Plants dying, first time grower getting confused.

Hey guys,
long time lurker and thanks for all the lovely moments and helpful hints.

I'm having troubles with my first soil grow,

I have 2 plants under 2 23w 5000k CFL's ( all I can get where I live ) working on another 2 soon.

In a 40cmx40cmx1m box.

with 2 computer fans, on intake and one out-take.

my watering schedule has been 1l(rain water) every 3 days with a ph scale of 6.3.

my temps are 71.7F - 82.6F and humidity is 48%-50% .

last time I got a reading of soil ph it was 6.7

and they have been on a 12/6 schedule.

Now these are photos from the oldest and the other one which is 3 weeks old, also a photo of what happens to the leafs.

Oldest has purple stems, with leaves that start with black spots, then fade then eventually die and fall off.

Second one started fading at the tips and then stems turned purple, now it looks like leaves are doing the same as oldest.




I've read over the helpful def topics in this forum, but I've got so many problems I see that I'm not sure which to treat first


Cheers,
Acidbear

They need more light and less water. Also, you said 12/6 light schedule. What do you mean? Keep the lights on 24 hours or 18 on/6 off for vegging.

1l is too much for such small pot.
12/6 - first time heard of scheldue like this.
3weeks - too fast to have definecy

prob root bound as well. Time to transplant. bury that stem deep. keep CFL within 2 inches at all time from top.

Irie Genetics said:

They need more light and less water. Also, you said 12/6 light schedule. What do you mean? Keep the lights on 24 hours or 18 on/6 off for vegging.

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trying to get more light in asap, have bulbs just need to get around to making a better light setup, wasn't sure if it was light related as well.

when I say 1l, I mean both plants received around 500ml total just I'm using 1l water bottles.

and the 12/6 was a mistake I ment to say 18 on, 6 off.

Crappy soil with no drainage? It's not root bound, I promise.

Sencha said:

Crappy soil with no drainage? It's not root bound, I promise.

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when i transplanted them to those pots I used new potting mix, they loved it for days and grew lots! but now this is happing makes me think it also could be a soil problem.

He needs to get some good soil. Something with a good bit of perlite in it. Get Fox Farm or something similar. Go on amazon or ebay for lights. No need to buy everything in an actual store. A 400w would be nice, but I doubt he wants to mess with all that if it's his first grow.

It's not his lights. 6500k would be better, but that is not a light issue.

He's using two 23w bulbs for 2 plants. How is that not a problem? Not may not be the reason the leaves are yellowing, but his plant has stretched too much.

More light and better soil with perlie added to 20-25%. Transplant as stated.

Cloudz2600 said:

He's using two 23w bulbs for 2 plants. How is that not a problem? Not may not be the reason the leaves are yellowing, but his plant has stretched too much.

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working on more bulbs, can't get 6500k bulbs in australia really easy. so I'm doing it all with what I can find and salvage.

I knew they were stretching, but housemate didn't agree with me, never done inside only outside grows, I''ve moved them closer to the light its around 5-8cm from the oldest, any closer and I'll burn the oldest.

Next on the list, is to hopefully find some soil with perlight in it around town.

UPDATE

Went down to the shops, got some perlite, I couldn't find any soil with it already in it. I also bought some new pots(black plastic 1.5l,140mm) also picked up some dolemite lime just in case.

I've transplanted the youngest and added the perlite to the new pot making sure this time the soil was nice and fluffy, before transplanting I gave the soil a test run to see how drainage was it seem to be heaps better at least I see water coming out after I water it now.

waiting on house mate before I do the oldest since it's his and he would rather do it himself.

Now its time to play the waiting game and see if anything changes.

for all who gave me some help.

edit: did a soil ph test it gave me a reading of 6.0, should I try raising it a tad or just leave it?

leave it. 6.0 is good. i bet the soil was just FULL of roots wasnt it. that is called root bound.

Where to begin......better pot, better soil, more lights, some nutes etc etc etc.....you have a multitude of issues and without sounding like an ass, you need to spend a few weeks learning about how ALL of those things work together to grow healthy plants of any variety ( ie tomatoes, cucumber, marijuana, roses, petunias etc etc etc etc etc etc etc ).............It might be a weed but it still requires a certain level of fundamental knowledge to grow properly.

Mix dolomite with soil..I tbsp per gallon. pH of 6 is low unless hydro or coco.