Dying plants.

[waltwalt]

How long has this problem been going on? 2 weeks
What STRAIN are you growing? Island Sweet Skunk x Blueberry Skunk
What was the establishing technique? Seed
What is the age of your plants? 7 weeks
How long have they been in the soil mixture they are in now? 3 weeks
How Tall are the plants? 18"
What PHASE are the plants in? Vegetative
What size pots are you using? 3 gallons
What substrate/medium are you using? What brand of soil mixture are you using? 100% Canna Bio Pro Terra Plus
What Nutrient's are you using? Foxfarm
How much of each nutrient are you using with how much water? 1/4 Strength
How often are you feeding? Every other watering
What order are you mixing your nutrients? Grow Big then Big Bloom
What is the TDS/EC/PPM of your nutrients used? 450
What is the pH of the "RUN-OFF"? 6.6
What method of pH test was administered? pH pen
How often are you watering? As needed.
When was your last feeding and how often are you feeding? One week ago.
What size bulb are you using? 400W MH
What is the distance to the canopy? 12"
What is your RH Factor? 50%
What is the canopy temperature? 73F
What is the Day/Night Temp? 72F - 78F
What is the current Air Flow? 400cfm fan in a 56cf tent.
Tell us about your ventilation, intake exhaust and when its running and not running ? Always running sucking in air from the house to cool the bulb and exhausted into the attic.
Is the fan blowing directly at plants? Two fans keep oscillating across the plants to keep them moving.
Is the grow substrate constantly wet or moist? Yes.
Is your water HARD or SOFT? Soft.
What water are you using? Tap water pH adjusted.
Are you using water from a water softener? No
Has plant been recently pruned, cloned or pinched? No
Have any pest chemicals been used? No
Are plant's infected with pest's? No

This plant is a poster child for the rest of my plants.
A week ago I thought they were showing multiple deficiencies and the pH of the runoff was reading 7.2 so I gave it a good flushing, about 30 gallons of water per container to get the pH down to the proper level. After flushing out everything I fed them a 1/4 strength solution and put them back in the room.
The tops of these plants are all bleached yellow, some have tips curling up, some have tips curling down, many show signs of Phosphorus deficiencies and Molybdenum deficiencies.
I noticed when I was flushing the plants that the root tips coming out the drainage holes were a brown color and when I was done flushing them they were white again.
New growth near the bottom seems plentiful and healthy, but the tops of all my plants look pretty bad as you can see.

What should I do with these guys?

TIA
-ww

 

[waltwalt]

Well after some research I think I've figured out why the plants are doing what they are doing.
They are growing in a floracorp grow hut, lined with white PVC which apparently lets off toxic gases when heated up, yellowing ,whitening, and eventually killing plants.
More about it in this thread:
http://icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=98781&highlight=floracorp

So anyone that's got strange yellowing or stunted growth in a tent, check to see if you've got the silver liner or the white PVC liner.

-ww

 

[Verite]

Looks like the soil could use more airation like perlite added to it. It will provide better drainage and shorten the wet to dry cycle. Do you water according to calendar or when the container feels light/dry?

 

[waltwalt]

I water when the container feels light. I didn't add any perlite to the mix since I had read that others using this did not and the bag itself indicates the medium is airy enough not to require added perlite.

-ww

 

[Verite]

Confused about your water? You list it as soft. Does that mean you have a water softener and are using that water? [ that wouldnt be good water for the plants.]

 

[Verite]

I water when the container feels light. I didn't add any perlite to the mix since I had read that others using this did not and the bag itself indicates the medium is airy enough not to require added perlite.

-ww

Thats good. Personally I never found a soil medium without perlite that didnt benefit from adding some to it.

 

[waltwalt]

Yeah my bad, it's hard water pH treated, not soft.

As I mentioned previously though, this looks exactly like the tent problems other people are experiencing. The plants were vegging fine in the closet, it was only once I moved them into the grow tent that they started exhibiting these symptoms so I am going to move them into my flower room under 18/6 to hold the veg cycle until I can replace the tent with a silver lined one, hopefully Wednesday.

-ww

 

[Hazy Lady]

It looks very much like a Phos' (P) deficit to me. Does this look familiar? keep in mind this one is in flower.

Edit:- I found a better pic, not so much flower so closer to yours.

 

[Verite]

Yeah my bad, it's hard water pH treated, not soft.

