Hey friends,
I'm a first time grower (and first time poster!) At the suggestion of the guy who sold me my lights and tent, I'm growing in coco for this first grow. I've been told that soil is "unpredictable," and that coco offers more control over the growing conditions. For this particular grow, I'm growing in a mixture of 1 part perlite, 1 part worm castings, 3 parts coco peat. My plant is in a plastic "net pot," sitting in my tent under a 300w LED light (Galaxy Hydro brand). There's also a heating lamp in there, and a small fan pointed at the wall to keep the leaves lightly rustling. There are ducts leading from two of the ventilation holes to a fan and carbon filter. The third ventilation hole has been left open to allow new air in. Now, like I said, I'm a first time grower. I've done some research, but research can't teach you everything apparently (especially given the conflicting answers you sometimes find on forums...)
So, anyway, I got a Harlequin clone in rock wool from my local dispensary last Thursday (March 24th), and promptly potted my plant. My roommate said he felt like the coco mixture was already pretty moist (from the worm castings), so we decided to just let it soak up that moisture. Bad idea! A few hours later, the thing was drooping and looked lifeless (the leaves were actually touching the coco). That's when I watered it for the first time. Now, I should mention here that I had forgotten to get a pH meter, but figured tap water would be fine for this first watering. It perked back up within the hour.
The next day my roommate noticed some yellowing on the new leaves. I immediately began to fear a nutrient deficiency (given how little worm castings I put into the mixture) but didn't want to go watering it again so soon (I've read many warnings against overwatering). However, later that day, sure enough, the leaves began to droop, and the soil felt dry to my fingers. This time, I mixed a teaspoon and a half of Fox Farm's "Grow Big" formula (part of the trio) into a gallon of bottled water, and watered my plant until I saw some runoff. The leaves perked up, but they're still looking yellowish. I also noticed that some of the leaves looked a little twisted, and with a bit of research, began to suspect a pH issue. I ordered a pH meter online, it comes on Tuesday.
Yesterday the yellowing continued, and it gained almost no height (it's stuck at around 5 inches). Now, one of the larger lower leaves was beginning to turn yellow at its tips, and the tips of a number of leaves were pointed downward. I initially suspected that I'd overwatered the thing, but with overwatering, the whole leaf is supposed to be rigid and curved downward. This was just the tips, the "claw effect" that's supposed to be associated with nitrogen toxicity. Could I really have given the thing too much nitrogen? I only fed it once, at half strength. I still suspected that the pH was off, so I went out and purchased some pH drops (I couldn't find the strips) as a temporary solution until my electric pH pen came in the mail. These drops were horrible! The color chart, firstly, only went from 6.0 to 7.4, the pH of coco is supposed to be in the 5.5 to 6.5 range right? Somewhere around 5.8? My tap water was giving off the highest reading on the chart, meaning that its pH was (at least) 7.4. I added a bit of pH down to get my tap water to turn a bright yellow color, supposedly indicative of a 6.0 pH (though again, I really don't trust those drops). Just like on the previous days, the leaves began to droop late in the day, eventually actually touching the coco again, so I watered it with my pH adjusted (extremely innacurately) water (no nutrients in the water this time). The leaves perked back up within the hour. Last night, my roommate noticed three black spots on the largest leaf:
Which brings us to today. The yellowing is getting worse, but it doesn't look irreparable yet. Not wanting to trust the drops, I went to Home Depot and got an extremely cheap pH meter to keep this project afloat until Tuesday when the pH pen comes. This thing is meant to be used directly in soil, it has two long electrodes and an analog display gauge. So I measured my soil. I stuck the thing down to the root area -- now that I think about it, I hope I didn't damage the roots. I definitely felt it penetrate the rockwool cube. The meter reads a pH of 7. That's pretty high, but I also don't fully trust this thing. My nutrient solution was pretty low, around 5. I raised it to just below 6. I haven't fed or watered the plant today, but it doesn't look great -- twisty leaves, yellowing, and three black spots.
I'm a new grower, I've never grown anything in my life, and I know this is a learning process. Sometimes you have to make some clumsy mistakes in order to learn how to do things right. But I would like to salvage this project if possible. Maybe I should flush the thing? Maybe I need to re pot it in a different mixture with a different coco/castings ratio? The plant is still 5 inches tall, hasn't grown a bit in 3 and a half days. Maybe that's normal? I really don't know much about this stuff yet.
ANYWAY, tl;dr please look at my pictures and tell me what's wrong with my plant! Thanks!
