First time grower with red stems/yellow/spotting leaves

[growgreen420]

Sorry this has to be my first post and yes I have done a lot of reading but I want some expert advice.

These plants are about 1-2 weeks old have red stems, yellowing leaves and some spotting on leaves.

I have read that the plants are lacking nitrogen and I am still waiting for my fox farm ferts to come in but I obviously needed to add some nutrients so I bought some Miracle Gro (12-4-8) and just added that.

My setup is indoors grow tent with 3 100w full spectrum FL about 5-6 inches above the leaves. I was injecting CO2 (had a setup for my fish tank) but I have stopped injecting right now. pH is 7.0

At first everything seemed to be going well. Leaves were fine and growth was really fast. Now it seems growth has slowed but the leaves are still growing. And it seems that some leaves are curling up a bit.

See pictures and please let me know what you guys think I need to do.

Update:
Ventilation is a 6" inline fan blowing air out. I am just now opening up a vent to let air in. I wasn't getting any fresh air in and it has gotten quite humid.
Soil is just standard (no name) soil with no ferts.
Plants are 3-4" tall.
Water is one of those seedling starters that has continuous watering for up to 10 days. Just fill up the tray and the soil stays wet until the water level has depleted.




Thanks.

 

[Hushpuppy]

Oh Brother :O You should NEVER feed seedlings for the first week to 2 weeks and especially not miracle grow food You will be lucky if any of them survive after giving them that.

MJ seedlings should be started in chem neutral soil, coco, rapid rooter plugs, RW cubes, and be given small amounts of Ph6.5 water until they have at least passed the first week and it is best to wait until the little round leaves start yellowing, then introduce a very very light amount of nutrients to them toward the end of the second week or going into the third week (depending on how well they are growing and how much root growth is developing). The problem is that MJ has very delicate roots when they first start growing and they will burn easily.

It also looks like your soil is too moist. You want it to be only mildly moist during the first week and if they take off you can increase the water to just moist for the second week. And you want to let the soil almost dry out before adding more, don't let them sit in wet soil as that will drown them. At this stage I water them with a baby medicine dropper that holds 5ml max of water.

I am afraid that you will have to wait this out and see who survives. The MG ferts is good for flower beds but not MJ. You need to either do some reading on doing organic growing or find a hydroponics store in yer area, or goto one of the online hydro stores and order MJ nutes like technaflora's recipe for success, General Hydroponics' flora 3part. There are a few different brands of nutes that are more engineered to growing MJ.

Welcome to the Passion I hate to have to greet you this way but if you hang out awhile there's plenty of very knowledgable and friendly peeps here that can help you

 

[ozzydiodude]

:welcome: to MP

That is what overfeeding young plants looks like I would let them dry out them use plain PHed water for a week or 2

 

[brimck325]

and dispose of the miracle grow properly....peace

 

[growgreen420]

Thanks for the comments guys. I guess I can't first succeed until i fail. Trial and error and that is why I came here to get some expert advice. So let the soil dry out some since it is too wet and get rid of the miracle gro and get some better ferts. Hopefully they pull through. So basically the plants were suffering from over watering and not from nutrient deficiency? Thanks again. What would be a good fert to use in the future and is the fox farm ocean soil any good?

 

[Hick]

FFOF is very good soil. I like to add a touch(10-20%) perlite and about a tblspoon of horticultural lime p/gallon of soil. "IME" it will feed plants for about 4 weeks before any nutrients are needed. I use/like the FF nutrients as well. Either the fox farms 'trio' Grow big, Tiger bloom, and Big bloom, or, lately I've been useing their "Peace of Mind" line with satisfaction.

 

[Hushpuppy]

Sorry to give you such bad news bro but maybe a few will pull through and survive. If you want to grow in soil then you just about can't go wrong with the FoxFarm lineup. Make sure you get some of the NON-nuted soil for starting out the kids, or just get some of the "rapid rooters" for starting. I got some of the "rooter" plugs from Advanced Nutrients and they work great for germing or cloning. There are a few other brands that make the same type of plug that is just as good. I personally don't like the "walmart Jiffy starter pucks" as they hold too much water. The rooter plugs work much better in my experience.

Go to Discount Hydroponics online or Plantlightinghydroponics, HTGsupply as these are all solid growing supply shops that will ship directly to your house. And don't worry about the little black or blue cars following the big brown truck to you, they just don't. Here's some green mojo for your girls to pull through

 

[growgreen420]

Hey thanks guys. I am actually picking up FFOF and some FF nutes tomorrow as well. We will see how these little girls pull through. I have faith in them . And thanks again for all the advice! It has helped put greatly.

 

[growgreen420]

Well I just got home from work and I would say about 5 of the seedlings are doing really well and the other ones have either yellow leaves, red stems or spots on the leaves.


Here is my question:

I will be picking up FFOF soil tomorrow. Should I transplant them into that? The roots of the seedlings are coming out of the bottom of the pots right now.... Does this mean I should transplant? The first row has been planted in these small pots for 11 days now while the last 2 rows have been planted for 5 days. For the first week the plants shoot right up really fast. Then after the first week or so the plants seem to stop growing fast and leaves turn yellow. The two bottom round leaves are really yellow. Need some more help with what I should do here!

Second, if I do transplant should I dose some nutes like FF or technaflora? I will be picking up some nutes tomorrow along with the soil. Please let me know as I don't want to loose these little guys.

