Plants seen stunted and purple stems, advice needed

Hi all,

A little background information. My first personal grow but copied directly from a successful one we have had for years.

I veg in a 4x8 tent with 2 500 watt T5 temps maintain at about 78 with 2 6" hurricane fans going.

I currently run R.O. water with 10ppm, fox farm nutrient line (grow big, big bloom, tiger, beastie etc.) and roots organics soil.
I just last week in the beginning of there 4th week of veg started giving full nutes. Before they went about 2 1/2 weeks of straight R.O. I never added calmag to my water and my plants stems both leaf and stalk got really purple and they are very short (maybe 12 inches) thru almost 5 weeks now. However they are green and healthy, the leafs look good as well.
Naturally I assumed magnesium deficiency and bought and started adding calmag+ in the amt of 5ml.

Is it correct to assume this was the problem. My friend has identical nutes and soil and his are double my size and the clones are from same plants. Should I still get to my ideal 5 ft in flowering?

Basically they look like they have been vegging for 8 weeks with the amount of branches but we're hit with a shrink ray.

I'm supposed to be flowering these in a week and wonder if it's gonna hurt me to do so..however I can't afford to have this crop delayed any further either. Thanks for heko. Any other info I can provide please let me know

Its a good start especially if doing hydro of any kind. Ro water at 10ppm will have next to no cal or mag in it and most liquid nutes dont have enough requiring the need for a calmag supplement when using ro water. An even better fix is to mix tap and ro water to about 150ppm as a base water.

If youre in soil or something like promix it sounds like you might be over-watering... that will cause root probs and slow growth down....

Ive been guilty of that....

I water every other day in small amounts. Currently they get 2 gallons total for my 15 Plants every other day. I've never experienced an issue with this in the past.

I avoided my tap water due to living in an area and we have a very serious water issue here currently with lead and tons of chlorine.

Aside from the purple stems and shortness they seem healthy as can be. My main concern is if I move into flower next week could i still expect a decent stretch is the roots are slacking?

Thanks for input and I'm so glad to be apart of these forums now. I will take some pics when I get home

Watering every other day whether or not they need it is not a good idea.

Most give enough water and/or nutes to to saturate the soil and get some good run off (if you have a good healthy root ball) and then wait until the soil is bone dry 3 or 4 inches down from the top...usually about 4ish days...

You would think the watering part is easy, but it is simply not... not until you get the hang of knowing your plants...

Thanks for the response. We have watered this way for over 5 years with our other grows and have never had issues. I water a much smaller amount and still then wait for soil to dry. In my tents that takes about 36 hours. I calmag with every water and nute at a little lower then fox farms recommended (problems in past) every other water. This is just a new house new setup type of situation and im confused at why this is all of a sudden happening. I have never had issues like this in the past except the normal bugs and stuff. I ruled out the water as the issue other then the lack of nutrients.Just never experienced nodes so tight together before.

You could try some epsom salt at 1 tbsp per gal/RO water and see if that helps. When I first noticed purple stems I foilar fed with that mix and noticed great improvement in about 5 days. It's a safe way to rule out a mag deficiency without putting it into the soil.

Purple stems are harmless and meaningless...

I did read about the Epsom salts. Being that I'm giving them calmag now, do you think it would still be necessary. If I were to switch the watering strategy up how would I go about changing the cycle? I'm attaching some pics, hopefully they shed some light. We are now about completed with week 5 for the first pics and the others are 5 days behind but look much more then that.

I must add that I have noticed a huge change in stalk color. The purple is going away and they are getting very green so far first 4 inches of stalk has reverted back.

Is it just me or are these things bushy and small for being 5 weeks.

Stalk color = "herband legend"

Look exactly like mine did in week 2 of veg. I would spray the under side of the leaves with the Epsom salt mix. Mag will be absorbed through the stomata. After that just be patient. If after 4 days or so you don't see an improvement than try something else. Don't be afraid to saturate the underside of the leaves. Minimize water sprayed on top so you don't get burn marks from the light. Only try one thing at a time so you know what works and what doesn't.

