Dryxi No-till Grow Journal

Just checked on the plants again and noticed I have what I think to be some wind damage going on on the plants in the back left corner, where the oscillating fan blows directly down when it reaches that spot. (Leaf tips curling downwards, pretty sure it's not N toxicity since the leaves are not super dark green nor have I had any such issues, and do not use nutrients). Not really sure how I can even fix that since the fan is already on it's lowest setting and I cannot really raise the fan. ATM I have the fan on 24/7. Should I maybe put it on a timer as well and only run it maybe every other 15 min or something?

Solving Marijuana Plan Leaf Curl/Cupping Problems

OK rule number #1 when you see this happening is flush with 25% nutrients; use 2 to 3 times the pot size to do this. Flushing means lots of run-off. You use 25% because some elements are not mobile without other elements, so if you have a mag lock up flushing with water won't get the mag out, as it needs nitrogen to be mobile. Your killing your plants with kindness remember they are weeds. Here are more answers for you, you might want to save it for reference later The only time you don't use rule #1 is in the last 2 weeks of flower when bottom leaves stop being used for photosynthesis.
Unless another marijuana grower inspects the damage a true assessment might not be possible. It's hard to tell "exactly" what the culprit is. Unfortunately the “solution” the marijuana grower chooses many times is not the right one.
A misdiagnosis only serves to make matters worse by promoting further decline.
The ultimate and correct solution is in the hands of the marijuana grower.
Here are some common problems when marijuana leaves are curling.

1. Too much marijuana fertilizer
   The most common cause of marijuana leaf cupping aka leaf margin rolling, leaf margin burn, and leaf tip curl/burn is overzealous use of marijuana plant food. In relationship to factors such as marijuana plant vigour and rate of growth. Leaf burn is often the very first sign of too much marijuana fertilizer.
   A hard, crispy feel to the marijuana leaf frequently occurs as well, as opposed to a soft and cool feel of a happy pot leaf. Back off on the amount and/or frequency of using marijuana fertilizer. Too much marijuana fertilizer can also burn the roots, especially the sensitive root tips, which then creates another set of problems. Note - as soil dries, the concentration of the remaining salts rises further exacerbating the problem.
2. High Heat
   The marijuana plant is losing water via it’s leaves faster than what can be replaced by the root system. The marijuana leaf responds by leaf margin cupping or rolling up or down (most times up) in order to conserve moisture. A good example is reflected by the appearance of broad-bladed turf grass on a hot summer day, high noon, with low soil moisture levels - the leaf blade will roll upward/inward with the grass taking on a dull, greyish-green appearance. Upon sunrise when moisture levels have returned to normal, the leaf blade will be flat. Lower the heat in the marijuana grow-op and concentrate on developing a large robust root system. An efficient and effective root system will go a long way to prevent heat induced pot leaf desiccation or marijuana leaf margin curling. One short episode of high heat is enough to permanently disable or destroy leaf tissue and cause a general decline in the leaves affected, which often occurs to leaves found at the top of the cannabis plant. The damaged pot leaf (usually) does not fully recover, no matter what you do. Bummer in the summer. One can only look to new growth for indications that the problem has been corrected.
3. Too much light
   Yes, it’s true, you can give your marijuana plant too much light. Cannabis does not receive full sun from sunrise to sunset in its natural state. It is shaded or given reduced light levels because of adjacent plant material, cloudy conditions, rain, dust, twilight periods in the morning and late afternoon, and light intensity changes caused by a change in the seasons. Too much light mainly serves to bleach out and destroy chlorophyll as opposed to causing marijuana leaf cupping, but it often goes hand-in-hand with high heat for indoor marijuana growers. Turn down the time when the lights on in your marijuana grow room. If you're using a 24 hr cycle, turn it down to 20 hrs. Those on 18 - 6 marijuana growth cycle can turn their lights down two or three hours. Too much light can have many adverse effects on marijuana plants. Concentrate on developing/maintaining an efficient and robust root system.
4. Over Watering
   For marijuana growers using soil, this practice only serves to weaken the root system by depriving the roots of proper gas exchange. The marijuana plants roots are not getting enough oxygen which creates an anerobic condition inducing root rot and root decline with the end result showing up as leaf stress, stunted growth, and in severe cases, death. Over watering creates a perfect environment for damp-off disease, at, or below the soil line. Many times marijuana growers believe their cannabis plant is not getting enough marijuana fertilizers (which it can't under such adverse conditions), so they add more marijuana fertilizers. Making the problem worst. Not better. Often problem 1 and 4 go together. Too much marijuana fertilizer combined with too much water. Creating plenty of marijuana plant problems.
5. Not Enough Water
   Not only is the marijuana plant now stressed due to a low supply of adequate moisture, but carbohydrate production has been greatly compromised (screwed up). Step up the watering frequency, and if need be, organic marijuana growers may need to water from the bottom up until moisture levels reach a norm throughout the medium. One of the best methods in determining whether a marijuana plant requires watering is lifting the pots. The pots should be light to lift before a water session. After watering the marijuana plants lift the pots to get an understanding how heavy they've become fully watered. If the pot feels light to the lift - it’s time to water. Don’t wait until the soil pulls away from the side of the pot before watering. And of course, leach, once in a while to get rid of excess salts. These are the five most common problems marijuana growers encounter when growing cannabis. Correcting the problems early will save the marijuana plants, but may reduce overall yield. With practice and experience these problems are easily overcome which will then enable the marijuana grower to produce fantastic marijuana plants. With heavy yields.

