My babies are dieing :o( Yellowing from bottom up

[Dreamscape]

hey all

I'm in the midst of a bad situation here ...

I have a bunch of good genetics but they're pretty much all stunted to hell from being under the humidity dome in too hot of a climate for too long AND from 2 transplants ... all that in 30 days


But they're all my babies and they're all good genetics so i'm determined to stay the course and atleast pull 2 moms out of these 15 left.


Here's a pic of what about 60% of my plants are going through right now:

The yellowing starts from the oldest bottom most leaves and works its way up one node at a time.

There are a couple that also have the redish/purplish around the leaves as well.

And there is another plant with just the brown spots as well

From the reading i've done something was mentioned about a possible nitrogen lock out ?? Also ... maybe the PH was too low or too high.

Then there was someone who said I overwatered ...



At this point ... i'm just wondering how to bring my babies back to green. *cry*

Should I prune these bottom yellow leaves?

Should I flush them out completely and then start with fresh feed ??

They are in a 60/40 foxfarms ocean forest and light warrior mix - at this point i'm fairly certain the nutes that were in there have been eaten by now.

I fed them a 1/3 strength dose of Floranova grow that last time I watered 2 days ago and not much has changed.

please help my children we're the only family we've got

 

[Hazy Lady]

Hold off with the water and you'll be fine, your medium seems a little too wet and youngsters don't like water any more than ours do, when it's almost dry, not bone dry - that will do more harm - start to give a dilute 1/4 feed, if you are worried about over feeding you can foliar feed for a week or so, this will give your babies all their needs but no risk of over watering and it will encourage them to put out roots, hope it goes well.
Edit - don't take leaves off right now, wait till the problem is sorted, if you remove leaves before the plant is fixed it will simply go to the next set of healthy leaves for its needs and if you pick those pretty soon you have none left! It IS good practice to remove dead/dying/rotten leaves to keep grow-rooms clean but not in this instance.

 

[ibjamming]

Too much water... I've seen it so many times...in my own plants. It's a hard habit to break.

 

[Miss Blunted]

What's your pH?

 

[Hundred Gram Oz]

Also make sure that cup has holes in the bottom for drainage

 

[Mr. Greengenes]

Most definitely overwatering. HGO mentions the CRITICAL point of the holes in the cups. So many beginners try to get away with very small, or no holes. My holes are huge. I make them with a kitchen knife stuck in to make about a 1/2" long slit which I then twist into a big triangle. I make about five of those on the bottom edge of each cup, which basically makes the whole bottom of the cup into one big hole.

I know you've repot a few times already, but I'd do it again. This time into a smaller pot with more perlite in the mix and some lime. If I were there and did that work myself, the plant would take off growing right away. Reason I say that is, repotting is quite a tough skill to get good at without hands on instruction. Best advice I could give is, don't disturb the roots at all if possible.

 

[Dreamscape]

thank you + thank you everyone

@ Hazy Lady - For the foliar feeding , how often should I feed - maybe 1/3 strength everytime I water (every 3 days or so has been my average) ?? Or should I do the 1/4 strength every day ?? I'm guessing I dont SOAK the plants with the foliar spray ??


@ Ibjamming - Are you saying that because of the yellowing or the drooping - or both ?? I had thought maybe I overwatered as well but there have been two seperate times when I watered them and left for 4 days without watering at all. And when I got back I DIDN'T soak the medium but I gave it , what I thought , was a good feeding but not too much. Lessons to be learned


@ Miss Blunted - Initially when I started watering them I wasn't checking the waters PH because I had read that the Fox Farms Ocean Forest and Light Warrior combo would buffer it automatically. However a week or so ago when the yellowing started I had read it could have been a possible ph issue so I checked the water. I've been using belmont spring water and the ph appears to be around the 5.5-6.0 range according to the GH ph kit i'm using where you drop in the liquid and shake up the mixed solution + read color code. Last time I watered (which was first time I fed) the pH was around 6.0+. Also i'm using floranova grow which I read ALSO buffers the pH but I adjusted it accordingly anyways ... just in case.


@ Hundred Gram - I took a razor and cut four slits around the rim of the bottom of each cup. Each slit , on average, could fit a quarter into it. I then took the razor to the bottom center of each cup and cut into it and then twisted opening it up. Sometimes they became triangle like and sometimes they were just slit open a bit.


@ Greengenes - DEFINITELY overwatering huh? I had a feeling that was a possible I just kept thinking "no way ... you're not even fully soaking the medium anymore like you were in the beginning." Beginners lesson. I love learning just not when my children are at stake LOL.

Do you happen to have pics of those cups? I'm feeling like maybe mine aren't draining enough even though i've got 5 slits.

Initially they were in little cells that measured something like 3x3inch. Then they went into 32 oz clear cups. I then repotted down to 16oz. red solo cups. Both times , i'm fairly certain , I wrecked some of the roots on most of the plants. Some worse than others. I was so eager to repot them at one point that I ended up just getting a spoon and jamming it around the corners to loosen it up. The end result would be the soil spilled out and me just trying to find the mass over roots in the mess. I'd then gently pull the plant up and take what was left hanging (usually not much soil around the roots at all) and repot that and then back fill.

Should I just wait till the medium is BONE dry and then repot ?? I really dont know much about it other than make sure you try to not rip or damage any roots in the process.


