Sad Flo Plant :(

Calimed · Apr 17, 2009

Good Morning,

I have 4 Flo plants, and 2 Berry Kush's under a 430w. Hortilux bulb hooked up to a can fan 6 inch high output fan in a Growlab 120. When my window is open, the temps range from the low 70's to 80 degrees, if the window is closed, it can get up to 85.

I have been watering them every other day (they are in coco tek baskets in Fox Farm Ocean Forest). I came home yesterday (after 1 day of no watering), and the plants all started to droop. I watered with some EJ Grow, Meta-K, and Molasses that I had been bubbling for 24 hours, and this morning, most of the plants perked back up, except this one.

Is there anything else wrong with this plant, or should I just hope she will perk up today? I have been noticing that the leaves have been turning dark green after I started using EJ nutes. Is this ok, or is it too dark of a green that would imply a N burn?

For further history of this (and my other plants), it is all listed under my grow diary (organic Flo - 430w hps).

Calimed · Apr 17, 2009

If it doesn't have to do with underwatering or ej nutes too soon, it might be due to the latent heat from my hood. It is not air cooled and has no glass. It is around 14 inches above the canopy.

I have an air cooled super sun 2 hood on it's way, so if that has anything to do with it, that shall be fixed.

Core · Apr 17, 2009

water them asap....and if you feed go gradually up....and if tips have a slight burn you got the right amount...if you feed regulary .... do water with lots of runoff with coco

Calimed · Apr 17, 2009

Yeah I watered them all as soon as I got he yesterday, and took this picture this morning, about 12 hours after the watering. This one just hasn't perked back up yet, which I hope it will because it had all kinds of new branches starting to grow!

For the tea I used last watering. It was 1 tbsp ej grow, 1 tsp meta-k, and 1 tsp molasses. Usually I have just been bubbling 1 tbsp grow. The flo plants are on their second from picking them up at the club

Calimed · Apr 17, 2009

Oh, and only the containers are coco, so the roots grow through. The medium is pure fox farms ocean forest

Calimed · Apr 17, 2009

One other thing I should add. I have used earth juice teas for the past three waterings. I thought that was ok but one of my earth scientist friends says this is totally wrong.

aasin527 · Apr 20, 2009

any idea how big the root ball might be?

12gauge · Apr 20, 2009

it's seems to me that you are over watering them. every other day seems excessive for a plant that size in a medium like FFOF. does the coco tek baskets make them dry out that fast... i mean really dry out? the roots need to dry out to get oxygen to them or they will wilt from drowning. also, you seem to be over feeding them, not that it looks burnt up, but a plant that size - it doesn't look that big from the picture or like it was overly vigorous when it was healthy - doesn't need continuous feeding yet. the ocean forest has plenty of nutes in it for small plants. if the roots are suffering they probably can't uptake all the extra nutes that you are putting in there. looks like a classic case of killing them with kindness... you might be over doing it a little.

Calimed · Apr 20, 2009

Hi 12 gauge - you are definitly correct about the over feeding. I have stopped that and replace with only water and the plans are much preferring this. They are all very small plants, only 3-4 inches in height. The berry kush plants have barely rooted, but the too plants are better. I am not sure exactly how big. Is there any way to easily test this?

It gets pretty warm in my tent right now and the 3-4 inch cocoa basked have been drying pretty fast. Instead of re-watering though, I have just been misting the leaves so I don't drown them.

I can't wait for my air cooled hood! Cali temps are crazy right now.

Updated picture of the sad flow (now perking back up) tonight!

12gauge · Apr 20, 2009

if the plants are struggling a little i would back off on the big light and go to floro's until they recover fully. when you get the supersun2 and the temps are back under control, put the big light back over them (as long as they are thriving again). if they're struggling that bad then they won't really be taking advantage of the more powerful light anyway. that is what i would do.

if the plants need watering everyday or every other day than that is fine, as long as they really needed it and you aren't watering them just to water them.

to me it looks like a root problem. i would guess pythium - root rot - if they were fully rooted. but it sounds like they might not have enough roots to sustain them yet - especially under a big light in hot conditions. are they clones? maybe they still need to be put under a dome and a floro until they have more fully rooted. if that is the case, i would put them under the dome, mist them, let them perk up for awhile. then, take off the dome and let them air out till they start to droop then put the top back on. and so on and so on until they are fully rooted.

hard to say cause i'm not there to see what is really happening and i don't know the history of these plants exactly.

if all else fails and it just goes totally downhill, try cloning it to try and preserve the genetics if you need too.

i know what you mean by hot...i'm in the hottest state in the country...i hate it.. would take cali any day of the week over this place. good luck.

Calimed · Apr 20, 2009

Hey 12 gauge, I think you are correct about the rooting. The four flo clones I picked up a a club in 16oz cups. When I transplanted them they each happened to be in a rockwool cube with hardly any roots coming out. The two berry kush plants were only in one inch rockwool cubes and had no roots coming out.

I think I started this grow thinking that getting clones from the club would imply they were ready for transplanting and veg.

I will check out the hardware store for some flouro's as this is a great idea. I am also thinking of building one of those cloners out of a metal pan with tin foil on top. That way I can try to preserve any genetics I might mess up!

Let this also be a lesson to new med growers. Get your cuts from a club known especially for their clones!

Ulysses · Apr 21, 2009

You are blessed to have the Flo Mother clone!

For future reference, most Flo phenos like conditions favoring the drier side of the media and low nutrients all the way to the fourth week or so of flower...

Encourage branching for more tops= more yeild...

Good luck friend!

Elite · Apr 21, 2009

Hang in there man!! Happens to the best of us until we really "dial it in" for each strain...

If you have the space hang on to them, if not I'd toss them hopefully preserving the gentics
Whatever happened is probably going to stunt them hard. They're young, perhaps you can start over...Hopefully that won't be an option.
But you obviously have to get to the "root" of the problem.

Elite