New Grower Whats wrong with my plants? Yellowing|curling|freckled leaves

[dingo]

Makes me wonder if you are over watering as part of your problem. Soil on top should always be dry. Buy a moisture meter. I read often that members do not have money to buy the PH & moisture meter(decent ones), then seriously you are wasting money on buying seeds/electricity!
Watering more than a plant can use, blocks out air in the soil and stunts the plant! I use a moisture meter before watering and often surprised how moist the soil still is, even though growth is obvious and the weather is very hot.
As the others state, PH should be around 6.5, I prefer 6.3. Foilar feed most likely will help with missing nutes. I would think that you need to add extra nitrogen and some magnesium will not hurt(a bath salt that is very cheap).

 

[HerrKaleun]

I am back I followed your advice and tested my tap water's pH at around 8, which is obviously too basic. Accordingly, I now adjust my water to around pH 6.5 using an acetic acid solution (around 1mL per litre).
I have watered three times since my last post (plants are now on day 30):

1. minimum Grow fertilizer, no pH adjustment
2. no fertilizer, pH adjusted
3. no fertilizer, pH adjusted

New growth is looking pretty well with some brown freckles here and there. Buds have started to form. Unfortunately, I cannot take photos atm. Most of the old deficient leaves, however, have gone completely yellow and/or wilted. Should this be matter for concern? Should I fertilize again? When should Bloom fertilizer be used?

 

[wg]

:gthumb: Good work on correcting the pH.

Purple / red discoloration: This often occurs on stems or along leaf petioles, veins or margins. It occurs due to abnormal levels of anthocyanin that accumulates when plants are stressed. These symptoms can also be caused by physical stresses such as cold, drought and disease.

 

[virginia gent]

Nice job on the ph correction. Bloom nutes should start after vertical growth stops, about week six (check Muddys' sticky). Once the leaves get like that they don't come back, remove them. Be careful with the nutes, 1/4 recomended amount. Check the weight of your pot, heavy don't water, light water. As you add nutes the ph will start to drop, you may want to plain water between ferts. Hope this helps.

 

[HerrKaleun]

Thank you for your answers
Shit is serious, my plants are looking miserable (refer to pics). Only fear, uncertainty and doubt in my mind. I don't understand what the fuck is going on. N deficiency?? I have watered today with 1/4 recommended amount of fertilizer as virginia said. I don't really know what else could be done ;_;

Is is time to abandon all hope and sink with waving flags? Or could the plants recover?

 

[virginia gent]

Don't quit yet! How much water do you give them? I give about 1000ml per plant. Bloom nutes and veg nutes should give them what they want but if the soil ph is at or above 7 they can't get too them. If as I think your soil ph is still too high make your water 6 or below and try and check the run off, even if you need to use more than 1500ml to get the run off. A water ph of 8 will cause a really quick and bad result. If you water with 6ph water and get even 6.5 run off your soil will be about 7 so don't water with more than 5.5. You are not going to get the best plants but this can be a really good learning experience for you (and me).

 

[wg]

Don't quit bro. The purpling of the leaf stems is part of a phosphorous defenciecy. What's happening is phosphorous (and possibly magnesium, although I'm leaning more towards phosphorous) and boron are being locked out by the pH of your medium and water being too high. Boron absorption is the same as phosphorous practically, Boron is 100% absorbed at pH of 6. Phosphorous at 6.3. So what that leads me to believe (because Phosphorous can be absorbed up to almost 7 in soil is that the PH of your medium is 7.5+, possibly even higher. You need to water acidic, until the problem rectifies. - Also check your run off solution to see how it's doing.

The boron deficiency is noted in the new growth yellowing from the stem outward, that's boron deficiency. Boron is an immobile nutrient therefor it's deficiencies show in new leaves before anywhere else. That's definitely boron lockout at the result of high pH.

The phosphorous deficiency is noted in the older leaves having the red/purple affect on them during this little bout you're having as well as the leaves curling up, turning yellow and dying - this happens at the end of the lifecycle of the plant because it's triggered to use up all the phosphorous because life's over and it needs to have some nice big flowers. Phosphorous is a MOBILE nutrient so it can move throughout the plant. So since your pH is locking out uptake of new phosphorous sources, it's taking it from the old leaves and killing them off. So the new leaves won't look like that at first, but eventually the recycled phosphorous will wear out and the buds will suffer even further.

Do not wave the white flag, please give my advice a chance as I suffered this for almost three grows before learning the err of my ways, the exact same symptoms although not as exagerated. Don't forget your soil has pH buffers in it too to try to contain the pH. Often a 6.3 watering isn't going to rectify the problem, at least not fast enough. Look at what the plant is lacking and bring the pH to a desirable range for those nutes at least for 3 waterings. I'd water @ 5.7-5.8 to bring my soil in line. No lower than 5.5. When the problem is fixed the older leaves will stop dying (can take up to a week, hence a weeks worth of watering) but they will remain yellow as the nutrients were moved to another part of the plant.

 

[HerrKaleun]

Okay, that makes sense. Thank you a lot for your effort!!
I have just a ordered a Hanna HI98129 meter. When it gets here my pH problems will perish, I hope I cannot measure run-off right now because I am using a cheapo test kit.
Going to water with pH 5.8 and hope for the best...

 

[HerrKaleun]

The meter has arrived I have now removed all dead foliage.
Three different samples of my tap water have provided an average of pH 8.1. The pH has then been brought down to 5.8 by dropwise addition of muriatic acid (a mineral acid in contrast to the organic acetic acid, which breaks down much quicker). Plants have then been watered with 500mL total (pots are 4.0L, too small?).

 

[congenial1]

I've been reading this thread with some interest. What a great education HerrKaleun, for you, for me, for others!

You've received a fountain of advice from generous forum members. I hope your only problem is water and that your meter and due
diligence will resolve your problem.

I'm on my third grow and there were times when I felt like you during the first one. In the long run simplicity is best and only 5 things are
really important: the correct seed, water, light, soil and food.

Once the first four are quickly established through trial and error it's mostly a case of watching them grow. Feeding and watering without diapering-a wonderful thing.
Good luck to you and remember, sometimes less is more when growing.