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Plants too compact? Yellow-green striping on lower and middle leafs

C

corellian

New member
Hello there!

I've went back to growing after a long break and I'm so happy to return every day from work and see my plants :)

That said, I am a bit worried now that they've reached their 3rd-ish week from sprouting and started to show some signs I haven't seen before in my other grows. They are all Purple Bud feminized from Sensi Seeds, growing in soil with perlite, under CFLs in a grow tent. They said at the Sensi Seeds page the plants should be compact, but what I got is way more compact than I expected and I am worried there's something wrong actually. Each plant got topped once, but due to slow growth in height it took them a bit to push through the 5-fingered leafs. Until now I usually got a quite sparse growth, with nodes separated by a couple centimetres at least, and now my plants got only around 8cm (3in) in height.

They are in veg, 18-6 light cycle. As I can't afford a HPS yet, they are under 6x23W 6500K CFLs (yesterday I've added 4x23W 2700K more to the mix). Temps are always 20-30C (19-20C on lights off) near the plants.

Also, I am getting a bit of this striped yellow-green effect, first on the lower leafs, now on some that are in the middle. You can see that on the 3rd photo.

I am feeding them with a light solution of 3-1-3 nutrients with some microelements (half-strength).

Unfortunately, my PH meter hasn't arrived yet and I can't give you the exact value here.

Can you give me some advice on what to do here to help my plants?
 

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pH. SUPER IMPORTANT. Do you have any type of pH testing? I would say Nitrogen deficiency? Probably fix it with a ph water flush. Need pH 6-6.5 for good nute absorption
 
It may be so, Tersky! I don't have a meter (yet, waiting for shipment), but based on info from my water supplier's website, their usual pH is actually too high: 7.20-7.30.

Can I use bottled mineral water with 6.5 pH for the time being, until I get a better way to fix my supplier's water pH?
 
I would do one flush with distilled water, which usually has a pH of 5, just to counter act the 7+ you have been using. Then you can use the bottled water until you get your meter. I personally have a digital meter i never use because i got tired of calibrating it. I use the General Hydroponics ph UP and Down to control ph and use the kit that came with it. However i should note i do hydro so im not too familiar with the nuances of soil and pH. Hopefully someone can either validate or debunk my hypothesis. Sorry, Im still somewhat new to the whole growing thing.
 
I personally don't use digital PH meters, because of the pain in the ass to calibrate. I use Litmus paper instead. No calibration needed.
 
Thanks! I will do the flush ASAP.

Since I already know my water has too high pH, I ordered some pH down powder along with my pH measurement kit (papers, since I've already heard what you wrote here - it's painful to calibrate the meters). They actually said I managed to contact them just in time because they were packing my order :) So in a couple of days I will be able to do some more definite measurements. All this should fix the problem in the long run, hopefully.

For the time being, I'm researching data on local bottled waters. I will need some until my meter and pH down arrives.

Also, maybe you know if filtering water through a Brita carbon filter will do any good?
 
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I actually do that to mine, but i just changed my filter and now all my water is going from a ph of 7-8 to a ph of 5...so that concerns me a bit. To top it all off, i cant find my TDS meter :nah:. I was going to post something asking about a Brita filter...
 
Tersky said:
I would do one flush with distilled water, which usually has a pH of 5, just to counter act the 7+ you have been using. Then you can use the bottled water until you get your meter. I personally have a digital meter i never use because i got tired of calibrating it. I use the General Hydroponics ph UP and Down to control ph and use the kit that came with it. However i should note i do hydro so im not too familiar with the nuances of soil and pH. Hopefully someone can either validate or debunk my hypothesis. Sorry, Im still somewhat new to the whole growing thing.
Click to expand...

Distilled water is neutral so it has a ph of 7 but when exposed to air it drops a couple tenths of a point. I get 6.7-6.8 with distilled.

You can certainly use it in soil with no ill effects. I use distilled water for my seedlings until they get a couple nodes built.
 
About the flush. I've got myself some distilled water, but I don't know the pH of it. Suposedly it should be between 5 and 7.

So, can I just water my plants with plenty of it and then remove the runoff from the tray? Or should I do it in some different way?
 
Thanks for the clarification. I could have sworn i tested it once and got a reading of 5 but i trust your experience over mine any day. Sorry corellian. My mistake.
 
Royal Nugs thanks! Looks like you answered my question just as I was writing it :) From that I get that I won't damage my plants but I may lower the pH slightly to a more appropriate level and at least for the time being it should help. I was afraid that a sudden change of pH could be bad for the plants.

Tersky no worries :)
 
Whole Foods 365 distilled water also came in at a nice 6-6.5 PH. That's what I'm currently using for my Kind soil grow.
 
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