooner or later that will fall over and you don’t need more shit to deal with...

The humidifier gets it's intake air from the bottom. It says it should be elevated 2' off the ground. It is sitting on top of some dollar store sand castle makers. I have to find something more sturdy to set it on.

 

[Dan789]

The humidifier gets it's intake air from the bottom. It says it should be elevated 2' off the ground. It is sitting on top of some dollar store sand castle makers. I have to find something more sturdy to set it on.

I've got the same humidifier, it works fine setting alone on it's 1/4" feet...

 

[DjEclipse]

The light claims it can be adjusted with the lenses and can penetrate 10.to 15 percent more as well as the plant absorbs 90+ percent of the light compared to 15 percent when using HID.

That sounds like an aweful lot of light for small plants that usually go under a 24 watt two foot T5 and a seed starter tray, you need to figure out how the lensing works so you can make it less intense and keep the light up as high as you can get it and never lower it again, let the plant grow up into the light as she gets bigger.

Watch for the new growth the old growth will not improve.

Thanks for the reply.

I don't believe there is any way to adjust the intensity or change lensing. I think I would have to order the light with the specific lensing before I purcahse.

I just raised it up some more to 42" above seedlings.

The new growth is looking greener.

I hope I got things sorted. Humidity, watering, light height.

 

[DjEclipse]

I've got the same humidifier, it works fine setting alone on it's 1/4" feet...View attachment 937209

Ok maybe I will move it down on the floor then.

 

[Dan789]

As of 20min ago I made the following changes as well as the tent configuration I posted above.

Large 6" Exhaust fan - is off. Turning it off seems to be the only way to keep humidity in the tent.

Oscillating fan - is on to circulate air in the tent.

Small clip on fan is now blowing air out of the side of the tent at the top. It has very little air flow.

What you can do with the exhaust fan is cycle it on for 15 minutes every hour, that way you exhaust the air and get exchanges without totally stripping out the humidity...with a timer...

 

[DjEclipse]

What you can do with the exhaust fan is cycle it on for 15 minutes every hour, that way you exhaust the air and get exchanges without totally stripping out the humidity...with a timer...

I like that idea, I'll go buy another timer tomorrow and set it up.

 

[Beachwalker]

I like that idea, I'll go buy another timer tomorrow and set it up.

..or, as I recommended you can put your exhaust fan on a controller and then when you hit x% humidity it will turn the fan on automatically until it lowers it to x% of humidity and it will shut it off automatically, so you can easily and accurately maintain set humidity parameters effortlessly

Search inkbird humidity controller, good luck

 

[CocoFun]

i work at a Hydroponic Store and would like to throw my 2 cents in if you'll let me!

First thought is that 35% humidity is way to low for veg, you should be shooting for 40-45%... If you have really good air flow then shoot for 50% really! I would stop running the dehumidifier for Veg! Your leaves need the moisture! But make sure u have really good air flow... Run a couple wall fans (not just your inline exhaust).

The drooping I could probably say is two possible reasons
1) the humidity is too low and your dehumidifier is literally pulling out the moisture to your leaves, if your leaves fell kind of rough to the touch then this is probably the issuw
2) chances are your over watering or under watering, if they are not dry when they droop then you are over watering them but usually over watering causes leaves to curl inward (the opposite of an eagles claw)

Limit the amount of water you give your plants! I cant tell you how many customers of mine come in with problems and its because they are trying to water their plants like they are trees when they are really just tiny little plants!

Unless you are giving them liquid nutrients/fertilizer i wouldnt flood them with water when you water! Being in promix you want to give them just enough water to get through 2-3 days tops, 3 days still being pretty long in my opinion! You have an LED thats why you are having problems with heat. Cause they dont produce much heat they are harder to grow effectively in the winter time with!

Just try to bump up the temps to around 75-77 if you can.
DEFINITELY Bring up your humidity for Veg 35% is WAY to low.
And get more ambient air flow (wall fans) to dry your plants out quicker
And limit the amount of water you feed your plants, give them just enough to get them past 1-2 days. They will grow better and faster! Do a flush every 3rd or 4th day.

Hope this helps!

This is old....but usually when people are trying to be "helpful" all they do is tell the guy what yes doing wrong and pretty much just being a dick. Almost like experienced growers feel the need to humiliate new growers and try and say how good they are, instead of actually helping someone
YOU, you were actually kind, respectful and helpful. Not even my post, but thank you. That was a great response, you didn't make it all about yourself