Question, is this whitening normal or do i have a problem??

I got this one indoor plant. It's been under my 600w light for only 3 full days not( 16/8 cycle) and I've just noticed this white spot on my first set of true leaves. I'm using organic miracle grow soil, temp of room is a constants 70f, got a fan going, light is about 2 feet from plant, and have not used any nutrients.
Since germination it's been over 2 weeks old. Could it be bleaching or lack of nutrients? Also when will i start to see it actually start growing. For the past week it's looked about the same with no growth except bending over a little. Any help would be great thanks.
 

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Pipe Dream

Well-Known Member
it could be bleaching I guess. That light isn't really necessary for a small plant aand seems like a waste of electricity to me. Overall your plant doesn't look very healthy either. I would say that the potting soil was probably a bad choice. I have personally used it and I got poor results like you from both seedlings and clones. I'd recommend trying a new soil, I use ocean forest myself. I would also suggest starting seeds in smaller pots and gradually moving up as the roots grow so you don't waste soil on weak or male plants and so you don't have over or underwatering issues.
 

Kingrow1

Well-Known Member
Pipe dream is right, that is bleaching from the lights, seedlings do not need or like 600w of light directly over them! What is the distance from the seedling to the light? You have also started that seedling in far too big a pot! I know some good growers start their seed in the final pot but thats because they are confident and can deal with any problems. Start that in like a 5inch pot and repot it to a bigger pot when a lot of roots are poking out of the drainage holes.

Now to the MG soil, you have already fertilized and will do every time you water, easy mistake to think plants need you to add ferts to the soil when young but the soil contains ferts to begin with and then MG add some slow release ferts on top of that. Don't fert till plant has used up all the ferts in the soil and asking you for more, this point will be when the plant has flooded the pot with roots and has sucked most available nutes out of the soil, only then will you realise the plant having nute deficiencies and the first deficiency is normally nitrogen (some times magnesium and calcium but i'll get to that point in a bit). Nitrogen is the bottom leaves turning whitish yellow, the whole leaf slowly and uniformly yellows, goes limp and drops of the plant. There is a big difference between yellow crispy, spotty leaves and Nitrogen deficient leaves. This is not in no way what you are seeing on that seedling.

Now to the magnesium and calcium issue and take some time to appreciate this and read up about it! Most soils contain peat, peat makes the soil more acidic over time, most soils are pH'ed to 6.3 to 6.6 and marijuana grows best at 6.4 to 6.8! So you see that that peat won't take long to cause your young plant acidic pH problems. All timeserved gardeners know that one cruical soil amendment for acidic and peat based soils is lime and more specifically dolomite lime. They incorporate this into the soil or topdress it. The dololmite limestone breaks down and BUFFERS the soil pH. By saying the word buffering i mean the acidic peat and lime (which raises pH to 7 to 7.5) cancel each other out and hence the pH stays stable and constant in between 6.4 and 6.8 making it thus possible to grow some grade a weed. Lime is comon knowledge but not if you are just starting out! Read up on this and overcome some fundamental problems with soil grows. Now here is the best bit, dolomitic lime or garden lime as it is sometimes called contains about the right ratio of calcium and magnesium which the plants also need good supplies of.

Now you said you bought MG soil, well this is the wrong soil to start seedlings in, you need seedling soil for seedlings. It has less ferts in and is generallyof a finer structure to allow roots to easily spread out and grow.

I think its back to the drawing board and time to do a lot of research, don't take my word for it but instead find out wether what i say is spot on advice or not! Raise the 600w light or buy one 2 foot flourescent in a blue colour spectrum Kelvin. Good luck and peace.
 
Thanks for the help. What light source am i suppose to use for seedlings. and when do I move over to my 600w light. I've just had them chilling by a window then moved them. Is is possible to change the soil at this point. For the plant above i pretty sure its too late but I got a few more plants just beginning to crack through their shells. Those are in solo cups a little more half full.
 

Kingrow1

Well-Known Member
Ahh i thought you might be in the uk, wud make it easier but i;ll just leave you to do some research. Ok for the seedlings you could use those cheap sh!tty small cfl's (if you really got to) or best option would be some 2foot flourescents. One will do but two will be better, get the daylight or blue ones (read up about colour spectrum and 'Kelvin')! This would give you a veg and flower room and a lot more yeild from growing plants continuosly.

I use fish tank flourescents and grolux plant grow tubes or t5 flourescents. The flourescents for fish are just as good for plants, tropical flourescents are for flowering and coldwater flourescents are for veg, easy. They need a ballast to run them and easily available in most fish and pet stores. Cfls are easy but are crap for growth, bit of a hassle, cheap but lame. Flourescents grow plants fast and beat cfls hands down.

Change soil now to foxfarms or whatever is recomended by weed growers in your country, use garden lime to keep the pH near 7 or you will have pH problems. Plant seedlings in small pots when you repot 5inch pots are perfect. You can dig up any plant but just make sure the stress to the roots is minimal and try not to break any. Leave one in miracle grow to see what results different soils give you. You need a ssedling soil for seedlings!

Move to 600w hps (hope its not metalhalide) when the veg lights no longer penetrate light down to bottom of the plant. Good luck dude and stay away from the miracle grow and use garden lime.
 
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