whats wrong with them??!!...anyone some help please

ok, I've been growing my babies since about the beginning of september...400w hps, in a perlite/vermiculite mix, 2x2x4 growspace. theyve been loosing the bottom leaves pretty consistently although ive been able to slow it down for now. its not the heat, its pretty well ventilated, I've been watering every 2-4 days depending on how moist the medium is. I use schultz liquid plant food 10-15-10.

the leaves that die usually start to turn black or brown at the tips and curl up. the brown color eventually spreads, they turn yellow and brown, whither and just fall off. its going alot slower now...went to a local garden store, one of the guys told me it might be magnesium deficiency so i put a teaspoon of epsom salt in a quart of water every 2 or 3 waterings havent been doing that long. i flushed them all out about a week ago, thats about all i got, took some pics finally...maybe someone knows whats up. Any help would be awesome, please dont let them die it would be a damn shame.

not really sure but think you might need to feed it more often, i know perlite doesn't really retain water that well not sure about vermiculite, but most soiless mixes need watering more often

also, i forgot...I think I'm about to start flowering, are the nutes im using ok or do i need some with more potassium? or in other words a higher k in the n-p-k values?

i feel like ive been over watering them, i read that when they curl down like they are thats an indication of over watering

yeah curling down is a sign of over watering but i can be other things as well are you giving them nutes each time, what strength?

also perlite has really good aeration properties, drooping from over watering is from lack of oxygen

thanks for the help man...i dont give them nutes every time, i've been trying to keep it to every third watering. and i started off at 1/4 strength but now i go full strength its been about 2 months i figured they could take it

have you had this problem right from the begining, i personally would feed them more often as it looks like they are generally lacking in nutes, does the new growth look fine? also i wouldn't start flowering until you fix the problem

cookin said:

also i wouldn't start flowering until you fix the problem

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good point...new growth looks good. pretty good green color, actually the leaves on top droop just a little. I was just afraid of overdoing it with the nutes, i dont wanna burn the leaves. dont i need to water them with just water in between the feeding? to flush out any build up or anything like that?

you get browning tips but with green leaves with nute burn so i'm guessing your not in danger of that, i think that plain water feedings are more for soil, i grow in coco and have a hempy bucket with only perlite and feed everytime, the reason you can get away with this is because they drain really well so you are in a sense flushing out old nutes and replacing them, never used vermiculite but would imagine its much the same. i'd try maybe feeding them 1/2 strength every day for a bit, if you notice nute burn then cut back but i think they will lap it up.

oh yeah some people do like to give plain water feedings in soiless mediums but more like once a week or once every 3 feedings

awesome, thats what i kinda thought but was afraid of burning them. i'll give it a try, hopefully wont be posting another one of these.

one more question...cus im doing a hempy bucket too, a shitty job at it but im trying. with 3 gallon pots how much should i water them at a time? i still havent been able to figure it out and i dont want anymore curling leaves. I know its different for every plant but just a round about number would work.

oh right if your doing hempy bucket don't water everyday, maybe every 3 days (i'm just doing my first hempy grow and yours are further along so maybe even 2 days if they do get low) but put 1/2 strength nutes in, since hempies have holes in the side however much you water any excess will just go out so just pour it slowly until you start to see water coming out and that will be enough, you shouldn't need to worry about overwatering.

hope they get better, also you might need different nutes as it is essentially hydro which uses different n-p-k ratios but people have been known to do them with all types of nutes so try the other stuff for a bit and it should pick up

edit: actually if they are 3 litres buckets you may want to lean more towards watering every 2 days, but you'll have to experiment a bit