Sick Baby! DP AutoDurban Poison. Soil. Organic. LED 33 days old. Help Appreciated!!

[MediJane]

This is Lucy - Dutch Passion AutoDurban Poison. She is 33 days old:

Soil - Completely nute-free organic (I pre-fertilized it - like a dummy - with the week 1 nutrients from the GO Box and have had problems for two weeks now).

Planted directly into soil on 3/16. Sprouted 3/18

Nutrients - General Hydroponics GO Box @ 1/4 recommended strength. Started at week one and fed every other day until problems began.

Lights: - One 300w Mars-Hydro LED, 3 - 5 45w CFL's (as temperatures allow). Spacing is 16" from top of plant to light.

RH - 35 - 50%

Temps - 70 - 83 degrees F.

Background: She has been slow and picky from the start. I believe I started feeding her too early (in adition to pre-ferting the soil).

She started with a curling down/browning at the tips...I stopped feeding her and she seemed to get better. Then I noticed flying little bugs - not many - just every now and then. So I added a sticky strip and thoroughly cleaned my tent. At the same time, I flushed with PH 6.5 water (1 gallon) and let her sit for three days, feeding PH water, a pinch of epson salts and cal mag via sprayer on the leaves). Today I fed again at 1/4 strength. I have nots seen any bugs on the insect strip and my other plant in the tent (sprouted the same time) is doing fantastic.

Any suggestions? Do you think she is worth saving at this point?

Thanks AFN!

Jane

 

[armanidog]

How often are you watering? Does your soil ever dry out so that the top one inch becomes dry? You may want to cut back on the watering if the soil never gets a chance to dry out a bit.
Feeding every other day is probably too much.
I suggest not feeding it anything for at least 10 days.
The flying bugs are fungus gnats. Their larvae live in the soil and eat microrganisms. You can use bacillus thuringiensis to control the larvae, I use this- http://www.amazon.com/Mosquito-Dunk...&qid=1429747197&sr=8-2&keywords=mosquito+bits add a teaspoon to a gallon of water you use to water the plants a day or two before you use the water. For the adults I use these = http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000OV8OTY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The plant has maybe another 2 months before flowering is finished. I would experiment and feed it once every ten days and water sparingly. See how it turns out. it will be a learning experience if nothing else.

 

[bad dragon bzzz]

the other plant is the same variety ? same soil ? fed and watered the same as this one ?

 

[MediJane]

How often are you watering? Does your soil ever dry out so that the top one inch becomes dry? You may want to cut back on the watering if the soil never gets a chance to dry out a bit.
Feeding every other day is probably too much.
I suggest not feeding it anything for at least 10 days.

Thanks dog! Yes I do wait until the top is dry - down to my first knuckle at least - before I water. Except when I started to panic and flush, feed, panic, flush and feed. Lol. I think I'm over the panic now and will just let her ride until she is completely dry.

The flying bugs are fungus gnats. Their larvae live in the soil and eat microrganisms. You can use bacillus thuringiensis to control the larvae, I use this- http://www.amazon.com/Mosquito-Dunk...&qid=1429747197&sr=8-2&keywords=mosquito+bits add a teaspoon to a gallon of water you use to water the plants a day or two before you use the water. For the adults I use these = http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000OV8OTY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


Thanks again. I don't see anything in there since I cleaned the tent really well and dried the plants out a bit. Just in case, I checked and my local gardening shop has that.

The plant has maybe another 2 months before flowering is finished. I would experiment and feed it once every ten days and water sparingly. See how it turns out. it will be a learning experience if nothing else.

That's for sure! I imagine it takes quite a few grows and lots of issues before you can really dial it in. It's fun no matter what happens.

 

[MediJane]

the other plant is the same variety ? same soil ? fed and watered the same as this one ?

No Archie, The other is a Grape Muerto - Indicia. Sprouted the day after the sativa. Here are some pics:

I thought sativas were bigger, generally. That hasn't been the case for me

Thanks for your input!

 

[Waira]

:tiphat: Hi 'Jane- Mmmm, sure looks like nute burn to me, dang it! I do wonder though, why the severe reaction; GO makes quality products, and have seen several great grow with this all-in-one box,... and as organic nute's, they're not that concentrated... Also, I think I recall another fine grower mentioning that his auto DP was pretty pissy about nutrients... What brand soil is this? You mentioned minimal nute's in it-- is it a starter/seedling mix? If not, I don't think it's that mild, so that's why i asked what brand, so I can look it up and see what's in there... How did you pre-fert' it, and how much? I think the cumulative additions over time have overwhelmed the poor girl; are you adding any sort of soil inoculants, or poop teas, etc.? Many of the nutrients in organic stuff need breaking down into absorbable forms by various soil 'crobes, and if the soil is lacking, or off pH, that nute' cycling could be suffering,... Do you have a pH reading of the soil? One thing I very strongly recommend is a quality soil pH probe (not the cheapies one see's in garden centers, etc.), like an Accurate 8 unit,.... pH is so important when diagnosing and fixing trouble, as well as preventing them! You can do a water run-off test too, but I find this method to be rife with several potential sources of measurement error,... but done right, it can at least offer a ballpark estimate,... flushing -once!-was a good move, but repeated hammering stresses the plant as well,.. waterlogged soil smothers the roots, making for poor gas exchange.... Without a soil pH reading, it's just guesswork as to how to pH your water and nute' inputs,...for example, if it's overly acidic soil, and you're pH'ing water/nutes to 6.5 or less, that's adding to the problem, continuing potential nute' lockout and poor conversion by the soil herd,...
... she's over a month old now, right? - just now starting to form a bud crown... yeah, she's really stunted, sad to say! her yield will be rather small... so, it's up to you if you feel she's worth the effort and resources at this point,...or shine her and start a new one! First though, you must get ph reading on that soil, just to be sure and get a good start,...
... the bugs are indeed likely to be soil/fungus gnats,... adults are not harmful, but larvae eat roots, so a population explosion if them can be damaging! they are ubiquitous too, so ongoing treatment is wise,... the mosquito dunks (or granules, what I recommend-- no breaking up a puck!) are in fact a biological weapon, containing a bacterium that's when ingested by the bugs, kills them,... harmless to nearly everything lse though, so no worries there! Most garden centers that have pond supplies will have them... Bonide makes a good product, inexpensive and effective,... there are liquid suspensions too,... the traps IMO are of minimal help,.. they'll kill the unlucky adults, but it's stopping the reproduction cycle that's best over time, which the other stuff will do,...

