LED Grow - Northern Lights Auto -

Seedlings take a lot of patience, too. You may have nothing wrong with your soil moisture, don't do anything too drastic or you might hurt them

Thanks! I opened my intake flaps and it's a bit cooler now. Thanks, the yellowing leaves hasn't progressed and they're all growing.

Hey hey,

All looking good apart from 2 plants with pinched looking leaves as you can see. Ang ideas?

Curling up on the sides of the leaves like that reduces airflow across the main body of the leaf, thereby reducing transpiration.
Usually a reaction to too much wind or too much heat evaporating water off them too fast.

I'd try turning off one of the lights, and/or turning the circulation fan off, or just away from directly blowing on them.
(For now, until they have bigger root systems that can sustain more transpiration by absorbing more water.)

Cool, have done just that. Here's hoping they survive - Thanks!

Yo!

It's 10 day veg in the tent. Although there's some heat damage they're doing alright - I think?!
Trying to ease up watering to 1 X 4 days until the soils dry.

Lights now about 2.5 feet, fan blowing above them and temps 75-88 and going down. No nutes just tap water

They look lush! Really good
Big broad leaves, nice healthy rich green color.
I predict that tent will be filled with foliage in a month, no light falling on the floor.

Have your curled up leaf edges flattened out?

Some plants are looking healthy as you can see but then 2 plants look like this (they're still growing but slower and with dry bleached leaves

Still happy overall it's 11 days in
Any guidance great fully received my setup is same as before (1000w and 300W Led, temp 75-88, soil no nutes, water every 3-5 days, fans)

Thanks!

Nice, they are exploding!
Eeew that is not a happy looking plant.
If she was otherwise healthy and still curling her edges like that, I'd say you should try and figure out if she's in a hot pocket or something, or if the fan is still directly on it. Why she's still over-transpiration stressed and hasn't normalized those edges.

But all that discoloration? Definitely something else going on with her (...but maybe itself caused by that heat stress).
Can't really expect a sick plant to recover, so that the leaf edges haven't normalized doesn't strongly indicate a hot spot or w/e.

You could try swapping its place with another healthier plant anyway, seeing if that healthier plant starts to show heat stress from being in that location in the tent. Hot spot test.

Otherwise, just ride it out. She's still growing, hopefully she'll grow out of it.

Thanks so much. I put the sickest girl on my windowsill for now. Leaving the others, who can deal better with the heat in the tent. This one looks happier already...

Day 12 veg!

Just spotted a single tiny white/clear flying bug about the size of a seed. I know that's vague but what bug killer should I use on these babies? Thanks

Although usually black, it's still likely a fungus gnat. The grower's fruit fly.
They often come in soil mixes, or just find their way into your garden.
They like soils that stay damp, if you let your soils dry out properly between waterings they cannot sustain large numbers.
Just be careful not to go too far and over dry your plants, stressing your plants.

Fungus gnats can go infestation level if you give them enough time without the soil drying out. Hundreds can end up flying around in your tent, before your plants will show stress.
Their larva nibble on the roots a bit, but they are not a catastrophe. They wont ruin your grow like spider mites.

Let your soil dry out until the pots are light in weight between waterings.
Don't let them bother you in small numbers, just be reminded not to water too soon too often.

You can leave yellow sticky paper traps around that the adults will stick to, as another way of keeping their numbers low.

You can leave a jar or bowl of water in there, and some will drown in it.

You can use a non-chemical pesticide, diatomaceous earth, sprinkled on the top of the soil to stop them crawling in to lay eggs.
DE is like chalk - billions of shells of ancient microscopic sea life, diatoms, fossilized. They are ground up and their shells are sharp on the microscopic scale, like glass shards.
They cut the 'skin' of insects, which soon dehydrate and die.
(Some people use sand as a dense barrier top layer for this - others complain it reduces air flow to the roots.)

Some people leave slices of fresh potato on their soil, saying that after a few hours when removed, many of the larva have crawled out of the soil and onto them. I haven't tried that.

Chemical pesticides aren't an easy route, as you'd have to target the larva in the soil as well as the adults, or keep re-attacking the adults until no larva are left.

Again, they usually aren't anything to stress over. Letting your soil dry out is the important thing.
My last batch of store bought soil brought some fungus gnats with it, and I've seen a couple buzzing around my plants each day for a month now. No harm done.

If this proves a problem this grow, use a little perlite in your next soil batch, so it dries out faster.

Thanks that's really helpful!

Day 14 flower. They looked overwatered even though I waited 3 days and for dry soil between hydrating them. Put some perlite on the soil to maybe leach up some moisture - not sure if that is a great idea but trying it out.

Lights on 20/4 now as I think it's good they cool off for a bit.

Does it look like I should feed them yet

I wouldn't feed yet, they look dark green and still well fed from the soil.
Until the soil has properly dried out a couple of times, the roots would still be exploring new soil pockets and have plenty to eat.

Hmmmm I've never thought of using perlite like that. It might work, if they wick up some moisture, as you'd be increasing surface area.
Interesting! Even if it doesn't work, that's not going to hurt. (unless maybe it makes the soil dry out even slower! Seems unlikely)

Lifting your pots off the floor can help increase airflow around the pots and around the drainage holes.
But it can be hard to find the perfect thing.
A big flat table the exact length and width of your tent wouldn't help, as it would block air. But a big metal grate on legs would help.
You can put them on top of upside down spare pots of the same size, or something small and individual to each pot like that - but it increases the risks of knocking one over.
It also doesn't help so much if your drainage holes are right underneath, better if they are on the corners.

I have some rectangular plastic baskets I can use for that. And a solid holey plastic seedling tray.
I've also switched to fabric pots the last couple of grows, which dry out heaps faster. (~$4 each on ebay)

Metal grate! Genius idea thanks.

Day 15 veg! Few of the girls getting bushy. Letting them dry out as much as possible before the next water.

Lights lowered to 15 inches.

Day 17 flower and it's getting bushy

Tiny bright yellow spots (just one or two) on one plant think maybe water droplets magnified light so apart from different sized plants all
Seems well.

Assuming I should hold off nutes for another week from what I've read.