3 minor plant problems, leaf discoloration & twisted growth

Rodger3

Member
Hey ya'll, I got some minor problems with my plants, they are otherwise very healthy...click any pictures for ultra high res goodness (check out the last pic it's worth it :hump:) All pictures were taken right after watering (each plant takes 400ml now) w/ added bat guano 250 ppm concentration.

Some background: they're under 18hrs 8x42w(150w) cfl + 3x2hrs of 430w HPS per day (6 hrs total darkness no lights). Repotted 2-3 wks ago with no problems. They in totally organic setup; scotts potting soil, bat guano 12-2-2 and added perlite/vermiculite 20% & 10% respectively. They're being fed with 1 tbsp bat guano/ gallon of water at about 250ppm (plus tap ppm)(ph is too high, have inaccurate meter so I'm still struggling with tweaking it but I am waiting on a digital ph pen) ph is around maybe 6.5-8. They have been fed 1/4 tsp epsom salt (mg) / gallon of water once. There is plenty of ventilation on the plants themselves and the temp never exceeds 85f, I am waiting to build an air exchange system to keep temp lowers to be able to use the 430w hps 18 hrs per day.

First, I have leaves that are yellowing...the oldest leaves: the first set of opposite serrated leave, and the 2nd set of 3 serrated leaves.This problem affects maybe 4-5 of my plants to varying degrees (this is the worst). Top of the plant is still very healthy. Here be pictures:




Then the 2nd problem. Browning/Purpling/Necrosis of leaf tissue, mostly middle. Possible nutrient lockout, maybe because of hard water? I'm waiting on a ppm meter also. The last picture is just to show that the rest of the plant is otherwise very healthy. Maybe two or three plants show slight signs of this but here is the most affected:






The last problem is possibly due to rootbound (theyre in 6 inch round pots, 6 inch depth, and theyre all between 4 and 7 inches tall, fan leaves spread at most 2 inches from pot edge) and shows as new growth being spindly/elongated and twisted. I notice the bigger plants have it, making me lean towards rootbound, and maybe 3-4 plants are somewhat affected. The plants are maybe a month or 5 weeks old. Is it too early to repot in 8 inch / 2 gallons pots? Final repotting will be before flowering in 10 inch / 3 gallons pots. Pictures of the two most evident twisty growth:



And goodies for reading my thread;
My setup:



Our best looking plant (different strain than the others, bagseed from incredible weed):


Any input?
 

dirtysnowball

Well-Known Member
I have experienced all of these problems at one time or another so i hope this help.

Problem #1: over watering, simple as that, your leaves are drooping(not pointed and flat-ish) stop giving it h20 for at least a day or two... or until it perks up. or you could let it go dry and wait till signs of underwatering, they happen to be the same lol... that would probably take 3-5 days of no h20 for that size pot and plant combo. wait till the dirt is dry. like so dry that you could blow on it from a few inches away and it wil fly out of the pot. it definitely seems watered in your pics.

problem #2: that is high PPM. hard h20. either your handicapped by your tap water being too hard. or whatever nutrients your using are making the h20 too hard, which is unlikely but possible none the less, i'm thinking that its a combo: your nutrients make ppm rise and your tap water is already moderately hard to start with. a quick fix though is to get some distilled h20 at the store. and use a 1/2 strength nutrients till it recovers this is really unlikely but those spots look to be nute burn... maybe. i really doubt this though. well at least less nutes can't harm it.

problem #3: i'm not really sure about it being a problem but spindly and mutated new growth would be a molybdenum deficiency. your leaves don't look mutated at all but they look exactly like what my plant used to do... but it stopped when i started flowering... kinda makes me wonder why now. but anyways to fix this deficiency folair feed (spray the bottom of leaves)your plants with 1/8 to 1/4 strength all purpose nutrient mix. if your gonna re-pot you should do it like 2 weeks after sprouting because there are these tap root(the 1st scouts) that find the plants growing limits. re-pot it now into its final flowering container. i know the bigger the container holding the plant, the faster it will grow trust me.
 

Rodger3

Member
Thanks for your input. It is greatly appreciated as this is my first grow (going great otherwise!).

For problem #1, I can assure you I let the dirt dry out before watering. In fact, one of my buddies who started me up and has been growing for some years always says I don't water them enough. But I am very nervous about over-watering so I measure the water I give them (200ml, then 100ml, then another 100ml) and stop when there is some run-off. (were talking about less than a tablespoon of runoff or 15ml). I read that you should wait until the first 2-3in of dirt should be dry, but since I only water really early or really late as to not shock the plants, usually they are even dryer than that at that point.

Problem #2, my water is in fact very hard, as confirmed by my g/f who tested it for her aquariums (I should have thought about it!). I'll try to feed them distilled water whenever I can or look into reverse osmosis for my tap water. The nutes I am giving them is just bat guano 12-2-2 mixed at 250ppm in 2 gallons and aerated for 48hrs. Other than that there is the potting soil and some more bat guano in the mix, 11l of soil for 5 teaspoons of bat guano.

Problem #3 I though about molybdenum and will look into it. I just dont want to add a lot of nutes and find out I'm in ph/calcium/mg lockout. I will repot this week but I only have 5 flowering pots and I have 9 plants so I was going to repot them in 2 gallons before final repot in 3 gallons. Space is limited so this is the max I can go.

Thanks for everything and keep the info coming!
 

BenGman

Well-Known Member
Just fill bottles of water and leave it for acouple of days no need to buy water when its pretty much for free...or boil it if your impatient...
foliar spraying fixes allot of problems and i definately recommend it..except for on the last 2-3 weeks into flowering ..you dont wanna put chemicals on them beautiful nugs ;)... I get the brown spots on 1 or 2 leafs from time to time and it doesnt seem to do much harm at all unless it completely covers your plant lol....im guessing it's just a little nute burn or perhaps it needs a flush...could be from over watering..but thats doubtful...I dont know why people use soil indoors thats a big mistake in my opinion...perlite etc is the way to go and its not even expensive.. anyways gl on your grow and mine lol there looking good maybe mine are just alittle more stockier :p im on the 5 week also just transplanted my biggest one's cos they where drinking way too much had to water everyday...and its best to transplant a week or two before putting it into her flower stage... cos it doesnt grow much roots at that time.....
 
Top