As I mentioned previously though, this looks exactly like the tent problems other people are experiencing. The plants were vegging fine in the closet, it was only once I moved them into the grow tent that they started exhibiting these symptoms so I am going to move them into my flower room under 18/6 to hold the veg cycle until I can replace the tent with a silver lined one, hopefully Wednesday.

-ww

I would agree completely since I feel growing in the confinement of a small box or tent isnt very good for plants. Too much micromanagement of the climate needs all your attention. Growing in a well ventilated larger room gives the plants more 'breathing' space. Best of luck, pop back for the update. Peace.

 

[DMXAK47]

Could be a Magnesium deficiency

 

[waltwalt]

Hazy: That's what I thought at first, and others were showing other nutrient deficiencies as well, this brought me to flush them a week ago to no avail. Doing some more research I found that the problem looks identical to other peoples toxic tent outgassing.

Verite: It's not the environment I'm having trouble controlling, it's the PVC used in the construction of the reflective interior of the tents that is the problem. When it heats up it starts to excrete chemicals into the tent which causes the stomata to close up and interrupts photosynthesis.

Thanks for the tips guys.
-ww

 

[loko17]

Yes I agree it looks just like offgassing.
You can compare it with mine on this page:
http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=103953&page=18

 

[yortbogey]

yep IT iz the enviroment the tent is off-gassing schit into U'r plantz....air ....ie. stale and BAD % of 02 and who knows what other bio-leftoverz.......
ditch the tent.........rebuild a frame w/......pvc or wood....and cover in 2 layer panda film.............take that tent back to the store and BURN....IT

 

[PuReKnOwLeDgE]

Wow before I even read down i was thinking that. I have never experienced it myself, but seriously i read your 1st post with the parameters of the grow and was like wow wtf could possibly be going wrong? Everything seemed to be in check. I looked at your pictures to see if it looked like a grow tent because that was going to be my guess lol! Panda poly is cheap, if you could just get some cheap 2 x 4's, staple gun/staples, some duct tape, a tarp zipper, and just panda poly up your own room.

 

[waltwalt]

I'm going to return the tent and get one of the ones that has the silver lining rather than the white PVC. I don't have the time/space/material to build another temp veg room so I will move everything into the flower room and set the lights to 18/6. Hopefully they will recover enough that I can set them to flower and recoup the losses from clones on the next batch.

Just when you think you've got it figured out something crazy pops up like this.
Thanks for the confirmation of my suspicions. I'll post some updated pics in 3 or 4 days under the 1000w's.

-ww

 

[padster007]

my friend had the same problem in a tent weve sorted it now tho we changed a few things round and now hes flying! we quit the tent set up but i think it could have still been grown in it. i think his regurlar feeding and not letting the plants dry enough with the mega hot weather was the problem. he wasnt waiting long enough for the plants to dry plus his room what the tent was set up in, was not airiated well enough. i think the plants were suffocating. exactley the same as yours! do you have a direct input on fresh air in your tent or do you cool the room what your tent is down?? these could be a factor.

 

[ultima]

Hi , Walt.
I think i have the same problem .
I took real good care to make sure that I got a Mylar tent but its has a pvc bottom liner. I removed the liner yesterday and Im hoping for them to recover.
Check out this post for a description of symptoms.

It seems that the main symptom is yellowing from the center and outwards.
Plants displaying a plethora of symptoms but these being the main ones.

 

[padster007]

it isnt the pvc floor as we are using it in a built up mylar tent and everything is going back ok

 

[waltwalt]

My poor poor plants. After deciding to move them out of the tent into the flowering room to finish their veg under the HPS I discovered there must be a small leak in my AC system somewhere.
Within 5 minutes of turning on the lights temperatures jumped from 75f to 95f, I turned off the lights after determining the AC wasn't cooling anymore and temperatures continued to rise to about 100-110f. So there they sat in the dark dry heat for 8 hours before I moved them outside to get some sun and fresh air.
These plants have been so abused over their life (going on 8 weeks now and they are scrawny and stretchy, with the tallest being no more than 24".
Should I just keep these plants alive until I have my rooms properly setup, take cuttings and start again?

-ww

 

[padster007]

they do come back but its a long process if you can get some cuttings up and going id do that. the plant will still come back but you could get cuttings just as back up.

this plant has took 25 week after the same problem as yours and now is only a week away from the flush a long time i know but waste no want not.
well worth the reward it might not be my plant but because of this sites input my names on the main cola