Ya its definitely light, maybe combination of heat. It's only on leaves at the very top. I read that same page when looking the issue up

I had no idea but thought you should see it anyway.

I gave the plants a EWC tea yesterday. Today they are looking great and on growing. F28

The girls just love their tea now....lol

Well the grow ended on bad terms. Currently resetting the grow space now to try again. I went on vacation and everything was going alright. I had a single leaf or two slightly yellowing before I left but I couldn't find any pests on them and since it was only a leaf or two, I assumed it would fix itself since pests were not seen. To my dismay, it was spider mites and they had a week and a half to play in my space without intervention. When I came home the majority of my leaves were dead and falling off and spider mites were living the good life on the scrog level. I decided the infestation was too large to continue with these plants and not worth the electricity, so I cut them down, took what I could from the top airy asf buds (not remotely done and now that I have dried it and tried to smoke it, doesn't do anything at all).

So for the reset, I am going to do a soil test (not because I think there are not enough nutrients but more due to curiosity). I cut up the plants I had and actually it all back under the mulch layer. While I know many people say not to put plant matter back on the soil since it can promote pests, I decided since there is already an infestation of spider mites, and since the soil is not being discarded but reused, I will put it all back into the soil and attempt to get the spider mites under control through beneficial mites. I am going to put 1000 Neoseiulus (= Amblyseius)californicus, a slower feeding spider mite predator and 2000 Phytoseiulus persimilis, a much faster feeding spider mite predator.

I spoke to Arbico and was told that while these mites normally hunt on the plants, they will hunt the top layer of the soil if there are not plants available with spider mites. I do have cover crop growing in the bed, which will help with the mites finding food.

The next grow is going to be 2 C99 seeds and 2 Strawberry-banana seeds. On to the next grow!

I'em sorry that that happened to you. But don't feel so bad, It happened to me just not so long ago. they just wiped me out and I did the very same thing your doing now. Make sure that you clean down your grow room real good because these little bastards will keep coming back

Ya I hear once you have em, you will forever be fighting to control them. So I plan on making good use of predator bugs and see if they can keep the population low enough and just play the control game.

Can you send me the link to where ever you get the Predator Bug. Would like to try it out.

ILGM Will said:

Can you send me the link to where ever you get the Predator Bug. Would like to try it out.

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https://www.arbico-organics.com

I called and spoke to them as well. The customer service was really knowledgeable and the bugs were overnighted

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Dryxi said:

https://www.arbico-organics.com

I called and spoke to them as well. The customer service was really knowledgeable and the bugs were overnighted

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Thank you for that info.

Well the c99 seeds haven't popped still and I am soon going to give up on them. I already looked at them in the soil and they haven't done a thing. The 2 strawberry banana seeds popped though. I am going to look at the seed stash that I have to see who I should plant that has a similar flowering time.

Side Note: I have the seeds in a seedling propagator that came with a dome and light on top. Decided it blows donkey dick. My seedlings are only a couple days old and are stretching to the top of the dome in a terrible fashion. Not sure how to fix this in the future without just putting a different light above the seeds as they get popped. I will be adding soil up to the cotelyon leaves though.