...:thumbs: here's a guide on run-off pH testing... have you calibrated your pH meter lately, and/or cleaned it? Residues can build up and mess with accuracy,... https://www.autoflower.org/f90/another-quickie-reference-run-off-testing-ph-estimation-41733.html


:smoke:-let us know what you find on the pH, soil brand info, and gnat stuff, and we'll go from there,...

 

[MediJane]

:tiphat: Hi 'Jane- Mmmm, sure looks like nute burn to me, dang it! I do wonder though, why the severe reaction; GO makes quality products, and have seen several great grow with this all-in-one box,... and as organic nute's, they're not that concentrated... Also, I think I recall another fine grower mentioning that his auto DP was pretty pissy about nutrients... What brand soil is this? You mentioned minimal nute's in it-- is it a starter/seedling mix? If not, I don't think it's that mild, so that's why i asked what brand, so I can look it up and see what's in there... How did you pre-fert' it, and how much? I think the cumulative additions over time have overwhelmed the poor girl; are you adding any sort of soil inoculants, or poop teas, etc.? Many of the nutrients in organic stuff need breaking down into absorbable forms by various soil 'crobes, and if the soil is lacking, or off pH, that nute' cycling could be suffering,... Do you have a pH reading of the soil? One thing I very strongly recommend is a quality soil pH probe (not the cheapies one see's in garden centers, etc.), like an Accurate 8 unit,.... pH is so important when diagnosing and fixing trouble, as well as preventing them! You can do a water run-off test too, but I find this method to be rife with several potential sources of measurement error,... but done right, it can at least offer a ballpark estimate,... flushing -once!-was a good move, but repeated hammering stresses the plant as well,.. waterlogged soil smothers the roots, making for poor gas exchange.... Without a soil pH reading, it's just guesswork as to how to pH your water and nute' inputs,...for example, if it's overly acidic soil, and you're pH'ing water/nutes to 6.5 or less, that's adding to the problem, continuing potential nute' lockout and poor conversion by the soil herd,...
... she's over a month old now, right? - just now starting to form a bud crown... yeah, she's really stunted, sad to say! her yield will be rather small... so, it's up to you if you feel she's worth the effort and resources at this point,...or shine her and start a new one! First though, you must get ph reading on that soil, just to be sure and get a good start,...
... the bugs are indeed likely to be soil/fungus gnats,... adults are not harmful, but larvae eat roots, so a population explosion if them can be damaging! they are ubiquitous too, so ongoing treatment is wise,... the mosquito dunks (or granules, what I recommend-- no breaking up a puck!) are in fact a biological weapon, containing a bacterium that's when ingested by the bugs, kills them,... harmless to nearly everything lse though, so no worries there! Most garden centers that have pond supplies will have them... Bonide makes a good product, inexpensive and effective,... there are liquid suspensions too,... the traps IMO are of minimal help,.. they'll kill the unlucky adults, but it's stopping the reproduction cycle that's best over time, which the other stuff will do,...

...:thumbs: here's a guide on run-off pH testing... have you calibrated your pH meter lately, and/or cleaned it? Residues can build up and mess with accuracy,... https://www.autoflower.org/f90/another-quickie-reference-run-off-testing-ph-estimation-41733.html


:smoke:-let us know what you find on the pH, soil brand info, and gnat stuff, and we'll go from there,...

Thanks so much Waira! The soil I used is Nature’s Guide Organic Potting Soil, Perlite (30%).

I prefertilized by mixing week 1 GO box nutes at 1/4 strength into a gallon of water then I watered the soil mixture until I had good runoff on three 3 gallon pots. Then I popped the seeds in the soil. Two sprouted. One, a think different, did not.

I am not adding adding any sort of soil inoculants, or poop teas, etc.? I have done a few foliar feedings of PH water/calmg.

I do not have a soil PH meter. I will shoot off to AMazon and buy the accurate that you mention ($59?). I did buy PH 7.0 and recaliobrated my PH meter just the other day, so I think I'm good there.

I've read about the different ways to get rid of fungus gnats, one was to use food grade Diatomaceous earth. Is this as effective as the dunks or granules?

She is so much heavier than the other plant that is growing well. It feels like a weight in the middle of the container. I bet that's just a mess of waterlogged soil in there!

I will ready the post on runoff testing...Thank you!!!! You rock!

Oh, btw...this is the last grow I can do until September so I might as well try to save her! I appreciate all of your help!