SOIL HELP! First time grower with plant issues; OG Kush

[NikkiAnne]

Hey All! This is my first post so i apologize if it's not that great. Having issues with my Kush leaves cupping under the past week or so and can't fix the issue.

Germinated from seed about a month ago and was slow growing at first because I had ph issues (too high). Has since been corrected to 6.2-6.5 Hard to tell from the photos but it's on its 5th node right now and the leaves are the size of my hands! I have it in a 10 gallon smart pot which is overkill for sure but i didn't realize this when i bought it... hello first timer! This is where it has resided since a seedling. I've been doing very well not over watering it in such a large pot and using organic super soil so haven't been adding any nutes. Ph'd well water and 175 HPS light.. although i was using CFLs when it was very little. Temp between 70-75F usually. Just started to do 16/8 lighting the past 2 days, before it was 24.

My only thought is that this is Nitrogen toxicity. Since the pot is so large I haven't been getting runoff when i water due to fear of over watering. So since this is a hot organic soil maybe the nutrients are staying too strong since none are being flushed out??? Its been getting worse the past 4 days I'd say.

Any help or recommendations at all are super welcome! I watered it well the night before these pics were taken. I also included soil information as well.
Thanks everyone!

[BlueberryGIrl]

Hi
It's possible that you could have lingering root damage from the PH level being too high.

How large is your grow tent, room, space? Is this a Sunburst type of 175whps dual spectrum?
Is it just one plant? 175w seems like supplemental light, you may need more light...not sure here, if you have just one plant.

Do you have a lot of air flowing around the plants?

[NikkiAnne]

Hey BlueberryGIrl The PH issue was within the first week and a half and then it really bounced back and looked great.. The leaf issue only started fairly recently but is getting worse. I am growing my cold room which is about 8x10ish and have a couple of fans going along with an exhaust which is vented outdoors. The HPS is actually an outdoor garage light that i didn't use and put on a makeshift ballast. There is actually 2 of them but i have this plant under just one light.

I thought it may be a windburn issue from my fan being too close so i moved it further away. I can put my hand under the light close to the plant and that doesn't seem too hot either. Another grower thought it was a CalMag deficiency but since i use tap water i thought that would be less of an issue? The tips from the new growth are really turned down as well.

[SoOrbudgal]

Hello NikkiAnne as I read through your postings first thing I saw was light times. 18/6 on off is what is recommended for veg. I know nothing about HPS garage lights. Soil seemed too hot for seedlings but I think you got that now? If they were mine i'd set them in a tub and run straight PH water through it by at least a gallon. Really soak and drain allow to dry out lift the pot if it feels light water enough to see it come out the bottom. Hold off giving nutes till you see what the plant does. Temp and airflow really importaint .

[NikkiAnne]

SoOrbudgal Hey... yeah, my light time is 18/6. I have nutrient enriched organic soil so I don't add extra nutes

[BlueberryGIrl]

when you say cold room, what is the over all temp of the 8x10ish grow room? although, cool temps would be indicated more so by droopy leaves verse curved leaf tips... the new growth does look healthy.
the 10 gallon pot will render a massive plant. any chance to repot in a 10-12litre pot.



if it were too hot, the tips would curl inward. you could flush.

if your ph is stable, the correct range, then the cal mag would not be an issue. how often are you testing ph? the 10gal is a lot of soil. how are you testing? closer to the roots?

[NikkiAnne]

@BlueberryGIrl
It's between 70-75F for temp. I have a digital pH pen that i check the water before each watering... it's usually between 6.2-6.5.
I dont really want to repot until i figure out this issue. Also looking to top it soon so don't want the added stress if it isn't needed. I don't get run off so I can't really test pH at the roots. I flushed it early on when i realized my pH was too high and the run off was .3 higher than the water i put in BUT it was probably partly due to watering it with a pH of 8-8.5 in the beginning without knowing.

So you don't think it looks like nitrogen toxicity?

[BlueberryGIrl]

watering schedule could be an issue particularly in the big pot...you may not be giving the plant enough.
The colour of your leaves looks good. any discolouration?

[NikkiAnne]

No discolouration. They are quite dark though and massive! The size of my entire hand each leaf... i'm assuming it's an indica strain so I'm not sure what is the norm for this particular type.

[BlueberryGIrl]

hi how are things going? still a bit perplexed as to what is going on with you plant. and that you are not receiving much feed back... is this something so obvious that it is too elementary?

I am stuck on the size of your pot, the strength of your light source.

the fact that the leaves are of good colour and massive...again the pot size will determine the size of the plant. how do they look today?

[NikkiAnne]

Hey hun.. thanks for checking in Looks the same today, maybe worse with the leaves curling. I put my light a little higher yesterday and now notice they are "reaching" for it but put it up another couple inches today. My nodes are super close together... like half inch in between them so i'm not too worried about it becoming "too stretchy" at this point. Seems like it's slowing down with the growth this week too. I'm considering flushing with my next watering... taking a pH reading of run off and maybe flushing out some nitrogen. Do you think that's a good idea?

[Tersky]

Unfortunately, since i've never grown in soil i cant really give much advice. What is your humidity like? I dont know if it is my computer or the lighting but i cant really see the dark green in those pics. The leaves look a little wrinkled which can be a humidity issue. If they are dark green and tips pointing down that is usually nitrogen toxicity. I wish i could be of more help but im just not familiar with super soil and soil growing.