Update time: The c99 seeds never did pop unfortunately. They were free seeds from Seedsman but I do not remember who the actual breeder was. In their place I have germinated and moved into solo cups, 6 Regular Silver Mountain seeds from Bodhi. I am excited to grow these as I have heard nothing but good things.

The predator mites have been doing a serious job in the tent. I cannot be sure how the spider mite population is faring but I am pretty sure they are not doing well. When I look at the plant material that I put under the straw from the last grow (spider mite infestation), I am seeing very few spider mites but the other two mites I introduced two weeks ago are literally EVERYWHERE. That is some good news.

I also updated my grow "room" a little bit. The update is pretty important to me but is an upgrade of ease rather than necessity. You will be able to see exactly what I am talking about in the pictures. I have chronic back pain and filling the res beneath my planter bed was doing a number on my back, especially later when the plants were big and drinking a lot more. So I bought a small 1 gpm pump, a 55 gal water barrel, and some tubing. All together I now have a water barrel that can both be filled with my hose (with boogie filter on it) and be used to collect water from my dehuey. The pump can be turned on and it will fill the res beneath my planter bed and I can take the tubing and run it to my water sprayer that I use to top water the plants/foliar. All in all, a lot of work taken off my back for 30$ (got the water barrel for free from work.)

Even though that first run ended poorly, I learned a great deal. One thing I learned was that up potting is actually quite important for faster growth. The first time around I put the seeds directly into the bed and they took a really long time to really kick into high gear. This time around I am going to be going from solo cups, to 1 gal pots, to 3 gal pots, to the bed.

So today I transplanted the two strawberry-banana plants into their 1 gallon pots. I added some microbe complete to the soil in the new pot (mycorrhizae). The plants are 2 weeks (10/26) from sprouting and were just beginning to show roots outside of the solo cups. The roots looked really good though (should've taken a picture).

4/6 of the Silver Mountain seeds have popped up out of the ground. The last two should be coming out soon I am sure though. They were put into solo cups on 11/6.

Spider mite update: I haven't really taken a microscope to the lil baby SB (strawberry-banana) seeds but I do see mite damage on the first real leaves. These might end up being sacrificial lambs though as the predator mites continue to do their job. I plan on doing one more purchase of predator mites in about 2-3 weeks to be absolute in my beneficial mite IPM. I am hopeful that the predator mites just continue to do their job and clean up the enemy enough to let these plants grow without too many issues. We will see though.

Dryxi said:

Even though that first run ended poorly, I learned a great deal. One thing I learned was that up potting is actually quite important for faster growth. The first time around I put the seeds directly into the bed and they took a really long time to really kick into high gear. This time around I am going to be going from solo cups, to 1 gal pots, to 3 gal pots, to the bed.

So today I transplanted the two strawberry-banana plants into their 1 gallon pots. I added some microbe complete to the soil in the new pot (mycorrhizae). The plants are 2 weeks (10/26) from sprouting and were just beginning to show roots outside of the solo cups. The roots looked really good though (should've taken a picture).

4/6 of the Silver Mountain seeds have popped up out of the ground. The last two should be coming out soon I am sure though. They were put into solo cups on 11/6.

Spider mite update: I haven't really taken a microscope to the lil baby SB (strawberry-banana) seeds but I do see mite damage on the first real leaves. These might end up being sacrificial lambs though as the predator mites continue to do their job. I plan on doing one more purchase of predator mites in about 2-3 weeks to be absolute in my beneficial mite IPM. I am hopeful that the predator mites just continue to do their job and clean up the enemy enough to let these plants grow without too many issues. We will see though.

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Have you considered saving some money and just go out and try to source a few sources of good worm castings from the farm itself. Even compost , done right will have lots of preditor bugs that are free and more diversity

projectinfo said:

Have you considered saving some money and just go out and try to source a few sources of good worm castings from the farm itself. Even compost , done right will have lots of preditor bugs that are free and more diversity

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I was after specific mites to target the spider mites this time but i do have a couple worm bins. There are plenty of soil mites and stuff coming from those bins but like I said, I was really after predator bugs that are more targeted.

Side note: all the silver mountain have sprouted

I moved the silver mountain seedlings into the twnt. All but one which was a little behind the others.

The strawberry-bananas show some damage but are looking alright.

So I have transplanted the silver mtn into 1 gal pots. They show some mite damage on the early leaves but nothing on the top leaves. I am going to order another set of beneficial predator mites next week and see if that won't hold me over until the end. Fingers crossed but probably not.