New Grower Advice please

[websterpark]

Hi all,

First off, first post and first grow. Total newb! Have been silently reading these threads and I appreciate all of the knowledge. Would not have made it this far without you guys!

Here's the situation: I've got one Nirvana Bubblicious, and one Vision AK-47 currently in progress. Started with a single LED and added six CFLs into the mix. After germ, I started them directly in 3 gal pots with Fox Farm Ocean Forest soil.

Started seeing pistils around week 3, and I've just started week 4 and everything was going great, until I thought I would add some Grow Big. I added a half tsp (1/4 dose) and within a couple of minutes one of the smaller lower branch leaves on the AK-47 became totally limp. The stem to the leaf looks like it's atrophied.

I'm guessing I got some water on it and burned it when I fed it? Would this cause this almost immediate reaction? The rest of the plant and the bublicious look great.

I currently have that leaf propped up with some sticks, in hopes it will recover, but it's pretty limp. What would you guys recommend? Should I leave it go, snip it off? The leaf itself still looks the same color as the others will it recover?

Thanks and I appreciate your feedback. (In the 3rd pic the AK is on the left and the bubblicious is on the right)

 

[The Squid]

Welcome to the AFN, dude. I don't see any limp leaves, everything looks ok to me, mate.

 

[websterpark]

Thanks for the kind words and welcome, Squid. I've got another picture from this morning. I hope you can see the bad leaf pretty clearly, now. It's pretty much shriveled up. I'm pretty sure it's not gonna recover. Guess I'll just let it go, and not freak out about it, as the rest of the plant is fine. Chalk it up to lesson learned: When feeding nutes, be very, very careful not to get any on the leaves! If anyone else has any ideas or feedback, I'd love to hear it. Thanks.

 

[virginia gent]

Welcome to AFN. Your plants look fine. That one leaf looks more like it got bumped than a fert burn. Most of the time the spilled fert with the lights cause burn sopts after a day or so. Just cut it off, don't let dead or dieing stuff hang around to long. I have been having good luck with trio but you need to check ph, especially if you add tiger bloom, because it gets to acid. I have been giving a plain watering between feedings because I was told will salt-up quickly. Your looking good so far, how far from the plants are your lights?

 

[The Dude]

Ya,I was gonna mention that there is often Yellowing,die back on the lower branches the older your plant gets.Andshort of that a reflective area(s) around your girl would help some too.Just pinch that lil leaf off.no worries.Flush with the Stalk pinch it.ive yet to have any issues doing that at somewhat later stages in growth,such as yours kinda are.They look sweet n healthy.Diggin to see how they turn out.And as always my friend,Welcome Brother/Sister grower. :joint: Myself,Im SUPER stoked to get any info. when I start my season again in a month er so.This site is awesome!

 

[websterpark]

Thank you my new friends! I knew I could count on you guys for some seasoned advice. I believe you are aboslutely right, I think I did bump some of those lower leaves when I last watered, it went limp almost immediately, and never turned yellow or brown. I'm gonna go pinch that sucker off.

But I will still be careful when adding nutes as you guys have pointed out. I was a little nervous adding the grow big at week 4, but they seem to be doing just fine. I'm going to skip it next watering and try a 1/2 dose of grow big the next time after that, which should be around the start of week 5. I'll see if they're still growing vertically after that and decide whether or not to start the bloom nutes as per Muddy's guide.

I've been trying to keep lights about 1 ft. above. The AK is couple inches taller than the bubba and has bigger lady parts, even though it germed a day later and started off behind, probably due to the Sativa vs. Indica traits? Yeah I know I had thought about putting up reflectors on the sides, but this room gets a lot of natural light during the day, especially in the morning, and I didn't want to block any of that out. I had an idea to hang some sheets of aluminum foil on the sides! Think that would work?

Thanks for the likes, I'm honored to be a part of such a great group. I'll post some more progress as they come along. Would it be OK to continue in this thread, or should I start a new one? Sorry for my ignorance, but this is actually the first time I have joined a forum, if you can beleive it! I guess there weren't any that were worthwhile until I came across AFN!

 

[wg]

Don't pinch the leaf off brother.. you'll stunt it more than if you just left it.
Don't use aluminium foil, it reflects heat as well as light and it creates hot spots that'll burn the plants.
More to come, gotta finish chasing my kids around the house.. lol

 

[websterpark]

Crap! I just snipped it off! Think I'll try to pick up some white posterboard and lay that on the sides. Thanks, hope I didn't do too much damage.

 

[virginia gent]

At this age I wouldn't worry too much, clean cut not too close to the stem. Pot is a weed and gets stronger quickly, the first few weeks are when you should be careful. Mistakes at the begining of the grow last the whole grow, mistakes later can be corrected. Watch the color of your leaves, light green girl hungry, bright or rich green girl happy, real dark green too much. Check water ph every time, ckeck after nutes added and correct to 5.8-6.3 (I like 6.1). Hanna makes a good meter, about $40-$50, control ph and half the battle will be won. Don't surround the plants with tin foil, a roof shouldn't hurt, just watch temps. Humidity is more important than I thought, I let mine drop to the low 30's this grow and stressed the grow. I now need a humidifier for winter grows. The list of things you will need to grow seems to be never-ending.

 

[websterpark]

Thanks for the reassurance and general advice, VG. Yes, I find myself picking up new things for the girls almost daily, at least I'll have stuff ready for the next grow!

My next worries now turn to flowering. I'm right at around day 30. As i mentioned I started getting pistils right at week three, right on schedule. While the pistils have been getting longer, it looks like the calyx have been also been getting a little bigger as well. Are the calyx what are going to turn into buds? In other words what and where will I see buds form, and around what time will that happen.

Thanks again for the help!