[NikkiAnne]

Thanks for the reply! I find the older growth looks quite dark and the leaves are curling under like tubes. The new growth has leaf tips pointing down at 90 degrees. I am thinking nitrogen toxicity as well but didn't have any issue when the plant was smaller and in the same massive pot. I just moved my light higher to see if that would help. I'm not sure how to lower nitrogen in a pre-enriched soil. Should I flush or put the water at a pH where it won't uptake nitrogen? I'm not noticing nutrient burn though either.

[NikkiAnne]

Better photos of the "cupping".

[Tersky]

Those leaves, look similar to a pic in the root issues link to me. I dont know how to address it in supersoil tho. https://www.growweedeasy.com/cannabi...blems-cannabis

[BlueberryGIrl]

to me, from your photos, the plant does look healthy even though its curling-so thats a one good sign.

your flushing plan sounds good. I was thinking maybe repot-removing some of the super soil with a garden variety compost-desaturate your supersoil.
That is a lot of super soil for one plant-again thinking about volume.

have you looked into the characteristics of your OG KUSH? I have never grown KUSH, maybe there will be some helpful information there. I dont think you seeds wacky, mutant.

I am stuck on the size of pot, and the soil. that between these two there is the problem. It is good news that the plant responded in a positive way to your moving the lights up.

[NikkiAnne]

I have looked into it but didn't find a lot of helpful information about growing this specific strain... except that apparently it's one of the most difficult. lol. So probably not the best to try out your first grow anyway... wish i knew that before. I have never in my life saw a plant that grew like this... it is SO dense! Maybe there are steroids in this soil or something.haha. Definitely going to require some pruning after topping. I'm crossing my fingers that the flush helps it out.

[BlueberryGIrl]

your single plant roots my have too much room now.

[BlueberryGIrl]

there is some rather detail root explanation here https://www.alchimiaweb.com/blogen/cannabis-roots/

not sure if I can post another cannabis site, but this person goes into a scientific explanation that may help.

[NikkiAnne]

Awesome! Thanks so much.. definitely going to check this out!

[OlderNOTwiser]

Following and hoping to learn for my personal knowledge for future grows. Having said that, I'm curious about the soil you're using. Or rather the amount. I know very little about "HOT" or "SUPER" soils but what I've gathered you use a set amount on the bottom of the container (weight and/or volume) and the balance of the pot gets a more normal medium or even inert stuff you amend. You gave us a lot to think about early on. Now a bit more info, however trivial it may seem, might get us homed in on the culprit.

[NikkiAnne]

So I'm using "Kryptonite" soil... which is made in small batches in Atlantic Canada. (Nice to be able to support local) And was recommended by a few people who grow. They said they don't mix it with anything, it already contains perlite, and pop your plant in and forget it. I also head people say that pH doesn't really matter when grown in super soil either but I feel like they are just getting lucky with their grows maybe. I feel like the issue with it for me is that i had such a small plant in a huge pot, being scared to over water and so no nutrients are being flushed out at all. If you grew "properly" the soil may not be an issue. I've literally had this plant as a seedling in a 10g smart pot of super soil! haha. In hindsight, i probably wouldn't do that again and transplant using appropriate pot sizes. I was trying to make less work for myself but actually created more. These soils are also high in Nitrogen anyway so you want your plant to use up or flush out most of it before putting to flower too which is something to think about before using it. I'd definitely recommend it for outdoor grows but it may actually be easier growing in coco coir and being able to monitor your own nutrients instead of guessing what's in your soil. Good luck!

[Jsao32]

Here's the thing with growing weed. One symptom could be a sign of so many things. Overwatering and underwatering can show similar signs. Nitrogen toxicity and root lockout share similar signs. It's a pain in the ass. I like your idea about doing a flush. I'd recommend that and hope for the best. Usually within 72 hours you should notice a turnaround. From your latest photos, the leaves (although still green) look like they're drying out. Even though your soil is nice and happy and moist, your roots may not be absorbing it. There's the possibility that there is still some lingering root damage from early on, and it's still trying to fix itself. If there's no improvement after the flush, transplant into a mixture of black earth, manure, peat moss (or coco coir assuming you have a cal-mag supplement) perlite, worm castings and maybe a touch of vermiculite. Up the humidity to between 45% and 55%Rh. Hopefully there will be turn around.

[NikkiAnne]

Thanks so much.. great advice. The leaves seem a little dry to me as well and i'm wondering about humidity now (not sure what it is) i know... i know.... haha. I'm growing in my basement which is normally humid but in North Eastern Canada it's getting cold here now and my furnace is constantly running so that's probably drying out my air.

[NikkiAnne]

Hey Everyone... thanks so much for all of the advice and recommendations! I gave it a good flush last night with pH'd tap water @ 6.5. When I tested the run off it was a pH of 5.3 (much lower than expected). Soooo.... the soil nutes are drastically changing my pH at the roots, however, i'm a bit perplexed because with a root pH that low I would assume it would be locking out Nitrogen to some degree. My conclusion before flushing was nitrogen toxicity. Other than leaves curling and tips of new growth and a leaf here and there being turned out, it looks healthy and is still even holding onto it's first single leaves at the very bottom. The plant circumference is expanding rapidly and is close to the same size as the pot.

I think from here on out I am going to change my watering schedule to make sure i get run off every watering and just water less often. It's looking a little droopy today after the flush but not too bad. I'm going to wait a few days and see how it reacts; if i do too much at once I won't figure out this issue. I want to top it ASAP but not sure if that's a good idea right now.