New to growing, having some issues

Hey- New to growing and new to the forum. Want to say hi to everyone first of all.

For some background:

I set up my first grow tent. It's small, 2x2x4. Figured i'd start out with it and see how it goes. I put in mars hydro 300w LED light, a 6" fan, and a 4" exhaust fan at the top.

Temperatures seem to be around the mid 80's. I try to leave the vents open during the day to keep the temp. down a bit.

So down to the nitty gritty. She's about 30 days old. After a lot of research; i decided to top the plent on the 3rd sprout. Everything was going well until this happened. The cotyledons started to fall off. I know this is typical. I started to see some yellowing in the 2nd set of 3 leaves. A few days later, they started to brown and crisp up.

Some of the new growth looks like it has a bite taken out of it. I can assure you there's no bugs in my tent. Or mice. The new growth also has some limp to it. Overwatering perhaps?

You can also see a bit of a limp in the leaves which is why I think it's overwatering.

The yellowing seems to be making it's way up from the bottom of the plant, but it skipped the first set of leaves. So i'm very confused here.

I gave her, her first bit of fert yesterday, Alaskan Fish. So i'll watch the next few days and see how she is. I have some pictures below.

I tried to water every 3-4 days; typically when the top is totally dried out. I've never seen water flow through the hole on the bottom. I know I re-potted a bit too quickly in an over sized pot; a bit seems to think it may be an issue as well?

Any help would be great.

Thank you!

bump

it sounds like they are hungry. 300w LED souds a lot for a 2x2 area. the bite shape sounds like a pest problem (sometimes pests are not easy to spot) sounds sounds sounds... how about to let us see how it looks

Frankiebeans56
Welcome to the group. Glad you are here. Your lady seems really sick. A picture would be great right now. Whats in my mind is soil or whatever it is growing in. Did you add nutes before the 3rd node? Nutes start after that. Like when the fourth is starting. Thats when you usually transplant. You can start in a big pot from day one. A lot of people do that. I don't. Then I wait two more nodes to get a small amount of nutes started. Then I water and nute next water. Change at Budding. Pictures from all around the plant would be great. We all want you to succeed...

zem said:

it sounds like they are hungry. 300w LED souds a lot for a 2x2 area. the bite shape sounds like a pest problem (sometimes pests are not easy to spot) sounds sounds sounds... how about to let us see how it looks

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Actually Zem, PJ told me to plan on about 90 watts per sq ft, so, that light should not be too much for 4 sq ft.

For some reason, I cannot see the pics.....

:yeahthat:^^^^. I was thinking add another light. Lol. Ad feed her she's hungry. Those the ps are a lil high, keep it between 75-80. And something is eating that plant, keep looking! That just don't happen!

The Hemp Goddess said:

Actually Zem, PJ told me to plan on about 90 watts per sq ft, so, that light should not be too much for 4 sq ft.

For some reason, I cannot see the pics.....

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yeah i heard about that LED requirement is 90w/sq.ft, but could not believe it. how could the LED be less efficient than HPS, and why would anyone want to flower with LED?

Hey guys,

I apologize for the double post, and posting in the wrong place.

Thanks for the feedback!

So I was reading a lot today. I was thinking that the hole, since there's no others could be from some water i sprayed on it... maybe a burn from the LED?

I did add an n spike prior, but then I took it out a day after realizing it was too soon. This was over a week ago.

So I should start feeding more? I posted 2 pictures, if you can't see them i re-posted them here, with a 3rd I just took today.

The soil I used was miracle grow seed starting potting mix, which i'm starting to realizing may not have been the best choice. Should I repot?

The light is also about 20" above the canopy.

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Yes miracle gro is not the best choice. I would repot with some good organic soil like fox farm ocean forest if it's available, or some thing comparable. And buy some nutes specifically geared for cannabis. The FFOF soil should feed it well for at least 3 weeks so all you'll have to do is water. After the three weeks you should start adding some liquid nutes. If you wanna stay organic, Epsom, roots organic, or earth juice are all good nutes! If you wanna go synthetic nutes, General hydroponics flora three part, or advance nutrients jungle juice are good choices as well! Good luck!

I believe your whole problem has been stated above. They are needing nutrients a little sooner than you gave them. I can't swear to it, but I believe the miracle grow seed starter is innert medium, or maybe some organic material mixed in.

The key to when to start feeding seedlings is to watch the seed leaves for yellowing. As soon as the seed leaves (cotyledons) begin to yellow, it means that the seedlings' nutrient source for getting started in life is getting used up. This also means that the roots have had enough time to develop and toughen some so that they can handle the chemicals in nutrients. If you are going into organic medium, this is when they need to either be given chelated nutrient tea, or immediately moved to new medium that is ready to feed. I would think that it shouldn't be too rich at first. Maybe do the richer soil at the bottom if its a larger pot and not so rich medium in the middle.

If you are going to go with synthetic nutrients, then do as said above with FFOF or even soilless medium like sunshine mix, or if you want to wait a little longer for them to grow before repotting, begin feeding a light mixture of one of the synthetic brands (my favorite is Jungle Juice 3part). I recommend that you take the regular recommended amount on the bottles and cut it to 1/4th for the first feeding week. Then increase the dosage each week buy 1/4, until you are feeding at full strength.

Thank you for the feedback guys, it's much appreciated.

A friend of mine tonight gave me happy frog and I have the alaska fish fert. Will this do? If so, i'll repot tomorrow and see how she goes for the next few days.

Yes that'll work, but like hush stated, use the Alaska fish fertalizer at low strength at first! Then as she grows ramp up the feeding. I'd give her a week or so in her new soil to adjust to transplant shock before beginning any added nutes as well. Just water after transplant will be fine!

Thanks Hush/HB!

Happy Frog is great soil, has nutes in it that lasts about three weeks, so you won't need to feed for a bit.

":yeahthat::yeahthat: ^^^^ I had mentioned that in an earlier post, forgot to reinforce it, thanks rose!

Great explanation here which will really help me too; and reposting for anyone else who may need the same help. I've read a lot, and this is pretty much spelled out for dummies.

Droopy Dog said:

First off, just looking at the pic I can see your watering method is wrong and needs to be corrected.

When you water, saturate the entire medium, not just a bit next to the plant. Dry spots in the medium is not good. Water till you get a decent amount of run off and let the plant sit in the runoff for 15 min or so then empty the saucer or whatever you're using for a drip tray.

No little 'sips' between waterings! Totally saturate the medium, allow to dry out, then saturate again. Repeat as needed.

Overwatering is not the amount of water used, but watering too frequently and keeping the soil from drying out. The dry part of the wet/dry cycle.

Just getting your watering habits corrected should take care of most, if not all, of your current problems.

DD

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It's funny what can happen in 2 days. Plants are truly amazing.

Didn't repot yet; a little water, fert and time and she's looking great. Today she's 40 days old. Could be bigger; but she's filling out great now. It seems the top I did sprouted 4 rather then 2. The bottom leaves are still dying though; but was this inevitable due to what was happening?

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Yeah as long as the yellowing and Ning doesn't progress you're fine, I'd even go as far as to remove those bottom yellowing dying leaves. Those usually just get trimmed of before flipping into flower anyhow!

So I noticed the very end of the tips of some of the bigger leaves getting a little yellow today. In fact you can see it a little in the picture above (bottom pic)

Any suggestions before this gets worse?

I believe that is just a hint of nute burn, just like we like it. I would top dress with some earthworm castings at this point. Put about an inch on top of the soil and water it in well.