Two weeks old, stunted growth and dying leaves

sugarleaves9999

sugarleaves9999

Member
Hey all,

This is my first time growing indoors. My plants are two weeks old, and aren't looking so great. They look smaller than I expected and the leaves are yellowing and dying on some plants. Here's my setup:

  • LED light (180watt pull, so probably 400w equivalent) at 3ft height
  • happy frog soil in coco starter cups
  • RO water system (ph balanced to 6)

So far I've only given the plants RO water, which is void of nutrients. This is my first time growing, so I don't know if my plants have nutrient burn from the happy frog soil or if they're hungry for more nutes (specifically cal/mag?) at this point... some have said that they don't need nutrients for the first three weeks but I'm not sure they'll live that long.

I heard that with LED lighting you're supposed to give more cal/mag, but I don't know if that's proven or not.

Any advice would be great!
 

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backtracker

backtracker

Well-Known Member
That is the wrong soil to start seeds in you need a seed starter mix or something like Lucky Dog by FF or Promix those coco things they are in are useless they don't hold moisture and dry out way to fast.
 
THCBrain

THCBrain

Well-Known Member
backtracker said:
That is the wrong soil to start seeds in you need a seed starter mix or something like Lucky Dog by FF or Promix those coco things they are in are useless they don't hold moisture and dry out way to fast.
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Bullshit! I have all my seeds/seedlings in coco
 
bobtokes

bobtokes

Well-Known Member
why R.O water ?
does the compost you are using contain nutes ?
are you ph ing your water, what is the ph of the water you are giving them ?

if the pots are drying out quickly it is a good thing as the roots will hunt out moisture
 
sugarleaves9999

sugarleaves9999

Member
bobtokes said:
why R.O water ?
does the compost you are using contain nutes ?
are you ph ing your water, what is the ph of the water you are giving them ?

if the pots are drying out quickly it is a good thing as the roots will hunt out moisture
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The compost I'm using (Happy Frog potting soil) does have nutrients, but I've started seeds outdoors in the same setup (soil/pots) as I'm currently using without these kinds of issues.

I'm using RO water since it removes the chlorine. It's my first time using it (along with growing indoors). It also removes the other nutrients as well that are beneficial to plants. However I don't know if this is what was keeping my seedlings alive outdoors in the same soil/pots....

I'm PHing the water. It typically hovers right at 6 or just slightly above 6.

Thanks for the input!
 
jswett1100

jswett1100

Well-Known Member
Yeah i wouldnt start a plant in a ff soil unless it was already a couple weeks old. are they seed or clone? do you need reverso osmosis water were you live? because of your water?
 
sugarleaves9999

sugarleaves9999

Member
jswett1100 said:
Yeah i wouldnt start a plant in a ff soil unless it was already a couple weeks old. are they seed or clone? do you need reverso osmosis water were you live? because of your water?
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These gals were started from seed, just like their outdoor siblings.

I doubt I need reverse osmosis water where I live (NYC has pretty solid drinking water). Everywhere I was looking on the forums instilled the fear of chlorine in me though, hence the RO water. My tap water hovers around 35ppm so it's pretty damn clean as far as I can tell. RO water simply lets me be 100% sure of what I'm giving to the plants since it practically removes everything.
 
StoneyMcphatter

StoneyMcphatter

Well-Known Member
sugarleaves9999 said:
These gals were started from seed, just like their outdoor siblings.

I doubt I need reverse osmosis water where I live (NYC has pretty solid drinking water). Everywhere I was looking on the forums instilled the fear of chlorine in me though, hence the RO water. My tap water hovers around 35ppm so it's pretty damn clean as far as I can tell. RO water simply lets me be 100% sure of what I'm giving to the plants since it practically removes everything.
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I only use tap water and have never tested my PH. So I don't know who instilled this fear in ya mate but it has to be broken.
 
jswett1100

jswett1100

Well-Known Member
sugarleaves9999 said:
These gals were started from seed, just like their outdoor siblings.

