Experimental Bonsai + First Time Grower = Brown leaves!

Remdian

Member
After I kept killing seedlings in the growing phase, the realization of how long it might take me to ultimately get to a Harvest phase dawned on me, so I started Googling what happens when you flip the Flower button early and I started to come across bonsai Pot articles and bing-bang-boom here we are. (Also...big Size constraints here..need small)

Around August 1st I put one germinated bag seed into Miracle Grow (As I understand, this is a problem right away) dirt under 2 x 20W CFL Broad spectrum (Reveal) lights @ 18 Hours light/6 Dark. No fertilizers and water (learned this pattern with the aforementioned dead seedlings) every 3 days.

On August 18th I switched the lights to 12/12. (using same Dawn) After about 2 weeks of this I switched one CFL out with a 23w Warm spectrum bulb. Water every 3 days and no fertilizer.

At this point (early-mid Sept) the seedling was ~4-5 inches tall with bottom Round leaves and Two-Tiers above those. First Big Move: Bonsai Time, right? In Flowering none the less. I take bonsai-scissors and cut the off at First set of pot (versus bottom round) leaves.

Now, everything after this cut is actually going fine; everything is growing anew. Two weeks after the Cut (Mid-late Sept.) though, growth has slowed way down and so I go back to the Google-machine and start reading on Fertilizers/Nutrients.

I buy Jungle-Bloom Flowering and this Root stuff that has .1% Nitrogen in it. Smaller plant so I work the math down to around .5-1ML (of each) mixed into the 300ML of distilled water that I give it every 3 days.

Now we are to the present. Starting two weeks ago the bottom Rounds died and fell off and upon research I came to my own personal conclusion that since we are now near to the approximated Harvest time (Time plus the white hairs are turning brown), that the plant was pulling nutrients from bottom leaves for the final push. But after those fell off, the 2 original branches (Node of First Cut) started as well.

On Sept. 24th I was in a hurry so when I watered it I used only water. I figured a flush isn't the worst thing anyways, right? When I came back on Sunday the top leaves joined in with the Bottom leaves. but just from the tips.

Tuesday (27th): The leaves are getting much worse (from middle) and I see a picture of Nitrogen deficiency. That could be it! I take the Root stuff (.1% nitro, right?) And push around 5-7 ML of this stuff into the area around the base of the plant with an eye-dropper and also put around 5ML into a small spray bottle with water and spray down the soil for the next 2 days. At this point I cut all Total yellow leaves off. They've been brittle for days anyway.

All positive growth (see the buds in the pics) stopped around 2 weeks ago.

This past Saturday I just flushed it with water, since the various chemicals in various doses wasn't changing things.

SO! Now I leave it to the capable hands of the Masses. Thank you for any advice in Advance!

Extra Misc. Information: Up until this past weekend I had been using a 5-6 inch mirror under the plant to redirect extra light to bottom growth.

Edit: I normally keep the Lights sitting crosswise across the plant and sitting about 2 inches above the leaves (rotating the plant to get warm and broad spectrum), but I raised it to the current height out of Ozone damage fears.
 

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Dennis Rodman

Active Member
hey bud.
You might should have vegged your plant longer before you bonsaid.
If you are only going to bonsai one plant, maybe next time let it get a little bigger before flowering. Might also want to wait until your seedling has 5+ internodes (places where leaves grow out of the stem) before topping.
I guess that's stuff you cant change.

something you CAN change... Just make sure the room you're in is actually dark for 12 hours a day. Dont want the light accidentally turning on in that room. And if it's been 3 days and the soil it still wet, then you can hold off on watering. Water your plants when they need it

good luck!
 

DrGREENthumb85

Active Member
You pretty much did everything wrong here.

-CFL too close to the plant. (you need at least 6" fromt he light and the plant, especially when flowering)
-didn't let veg long enough
-semi-see thru container. (YOU DON'T WANT ANY LIGHT TOUCHING THE ROOTS WHATSOEVER!!)
-that soil mix, looks like shit
-you should stop experimenting with bonsai shit and just grow for real. and if you are going to experiment, please do it with accuracy, so those of us who read these posts can benefit from them
 

Remdian

Member
Wow...okay. A lot more Flaming than I expected. LoL

Let's address issues and keep in mind that the key word in my thread WAS experimental..so...

hey bud.
Might also want to wait until your seedling has 5+ internodes (places where leaves grow out of the stem) before topping.

something you CAN change... Just make sure the room you're in is actually dark for 12 hours a day. Dont want the light accidentally turning on in that room. And if it's been 3 days and the soil it still wet, then you can hold off on watering. Water your plants when they need it
Good call on Internodes.