Yes they do look a little stunted. Should take off after you fix the issue

I just gave them a good dose of water. Used 4 gallons on both and gave a good saturation. The reason I never did the runoff water technique is bc I don't use trays and I hate the mess in my tent. I also use smart pots so filling the pot with water is out of question as it tends to run out sides and not give a good idea of runoff under.

My main issue, I can't afford to let these go another 3 4 weeks with my New girls almost ready, my flower room lights sit about 5.5 ft in the air and are not adjustable. If these plants are still short will they receive adequate light from 4 ft above. My room is 100% wrapped in panda with ample light relection. Generally in at about 2 ft or so entering flower. My biggest here is probably 18 inches.

Other then that do you think they look healthy outside of size? Strains are trainwreck, og kush, so cal master kush, and pineapple

BGBud said:

Look exactly like mine did in week 2 of veg. I would spray the under side of the leaves with the Epsom salt mix. Mag will be absorbed through the stomata. After that just be patient. If after 4 days or so you don't see an improvement than try something else. Don't be afraid to saturate the underside of the leaves. Minimize water sprayed on top so you don't get burn marks from the light. Only try one thing at a time so you know what works and what doesn't.

Click to expand...

That's the thing about it. The first couple weeks I noticed huge growth and the last couple weeks seems like they have only added a couple,inches in height. but I will try this method next few days. HOw often should i spray them? thanks for the input

as for my current water schedule ive been running,

started out with 100ml water as babies for entire first wee. I have upped the water 100ml per week thus leading to 500ml currently per plant. Naturally bigger plants got the excess water left over. This has been my every other day watering cycle for years with no issues. As they transition to flower they end up at about 1/4 -1/2 gallon per plant. If not easily identified in pics these are 5 gallon pots.

Gquebed said:

Watering every other day whether or not they need it is not a good idea.

Most give enough water and/or nutes to to saturate the soil and get some good run off (if you have a good healthy root ball) and then wait until the soil is bone dry 3 or 4 inches down from the top...usually about 4ish days...

You would think the watering part is easy, but it is simply not... not until you get the hang of knowing your plants...

Click to expand...

Agreed watering can be tricky for sure. I try to avoid runoff due to not having any trays and avoiding flooding my tents, its tight in there so wiping excess can be annoying. My smartpots tend to leak out the sides too if i put too much water in

Tmacular said:

That's the thing about it. The first couple weeks I noticed huge growth and the last couple weeks seems like they have only added a couple,inches in height. but I will try this method next few days. HOw often should i spray them? thanks for the input

Click to expand...

I wouldn't create a schedule to foilar feed. I would spray them down and wait a couple days and see what happens. If no change I might spray them once more and wait a couple days. I think as humans we tend to try and "micro manage" Mother Nature. Give them time and be patient, they are a weed after all and would grow out of a crack in the sidewalk

I'm noticing new symptoms on the right now as well. Brown veins and dying leaves. Looks like manganese. Will the Epsom trick

BGBud said:

I wouldn't create a schedule to foilar feed. I would spray them down and wait a couple days and see what happens. If no change I might spray them once more and wait a couple days. I think as humans we tend to try and "micro manage" Mother Nature. Give them time and be patient, they are a weed after all and would grow out of a crack in the sidewalk

Click to expand...

I'm noticing new symptoms on the right now as well. Brown veins and dying leaves. Looks like manganese. Will the Epsom trick work for this. Here are some closeups. I'm just afraid to misdiagnose as I've never dealt with deficiency before. These are only 3 of the 6 of my pineapple doing this. These are 3 diff plants with similar symptoms.

Unable to expand pics.

Okay I was able to view them. That issue could've been active before you sprayed them now it's just running it's course. I'll prob get shit for this but I would pluck the bad leaves. That will help you see if it's an old or new problem. If it's a new problem the healthy leaves will be affected sooner than later. Besides it takes less energy for a plant to generate new growth than it does to repair problem areas.