Why is this thing dying???

paramountads

Active Member
Planted about 1 week ago and the bottom leaves developed a black spot and then died like 2 days later. AFTER that happened I decided to start giving nutrients and the next set of leaves are dying again. Now the top leaves are developing a small spot again. What could this be?

Using 100% perlite with tap water phd to 5.8. Water without nutrients was around 150ppm. I then went to 850pm between dynagro and calmag since Im growing under LED. First time growing under LED for seedling but dont see how the problem would manifest so quickly.

 

paramountads

Active Member
I was using no fertilizer until the deficiencies started popping up. Why would the leaves develop black spots and die off then? Also, the leaves were very light green in color before nutrients. Not the typical hunter green that they typically have. Not trying to argue, first time for this. I usually can keep them alive for longer than a week or two lol.
 
you got bad something, soil, water something is wrong and a plant that young it usually is the medium you are using and the water/nutes ppm, you might have bad water.
but it is burnt
 

kali kid greenthumb

Well-Known Member
850 ppm is way too much for that small of a plant ,I never grew in straight perlite but you could have just done plain water or since its soiless 1/4 strength max until she gets older. Also I hope you are letting that tap water sit to let the chlorine evaporate and since your using tap you should use less cal-mg because tap has a decent amount in it being that your starting water ppm is 150 out the tap
 

rob333

Well-Known Member
Planted about 1 week ago and the bottom leaves developed a black spot and then died like 2 days later. AFTER that happened I decided to start giving nutrients and the next set of leaves are dying again. Now the top leaves are developing a small spot again. What could this be?

Using 100% perlite with tap water phd to 5.8. Water without nutrients was around 150ppm. I then went to 850pm between dynagro and calmag since Im growing under LED. First time growing under LED for seedling but dont see how the problem would manifest so quickly.

maybe the algae is eating your nutes and is "infecting" your entire system with spores. If algae gets established in your system you can see some pretty freaky pH swings.If you want to sleep better you might mix up some 1% Hydrogen Peroxide solution and squirt the algae directly. Go lightly - a little goes a long way. Once your plant bushes out a little it will cut down the light hitting the perlite and the problem will go away.

A lot of hydro growers (like me) put plastic light shields on top of the grow media to keep the algae down..
 

rob333

Well-Known Member
maybe the algae is eating your nutes and is "infecting" your entire system with spores. If algae gets established in your system you can see some pretty freaky pH swings.If you want to sleep better you might mix up some 1% Hydrogen Peroxide solution and squirt the algae directly. Go lightly - a little goes a long way. Once your plant bushes out a little it will cut down the light hitting the perlite and the problem will go away.

A lot of hydro growers (like me) put plastic light shields on top of the grow media to keep the algae down..
even without nutes the algae will still effect the plant roots and so on
 

Fease

Well-Known Member
Can perlite be oversaturated and the air it holds displaced by all water(cuz I know it holds air/water)? If so I think that was the intitial problem as is with most "light green" seedlings I've seen so far. Overwater blocks N. If not, nevermind hehe. But the large nute dose was an overcorrection which caused the rest of the burn.
 

kali kid greenthumb

Well-Known Member
I was using no fertilizer until the deficiencies started popping up. Why would the leaves develop black spots and die off then? Also, the leaves were very light green in color before nutrients. Not the typical hunter green that they typically have. Not trying to argue, first time for this. I usually can keep them alive for longer than a week or two lol.
what happens naturally is the lower part of the plant is old growth and the top is new growth, the lower leaves send nutrients to the top for the new growth if you did like a time lapse you would see the green chlorophyll fading away, its called nutrient translocation. As for the black spots, the pic shows like algae build up on the top like @rob333 said so it could be some type of fungus thats getting on the plant
 

rob333

Well-Known Member
Planted about 1 week ago and the bottom leaves developed a black spot and then died like 2 days later. AFTER that happened I decided to start giving nutrients and the next set of leaves are dying again. Now the top leaves are developing a small spot again. What could this be?

Using 100% perlite with tap water phd to 5.8. Water without nutrients was around 150ppm. I then went to 850pm between dynagro and calmag since Im growing under LED. First time growing under LED for seedling but dont see how the problem would manifest so quickly.

u can try a easy fix for around 9 - 12 bucks from any good garden center try fongarid http://agnova.com.au/content/custom/products/downloads/Fongarid-AgNote.pdf that stuff works really really well
 

paramountads

Active Member
Thanks for all the replies everyone! Im going to digest everything tonight and make adjustments tomorrow (i usually end up trying 3 things at once and really screw things up.) I will definitely be repotting in new perlite and just flush with phd water. I think it may be due to algae or some other growth.
 

paramountads

Active Member
@rob333 can i spray the peroxide on the plant it self? I couldnt help myself and just replanted with fresh perlite and dumped the water in case it had something funky in it.
 

rob333

Well-Known Member
@rob333 can i spray the peroxide on the plant it self? I couldnt help myself and just replanted with fresh perlite and dumped the water in case it had something funky in it.
dont spray the plant itself with peroxide just the perlite u could replace the whole lot like u were saying just have some peroxide on hand so say every week or 2 just run it in ur fresh water feeds to keep the nasty green at bay or use fongaride every month to stop it well to protect your roots at least
 
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