I'm a first time grower (and first time poster!) At the suggestion of the guy who sold me my lights and tent, I'm growing in coco for this first grow. I've been told that soil is "unpredictable," and that coco offers more control over the growing conditions. For this particular grow, I'm growing in a mixture of 1 part perlite, 1 part worm castings, 3 parts coco peat. My plant is in a plastic "net pot," sitting in my tent under a 300w LED light (Galaxy Hydro brand). There's also a heating lamp in there, and a small fan pointed at the wall to keep the leaves lightly rustling. There are ducts leading from two of the ventilation holes to a fan and carbon filter. The third ventilation hole has been left open to allow new air in. Now, like I said, I'm a first time grower. I've done some research, but research can't teach you everything apparently (especially given the conflicting answers you sometimes find on forums...)
So, anyway, I got a Harlequin clone in rock wool from my local dispensary last Thursday (March 24th), and promptly potted my plant. My roommate said he felt like the coco mixture was already pretty moist (from the worm castings), so we decided to just let it soak up that moisture. Bad idea! A few hours later, the thing was drooping and looked lifeless (the leaves were actually touching the coco). That's when I watered it for the first time. Now, I should mention here that I had forgotten to get a pH meter, but figured tap water would be fine for this first watering. It perked back up within the hour.
The next day my roommate noticed some yellowing on the new leaves. I immediately began to fear a nutrient deficiency (given how little worm castings I put into the mixture) but didn't want to go watering it again so soon (I've read many warnings against overwatering). However, later that day, sure enough, the leaves began to droop, and the soil felt dry to my fingers. This time, I mixed a teaspoon and a half of Fox Farm's "Grow Big" formula (part of the trio) into a gallon of bottled water, and watered my plant until I saw some runoff. The leaves perked up, but they're still looking yellowish. I also noticed that some of the leaves looked a little twisted, and with a bit of research, began to suspect a pH issue. I ordered a pH meter online, it comes on Tuesday.
Yesterday the yellowing continued, and it gained almost no height (it's stuck at around 5 inches). Now, one of the larger lower leaves was beginning to turn yellow at its tips, and the tips of a number of leaves were pointed downward. I initially suspected that I'd overwatered the thing, but with overwatering, the whole leaf is supposed to be rigid and curved downward. This was just the tips, the "claw effect" that's supposed to be associated with nitrogen toxicity. Could I really have given the thing too much nitrogen? I only fed it once, at half strength. I still suspected that the pH was off, so I went out and purchased some pH drops (I couldn't find the strips) as a temporary solution until my electric pH pen came in the mail. These drops were horrible! The color chart, firstly, only went from 6.0 to 7.4, the pH of coco is supposed to be in the 5.5 to 6.5 range right? Somewhere around 5.8? My tap water was giving off the highest reading on the chart, meaning that its pH was (at least) 7.4. I added a bit of pH down to get my tap water to turn a bright yellow color, supposedly indicative of a 6.0 pH (though again, I really don't trust those drops). Just like on the previous days, the leaves began to droop late in the day, eventually actually touching the coco again, so I watered it with my pH adjusted (extremely innacurately) water (no nutrients in the water this time). The leaves perked back up within the hour. Last night, my roommate noticed three black spots on the largest leaf:
Which brings us to today. The yellowing is getting worse, but it doesn't look irreparable yet. Not wanting to trust the drops, I went to Home Depot and got an extremely cheap pH meter to keep this project afloat until Tuesday when the pH pen comes. This thing is meant to be used directly in soil, it has two long electrodes and an analog display gauge. So I measured my soil. I stuck the thing down to the root area -- now that I think about it, I hope I didn't damage the roots. I definitely felt it penetrate the rockwool cube. The meter reads a pH of 7. That's pretty high, but I also don't fully trust this thing. My nutrient solution was pretty low, around 5. I raised it to just below 6. I haven't fed or watered the plant today, but it doesn't look great -- twisty leaves, yellowing, and three black spots.
I'm a new grower, I've never grown anything in my life, and I know this is a learning process. Sometimes you have to make some clumsy mistakes in order to learn how to do things right. But I would like to salvage this project if possible. Maybe I should flush the thing? Maybe I need to re pot it in a different mixture with a different coco/castings ratio? The plant is still 5 inches tall, hasn't grown a bit in 3 and a half days. Maybe that's normal? I really don't know much about this stuff yet.
ANYWAY, tl;dr please look at my pictures and tell me what's wrong with my plant! Thanks!
