SOIL Leaves at base turning yellow

[Hr250]

Hello this is my first grow. I started out with seedlings on 3/1/18 and I am growing in dirt. I am using organic dirt from wal mart mixed with a little miracle grow seed starting soil. I bought a 400w light set up around 3/12/18. On 3/15/18 there was disaster. I had my ten little seedlings to close to the light and KILLED all but one of them. That plant is now around 7 weeks old. I since started up a new batch of seedlings that are 1 month old tomorrow. I started all these plants from seeds that came in some bags I bought. With that said i do mot know if any of them are male or female yet. My real issue is that I am having is my ph level. I read the tutorial and watched the video but still have an issue. I have to have my water ph'ed to 8 or higher to get the runoff to be is the right ph range of 6-7. The video and what i have read on this site is that it needs to be 6-7 going in and needs to be 6-7 coming out. What should i do to have it going in at the right ph and coming out at the right range. Heres what my plants look like notice the bottom leaves turning yellow. Is this normal or do i have problems? Thanks in advance.

[Hr250]

[WeirdWiredWolf]

The MG soil is probably burning them (I use Fox Farms Ocean Forest). Are you using any liquid nutrients? You should be giving a cal-mag supplement if using LEDs.

General Hydroponics has a PH test kit that has all you need (dropper, test solution and both buffering solutions). Each time you water, test the PH of what's going in and also test the runoff.

[Chefbjy]

My advice would be to get them in some cannabis friendly soil. Miracle grow is bad for cannabis. That probably has something to do with your ph problem too. Looks like you will need to get it in a bigger pot of its root bound it will also cause problems.

[Chefbjy]

http://www.growweedeasy.com/what-soil-is-good-for-growing-cannabis

[Hamjam187]

I agree with chef, those pots are to small and mg for soil just doesn’t work well for cannabis.

[Redwasp]

Just for reference in good soil, good light, good nutrients etc, well and living on a farm my whole life these are 8 week old plants can look like. Very hard learning curve growing inside. Will take you a few times. But what counts is trying and learning

[Redwasp]

And yes they need defoliating bad. Lol

[Redwasp]

Oh sorry i left out that you need to start some lst, low stress training now. Next time top them. You will get bushs instead of 1 main cola.

[WeirdWiredWolf]

Redwasp, your plants aren't half as bad as mine. I swear I just defoliated them yesterday and need to do it again...mine seem to be an object lesson in LST gone just a BIT wrong (what happened is I would tie branches down, roomie would come along and go "oh no you're hurting the plant" and remove them...repeat about 10 times).

[Redwasp]

Lol do you have pics?

[WeirdWiredWolf]

I'll try to get some tomorrow and put them in my existing 'journal' thread (don't wanna completely hijack this one).

[Hr250]

I have used a very small amount of nutrients in with the water and thats when it seems to get worse. There is lots of new growth at the base of the branch that is turning yellow. Guess im going to make a trip to the local grow store and see what they have for dirt. I also e planned on getting it in a bigger containers, In a couple of days as i have a trip planned for the weekend. Still may top the big one if its still possible the smaller ones need some time to catch up. Like i said its my first time so its been a learning process.

[Redwasp]

Yes. Just learn and have fun.

[Hr250]

UPDATE: Even after changing to fox farm soil and checking ph this plant continued to have problems. I jave several other plants that are doing well. We are in week 5 of the flowering stage now. I think some plants are just aholes and dont want to do right. Here is a pic of a bud from one of the other plants.

[Chefbjy]

Yeah some plants are more finicky then others. But if there was still a lot of miracle grow around the root ball it can still be reacting to time released nutes. Buds look good and if it's yellowing from bottom it's probably natural. Just taking what they need before harvest time.

[Hr250]

[Hr250]