WTF is wrong with these plants...??

Growing in 100% perlite but they are seated in jiffy soil pellet things. Running x4 24W cfls and x2 15W cfls all 6500K. Watering distilled water ph'd to ~5.8... No nutes cause they burn every time iv tried...


Long story short these babies have been sick since they've passed like 3 nodes, i for the life of me cannot figure out how the hell to fix this problem (have tried several times with little avail...)

I'm almost positive its a ph problem but wtf am i doing wrong? Im using a capsule test for the ph levels so i know its not going to be spot on the ph i want but i know these plants arent this damn persnickety..


PLEASE help me fix these!!!


youngest:


full plant shot, and you can see some of an older one also not lookin too hot:


pic of ph of water last used to water with:

looks kinda like nitogen dif or calcium magnesium dif,,

Bring your ph up a bit to 6.2 - 6.3 and search for a nutrient PH range chart cant remember the specific nutrients off the top of my head but your probly locking out some micros and/or macro nutes with that ph maybe somebody else can link that chart for 100% perlite growing, I use coco

try feeding them... 1/8th strength even...your previous burns might just be due to you attempting to feed to much at once.
tiny portions...

what is the safest to feed with? all i have atm is MG and i used 1/2 their recommended dosage and it burnt them

So i fed the plants 1/8th of MG dosage, with the ph the same and these plants STILL look like shit... Im getting so frustrated at this point. As you can see some of the leaves are deformed and curled.


Someone PLEASE help me fix this for good, what the hell else can i possibly do?!?!? The brown spots seem to have gotten worse if anything (as in there are more of them), and the leaves haven't gotten any better either.


Recent pic:











HELP MEEEEE

Someone please help me, i feel like they're reaching a point of no return...

It takes more than two days to reverse a problem like this. I'm not familiar with a 100% perlite grow, usually it's used to cut with soil to improve drainage. They are definately hungry, and judging by the yellowing of the leaves I would say they'r starved of Nitrogen. MG is garbage, it's made to feed some old crazy cat lady's ficus, not to suply dank nugs. Get a real fert like Advanced Nutes or FoxFarm. Something with a higher ratio of nitrogen, even if it's cheaper. Plants gotta eat man. What is your run off Ph looking like? I would also spend the $40 on digital Ph meter, it'll save you a lot of guess work and are much more accurate.

This is why i didnt do a perlite/coco grow... there isnt a lot of wiggle room with the ph / nutes... with soil you get a nice buffer... thats how i feel anyway. That being said... your PH can change from the addition of nutes so i would ph the water after everything has been added. also keep in mind that pete is really acidic, you might want to get some dolomite lime to bring it up a little. Also because you dont have much of a buffer i would advise writing everything down, being very precise and being patient.
Now...to me they look starved. There are no nutrients in the medium its self so its getting 100% of its food from waterings. you need to lower the strength of the food to 1/8 or 1/16 like people are saying and water more frequently. with all that perlite drainage wont be a problem, i imagine that 2-3 waterings a light cycle would be realistic.

IMO change your medium for starters get your ph to min 6.5 to 6.8 even spray plants lights off with water but personally get your medium set up

sorry if my last post wasnt totally helpful... i think you have a combination of problems most of which are caused by your lack of soil. so i suggest you get some. However if your deadset on saving them the way they are then your gonna need to invest in more than that MG food. you look like you have a serious zinc deficiency, the yellowing of the inter-veinal areas of your leaves tips me off that its not nitrogen (they would be totally yellow) but in all honestly your probably lacking that as well. Also depending on if your using tap water you might be gettting a salt/mineral buildup on the roots because the water is too hard. look into RO or using bottled water to prevent this.

Tonight I raised the ph a little and basically flushed with water with ph ~6 maybe a tad bit higher. They look better, as they are getting little green spots where the yellow is like the green is coming through. Im going to use 1/16 dosage of MG and water them again tomorrow afternoon. I'v recently been using distilled water but i just switched to tap this watering cause i figure it has at least some minerals in it (of course i ph'd it).


Does that sound like its headed in the right direction?