Lighting: What you don't see in the pictures is amount of black garbage bags I have in place. Absolutely Zero light reaches.

Watering: I had read that it is better, if anything, to underwater than over-water and I work off that premise

Thanks!

You pretty much did everything wrong here.

-CFL too close to the plant. (you need at least 6" fromt he light and the plant, especially when flowering)
-didn't let veg long enough
-semi-see thru container. (YOU DON'T WANT ANY LIGHT TOUCHING THE ROOTS WHATSOEVER!!)
-that soil mix, looks like shit
-you should stop experimenting with bonsai shit and just grow for real. and if you are going to experiment, please do it with accuracy, so those of us who read these posts can benefit from them
You, however, Sir came across as quite rude.

As far as Accuracy goes, I've read other posts and I believe I gave a VERY accurate description and time line of what I did and how I did it.

"Stop experimenting with bonsai shit and just grow for real"

"Quit saying the world is round, Copernicus"

Also, I made reference to my poor choice in soil early in my original thread. Reiterating it in a rude way helps no one.

Now, having said that, Thank you for the information on the container type and light distance. THAT I found helpful. :-)




Also: How about some feed back on the Actual question of the brown leaves? If you want to act like you know it all, cool. Help out constructively. Thanks!
 

DrGREENthumb85

Active Member
Wow...okay. A lot more Flaming than I expected. LoL

Let's address issues and keep in mind that the key word in my thread WAS experimental..so...



Good call on Internodes.

Lighting: What you don't see in the pictures is amount of black garbage bags I have in place. Absolutely Zero light reaches.

Watering: I had read that it is better, if anything, to underwater than over-water and I work off that premise

Thanks!



You, however, Sir came across as quite rude.

As far as Accuracy goes, I've read other posts and I believe I gave a VERY accurate description and time line of what I did and how I did it.

"Stop experimenting with bonsai shit and just grow for real"

"Quit saying the world is round, Copernicus"

Also, I made reference to my poor choice in soil early in my original thread. Reiterating it in a rude way helps no one.

Now, having said that, Thank you for the information on the container type and light distance. THAT I found helpful. :-)




Also: How about some feed back on the Actual question of the brown leaves? If you want to act like you know it all, cool. Help out constructively. Thanks!
You sir are a very polite whiner. I personally have been told much much worse on the very site. My first few attempts at growing were absolutely horrific. Looking back now, with the knowledge I have gained from all the advice and harsh words I have received on this very website, I understand why people were so blunt with there words, and rude, and mean, and harsh. I was simply reacting to your post with a little emotion. I felt semi frustrated when viewing your post, I was just trying to express that, and I guess it just so happen to be a little blunt and rude. I don't know everything, never claimed to. But I do know that since your are a first time grower, to call something like that an experiment is kinda bullshit. Since you have no prior evidence that displays any knowledge whatsoever on the subject, then I would simply call this a BAD first attempt at growing pot.
 

DrGREENthumb85

Active Member
ALSO: The brown leaves question was answered when I told you that you had the lights too close to the plant...you are burning the poor thing.
 
hey dude, dont listen to them all, i grew bonsais and had no probs at all. they were only 4 weeks into veg as well. i used a clear plastic beer cup, pottiing mix, miracle grow fert and 1x23w cfl that was 1.5inches from the crown, it had 3 nodes and all i can say is i only got 1.5g from 3 bonsai's, but was alot of fun to grow and a dam potent smoke for the one mix i got out of it, lol. power to ya bud, keep trying. i found only feeding them nutes twice a week was enough and then give it a good flush when u put it into flower as it tens to overload on nutes very fast. i must admit, though, after all the effort i went through, i wish i had of let them veg another month or so and gotten a much larger yeild like i have this time :)
 

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