Crap. Heat stress and not enough water.

[GrowingMadness]

Wasn't able to visit my babies in the morning. I watered them last morning and tonight go check on them.

It's very hot here and my venting wasn't enough.

One lady lost half of it's leaves and the rest were curled.

Another lady lost a lot of top leaves.

The bigger ladies are ok because they have bigger pots that held more water.

But it's ridiculous how much water they drink. I watered them last morning and the ones with smaller pots were totally dry today.

Going hydro next time.

 

[GrowingMadness]

So now I changed the light cycle. The 12 hours of light will be on during the colder hours of early morning till noon. Wonder if this will affect the plants. They are already in stress, so I figured what the heck.

 

[mygirls]

well if you have a heat or ventalation, or air flow problem then going hydro won't make your grows better. get all that under controle first along with a good soil grow for the exp. .. just my 2pennys worth....goodluck

 

[LUDACRIS]

well if you have a heat or ventalation, or air flow problem then going hydro won't make your grows better. get all that under controle first along with a good soil grow for the exp. .. just my 2pennys worth....goodluck

my thoughts also.

LUDA.

 

[GrowingMadness]

So I watered them, left overnight. During the night the temps are low and just ok for growing.

I wake up and WTF?

More leaves died off. I don't understand why.

Too many nutes? PH was OK. Perhaps I should flush them? Or just leave for the 12 hour of dark cycle?

 

[krustofskie]

Dont worry to much about the older leaves falling off, as long as they are ones that got damaged from before, they can still die off even if they weren't fully damaged. Look at the new growth and see how that is to get an idea of how the new schedual is working.

Getting the temps under control is paramount, heat is the biggest killer in my experience.

Also i doubt your plant were drinking that much water, it would have been evaporation from the heat. I put myler sheeting covering pot around the base of the stem to help prevent this, also reflects light up.

 

[GrowingMadness]

So I flushed my plants.

The one that is in worst shape had really yellow water coming from the pot. Too many nutes. The others also had pretty unclean water.

I just hope it bounces back to life - the most damaged one -- all of its leaves are curled and dry now.

 

[GrowingMadness]

Didn't help much.

The bigger plant got more curling over the past light period, and the smaller plant was all dried up.

I pulled the smaller plant into rehab - aka pulled it out, washed out roots and stuck in the aerogarden.

As for the bigger plant - might harvest it early and stick back into veg, maybe it will reveg and grow bigger.

 

[GrowingMadness]

Update on the situation.

The smaller plant is still in rehab and might just make it through. I'm feeding the roots with a lot of oxygen in the AG.

The bigger plant however I decided to harvest.

I chopped off all of the top buds where most leaves were dead. Got like 3OZ wet weight which is good imho. They're not completely ready though, but will get me some good smoke.

But I didn't kill the plant. I noticed new growth at the bottom, so some of the lighter buds were kept on the plant. I will wait if they'll fill up or not and chop them either way, then I'll restick the plant into veg. It has a HUGE root system so I expect it to grow really fast. It's in a 40L pot.

The most interesting part about this is that while these 2 plants are Cheese and they almost totally died because of the heat stress, I also have a HUGE thai skunk in the flowering room.

This skunk is big and a lot closer to the light. And it didn't really give a crap about the head. It just got a few leaves burned and is still doing really well.

WTF might I ask?

 

[GrowingMadness]

well... the smaller plant probably won't make it

 

[Hairy Bob]

I would guess that thai skunk is just a more heat resistant strain. What exactly were your temps that practically killed your cheese? I had 4 of them flowering last year, before I got my venting sorted out and the temps were up to 42c (107f) and went no lower than about 30c (85f) for a weekish, all they got were yellow edges to all the leaves and more or less stopped growing, as soon as the temps dropped they perked right up though.

 

[GrowingMadness]

I would guess that thai skunk is just a more heat resistant strain. What exactly were your temps that practically killed your cheese? I had 4 of them flowering last year, before I got my venting sorted out and the temps were up to 42c (107f) and went no lower than about 30c (85f) for a weekish, all they got were yellow edges to all the leaves and more or less stopped growing, as soon as the temps dropped they perked right up though.

