New HPS 400W - Plants Wilting!!

[sfvhunter69]

Hello All,

I am new to this forum and a 1st time grower. I am growing 3 plants in soil and used fluorescent lights for vegging the seeds to about 15 inches tall. I decided to get a 400W HPS for the 12/12 flowering cycle. After a couple days of 12/12 under the 400W the leaves on 2 of the plants started wilting and the plants look like they are going to die! I have the light about 36-40 inches above the top of the plants and I am still using the fluorescents to make sure the lower leaves get plenty of light. I have 2 fans circulating the air in about a 8' x 4' space. The temp in the room never got above 80F and is about the same temp as when I was vegging them thanks to the extra fan I added to the room. I also haven't changed the watering schedule so I do not believe they are getting over watered.
Let me know if you need anymore info..

Please help! Thanks in advance!

 

[surreptitious]

soil? or hydro?

 

[mrkingford]

Hello All,

I am new to this forum and a 1st time grower. I am growing 3 plants in soil and used fluorescent lights for vegging the seeds to about 15 inches tall. I decided to get a 400W HPS for the 12/12 flowering cycle. After a couple days of 12/12 under the 400W the leaves on 2 of the plants started wilting and the plants look like they are going to die! I have the light about 36-40 inches above the top of the plants and I am still using the fluorescents to make sure the lower leaves get plenty of light. I have 2 fans circulating the air in about a 8' x 4' space. The temp in the room never got above 80F and is about the same temp as when I was vegging them thanks to the extra fan I added to the room. I also haven't changed the watering schedule so I do not believe they are getting over watered.
Let me know if you need anymore info..

Please help! Thanks in advance!

Welcome to MP friend.
You may need to water more now because the HPS puts out much more heat than the flo's do therefore the soil will dry quicker.
If the top 3-4 inches of your soil is dry, WATER.
Wilting usually means they are thirsty.

Try and post pics and you will get the very BEST advice possible.

Also, hold your hand just over the tops of the plants for 30 seconds, if your hand is not too hot the lights are not too close, if soo move the light higher til your hand does'nt get burned by the light.

Good luck to you and remember, read up here as much as possible, any question you have is probably already a thread on here.
Peace.................

 

[sfvhunter69]

soil? or hydro?

They are in soil..

 

[BBFan]

mrkingford is right. Usually a plant "wilts" due to lack of water. If you water them and they don't perk up within an hour or two, you have a different problem. Plants can also "wilt" from over-watering. However, what you call wilting and what I call wilting may be 2 different things. If you could post some pics, you'll get very specific advice.

The plants will not "wilt" because the light is too close. The leaves will actually burn and start to shrivel (been there, done that). Your light is actually way too far away from your plants and you're loosing the majority of your lumens. I get my 400 watters closer than 12", so that is not your problem. You should move your light closer.

Like I said, get some pics up and you'll get some better input.

Good luck to you.

 

[sfvhunter69]

Welcome to MP friend.
You may need to water more now because the HPS puts out much more heat than the flo's do therefore the soil will dry quicker.
If the top 3-4 inches of your soil is dry, WATER.
Wilting usually means they are thirsty.

Try and post pics and you will get the very BEST advice possible.

Also, hold your hand just over the tops of the plants for 30 seconds, if your hand is not too hot the lights are not too close, if soo move the light higher til your hand does'nt get burned by the light.

Good luck to you and remember, read up here as much as possible, any question you have is probably already a thread on here.
Peace.................

Thanks MrKing! I went ahead and watered them some more. Hopefully over the next couple days they will start to show improvement! I will post pics a little later.

One other quick question for you.. Should I go back to 24 hr flo lighting until they improve or should I keep them on the 12/12? I would think 24 hr would help them build their strength a little quicker.

Thanks again

 

[mrkingford]

One other quick question for you.. Should I go back to 24 hr flo lighting until they improve or should I keep them on the 12/12? I would think 24 hr would help them build their strength a little quicker.
Thanks again

NO !!!!!!!!!!!!
If you go back to 24 hr. your no longer flowering! They will reveg.
Plus they might hermi!!!!

Like BBfan said, if they dont perk up within 3 hours you have a different problem.


Keep 12/12 with as LITTLE light leaks during the dark cycle.
Peace

 

[mrkingford]

P.S. is your water ph'ed???? It should be 6.5 for soil, although this has nothing to do with wilting, just curious because if your feeding nutes and your ph is off, you may as well flush the nutes in the toilet. Too high or low ph will lock out the plants ability to use the nutes.
READ READ READ READ, LOL
Peace

 

[pcduck]

I have had plants just about doubled over from lack of water. The recovery time was amazing....It only took minutes to straighten right back up.

 

[sfvhunter69]

P.S. is your water ph'ed???? It should be 6.5 for soil, although this has nothing to do with wilting, just curious because if your feeding nutes and your ph is off, you may as well flush the nutes in the toilet. Too high or low ph will lock out the plants ability to use the nutes.
READ READ READ READ, LOL
Peace

Ok, I didn't take the plants off the 12/12 cycle and there is NO light that gets in during the dark period. I have the room sealed off to make sure it is completely dark. Plus I have the timer scheduled so most of the dark period is at night.

I also just double checked my water and it is at 6.3 PH right now.

