HELP! Plant Showing Signs of Malnutrition!

Hi,

I am currently growing 6 plants, in 2, 4" netpots, in the bubbleponics system by stealth hydro. I am using a custom built grow box with a 150 watt HPS bulb about 2.5 feet above the reservoir. I used PH neutral spring water for the water in the resevoir. I am germinating 6 seeds in rockwool directly in the system. I plan on killing a few of them and only leaving the 2 strongest plants in each opposite corner of the system. I have a detailed grow journal with pictures if anyone is interested. I gave them their first 1/4 packet of nutes 3 days ago, (premeasured stealth hydro nutes) when I noticed that the leaves on all of the plants were starting to turn slightly lime green. I assumed it was malnutrition and it would go away with the added nutrients, but it seems to only have gotten worse. Now the leaves on the left plants are curling down and look even more lime green, but they are still growing! very strange as malnutrition usually prevents growth, no? Even stranger, is that the plants in the right pot are growing fine, only showing slight discoloration. Looking at them, you would never guess these plants were attached to the same water source. I will be giving them their other 1/4 pack of nutrients today. PH 6.25 Temperature 80F (on the surface) and humidity about 43%

Please let me know if anyone has experienced anything like this.

g124v17y

Hmmm, you should have 1 plant per net pot. How you gonna cull the males without tearing up the ladies too? Dont know how old they are, but I assume seedlings. Sounds like they need more light. Two and a half feet is way to high for a 150w mh , even for seedlings....Lower it to about 15-18 inches above tops and when they are larger (12" or so), drop the light to 6-8 inches above the tops. Just put the top of your have at the plant tops for a minute and see how hot yopur hand gets. If you're comfortable, so are your plants. A 150w doesnt penetrate very far so you need to keep it close. You can run a small fan between the light and the tops if heat is a problem. If the plants dont have enough light the buds will be very airy...hope this helps.

HomeGrownHairy said:

Hmmm, you should have 1 plant per net pot. How you gonna cull the males without tearing up the ladies too? Dont know how old they are, but I assume seedlings. Sounds like they need more light. Two and a half feet is way to high for a 150w mh , even for seedlings....Lower it to about 15-18 inches above tops and when they are larger (12" or so), drop the light to 6-8 inches above the tops. Just put the top of your have at the plant tops for a minute and see how hot yopur hand gets. If you're comfortable, so are your plants. A 150w doesnt penetrate very far so you need to keep it close. You can run a small fan between the light and the tops if heat is a problem. If the plants dont have enough light the buds will be very airy...hope this helps.

Click to expand...

umm... within 10 inches of the 150watt HPS lamp the temperature is well over 100 degrees F so I can't possibly bring them that close without burning them, even with the ventilation I have. They are in a sealed box completely covered in mylar, trust me amount of light is not an issue, and either way im getting more lights in a couple days.

thanks, any other thoughts?

What are the temp and humidity as you have it?

Illegal Smile said:

What are the temp and humidity as you have it?

Click to expand...

temp is 80 on the surface of the res, about 95 12" above the res. Humidity is at about 43% and I had plastic domes on top of each seedling for the first couple of days. They have since been removed.

g124v17y said:

temp is 80 on the surface of the res, about 95 12" above the res. Humidity is at about 43% and I had plastic domes on top of each seedling for the first couple of days. They have since been removed.

Click to expand...

There may be something else but those temps are too high. You need to get them down at least 10 degrees.

Illegal Smile said:

There may be something else but those temps are too high. You need to get them down at least 10 degrees.

Click to expand...

I cut the ventilation a little to increase temperatures while the seedlings were coming up. I will increase it now to lower the temp. This wouldn't cause discoloration or cause the leaves to wilt though.

Thanks, any other thoughts?

What's the water temp? I started getting yellow leaves after I lost a battle with temperature and root rot set in. Keep the water temp around 65 F.

sympLED said:

What's the water temp? I started getting yellow leaves after I lost a battle with temperature and root rot set in. Keep the water temp around 65 F.

Click to expand...

water temp is under 70 degrees. wouldnt be the problem either. I added more nutrients and the leaves have perked up immensely! I also cut 2 of the plants and now there is more nutrients for the other plants to thrive on. I guess it was just nutrient deprivation, I guess my seedlings were hungrier than I thought!! thanks everyone!

lol. I like how you created a thread with "Malnutrition" in the title, asked everyone to diagnose your problem, borderline ridiculed everyone that responded, and eventually just fed your plants to solve it.

I wasn't trying to ridicule anyone. I looked up every problem that people said and looked at the symptoms and they didnt match, thats all. Also I noticed the yellowing leaves after my first time giving them nutrients, so a lack of nutrients was highly unlikely since they just received their first dose. I am guessing however that the first dose was not strong enough, or I should have given them more nutes the next day instead of waiting. Either way, thank you all again for your help!