What is Happening to my plants - Near Death - Need Help ASAP

[MrGreenGenes]

Upon thorough investigation discovered factually light burning was extreme. Thanks GreenhouseEffect So, now the light is up to about 34" over the canopy of plants and new upper growth appears stable. Mid growth is looking much better.

 

[MrGreenGenes]

and oh yeah, dummy me, I stopped adding my base nutrients upon flower switch. I was thinking the micro goodies I was adding was going to take care of it, nope!

 

[D.A.A.S.69]

MrGreenGenes, you will see a big difference in your plants, after your next watering -feeding, But make sure the soil is almost bone dry before watering. Even to the point of a little wilting, that's not gonna hurt a thing, plus when you see a little wilt, that is when you pick up your pot, to see how lite weight it is, then after you feed water them your pot is gonna be lots heavier, then don't water again until your pot is light weight again. It's super easy after you do it a time or two. Good Luck

 

[MrGreenGenes]

Campesino Canuck147

Hi all, still drying out the containers...BUT I'm starting to get worried, plants still look wilted and leaves ugly. Its been nearly 7 days since any nutrients or water. Isn't this not good during flower? The new growth looks better (even though their isnt much in flower). And the budlets just dont seem to be growing. I want to give these girls a small drink with nutrients to see what happens. Good or bad idea?

Heres some pics.

 

[Chefbjy]

You will have to get a good fertigation practice down by adjusting ec levels. Some soils salinity will build up and humidity and temp play a roll. Since you're in unfertilized soil I recommend getting started on nutes asap.

I usually go by a weekly fertigation practice by how much I have to water it was feed water water... though my pots would dry out in roughly 2-3 days. I adjusted ec to around .5/ ppm400 or so. To maintain ec level and gradually increasing with plant size and phase of life. This equaled around 125ppm for weekly fertigation. I was also using ffof soil which has high salinity and ppm out of the bag.

With it being so low I would adjust ec just above what it currently is. And since you're not watering a lot salinity will build up and it should be a little higher next time you water. In flower 1.2 is a great ec goal I would work up to.

 

[MrGreenGenes]

Chefbjy thank you. Tonight I'm watering with trace amounts of nutrients. Aiming for run off PPM about 400. It's been so long I think I forgot how.

 

[Sheesh]

When I blow up the 4th and 5th pictures I see what looks like a piece of webbing across the flower. Hope I'm wrong but is it possible you have spider mites? The leaves also look like possible pest problem. I can't see the spotting that mites usually leave on leaves though. Have you inspected leaves top and bottom with a loupe or microscope? spider mites are tiny and tough to see. Good luck.

 

[Chefbjy]

I think that's just a hair...😆 my dog is notorious for getting it on my buds and leaves...but definitely double check 😉.

 

[MrGreenGenes]

It's a dog hair. I keep it very clean, one snuck in. I'm continually looking for pests, thankfully none.

 

[MrGreenGenes]

So yesterday morning (After waiting 8 days) for my pots to dry out, I watered with low amounts of nutrients (385 PPM to be exact). There was very minimal run-off.
Now 24 hours later, leaves still major wilting, curling. I'm on day 30 flower and buds are only about 1/2" tall. Am I even going to get a harvest? What am I missing? I've done everything as suggested by all Campesino Chefbjy D.A.A.S.69

 

[Chefbjy]

Can you post another pic? Over and underwatering usually present the same issues wilt and curl. 8 days is a long time to go without water with potted plants imo. What size pot and what is it made of? Do you have sufficient drainage? Since it's the first time getting nutes it may need a little time to soak them up.

 

[MrGreenGenes]

Chefbjy I have 3 plastic gallon pots. Drainage is great, into trays which I do not let any water sit in. Hopefully nutes are being ingested.

 

[MrGreenGenes]

Campesino I've done two (pH only tap water) flushes. I ran about 3 gallons through each one to get my run-off PPM down to around 400. For this last fertigation I had low nutrient PPM due to wanting to be gentle after flush. My next two upcoming waterings (Monday & Thursday) will be just pH balanced 6.7 tap water, followed by full nutrient fertigation of 800-900 in about a week. Most recent PPM inflow 1190, run off was 1010. About 170 difference between in / out. The horrible burn is from prior issues. Not currently burning. BUT, wilting, drooping, buds not putting on growth. Their is some new lower/mid growth that looks normal. But beings at day 30 I'm not sure about forth-coming bud development. UGGGGGG!!!!

 

[MrGreenGenes]

Makes sense, That runoff was about 550 ppm. I will crank up nutrients ASAP. Even though pots currently have water, should I do an emergency watering with proper nutrients to get them in the container??

 

[MrGreenGenes]

Very good, thank you for continued help. Understood. I will do that. It's going to be a miracle if I have a harvest.

 

[MrGreenGenes]

Pics of today's progress. Day 30 flower. In recovery / troubleshooting mode. They look like they have been to war.

 

[MrGreenGenes]

This plant (Girl Time strain) from clone, spent 9 weeks in veg and 4 weeks in flower. NOW DEAD!
Today I had to remove it from the tent. It only had a hand full of shriveled up dead dry leaves. Nothing I did for this plant worked, The container had very wet soil. She just wouldn't drink. I thought for sure the roots were going to be rotten but not the case. When I pulled her out of the container she hardly even had roots. They were only about 4 inches long. So, the root problem was, "I had no roots".

I attribute the loss to:
Possibly the 9 weeks in veg stage under very low powered, non full-spectrum lights, no PPM Monitoring, and not feeding plants the correct nutrients following a feeding schedule.

I have two more plants in the tent (Different Strains) that are have the same look (just not as bad) as the dead one. So is their anything I can do for these two plants to get them successfully through harvest. The plants are currently day 35.

 

[MrGreenGenes]

Okay, here's the final pictures of the roots from the dead (Girltime) plant.
I think they look healthy, but the issue is ... there are hardly any! The root system never developed beyond size of softball. (Sharpie in pic for scale reference).
No wonder they felt like they were tipping over in the pots.

The plant in the pics reached only 24" in height. It was in 3 gallon soil pot. The plant never stretched when put into flowering. It's 15 weeks of growth. (9 weeks veg 6 weeks flower).

The reason I was fighting so many issues is the plants hardly developed any root structure to support growth, ergo, death.

This is due to the following (1st Grow newb):

During Veg:
1. Extremely Insufficient LED works lights (non-full spectrum and not strong enough)
2. Not checking PPM/EC run-off
3. Intermittently used generic powdered NPK nutrients, which I stopped using when I went into flower. I thought my newly purchased nutrients would fix it all but it was too late.
4. Over watering, used the finger to knuckle method instead of meter at root base
5. Lack of microbes and enzymes

During Flower:
1. Over watering
2. Improper mixing of nutrients and feed Campesino

Even though I semi-maintained watering and feeding schedules it was no match for plants with hardly any roots.
Moral of this story is that Everything Matters! Much learned. Looking forward to applying this new knowledge on grow #2.
Thanks to all for your help with this plant.

 

[Canuck147]

Make sure you have enough perlite in your soil in the future.