Leaves are curling down; I am worried since I'm into my second week of flowering.

So as the title says, I have some concern over my first grow.

The strain is unknown to me because I got some bud from my dealer and it had seeds in already.

My setup is a 400w HPS with the ballast at 50%, grow medium is Miracle Gro (I know, I was following a guide that was unbelievably stupid) and Perlite, General Organic nutes, a 6 inch inline fan keeping the temp at a nice 84/85 degrees Fahrenheit and humidity hovering around 40%. and all of this is inside my grow tent.

I made a couple of mistakes. one MAJOR HUGE mistake, being that I was a complete newb and didn't know shit, I didn't mix my Perlite with my soil. Instead I just poured the perlite and then the soil on top. No mixing. Just let one sit on top of the other and towards the beginning I was overwatering quite a lot. For the past 6 weeks I have found out how much water to give and only allow 1/2 a gallon at most.

These are some pics taken on 6/3/12 so when I get a chance, I'll upload newer ones with pretty little hairs of bud.

I would say you are still overwatering, for one thing. So you know, watering your plant is not about how much water you give at one time, it's about how frequently you do it. When the plant is ready for watering, you could pour 10 gallons of solution through a one gallon planter and if you allow the plant to dry out between waterings, it'll be just fine. Watering 1/2 galloon every other day will get you plants looking something like what you have.

Also, There is nothing wrong with miracle grow soil if you use it properly. That means remembering it has time released food in it already and you can't double dose your plants with more food until she has used up what she has.

Your plant will be fine with the perlite on the bottom and not mixed in.

Good luck

Thanks for the help. Also I only water my plant once every 4-5 days. And feed it during one of those two days. Is that still too much? Even in flowering?

Yep! Look exactly like my plants did when i over watered them almost to death.It takes a few weeks till they come out of it. Those drooping curled down leaves wont recover and look healthy either.That over watering just set you back about 2 weeks too.Yes it sucks.Good luck.

4-5 days still may be too much for that size plant in that much soil.

As far as feeding scedule, please reread what you wrote and try again. I didn't follow the 'two days' part.

my plants looked exactly like that! It took me a while but I figured out I was over-watering. The leaves won't heal much but you can prevent further damage by letting them dry out completely between watering. I know it's hard not to water them, you look at em and feel the dirt and think maybe they need a bit. Or you're just trying to keep them on track with nute schedule but honestly it hurts them more to water when they don't need it. The roots need to dry out before they can absorb more water or nutes. Pick up the pot after you water and feel how heavy it is, then compare to how it feels when they are bone dry. Let them dry out real good and then give them a drink. It's hard to be patient but you're in the home stretch. Good Luck!

smokinrav said:

4-5 days still may be too much for that size plant in that much soil.

As far as feeding scedule, please reread what you wrote and try again. I didn't follow the 'two days' part.

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Oh sorry, I meant that I feed once a week. So should I continue that? or just halt until this overwatering issue is resolved?

i think it could be a mixture of over watering and ph fallen out of range. what's your runoff? mines tend to look some what like that whenever my ph has dropped below the recommended level for soil.

Overwatering and overfertilizing look like your problem. Pick the pot up and feel how heavy it is after a watering. Then, let the plant go for a few days with no water. Wait to water again until the top inch of the soil is dry to the touch and the container has a noticeable difference in weight (its gonna feel lighter than when you watered it). As for fertilizing....Miracle grow soil...you do not need to fertilize for the first 30 days at all unless you start to notice that the leaves are turning yellow. Miracle gro soil is packed with both fast and slow release nutes so unless your plant is just a HUGE eater (most plants are not) you do not need to fertilize it til flowering. And once it is in to flowering, the most you should fertilize is once a week in soil for that low of a wattage grow (200watts since your ballast is at 50%).


Also, how much and what kind of fertilizer do you use every 4-5 days?

cc08150 said:

Also, how much and what kind of fertilizer do you use every 4-5 days?

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I use half the recommended dosage because I'm trying to get a feel for what is good. And I use General Organics Starter Box, and I only use that once a week. Mostly every monday. The pics that you see aren't really up to date, I'm gonna post new ones as soon as I'm home tonight.

Also about the light, should I increase it? or is it fine at the moment? 'Cause when I first got the 400w HPS with the ballast, I put it on at 100% and quickly saw that it was hurting my plant because the temp rose to 100F! but that's also because I didn't have my fan yet. So I brought it down to 50% and now that I have a fan it stays pretty nice around 84/85 degrees.

Try to position your little red fan where it is blowing across the HPS bulb even if you have to zip tie it or something. How far away from the top of the plant is your bulb when you have it at 50%? You are using an open air reflector right? I would go with the diagnosis that it was overwatered.

Well the little red fan is not with the grow tent, it's with my blue mystic autos in a separate container. I got a 6 inch inline fan now. But it's not able to go directly where you specified. The bulb is 2" from the light. But like I said, I will take pics when I get home to give an updated version.

I would have to say that those plants where a little pre mature for budding wouldn't you, I grow mine for a bout 3 mnths before flowering. If i've got to keep plants short, (I don't) there are techniches that will acomplish this, perolite should be mixed, Perolite as a platform is allright, but you must do both. Ive written alot about miricle grow grows. They are a bitch, try garden nursury available black gold organic potting mix 0.05-0-0. add perolite. Let those plants mature before blooming, as well as recover from the burn. Watch for pre- flowers as well as floral arrangments, watch for hermi weed and cull those plants. If you bloom them now don't expect more than an 1/8 th dry weight, you have no side branching to speak of. Your seconday growth doesn't really look to have started. What you will end up with are a few bb size buds and a marble size one on the top. I can't say (that) would be worth your effort, as well as equipment, electricity, nutes, bulbs, and 8-10 weeks blooming. Let it go back to veg if you have allready started bloom, cut away flowers if they start, with a exacto, you want to grow a bush, so check out pruning and topping techniches as well as sea of green and screen of green, these can be usfull in tight spaces. Good luck peace.

Ah so they must be larger now!!! I was confused with the small plants blooming thing.

Over-watering or not, every time I see pics of a plant being grown in MG the leaves look like that. But I have to say it looks like over-watering either way.

addition to overwatering, that plant would love to have all 400 watts, no need for 50% power

PowerFlower420 said:

addition to overwatering, that plant would love to have all 400 watts, no need for 50% power

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You sure about that? It gets hot as hell in there. But I'll try it out if it helps the plant and also gets the plant all dry.

I have a strain that forever does this...I know I am not overwatering for 4 years..lol which is how long I have been trying to finish one of these strains with a straight leaf...lol. And it doesn't start out curly so I know it isn't the strain...I have found that almost no nutes, and as little water as I could get by with made the leaves seem to want to stay straight for awhile.

Gottagetitout said:

You sure about that? It gets hot as hell in there. But I'll try it out if it helps the plant and also gets the plant all dry.

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Well if it gets too hot then maybe not, I didnt know temps were an issue, if you can't keep it below 85 degrees then you might need to work on ventilation but in my opinion, using all of that 400 watts is essential