Purple Kush 10 days old I believe this is either nutrient burn or a phosphate diffien

Hey all,

10 day old purple kush plant. The plant was over-watered, then some slight light burn, all is well, until she went yellow on the tips, brittle and is turning black. I backed off the 150w hps in the 2x2 space and flushed her with ph water. The new growths look ok but the old leaves are dying. I initially thought nute burn. But the red stems and black spots make me think phosphate deficiency.

Whatcha think?


Thanks in advance!

It looks ok, no irreparable damage. They need very little nutrients when that small. I cant tell exactly what your grow medium is,if it is coco/perlite then just use a very weak veg mix..like 1/4 strength - 200 ppm or see if the brand of nutrients your using provides a mix for seedlings. If that is an amended soil/ seed starter mix, just use water. Try to avoid trying to diagnose specific deficiencies when theyre that small, it usually over complicates things. Good luck.

Thanks Bustin.

Its a potting mix. So essentially it is pre treated. Ill go with fresh water and seedling mix. Its technaflora. Less worried now.

Side note Is it time to re pot? 5 gallon seems the norm?

If it is a potting mix you could probably just use water and hold off on the bottled stuff until it gets a little more established. As far as transplanting, yeah you could go ahead. 5 gallon is a good size to flower in but usually something smaller like a one gallon is good to use first for vegetative growth until it gets to 10-12 inches . If you put directly into the 5 gallon it would take forever to dry out, and for soil especially wet/dry is what encourages root growth. A tiny plant sitting in a fully saturated 5 gallon pot could possibly be problematic.

Bustin has that right about the repotting!
I put rooted clones in a solo cup till the plant is about 10 inch. Then to a one gallon and off to a 3 to 5 (depending on required plant size at finish) to finish out veg and then simply flower out when the roots have spread out.....

Update -

New growth seems healthy! Thanks! So I can call her mature and re introduce nutes when she grows a few mature (5 prong) leaves?

Side note - Am I pushing it with a 23wcfl @6500deg 4 inches from the seedling? Temp is good. No cotyledon? Do I need light at this stage? I read mixed messages. In my head, no leaves = no need for light?

pickpocket33 said:

Update -

New growth seems healthy! Thanks! So I can call her mature and re introduce nutes when she grows a few mature (5 prong) leaves?

Side note - Am I pushing it with a 23wcfl @6500deg 4 inches from the seedling? Temp is good. No cotyledon? Do I need light at this stage? I read mixed messages. In my head, no leaves = no need for light?

Click to expand...

Light isn't particularly good for the roots as I understand it.
Personally I left my sprout in the dark until she had actual leaves.
But I don't think that lil thing is gonna really hurt it. It should open up in about a day or so.
What are you growing under for the 10 day old?

150w hps @ 7 inches. I turn them off for the photos as requested. Ill use cfl's to light up dark spots on later veg and flower however a 2x2 mylar room is filled well.

Doesn't leave a lot of room for your plant to grow at 2x2. Think I could see the light?
And so far it seems like you have everything pretty in hand.

Update - Shes getting worse. Its Def nute burn but its losing surface area on the leaves. Its like an acid burn?? The way it looks. Is this thing done for? What the heck I going on??!!

did u find out the problem here?

I fed it half strength. And this is what I got. Another case of nute burn. My soil is too hot im pretty sure. Its a potting mix.

people make the mistake of using just potting mix in pots all the time, my mom just did it the other day had to explain to her; potting mix is to be mixed, but if your looking for easier and faster just use potting soil.

I'm just throwing out ideas here…What about pH? I remember years ago someone saying that those peat pots and peat, in general, is kind of acidic. My understanding is that if the soil has too much acid, then it can't uptake certain nutrients. So, I'd probably at least check to see pH…and then correct it by pH-ing your water with some dolomite lime or something that will bring the pH up.

To my knowledge, the peat will take on the pH (which isn't to say that the peat itself doesn't effect the end result) of the water used to expand it. Use properly balanced water when expanding it, and it should be correct. (I think at least, don't quote me on that)

What water do you use? Do you use cal/mag? It almost looks like too much phosphorus with the shine on the leafs

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I used phed tap water. No nutrients and no cal mag. Now their doing good. I ended up with a lollipop and now its really taken to half strength nutes and mag and cal. Ill post a pic tonight. Ill let her breath. These things are very picky with nutrients huh.

pickpocket33 said:

I used phed tap water. No nutrients and no cal mag. Now their doing good. I ended up with a lollipop and now its really taken to half strength nutes and mag and cal. Ill post a pic tonight. Ill let her breath. These things are very picky with nutrients huh.

Click to expand...

And you're certain that your tap water doesn't contain chlorine? Like most municipal water supplies do?
If it does, you can avoid that issue, by simple letting the water sit out for a few days. The chlorine will evaporate from the water, and you'll be left with normal water. However, R/O (Reverse Osmosis) water is pretty much the standard.

Its doing it again.

Im going to transplant into some softer soil, get rid of the peat pots if the roots aren't entangled and try to start from half scratch. Thanks for the input! And that's very interesting about the chlorine in the water. Ill use distilled water for a week and see. Also ill test my water supply. PH I try to get at 6.5

I think is a combination of bad soil, bad drainage, and silly errors. Ill let you know.

Thanks again

Happy to help.
If you don't have access to pH-Up Or pH-Down, you can use vinegar, and baking soda to bring the pH up and down. (Vinegar for down, baking soda for up)
But it's not very stable, so once you've pH'ed your water, use it... don't let it set for too long.
Most drinking water gallons sold are R/O. So is the water in the dispensers outside of most grocery stores. Those perfectly usable as well, so long as you pH it just the same as any other water.
Distilled can work, but i've never been a big fan... something about it just doesn't rub me right, but that's a personal preference. I've seen people use it to generally positive results.
The only bit I will suggest if you're going to be buying water like that is, if you don't finish off a jug, and it will be sitting for a week or so between waterings, get a small air pump (fish section at walmart) a little tubing, and an air stone (the same way people add bubbles to fish tanks) and put that in the water you intent to use. It oxygenates the water, as well as keeps it from becoming stagnant.
Never add nutes to the water before you're going to use them, it'll make the water slimy and start to smell bad.