I doubt I need reverse osmosis water where I live (NYC has pretty solid drinking water). Everywhere I was looking on the forums instilled the fear of chlorine in me though, hence the RO water. My tap water hovers around 35ppm so it's pretty damn clean as far as I can tell. RO water simply lets me be 100% sure of what I'm giving to the plants since it practically removes everything.
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oh word your in nyc i live in maine!!!!
 
sugarleaves9999

sugarleaves9999

Member
jswett1100 said:
lol i wouldnt say its that good. I run pro mix its pretty local around here. do you go to cranmore? or sunday river?
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better than actual NYC soil I bet. if you can find real NYC soil haha.

I've been to Sunday River, never cranmore. I also go to Wildcat which is technically in NH but close to where I stay in ME
 
C

cactusbudz

Active Member
get a 5 gallon bucket, fill with your tap water and put a bubbler in it(about 10-15$). let it run for 48 hours. it will evaporate the chlorine. ro water is very clean water(around 10 ppm depending when the filters were changed as to tap water is around 220-300 ppm) but you will have to add calmag to the ro or you wil get defiencies. calmag def looks like rust spots on the leaf. if your finding that your ro water is requiring more ph down then usual, most likely the filters need changed
 
sugarleaves9999

sugarleaves9999

Member
cactusbudz said:
get a 5 gallon bucket, fill with your tap water and put a bubbler in it(about 10-15$). let it run for 48 hours. it will evaporate the chlorine. ro water is very clean water(around 10 ppm depending when the filters were changed as to tap water is around 220-300 ppm) but you will have to add calmag to the ro or you wil get defiencies. calmag def looks like rust spots on the leaf. if your finding that your ro water is requiring more ph down then usual, most likely the filters need changed
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thanks for that advice! I got the RO system to prevent me having to leave a bucket out. My tap water is ~35ppm, and the RO is obviously less than that. I was reading about cal/mag deficiencies when using an RO system, which is what I thought it might've been at first... though others have said it's too many nutrients. So hard to tell!

The filters on this RO system are brand new (the system itself is only a couple weeks old)
 
C

cactusbudz

Active Member
that's pretty low ppm for tap water and you don't need to feed your seedlings at an early stage1-2 weeks. I like using light warrior very little nutrients and it is very airy and dries out quick. lift your cups, you will know when you need to water them (about every 2-3 days) by the weight. water one of them and test the weight too one that needs watering. makes it easy specially in that stage
 
sugarleaves9999

sugarleaves9999

Member
cactusbudz said:
that's pretty low ppm for tap water and you don't need to feed your seedlings at an early stage1-2 weeks. I like using light warrior very little nutrients and it is very airy and dries out quick. lift your cups, you will know when you need to water them (about every 2-3 days) by the weight. water one of them and test the weight too one that needs watering. makes it easy specially in that stage
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I've been doing that, along with checking the soil ~1" down for moisture. When I see the leaves starting to droop and the soil has shrunk due to lack of moisture (ie. there's a gap between the soil and the coco cup the soil is in), that's typically when I've been watering.

I also read somewhere that using LED lights to grow may result in a cal/mag deficiency... maybe that combined with the RO water is causing a deficiency? It's hard for me to tell since I'm so new, and cal/mag deficiency looks like nute burn. My rationalization for deficiency over nute burn is that the leaves that are lower (older) are yellowing before the top leaves (top leaves look good). If it was nute burn, wouldn't all the leaves have issues?
 
C

cactusbudz

Active Member
I never used happyfrog but I am thinking its too high in nutrients for seedlings along with other soils to hot for seedlings(ocen forest, roots organic 707-greenfields). put those babys in light warrior soil for about 2 weeks or until you see several sets of leaves. light warrior has just enough nutrients for a seedling and after you get several sets of leaves is a good time to transplant it into these hotter soils. it does look like nute burn on them babys
 
C

cactusbudz

Active Member
if your letting the soil dry out to create a gap between soil n cup, you are watering to late. get use to the weight and you will be fine
 
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