HELP! First time growing, new leaves have yellow/light green tips

[Hydromattic]

Hi

This is my first time growing and I'm just looking for a bit of help (I hope I don't need a lot of help!) and guidance from the folks here.

The strain is Northern Lights Auto from Crop King Seeds. I think I'm in week 6 now (I've learned that I should probably write something like that down).

I am providing Advanced Nutrients Micro/Grow/Bloom combination, right now I'm mixing about 1.5ml or each per L. I water every 3rd day (trying really hard not to over water is a challenge, always feel like I should be doing SOMEHTING)

I have a grow tent, a 300W LED (I leave it on all day and night), I am growing in soil with some perlite mixed in. I think next time I'll put more perlite as I don't think the soil drains as fast as it should. The temperature is usually between 20 and 21 degrees celsius (68-70 farenheit) and relative humidity is somewhere in the 40% range inside the tent.

Everything has been going really good, but in the last week or two I've noticed these new leaves tips being a bit different color. Is this something I need to be worried about or is there some small adjustment I could make?

I did raise my light as it was about 9 inches from the top of the plant, and I just read that may be too close for LED so it's at about 18" now. I also thought maybe it was a Boron toxicity and considered "flushing" the plant but I read that that could be a bit drastic of a step so I'm holding off. So raising the light is the only thing I've done, and I just did that so there would be no noticeable effect yet if that was the issue.

Thank you to anyone who can have a look and let me know if I need to change something up, or if you have any other advice or see any other problems (ie: should I be pruning off some leaves? bigger bucket next time? etc.). Really looking forward to growing and learning the "trade" and hopefully one day contributing answers here instead of just asking questions.

[Mr.furley]

If your soil is not draining as fast as it should Drill a lot of holes in your bucket, on the bottom and up the sides. Air is good for roots and helps dry out your medium.
What brand of soil are you using? Do you feed every watering? What is your going in Ph?

[Cocho]

Might look like you're experiencing some type of lockout maybe.
Hard to tell from the pictures alone.

So first;

How often do you water? And how large is your pot?

You're saying 20-21*C, which is a little low in my opinion. The humidity is good enough, but I would try and raise the temperature just to help dry out the medium a little faster (25-27*C would be good at this point, a little lower when she starts to develop flowers).

To me (from my own experience) it looks like you're not letting it dry out enough. She's dark green, so you're giving her plenty of nutrients, so that is not the issue. And if you're making sure to water her with pH-regulated water (pH 6.5 - 7.0) and sufficient nutes, you should be good in that department.

So my advice would be to let her dry out, really good. Wait until she's really thirsty, almost droopy from dehydration. Then water her with pH regulated water without nutrients, just to rinse out some of the salts etc. And from there try and stay away from watering her to often.

I'm using a 200W bulb and a 15 liter (4 gallon) pot, and during this grow I experienced issues late flower, and I believe I've watered her too much. And I even waited 6-7 days between every time I gave her water. In other words, I should have waited more than 7 days between feedings.

So next time I'll drill a few more holes all over the pot to make sure there's enough air coming through to the roots.

This is just my opinion, and there's a whole lot more experienced growers on here, but I believe it to be "over watering" due to you giving your plant too much love.

- C

[Toker1]

What is the PH of your feed? AN contains PH buffers made for hydro (5.5-6.5). You are growing in soil (6.3-6.8) so the PH requirements are different. You might need to adjust the PH to meet the soil requirements.
I have my 300w Mars hydro LED 6” from my canopy. I don’t think light distance from canopy is your issue here. Plus...the light being too close would not just effect the tips. It would be all over the leaves and top shoots.
My guess... salt acululation. She might be too sensitive to the nutrients. Might want to dial it back a bit on the feed. Flushing is not too drastic. Plants love it.

[Hydromattic]

If your soil is not draining as fast as it should Drill a lot of holes in your bucket, on the bottom and up the sides. Air is good for roots and helps dry out your medium.
What brand of soil are you using? Do you feed every watering? What is your going in Ph?