Again thank you everyone for helping me out. I tend to get panic'd fairly quick when I dont get responses so extra thanks for lending a helping hand.

blessings to you all
~ dream

 

[stihgnobevoli]

overwatering, and prolly the ph is off too.

why does everyone always ph the water going into the soil but not the runoff??

typical n00b mistakes i guess. you need to check the ph of the water dripping out the bottom of the cup/pot. not just the water going in.


overwatering doesnt mean improper drainage, means you arent letting the pot dry out enough before you water it again. doesnt matter what size your pot is, you just need to make sure you dont keep the roots in asoggy en vironment, it cuts off all the oxygen to the roots. which is what you are doing to those plants. i dont think you should transplant those anymore, you will most likely kill them from all the shock. you've already done it 2x and they are how old? a couple weeks? these roots are a month old in a16 oz cup. as you can see i could have waited awhie longer before transplant.

 

[ibjamming]

Listen to this guy ^

 

[Hank Hemp]

overwatering

overwatering

overwatering, and prolly the ph is off too.

why does everyone always ph the water going into the soil but not the runoff??

typical n00b mistakes i guess. you need to check the ph of the water dripping out the bottom of the cup/pot. not just the water going in.


overwatering doesnt mean improper drainage, means you arent letting the pot dry out enough before you water it again. doesnt matter what size your pot is, you just need to make sure you dont keep the roots in asoggy en vironment, it cuts off all the oxygen to the roots. which is what you are doing to those plants. i dont think you should transplant those anymore, you will most likely kill them from all the shock. you've already done it 2x and they are how old? a couple weeks? these roots are a month old in a16 oz cup. as you can see i could have waited awhie longer before transplant.

You do not have to do something to your babies everyday, OK. If you have to do something give them a quarter turn. Don't love them to death.

 

[Dreamscape]

Is there some type of "watering for retards" thread

Seriously ... I learn like a 3 year old and it seems that no matter what i'm either letting the medium get TOO dry and i'm overwatering ...even when i'm watering once every 3 days.

Also if the pH came OUT too high or too low ... does this mean that I have to flush it well before attempting to feed again ??

thank you again guys - I really appreciate the help

god knows i need it

 

[Mr. Greengenes]

Dreamscape, don't feel bad, watering is probably the 'high kung fu' of all of horticulture. It's a lifelong study. Not one of us can claim to be a master. There can be no recipe or schedule to watering a high energy plant like cannabis. It's needs change daily with the position of the roots, which is key to knowing how and when to water. Unless you're making the common mistake of putting small plants into big pots, you only need to let soil get fairly dry the first and maybe second time you water after repotting. Shortly after that, the roots are at the bottom of the container, and overwatering is more difficult. When a plant is getting it's roots crowded in the right size container for the top mass, the container can be left in a tray to catch runoff for hours as it soaks it back up. Then, you'll really see some bud mass develop!

Big holes in the container are critical. Since so many people have started using DIY solo cups, I've seen a veritable rash of too-small-holes. Recently, when I found that problem in a local growers setup, I popped the plant out of the pot for a looksee at the roots. The top of the soil was bone dry, the bottom was soggy. Problem settled, need bigger (much bigger) holes. Remember, the holes aren't only for letting water drain out, they're also for letting oxygen in. One of the reasons the new smartpots and airpots work so well is that they're full of places for air to come in.

 

[Hank Hemp]

It happens to the best of us Dream. Teach yourself how much your cups weigh before and after watering easy way to tell if they have water.

 

[stihgnobevoli]

yeah srsly dont be hard on yourself. you think i just started off knowing that those plants are overwatere, over this over that? hell no, trial and error. look through my old gallery. the reason i can tell by looking at your plant that its overwatered is because i overwatered my plants at some point.

enjoy when you fuck up, it means that you just learned something. and knowledge is power my friend.

 

[Dreamscape]

many thanks for the advice and especially the encouragement

*group hug*

Now i'm off to make some more holes and test the runoff pH after this next feeding.

Assuming the pH run off is too high or too low in the medium - should I flush it out or just repot and replace the medium ??

The problem is that the Ocean Forest and Light warrior is supposed to automatically buffer the waters pH (or so they say) ... and also , i've only added fert's 1 time at 1/3 strength and that was already after a couple had started to yellow from the bottom up.

 

[Dreamscape]

I did a foliar feed with the 1/3 strength a few hours ago and put them back under the lights.

About an hour ago I started flushing them all.

The runoff pH for all of them was around 7.5 and up so I've been flushing with an acidic tap water flush to bring the pH down. It looks like i'm getting them to around the high 6's at this point.

Unfortunately the fucking pH testing kit I have is liquid and everytime some of the dirt gets into the test vial it darkens the water thus making it harder to acurately tell if the water is just dark or if the pH is really still in the 7's.

At this point i'm thinking of just getting some promix and transplanting so my fucking Ocean Forest doesn't rape my plants anymore.

if you couldn't tell i'm quite frustrated and bullshit at this whole situation.

Part of me just wants to get a bunch of Lime and mix it with the Ocean Forest but the other part of me doesn't want to risk doing all that work just to have it fuck up again.

Promix and transplant OR Lime the ocean forest and transplant ???

... ?

 

[Lazyman]

Man I have the same condition, I've just recently switched to coco chips in ebb and flood, and learned that they simply cannot be flooded until roots come out the bottoms of the pots. Top watering from now on!

 

[Dreamscape]

Seems all they needed was a good flushing to regulate the pH and a 5ml/gallon blast of floranova and new growth has blown up

I also add MANY more holes to those cups as well as 7-8 slits along the bottom ring of the cups as well.

 

[NorCalKind]

Just a little advice on the side for you Dream, you don't have to use any nutes whatsoever when you first transplant your babies. The Ocean Forest and Light Warrior have plenty of enough stuff in them to keep your babies happy for about 2 weeks or so in those cups.

 

[Dreamscape]

Thank you