Strawberry Cough is Spluttering & About To Die- Help.

I've just been growing a Strewberry Cough Seed ( dutch passion fem), and for the last 7 weeks its been fine. Pics 1&2.

The Plant has been re-potted once into a mixture of Organic Compost, John Innes #3 & Perlite. Soil pH is 7.

The Plant has been fed with Maxigrow Plant Growth Stimulant (which has Seaweed) every other water.

Own Brand Tomato Plant food- NPK- 3.9-2.6-7.7, a couple of times.

Sulphate of Ammonia (N), a couple of times


I made a new box to house a varity of household plants and my plant.

The new box had the addition of a fan. Pic 3 (fan is the hanging thing in the middle, very home made).

With the new house for my plants, I then decided to FIM my plant. Pic 4.

This is when all the wheels fell off. Pics 5-8.

The plants are on an 18/6 cycle (under a 125w cfl), and just after FIMing the plant, it went into the dark cycle. In the morning (6 hours later) i started to see the leaves turning a shiny bronze on the edges and overall wilting. Whats going on?

Have I stressed the plant out too much?

If the plants get there energy from the lights, should i have left the light on to help the plant, recover form the stress?

Is it anything to do wiht the addition of the fan? The other plants are having problems with their leaves, wind burn?

And just one final Kick in the Balls, i also have had a few Scarid Fly (see link).

I've not seen any flies for a week now, but i have seen a larvae in the weed plant soil crawling around, so i was planning on drying the plant out to kill the larvee. But should i just soak the pot in a chemical to kill the larvae??

So as you can see, there is a lot going wrong here, but as yet, the plant is not dead, so there in a chance of keeping the Straberry Cough ALIVE?

Any Help will be truly greatful,

Many thanks,

Don Holland.




Sciarid Fly

Tips on Pests + Diseases for the Hydroponic Gardener

Dude they look well over ferted!
Try replacing it with fresh un adulterated soil.
J Innes 3 is to hot for them just yet! and I find it like concrete .
You want a soil thats not so hot at this stage something like tomato grow bag is perfect for the seedling-growth cycle untill a week before flower.

Also dont need tobe feeding with soil as hot as J I 3 will have a minimum of 4 weeks for a big plant.
I used to use J Innes 3 with perlite. only for flowering and i never needed full feed until around wk 5 bloom

Its something that can happen so easy with chemical based fertilizers , Should have started with 1/4 dose and worked up to 1/2.

If you aint a softer soil Try and leach of the ferts if you can

Hay Canna_420,

Thanks for the info. I let the plant dry out for a week, to kill the fly larvea, and then flushed it about 7-8 times in the bath. By this i mean i just filled the bath to the height of the pot and then soaked it for a while, then lifted it out and held it till all the water had drained out.

When you say hot, do you mean too many nutriants in the soil?

Its a combo of ji3 & compost.

Its come back to life, and i think i'm going to start it flowering in the next couple of days, any thoughts?

Also still got these flies, not masses, do you think they will harm it?

Also i fimed it, but not sure if its made any difference?


Nice, Thanks.