Everything was going great for my 1st time growing. I made sure to keep everything as uniform as possible to make sure I didn't have any issues since it had all been going so well but then I added that HPS light and thats when the problem started!

Here are a few pics that I just took of the 2 plants I am having trouble with.

 

[mrkingford]

They look pretty good. There certainly not dying.
The soil looks wet, too wet and they can rot the roots and wilt the leaves.

Wait til the top 3-4 inches of the soil is dry then water til you get run off ( R/O ).

how long since you last watered? do they look improved at all after watering?

Are you feeding nutes?

 

[sfvhunter69]

They look pretty good. There certainly not dying.
The soil looks wet, too wet and they can rot the roots and wilt the leaves.

Wait til the top 3-4 inches of the soil is dry then water til you get run off ( R/O ).

how long since you last watered? do they look improved at all after watering?

Are you feeding nutes?

The soil looks that wet because I just watered them about an hour ago. I still haven't seen any improvement yet. I usually wait until the top 2 inches is dry before watering. I'm starting to think that over watering may be the issue!
If over watering is the issue.. What can I do at this point to save the plants?

I've had to cut a few leaves off the bottom of the plants because they are dying. The top leaves aren't dying yet but who knows what will happen over the next few days.

I am using GH nutes and have been using the same mixture since they were about 3 inches tall. I was using straight water before that.

 

[mrkingford]

just leave them alone for 2-3 days. Wait til the top 3-4 inches is REAL dry.
There NOT dying.

 

[BBFan]

Your leaves are heavy because they are storing nutrients. This is good!!!

The leaves do not look wilted!!!

Wilting is a result of low turgor pressure inside the cells of the leaf. This low turgor pressure is controled by the central vacuole. The central vacuole is a solution storage compartment inside most of the cells of plant leaves.

Since your leaves are not wilted your plant is taking in plenty of nutrients! They are most likely drooping because they are transporting more to the leaves and storing it!!!!!!!! This is most likely because the plant is preparing for a long day of production!!!!

You will probably notice the plant looks droopier just before the light comes on.

Then you will notice the plant looks like it has lighter leaves at the end of the "day". This is because during photosynthesis it will be using the stored solution.

Your new light probably kicked your plant into storing more. Hence, droopier leaves.

See Ya!!!

Huh? Turgor pressure keeps the plant erect, not drooping.

The plant looks over-watered. Don't water it for a few days and it should be fine.

 

[Trafic]

Looks like shock from changing the lights. They should fine in a day or two.

 

[chris1974]

Mine did the exact same thing, I put em under a 1000w HPS and started feeding them GH 3 part at 1 week old

They drooped for about a day and a half, then they snapped out of it
be patient, they will be fine !

 

[kebnekajse]

You just need to give them more water. Otherwise they look good and healthy. Owerwatering looks a bit different, my plants look the same when i do not give them water for three days or so. Make sure that your whole rootball gets moist, to do that you water slowly. It takes time, but it's worth the effort.

Hehe, some say lack of water, some say excess... But of course i am right!:hubba:

And, get your light closer. The distance you are having is more suitable for a 600w hps, perhaps a 1000w. Try 15" and watch out for curly edges, but i think it will be allright, even a bit closer would be ok. But this has nothing to do with your current problem i think, but your yield will be better and they will not stretch as much.

Oh, i assume you have a proper exhaust. If not, get it! A 400w raise the temps quite a bit compared to fluorescents. When i had bad air echange in the beginning if my growcareer, it sort of looked like yours, so that mightbe the problem. Plus when air goes out, fresh air gets in providing c02.

You seem to take care of your plants, you will sort this out. It's a weed, it can take quite a bit of abuse, i should know! Let us know when they get better.

 

[kev2779]

im using 400 watt hps and have a fan blowing over top of plants to move the hot air off the light away its about 5-6" off the tops and there fine

 

[sfvhunter69]

Well guys,

I appreciate all the posts and the help and wanted to give you an update. After I started seeing the issue and it wasn't improving with the suggestions all of you made I decided to put them back on the flo lights and remove the HPS light. Once I did this I started to see improvements in 2 of the plants.
I had 3 plants total. Its been a few weeks now and one of my babies died. One has some dead spots on the leaves and is growing slow but seems to be recovering. I had to cut a lot of dead leaves off of it so it is looking pretty bare now. The third plant looks fully recovered! The 2 plants that survived are flowering so I hope that continues! I did get a couple clones growing also to replace the plant that died. They are growing strong in peat pellets and I am going to move them to a DWC system in a couple days.

I decided to try using the HPS light again to see what happens now that the 2 plants seem to be making a recovery. I am thinking about starting out using it for only 6-8 hours a day and using the flo lights for the other 4-6 hours at first to see what happens. What do you guys think?

I will post some new pics later!

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

Do not cut leaves off, even if they look like they are dying. The plant will discard them when it is of not more value.

If you are going to be going to DWC, you should start your plants in something different than peat pots--rockwool or rapid rooters. You are going to need to remove your plants from the peat pots to put them into DWC and it can be hard on the roots to rinse all the dirt away.

I do not know what was wrong with your plants, but the 400W hps should not have caused the problems you had--I doubt it killed your plant. Most people use HIDs and may use a 1000W with no problems. I believe that your problem was something else, especially since the one died and the other still has problems.