Leaves curling up, any ideas why?

hey, so the leaves on my now 12 day old AF plant are starting to curl a little. it's only onthe old growth and only along the sides of the leaves. someone has suggested pH, i don't test yet but am relying on the buffering capabilities of the compost to help me out.

medium: 50% compost, 25% perlite, 25% vermiculite
lighting schedule: 20/4
nutes: half strength organic chilli food ('chilli focus')

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cheers in advance for any advice

My guess is heat stress maybe?

How hot is it in there?

...ph issue I agree, they call that the pH twist.

trichlone fiend said:

...ph issue I agree, they call that the pH twist.

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cheers man, what do you recommend i do from here? i'm guessing it's the tap water that's upping the pH. does letting it stand for 24hrs help matters?

could i use vinegar or citric acid to lower the pH?

thanks mate

p.s. repped for the info

django said:

cheers man, what do you recommend i do from here? i'm guessing it's the tap water that's upping the pH. does letting it stand for 24hrs help matters?

could i use vinegar or citric acid to lower the pH?

thanks mate

p.s. repped for the info

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...I have heard of many different remedies to lower your pH from lemon juice to battery acid. I personally use ph down made by General Hydroponics. To keep your soil from becoming too acidic use rapid release dolomite lime. (add 1 tbls per gallon of soil as a top dressing, water in as normal)

...the idea here is, you want to give your plants slightly acidic water (6.3-6.8 ) Soils a great buffer, and builds up the pH down rather quickly the more you water. The dolomite lime will stop your soil from becoming too acidic constantly giving your soil's pH a push towards 7....dolomite lime will NOT lower your pH, only raise it to neutral or 7...this method makes it simple to stay "in range". Here's a chart below for you to view which elements are being locked out and at what pH levels.

(edit)...letting your water set out 24 hours or so will dechlorinize your h20. Even better, you can put your tap water on a bubble stone to dechlorinize quicker. ( couple hours)

trichlone fiend said:

...I have heard of many different remedies to lower your pH from lemon juice to battery acid. I personally use ph down made by General Hydroponics. To keep your soil from becoming too acidic use rapid release dolomite lime. (add 1 tbls per gallon of soil as a top dressing, water in as normal)

...the idea here is, you want to give your plants slightly acidic water (6.3-6.8 ) Soils a great buffer, and builds up the pH down rather quickly the more you water. The dolomite lime will stop your soil from becoming too acidic constantly giving your soil's pH a push towards 7....dolomite lime will NOT lower your pH, only raise it to neutral or 7...this method makes it simple to stay "in range". Here's a chart below for you to view which elements are being locked out and at what pH levels.

(edit)...letting your water set out 24 hours or so will dechlorinize your h20. Even better, you can put your tap water on a bubble stone to dechlorinize quicker. ( couple hours)

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thanks, trichlone fiend. that chart is really helpful. i think i was being totally complacent with not checking pH and only using tap water in my feeds. my dad has a soil pH meter somewhere so i'll use that for now to check the pH.

for now i'll use vinegar but will probably buy some pH down when i get paid.

so what do you recommend as the optimum pH? it looks about 6.5, from that chart.

so does chlorine in the water affect pH? i would have though perhaps it would bind up some free hydrogen ions but would it really make a difference? or should i do this for a different reason? i did it for all stages up to about 10 days but gor bored from there. should i resume?

thanks mate, repped for sound advice.

W1z Khalifa said:

My guess is heat stress maybe?

How hot is it in there?

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hey khalifa,

i'm only using one 125w CFL and the setup is in an open room in the UK, so shouldn't get too hot. i have a small fan blowing on the little fellas too

ya it to be specific i would say that its a Mg lockout due to pH. as for whether chlorine effects pH iam not exactly sure, though i wish i knew, ive been battling pH since i started. would reccomend getting the pH down asap and not using the vinegar method, ive heard some horror stories. a bottle will last you FOREVER, as it only takes (for me at least) 1-3 drops out of the tip of a straw per gallon of water to bring my pH from well over 8.5 (not sure how high it actually is, my meter only detects between 4 and 8.5) down to a mid 6 range.

KlosetKing said:

ya it to be specific i would say that its a Mg lockout due to pH. as for whether chlorine effects pH iam not exactly sure, though i wish i knew, ive been battling pH since i started. would reccomend getting the pH down asap and not using the vinegar method, ive heard some horror stories. a bottle will last you FOREVER, as it only takes (for me at least) 1-3 drops out of the tip of a straw per gallon of water to bring my pH from well over 8.5 (not sure how high it actually is, my meter only detects between 4 and 8.5) down to a mid 6 range.

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cool cool, cheers for the info. i used some vineger (no sodium) last night to drop pH and it seemed to work. wish i hadn't now though! i've ordered some pH down so hopefully that will help me out.

+rep for the help

django said:

cool cool, cheers for the info. i used some vineger (no sodium) last night to drop pH and it seemed to work. wish i hadn't now though! i've ordered some pH down so hopefully that will help me out.

+rep for the help

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thanks for the rep bud! hope things start turnin up for ya

KlosetKing said:

thanks for the rep bud! hope things start turnin up for ya

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my pH dropping tactics last night involved flooding the plants with vinegar containing water (2 tbsp to 2L). it did the trick, a little, but now my big plant is suffering from over-watering droop. i transplanted it into a bigger pot in dry medium and have left it. reckon it will be okay?

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here's a link to my journal, too

https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/341083-first-time-grow-go-buddha.html

thanks in advance for any help

anyone got any advice for me? i watered it today as the soil was really dry (medium never watered, see above post). how long should she take to recover?

wqell the overwatering should clear up, just gotta wait for that soil to dry out a bit, then proceed normally. ive over and underwatered on accident a few times, but as long as you notice it and dont compound the issue, it is some of the easiest mistakes to recover from.

give her a few days if you watered her today. its not immediate, but i bet by tomorrow or the next days 'daytime' cycle those leaves will all be perky as shit =D

I don't want to read all posts, will write something what perhaps was already written. So I had the same problem and it was obviously caused by too high temperature, right after moving away peaks of plants from the lamp the problem disappeared.

KlosetKing said:

wqell the overwatering should clear up, just gotta wait for that soil to dry out a bit, then proceed normally. ive over and underwatered on accident a few times, but as long as you notice it and dont compound the issue, it is some of the easiest mistakes to recover from.

give her a few days if you watered her today. its not immediate, but i bet by tomorrow or the next days 'daytime' cycle those leaves will all be perky as shit =D

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sweeeeet, i'll be carrying on this topic in my journal now, man. just wanted some quick help with this issue! cheers for checking in

Bartecki said:

I don't want to read all posts, will write something what perhaps was already written. So I had the same problem and it was obviously caused by too high temperature, right after moving away peaks of plants from the lamp the problem disappeared.

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cheers dude, i'll make sure to be wary of this if i get my HPS