Scrawny curling cola, HELP! have pics! Need advise

[greenthumberish]

Alright, I'm getting frustrated....i've read like 50 or more posts on why leaves curl, and most of the time they say nute burn or something similar. And heres my details

Happy Frog organic potting mix in a 5 gallon bucket, pre-treated with dolomite lime, soil PH 6.2.
feeding schedule, every other watering, watering done about every 7 days, or if the soil is dry down to 3rd knuckle.
Light source: 1000 watt HPS
Grow space: 3.5wide,5 tall, 3.5 deep. well ventilated, grow box with mylar lining the insides.
Ambient temp lights on: 80F, lights off: 65
Can't think of any other relevant information. I have multiple strains growing, and all of 'em seem to be doing the same thing. The plants are around 12" away (this paticular one is more like 24" away) from the lightbulb itself, 6" away from the bulb is around 90F, 8" away is like 85"ish so i'm fairly certain its not heat stress, cos from my experience leaves curl like tacos in that case, not down like claws. So any of you superguru experienced cats out there, or people that've had a similar problem and fixxed it....please help!

 

[ArtVandolay]

IMO it looks like heat stress. 1000 watt hps in that size grow space with those ambient temps seems to me like a lot of heat. I would take temp readings again at bud height. In the pic, it looks like just the bud leaves are curled, the lower ones look fine. The bud leaves, of course, are the highest (closest to the hps).

I grow in 3 gal buckets and I need to water every 3rd day. So I don't know about watering 5 gal bucket plants but every 7 days strikes me as a long time between watering.

 

[greenthumberish]

Funny thing is that paticular cola, is around 2.8 feet away from the bulb itself, and the grow tent that I fixxed up is in a basement that has a temp of around 55F....and I leave the door of the tent open to let cool air be pushed through by my fan ventilation, 2 fans pushing hot air out, 1 fan pushing cool air in....so it's actually really not that hot. That's why im irritated at the plants doing what they're doing.....and if i drop the plants lower (as that plant is ontop of another bucket to raise to canopy level) they don't get ANYWHERE near as much light. Frustrating i tell you

 

[ArtVandolay]

But you said all your bud leafs are curling? Do you monitor the relative humidity? It might be too low. I'm sure real experts will be dropping by shortly

 

[greenthumberish]

That's one thing I don't have the capacity to monitor...however, it seems pretty humid in there, especially after watering (the ground is concrete, and runs off towards a drain) and so i just let the water drain and it eventually works its way out of the grow room thru the drain.....and for some reason, advise on it seems to be uhm...scarce. So if anyone at all has any ideas i'd love to hear 'em.
Also, i raised up the light as high as I could, another 10 inches, and tried down all the colas I could as low as possible without damaging them....so now they're all over 1.5 feet away, some are as far as 3' away from the bulb. Hopefully the speculation is right, and it was just heat, I'll be watching the new growth to see if it is healthy. Another question...I noticed the drainage in that paticular planter wasn't too good, so I added a few more holes with the help of a drill....and after watering with 2.5 gallons of water, once the holes were in it literally had a steady stream of drainage for about 45 seconds...could it have been that the waterbuildup in the pot was causing it to behave over watered? The top of the soil was dry to the 3rd knuckle when i just watered...so that ALSO could be the issue...anyway, all comments are welcome!

 

[blancolighter]

If your pots are resting on the cold basement ground (prolly even cooler than your basement temp of 55 degrees) and the tops of the plants are 80, your plants are prolly getting pretty stressed by the heat difference. I think either 4u2smoke or HippyInEngland had this same problem in their garage, so you might want to shoot them a PM. Anyways, thry rasing your plants up off the floor with a crate or something and see how that does...

 

[blancolighter]

But yea, I'm also getting a heat stress vibe like artvandolay, but it's probably a combination of that and what I said before, so its good you raised the light a bit.

 

[city]

Ya I have to agree with heat stress. 55 is too low for the room.lack of humidity and too much heat from the top with a 55 degree room. I would get a humidifier on low. And get a fan to push the heat down.
Those leaves are going to crumble after it gets right

 

[greenthumberish]

If your pots are resting on the cold basement ground (prolly even cooler than your basement temp of 55 degrees) and the tops of the plants are 80, your plants are prolly getting pretty stressed by the heat difference. I think either 4u2smoke or HippyInEngland had this same problem in their garage, so you might want to shoot them a PM. Anyways, thry rasing your plants up off the floor with a crate or something and see how that does...

I thought of that way before i ever planted They're on pallettes...so they're not sitting on the cold concrete, the original thought of that was so that they didn't sit in their run-off...the temp around the pallette level with a digital thermometor left in there all day said 70 yesterday. Hopefully raising the lights and tying down the tallest colas will help.

 

[greenthumberish]

Ya I have to agree with heat stress. 55 is too low for the room.lack of humidity and too much heat from the top with a 55 degree room. I would get a humidifier on low. And get a fan to push the heat down.
Those leaves are going to crumble after it gets right

55 is the temp outside the grow tent area, inside the tent area is lots warmer....i just open the tent door, and let cold air get pushed in by a fan to keep it ventilated.....as the day progresses, the temp has been getting warmer around 60 down there as the 1000 watt hps produces it's heat....but like i said a second ago, i left a digital thermometor in there on the pallettes and it was at 70F by 4PM (lights out at 7:30pm)...so hopefully now that i've re-arranged them, they'll right themselves. The tops have good new growth that's not wilting at all, so that's promising I hope lol...thankyou for the advice!!!