First Time Grower Needs Help

Hey Guys,

I really need your help. I'm a first time grower. I have 20 G.S.C (18 days old) in SOLO cups (with drain holes) in a 5x9 grow tent with an 800 PhytoMAX LED light from Blackdog on a 18/6 light cycle. I'm growing in Fox Farm Light Warrior Seed Starter.

When I first planted the seeds I watered the soil with PH'd RO water and added 'Root Enhancement' + 'Zym' (Pure Essentilas) to that water per manufacturers suggestion. Someone on this forum suggested that I stopped using nutrients and RO water since it was stripped from micro nutrients. Following his advice I decided that next time I watered (I used the cup weight method) I would do 10 plants with PH'd tap water and continue the other 10 plants with the Pure Essentials nutrient schedule to see the difference in growth.

Everything was looking good after the feeding then 3 days later some of my plants stated dropping and started getting brown spots on their lower leaves. I wasn't sure why this was happening but after doing some reading online I thought it could be overwatering (drooping leaves) or underwatering ( drooping leaves plus browning). With that in mind I decided to water only 10 to see which of the 20 would recover. The 10 that I watered seemed to plush up the next day but the brown spots and yellowing leaves continued. Now they're back to drooping again with the same leave symptoms and spreading to next top leaves.

I don't know what it could be anymore. I don't think it has to do with under or overwatering. Nutrient burn? but 10 of my plants I stopped the nutrients and they're getting the same leave symptoms. PH problem? I have a PH meter and ph all the water I use. Calcium deficiency? Tap water has calcium in it doesn't it? Nitrogen deficiency? I'm assuming the nutrient schedule that's telling me to add this, this and this on week 1 of vegging would have the nitrogen ratio that a plant in week 1 of vegging would need? Should I flush all 20 of them? Transplant to different pots? I don't know what to do and really want to jump on a solution ASAP

Can anyone point me in the right direction to saving these babies? I've attached some pics on they started browining and how they're looking now Any help would be really appreciated, Thanks!

Move the led light as high as you can and only water when your pots are 50 percent lighter than fully watered. Lots of people have had problems with too may lumens hitting young seedlings or cuttings.

G81

Also they seem to be picking up in health, most of the new growth looks healthy with no spotting.

it was the enzymes that did it. just leave them alone until they dry out and water with clean ph 6.4 water. everything should be fine
I run a hydro shop

Thanks for the reply

Green81 said:

Move the led light as high as you can and only water when your pots are 50 percent lighter than fully watered. Lots of people have had problems with too may lumens hitting young seedlings or cuttings.

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Wouldn't an issue with the light affect the top leaves as well?

Green81 said:

Also they seem to be picking up in health, most of the new growth looks healthy with no spotting.

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I agree, but the spotting is starting to move on to the next upper leaves on some of the plants

Thanks for the reply

StayFlyOrDie said:

it was the enzymes that did it.

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They all did get 'Zym' at the beginning

StayFlyOrDie said:

just leave them alone until they dry out and water with clean ph 6.4 water.

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Will they survive until next watering?... When you say 'clean' do you mean tap water, filtered or RO?

I would get them out of that medium, gently rinse the soil from the roots and replant in a mix of earthworm castings, Canadian peat moss, and perlite.

They will recover just fine.

Another option would be use the same medium if you still have some left in the bag, replant in fresh soil and top dress with a little earthworm castings!

Remember first time growers kill with kindness, they try to do too much. Just keep it simple!

I have very similar symptoms on some of my plants, also under phytomax.
But only on two strains, the other three strains have an occasional leaf go yellow every week or so. The two with the problem have it spread everywhere starting on larger leaves and working to smaller, from about the last two weeks of veg all the way until harvest.

Comparing the wastebasket to the plant at harvest time, a rough estimate is three fourths of the leaves have been lost by harvest, and most of the remaining leaves have gone yellowish.
The buds themselves are only marginally smaller, maybe fifteen percent, compared to the leaf loss.

I was trying all sorts of remedy's to no avail until the new from seed strains did not show the problem.
If the second generation of new plants begin showing symptoms then I will be looking for a leaf virus.

Look at roots. Maybe transplant.

Looks like u have very little medium in those cups. Time to transplant to bigger pots fer sure. Light warrior is so light weight I doubt u overwatered. You deff want to use nutes at this point. Follow instructions exactly. If you are using RO water you need to add Cal/Mag at the rate on the bottle. CaliMagic works for me, but have used other brands as well. If you use tap no need for Cal/Mag.

They don't look horrible. I think you just need to transplant and get them some nutrients at the proper PH. Are you going into soil or coco or...? What brand of base notes are you using?

Thanks for the reply

moses wellfleet said:

Another option would be use the same medium if you still have some left in the bag, replant in fresh soil and top dress with a little earthworm castings!

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I still have some soil left over. How do you top dress?

cannabuzz said:

How do you top dress?

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Layer the castings on top of the soil. Half inch to an inch.

Looks like you soaked them too much... Look at your perlite.. Should be white, all brown and green= over saturation for days....

I would transplant into a better mix, and only add about as much liqued as the size of the plant.... Adding less more often is closer to hydro in soil and gives greater control and results, you'd be better off giving them a beer cap full ten times a day....

Fix the soil first then feed at low ppm every time till tip burn then add decent amount of water. Use RO if tap is above 8 ph or 300ppm, ph down and up are not that great for plants, learn to use ur food instead....