I assume the temps went up to 60C

The temp outside was 35~

And I grow in an isolated tent with an active intake, a fan inside and a passive outtake.

So I don't think the intake of 35C air really cooled it down much.. 250w hps there in a 0.5m2 tent.

And my plants grew in the temps you mentioned, so it was around 30 all the time which was OK for them. But 60+ is probably too much.

 

[GrowingMadness]

Update.

After the last light cycle, the bigger plant is as good as dead. I chopped off all of the remaining buds, but noticed some really fast growth coming from the bottom.

You know, from the first nodes. So I left a couple of semi-dead leaves on the stem and stuck it back into veg. It might just make it with the new growth.

On the other hand, the skunk is doing SUPER well.

Overall I am a bit disappointed. The bigger cheese was huge and I could've gotten 400+ gramms from it. Now it's under 100 wet. Oh well.

 

[mygirls]

sorry to here that.. next run im sure will be better for you...

 

[Hairy Bob]

I assume the temps went up to 60C

The temp outside was 35~

And I grow in an isolated tent with an active intake, a fan inside and a passive outtake.

So I don't think the intake of 35C air really cooled it down much.. 250w hps there in a 0.5m2 tent.

And my plants grew in the temps you mentioned, so it was around 30 all the time which was OK for them. But 60+ is probably too much.

60c is way, way too high for plants, I'm actually surprised they are still alive!
Part of your problem is that you have your ventilation the wrong way round, read this https://www.rollitup.org/view.php?pg=faq&cmd=article&id=581
The other part is that your intake temps are higher than the ideal growing temperature in any case. Supposedly growth all but stops at temps above 30c, although that is strain dependent. If you can't afford an a/c and there is nowhere that you can draw cooler air from, there are a couple things you could try.
A diy heat exchanger isn't too difficult to make, all you need is a small water pump, an oscillating fan (which you should already have), quite a bit of copper and rubber tubing, and either a bin or a small fridge/freezer.
There's a how-to here http://www.gmilburn.ca/2005/06/15/geoffs-original-homemade-air-conditioner/ that runs on drain to waste, although you could make a closed loop version with a small pump. There are quite a few variations on the theme at the bottom of that page if you feel it's worth looking into.
The other solution would be to only grow plants with a high tolerance for heat, like the skunk you have. I think I would reveg that one, but really you do need to sort the temp issues as well, 60 degrees is just insane. How would you feel if you had to put up with that sort of heat on a daily basis? No wonder the pots were drying out fast!

 

[GrowingMadness]

60c is way, way too high for plants, I'm actually surprised they are still alive!
Part of your problem is that you have your ventilation the wrong way round, read this https://www.rollitup.org/view.php?pg=faq&cmd=article&id=581
The other part is that your intake temps are higher than the ideal growing temperature in any case. Supposedly growth all but stops at temps above 30c, although that is strain dependent. If you can't afford an a/c and there is nowhere that you can draw cooler air from, there are a couple things you could try.
A diy heat exchanger isn't too difficult to make, all you need is a small water pump, an oscillating fan (which you should already have), quite a bit of copper and rubber tubing, and either a bin or a small fridge/freezer.
There's a how-to here http://www.gmilburn.ca/2005/06/15/geoffs-original-homemade-air-conditioner/ that runs on drain to waste, although you could make a closed loop version with a small pump. There are quite a few variations on the theme at the bottom of that page if you feel it's worth looking into.
The other solution would be to only grow plants with a high tolerance for heat, like the skunk you have. I think I would reveg that one, but really you do need to sort the temp issues as well, 60 degrees is just insane. How would you feel if you had to put up with that sort of heat on a daily basis? No wonder the pots were drying out fast!

I actually solved the issue by changing the light cycle to night.

The problem I have with the skunks though is that they flower WAYYYYYYYY too long