3rd grow, What's wrong with our plants?

[TrippyHippie420]

This is our third grow. They are about 3 weeks old some are 2 weeks old and a runt. My bf and i don't know what's happening, the lower leaves are yellowing including some 2nd node leaves. This never happened before on our previous runs. They grew nicely while in seedling stage and still shooting new growth. Are we doing something wrong? I know they're quite stretchy, testing out a lower K MH and forgot to lower the lights.
We'll be topping them when they grow decent side branches.

They're in 1 gallon wide soft pots
Medium: Our own mix 7 parts washed coco, 2 perlite, 1 vermiculite, 1 worm castings, dolomite lime, GWS myco, humic acid
pH: 6.3-6.5 runoff, watered with 6.9 only when the pots feel light
RH: 55-65%
Temps: 26°C on, 20°C off
Nutes: Used only on 3 plants lucas formula GH Floranova Bloom(flushed first then fed) cause we thought they were hungry but nothing has changed so far.
Lighting: Testing out a 400w metal halide 5000k

Here's some pics:

Help!

 

[THE KONASSURE]

so your using a lower K MH for the 1st time ?

More red band light means the plant will eat up more nutes faster when I veg under 3000k I find I always end up losing some of the lower nodes as keeping up with the nute requirements while trying not to nute burn a young plant is tricky

Also watch that your not getting any nutes on the leaf`s

Are they growing a bit faster then they have before for you ?

 

[TrippyHippie420]

so your using a lower K MH for the 1st time ?

More red band light means the plant will eat up more nutes faster when I veg under 3000k I find I always end up losing some of the lower nodes as keeping up with the nute requirements while trying not to nute burn a young plant is tricky

Also watch that your not getting any nutes on the leaf`s

Are they growing a bit faster then they have before for you ?

So that's why! We thought this spectrum would be nicer cause it looks like natural sunlight.
Should we feed them all now? flush or not?
Yeah they're growing quite fast but stretchy compared to 6500k
We'd like to top them for 4 main branches is that even possible in this situation?

Thanks!

 

[THE KONASSURE]

so your vegging with a 4k mh ? 600w or 400w ?

I`d just feed them a bit more are you using if you have flora nova grow I`d just feed them a bit of that get them some more N

Yeah you can still top them just might end up a bit taller then they were before

a 4k mh will make your plants a bit taller then a 65k mh and you may get a few less branches but they will grow a bit faster per watt

I like using Triacontanol, plenty of seaweed kelp and alfalfa extracts have this in it but I buy the powdered stuff

I find it reduces stretch and increases side branches

You can spray it on the plants or feed it

As with most pgr`s you have to use the correct amount and the sweet spot is different for every plant and every grow, but if your using about 50ppm that`s a good place to start, also iron and fulvic acid help it to be uptaken

Yeah 4k is good for starting a plant like for the 1st week or so then 5000k or bluer for a few weeks and 4k is good for just before flower or the 1st few weeks of flower

Have they been getting hotter during their lights on ? as a 4k will give off more heat then a 65k, hot days and cold nights can make plants stretch loads too

 

[TrippyHippie420]

Thanks! just flushed them and fed with 1/4 strength Grow except for the 3 in the back which look like males. Will update in a week or so. Ppm meter broke so i'm just guessing. Yeah it did get 2-3 degrees hotter a week ago til i bumped up the fan speed.

So.. are they gonna be just fine?

Thanks!

 

[THE KONASSURE]

yeah they don`t look bad honestly I`d cut off the lowest 1 to 4 nodes anyway unless your taking the plant that far down for some reason

The ones that have stretched a lot I`d be tempted to mainline and the others I`d just FIMM them

but they look fine, I use a 4k mh in my bloom area along with red/blue leds

I was really surprised when I added the MH in a few days I noticed loads more frost on my plants, think that adding 600w of 4000k mh to 600w of just red/blue leds must have give an emerson effect

 

[TrippyHippie420]

Thanks!
Will it be the same topping higher up and lollipopping the bottom? We used uncle ben's topping for 4 in our previous run.-will be back reading again lol. Currently researching on mainlining lol

 

[workinit]

This is our third grow. They are about 3 weeks old some are 2 weeks old and a runt. My bf and i don't know what's happening, the lower leaves are yellowing including some 2nd node leaves. This never happened before on our previous runs. They grew nicely while in seedling stage and still shooting new growth. Are we doing something wrong? I know they're quite stretchy, testing out a lower K MH and forgot to lower the lights.
We'll be topping them when they grow decent side branches.

They're in 1 gallon wide soft pots
Medium: Our own mix 7 parts washed coco, 2 perlite, 1 vermiculite, 1 worm castings, dolomite lime, GWS myco, humic acid
pH: 6.3-6.5 runoff, watered with 6.9 only when the pots feel light
RH: 55-65%
Temps: 26°C on, 20°C off
Nutes: Used only on 3 plants lucas formula GH Floranova Bloom(flushed first then fed) cause we thought they were hungry but nothing has changed so far.
Lighting: Testing out a 400w metal halide 5000k

Here's some pics:

Help!

Are you using PH UP or PH DOWN to get to your desired PH? How much are you using? Those two things can have a relevant effect on your NPK values. What are the PPM's of your base water?

 

[Smootherpete]

My guess is nutrient lockout, 6.9 is too high, you should be closer to 6.0, I grow in coco/perlite and keep my pH around 5.8.
A pH of 6.9 would be ok if you were growing in soil....coco coir is not soil. Don't wait too much in between waterings, I never go more than 48 hours without watering coco.

 

[TrippyHippie420]

Are you using PH UP or PH DOWN to get to your desired PH? How much are you using? Those two things can have a relevant effect on your NPK values. What are the PPM's of your base water?

Yes we use ph down just a couple drops per gallon to lower it. PPM meter broke(cheap china brand), might as well buy a better one later. Never had problems with our tap. I'll let you guys know when i get a new meter. Should've stick with the sunshine mix.

Thanks!

 

[TrippyHippie420]

My guess is nutrient lockout, 6.9 is too high, you should be closer to 6.0, I grow in coco/perlite and keep my pH around 5.8.
A pH of 6.9 would be ok if you were growing in soil....coco coir is not soil. Don't wait too much in between waterings, I never go more than 48 hours without watering coco.

Thanks! Will try lowering the water ph. Runoff was 6.3ish yesterday. Should we treat it like pure coco-perlite even if we added ammendments? The mix was cooking for two months though..

 

[Smootherpete]

Thanks! Will try lowering the water ph. Runoff was 6.3ish yesterday. Should we treat it like pure coco-perlite even if we added ammendments? The mix was cooking for two months though..

Your mix is still considered Hydroponic since all nutrients come from the water you give them. The worm castings have some nutrients but no where near enough what the plants need....it is mostly beneficial for the healthy bacteria. Keep watering them with 5.5 - 6.5 pH nutes and they will be fine in my opinion. Remember to water enough to get 20 to 30% run off.