'nother newbie question

HI! I'be been lurking for a while and this is my first post. I started 10 bag seeds, 4 popped, 3 died while out of town for xmas. The one that is left started curling its lowest leavesk, like in a U shape. The rest of the leaves are no longer healthy green, now have a "sliver/gray" cast tho them

What STRAIN are you growing? bag
What was the establishing technique? (Were the seed or clone?) seed
What is the age of your plants? 6 wks
What PHASE are the plants in? (seedling, vegetative or flower) are the plants in? seedling
What Technique are you using? N/A
What substrate/medium are you using?(Hydroton, RockWool etc.) sprouted to rockwook, placed in soil prior to going out of town. Did this to try to keep the rockwool from drying out, didn't work. Soil is 8 parts Earthgrow All Purpose potting soil, 4 parts perlite, 1/4 part Plant-Tone organinc 5-3-3.
What is the Nutrient temperature? n/a
What Nutrient's are you using? organic 5-3-3
What is the TDS/EC/PPM you are using?
What is the pH of the "Tank"?
Are you sure your calibration is correct on your equiptment? IDK
When was your last watering? yesterday
When was your last feeding change? (ie. grow-bloom-micro-additional)
What size bulb are you using? Shop light and 42w CFL
What is the distance to the canopy? 1-2 in
What is your RH Factor? 22
What is the canopy temperature?
What is the Day/Night Temp? (Include flucutaion range) 63 - 66
What is the current Air Flow? (cfm etc.) open crawl space attached to basement
Is the fan blowing directly at plants? no
Is your water HARD or SOFT? hard
Has plant been recently pruned, cloned off of or pinched no
Have any pest chemicals been used? If so, What and When? no
Are plant's infected with pest's no

PH from runoff of water is 6.5 to 7, I think. The instructions said to use 3 to 5 drops of regent, I split the difference with 4. I am doing 24/7 light. I checked the FAQS and all the pictures show plants much larger than this one. It was growing slow before this started (temps?). My water has PH of ~8, tapwater. I let the soil dry out between waterings, only watered 2 times since xmas until yesterday, to check PH. It is in a 16 oz plastic cup, bottom 2 inches straight perlite. Does nute burn do this? I was thinking it would take long enough for the nutes to break down (become available) that I wouldn't have to worry about nute burn. Moss has started growing on the rockwool.

Sorry, Windows Vista, in it's "infinite" wisdom decided I can't drag and drop files from different "zones".

TIA for any and all help/comments!

Well, your temps are way too low. Get up to 78-82 range

If you are in 16 oz cups, you shouldn't be fertilizing them yet......

Your tapwater ph is way too high.... adjust tap water to about 6.6 or so....

Hope this helps ya!

LolaGal said:

Well, your temps are way too low. Get up to 78-82 range

If you are in 16 oz cups, you shouldn't be fertilizing them yet......

Your tapwater ph is way too high.... adjust tap water to about 6.6 or so....

Hope this helps ya!

Click to expand...

Agreed K+

Thanks

Thanks

Thanks for all replies!

I have watered twice with 6.5 PH water to try and flush the soil, and now the temps are in the 64-72 range. I'm still working on building my box, so the crawlspace with have to do for now. Time will tell if that saves the litter bugger!

Peace

Update

Update

Here's an update if anyone is interested. More on my plant. Soil is still moist, moss still on the rockwool. Plant barely changed, still silverish/green. I may have mis-classified the plant as a seedling, as it had it's 3rd set of true leaves when my issue started. I touched the leaves on one side of the plant and they crumbled off like the plant had been dried, but they still had thier strange color. The leaves on the other side are not as dry, and I'm not even sure if it's still alive. As I'm still in my learning curve, no biggie if it is dead, but I would still like to save it if I can for the experience.

New action taken. I decided that the cheap regent stuff is worthless, so I went to one of the local hydro stores and got thier cheapest digital PH meter. It is a Millwaukee PH52, which I will need to return as it won't clibrate. Will return it later.

Is there any reason other than PH for why this happening? It had been growing slowly but very stocky under the shop light. There was no stretch at all, all the leaf nodes were coming out at the same level, one inside another. This problem started when I did two things on the same day. Added the 42 watt CFL and watered the plant with high PH water. I also may have not soaked the rockwool long enough or the water PH not low enough that I soaked it in. It was my first time to use rockwool. I really don't think it's just my water. I'm a newbie here, but I have grown vegtables organicly for close to 30 years. I have started seedlings with this water for years and never had a problem. That probably made me a little cocky about the rockwool, cause I never measured PH for anything other than a hottub before this (I took astronomy in high school ). I have always started seedlings with jiffy pots or soil blocks.

But is it possible that the low temp and sudden addition of a 42 watt CFL burned or shocked the plant? Just in case, I removed the shoplight and swapped out the 42 watt CFL bulb with a 12/13(?) watt.

Again, TIA for any help/comments!

peace

That crumbly stuff sounds like mold??? Get your temps up will help discourage mold. They hate 80 degrees, Mold that is....

pH meter purchase sounds like a smart idea. One way to get temps up is hotter lights? I would stick with the CFL 42 watt over a 12 watt bulb anytime. You're gonna have to get some air moving in there, got a fan on the plant. Very important, fan.

I'm stoned, so could have missed something in the post .....sorry Moss on the rockwool sounds bad....Silver gray color sounds moldy to me....