 

[Hushpuppy]

Don't feed bro! not yet anyway. Overwatering and overnuting is the propblem you are having now. The foxfarm soil has natural nutrients in it that will become available to the plants as they need it (for about a month). It may serve you at this point to transplant them into the soil when you get it (but first mix in a little dolomite lime in each pot of soil, and mix the soil with some pearlite). I mix 4parts soil to 1part pearlite. Then take the whole plug that the plant is in and set it into the soil and cover it up so that the new soil buries the older stuff(but not so deep that the leaves touch the soil). Then very gently water it (with about 1 full cup of water) so that the MG nutes that were in the older soil get washed down and dispersed into the FF soil. That will minimize their damaging affects.

Then do some serious reading here on all the stickies at each thread header.

If you go with the Foxfarm soil, don't feed the plants anything but water as they won't need any food for a few weeks. Then it is up to you if you want to stay with the soil feeding the plants or if you want to be in control of feeding them. It will not work to do it both ways unless you go organic and get organic nutes such as Foxfarm. The reason is the organic soils use microorganisms in the soil to break down the nutes and supply it to the plants. If you add chemical nutes to the mix, they will kill the microbes and render the soil nuteless. If you use the organic nutes then the microbes will continue to do their job of feeding the plants.

You can wait until the soil is used up after a month and then switch to chemical nutrients but once you do that you will have to continue on a schedule which involves getting a PH meter and mixing and PH adjusting your solution for watering/feeding every time. The "recipe for success" from Technaflora has a whole schedule with PH readings and TDS readings for feeding(and works quite well) but its a bit expensive in my opinion. GH Flora 3part is a well liked and used "chemical" nute brand that is pretty straight forward, as is Advanced Nutrients' "Jungle Juice", which is what I use with much success in my hydro system(both brands work either in hydro or soil).

Don't worry about the co2 now, just make sure you have good ventilation and a fan breeze going to keep the air from getting stale in the tent.

 

[growgreen420]

Thank you very much! You have been more then helpful and have answered all my questions very clearly. I will keep this thread up-to-date with the progress of the plants. Once again thank you!

 

[brimck325]

hey gg420, just a heads up, the cotyledon( first to show, little round) leaves always yellow and die off. glad you haven't gotten discouraged, there's so much to learn! good luck....peace

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

I would not transplant yet if it were me. Let them get a little bigger and healthier. One of the biggest problem new growers have is loving their plants to death. I know that it is hard to not fuss over them, especially when you are starting out. This is though about a 4 month process, so relax. You have overfed and overwatered your little plants. You really need to just let them alone for a bit and let them grow. All they really need now is water, light, and air.

How big is your space? What EXACTLY are you using for light? This is important. If you have 300 actual watts on the seedlings this is too much. However, if it is 3 100W equivalent bulbs, it will not be enough. Do you have an oscillating fan in your space blowing on the babies? Tell us more about the spotting on the leaves--want to make sure you do not have spider mites.

 

[growgreen420]

I would not transplant yet if it were me. Let them get a little bigger and healthier. One of the biggest problem new growers have is loving their plants to death. I know that it is hard to not fuss over them, especially when you are starting out. This is though about a 4 month process, so relax. You have overfed and overwatered your little plants. You really need to just let them alone for a bit and let them grow. All they really need now is water, light, and air.

How big is your space? What EXACTLY are you using for light? This is important. If you have 300 actual watts on the seedlings this is too much. However, if it is 3 100W equivalent bulbs, it will not be enough. Do you have an oscillating fan in your space blowing on the babies? Tell us more about the spotting on the leaves--want to make sure you do not have spider mites.

Well I actually didn't have time today to pick up the FFOF soil so it will have to wait a little. And to tell you the truth the plants are looking a little better today as the soil it drying out. New growth looks good and promising.

As for the space/lights.

The tent is 3'x2x'6' and the oscilating fan is on all the time and the exhaust fan is on, too. We are leaving the door to the tent open a little to get fresh air in since we do not have an intake fan up and running yet.

I have 3, 100watt FL bulbs. These bulbs are full spectrum.

I have no idea if this is enough, too much or not enough light so I am glad you asked that question.

 

[growgreen420]

I do; however, notice the tips of some of the leaves turning yellow and from what I have read this is a nitrogen deficiency? Or could it also be from too much water?

And some of the little round leaves on the bottom of the plant are yellow and some are actually browning a little bit????

 

[growgreen420]

Sorry for all the double posts...

Here are some picks as of now:

 

[Hushpuppy]

As Brimck said, the little round leaves will naturally yellow-off as the plant grows. The reason for this is that these little leaves serve the purpose of being the food for the plant to feed from until it fully develops its "food roots". The yellowing that you are seeing on the ends of the bigger leaves is probably some nute burn or a bit of shock from being too wet and too much nutes. At this point they would not have nitrogen deficiency because they are still developing their roots and are feeding off the "seed leaves". Also N deficiency would show up as a general yellowing of the lower leaves while the upper leaves are still green. But again, these are too young to have N deficiency.

Don't get too anxious to "do something" for them. Let them grow some

 

[growgreen420]

Okay thank you! I will let them be for now and watch what they do.

 

[growgreen420]

Little update. On some of the plants it has seemed that growth has come to a halt. Still seeing yellowing leaves, really red stems and spots on the leaves. Just wanted to point out the obvious. I will be picking up FFOF soil tomorrow. Should I replant so the plants can start getting some nutes?

My main question is (see pics) why are some of the plants "laying down." They have not shot up like the rest but their leaves seem to be good and they seem to be healthy.

 

[growgreen420]

Quick pic of the homemade grow tent.