Do you think I'm safe to drill some more holes in it with the plant in there? I mean I can manage to hold it and drill, I'm a big able bodied person, I just don't want to disturb the roots too much. The soil is just some bag of black soil that literally just says "black soil" on it. There's no indication of any nutrients in the soil.

I do feed every watering.

And now I have to confess my sins, because I'm using Advanced Nutrients and they have something called "perfect pH" that apparently auto adjusts the pH, I haven't been checking the pH. However, I do know that my tap water is probably a bit high (I inherited a hot tub at this house so I have all the tools to test/adjust I just haven't been doing it).

Thanks very much for the help! I'll be sure to keep you all posted on how things go.

[Mr.furley]

I think you would be fine just don't poke the drill bit in super far on full trigger going in and out, pop through and be done. If you are super worried just do the bottom third of the bucket.
I use root pruning containers that allow air to essentially cut the roots and "train" them from becoming root bound. Just be as gentle as possible.
It is important to check the pH, whether you're using pH perfect or not at least from time to time, my thoughts are you have Nute burn, dark leafs and burnt tips are a sure sign. Either cut down your feeding amount or alternate plain Ph'ed water and feeding.

[Hydromattic]

How often do you water? And how large is your pot?

You're saying 20-21*C, which is a little low in my opinion. The humidity is good enough, but I would try and raise the temperature just to help dry out the medium a little faster (25-27*C would be good at this point, a little lower when she starts to develop flowers).

To me (from my own experience) it looks like you're not letting it dry out enough. She's dark green, so you're giving her plenty of nutrients, so that is not the issue. And if you're making sure to water her with pH-regulated water (pH 6.5 - 7.0) and sufficient nutes, you should be good in that department.

So my advice would be to let her dry out, really good. Wait until she's really thirsty, almost droopy from dehydration. Then water her with pH regulated water without nutrients, just to rinse out some of the salts etc. And from there try and stay away from watering her to often.

- C

Hi Cocho,

The pot is 8 L i think, so 2 gallons. I think I should have got the bigger one (next time for sure).

I water it every 3 days, but I like your advice, it's easy to do for sure. I definitely think I over care for it and over water, learning patience has probably been the biggest learning curve for me on this. Checking the seed almost hourly when I started germinating, waiting for the first leaves to sprout, every step of the way basically haha. I will definitely get what I need to provide some pH regulated water for the next watering. Thanks for the advice!

[Cocho]

In the beginning, for 99% of us, this was the case we love too much!

And I know it's super exiting and new, but with nature you'll have to give it some time.

If you're going with a bigger bucket I'll advice you to make a lot of extra holes all over. The grow I'm currently on now almost died on me, due to (what I believe caused it) my soil being to moist/packed, not enough air, which caused some fungus bugs to develop and I had to treat the plant with Neem Oil to get rid of them.
And I'm using a 200W bulb and a 4 gallon pot. So I'll be drilling some holes next time and making sure to wait even longer between feedings.

She'll let you know when she needs water anyway. Just keep checking her every day, making sure there's enough circulation and space. Nature will take care of the rest.

Good luck!

- C

[Hydromattic]

What is the PH of your feed? AN contains PH buffers made for hydro (5.5-6.5). You are growing in soil (6.3-6.8) so the PH requirements are different. You might need to adjust the PH to meet the soil requirements.
I have my 300w Mars hydro LED 6” from my canopy. I don’t think light distance from canopy is your issue here. Plus...the light being too close would not just effect the tips. It would be all over the leaves and top shoots.
My guess... salt acululation. She might be too sensitive to the nutrients. Might want to dial it back a bit on the feed. Flushing is not too drastic. Plants love it.

Thanks for that info about AN. I didn't realize that that's what it was made to adjust for. I will definitely get on top of checking my pH and flush the plant out and keep you all posted on what happens.

Thanks again to everyone, if there's a way to quote multiple messages in one reply I'll learn how to do that I promise.