In need of some advice

[Comatose]

I will post a few pics as soon as possible, but until then, hopefully the community can help me out.

Bagseed. Foxfarm Oceans Mix. 1.5 Gallon pots. 6.4ish pH. BC nutes. 5 weeks. Temps under the MH can get between 80-90F.

I started some plants almost five weeks ago under a 125W CFL hood. They all sprouted nicely and started to outgrow the area I had them in, so I had to split them into two groups. One group stayed under the CFL hood and the other group moved under a 400W MH/HPS. Soon after I split the plants up, the group under the MH started drooping heavily and yellowing at the bottom. Meanwhile, the group under the CFL are still growing brilliantly.

Since my space is pretty confined, I had been planning on starting one group on 12/12 soon. When I saw this problem getting worse, this is what I decided to do.

I moved the "good" plants into the MH/HPS and switched bulbs. I took the "poor" plants and put them under the CFL to heal up and veg while I weed out the males in the flowering cycle. When I put them under the CFL, I trimmed all of the yellow/brown leaves and topped the plants. I figure that the plant shouldn't waste all of its energy healing a lost cause.

The only thing that I think may be causing this is high temperatures, but I'm not sure at all. The CFL area stays under 80, while the MH gets up to 90 or more at times. For ventilation, I have an 80 CFM above the MH/HPS and another 120 CFM blowing out exhaust from the top into a carbon filter/ionizer. Should I have more air blowing into the area? If so, what should I be doing?

I hope I have done the right thing. If there is anything else that I should be/could be doing. Please let me know. I'm trying not to panic, but I don't want to ruin my grow.

[Comatose]

I believe I may have left out some info in my post. I found this from a post by stinky and thought I should answer all of these...

-indoor or outdoor: indoor
-soil, soilless, or hydroponic: soil
-Soil type/brand: Foxfarms Oceans Mix
-Anything you have added to the soil: One dose of BCs Recipe to Success
-Soil pH: 6.3
-Water source: From the tap, but filtered. I don't at all suspect it to be hard water.
-Water pH: 6.5
-Age of plant(s): 5 weeks
-Type of fertilizer: BC Recipe to Success
-Rate of application: Only once so far
-Lighting source and distance from plant: 125W CFL/a few inches - 400W MH/24 inches.
-Temperature (both day and night if you are running a dark period): day up to 90's. night is around 78-80.
-% Relative humidity: 40-55.
-Lighting schedule: 18/6
-Type of ventilation your room has: 80CFM and 120CFM fans blowing exhaust into carbon filter/ionizer. I know that I need more...

I hope that this helps someone help me, lol.

[Ganja Guerrilla]

raise the lites ...when plants are first introduced from fluros to hps the need to be acclimated, or they heat stress and get lite burnt , well you know:stoned:

you also need to work on those temps, you need to bring it down 5-10F

[Comatose]

Since the switch, the group now under the CFL's are doing much better. Leaves purked right back up. As for the group under the HPS, they look good now. I adjusted the height on the hood and I installed an intake fan 200 CFM to cool that bad boy down. Hopefully this solves the problem.

Any more advice is greatly appreciated though.

[stinkyattic]

The only things I have to add are that your soil and water pH are on the low side. Bring your fert solution up to 6.9 to help balance out the low soil.
Also, you may end up having to flush the solid ferts out of the soil when you start onf a liquid fert regimen.

[Comatose]

Great, thanks for the advice. I'll give them a real good flush here tonight before I test out one of them with a dose of nutes later next week. Thanks again to you both. Hopefully there will be smooth sails from here.

[Comatose]

I've got a couple other questions. First one, is it alright to use hydroponics fertilizers in soil? I found some on sale and didn't realize it was for hydroponics.

Second one, how do you keep your "aroma" from leaking out of your grow area? I'm having problems containing mine.

Any help is much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[stinkyattic]

Hydro nutes in soil? Sure. Not a prob.

Aroma? Fucking A hey, bottle that shit up and use it as cologne. MMMMMM smellly sooo good.

Honestly you may very well want to look into a carbon filter/scrubber for odor control if you are concerned about it.

[Comatose]

Stinky, you are a life saver, as I've read in numerous other posts. Thanks :)

[PharmaCan]

You didn't make any mention of circulating fans. Do you have any fans that are moving the air around the plants?

PC :smokin:

[Comatose]

Hey PC... sorry about that. After tinkering and adding a fan, I'm at 300ish CFM's between intake and exhaust. I exhaust into a tiny-room sized carbon/hepa filter.

[PharmaCan]

Hey PC... sorry about that. After tinkering and adding a fan, I'm at 300ish CFM's between intake and exhaust. I exhaust into a tiny-room sized carbon/hepa filter.

That's not the point. These plants like air movement, the kind created by an oscillating fan inside your grow area. An additional benefit is that blowing the stems and branches around makes them stronger - to support the bigger buds you will get because your plants like a breeze.

PC :smokin:

[Comatose]

I had a circulating fan in the room for a month or so, until it fell and almost destroyed a plant (it ended up taking out a few leaves unfortunately.) I know about the benefits to the circulating air. The intake fan that I have blows in cool air at the bases of the plants, which aggitate them pretty well. I definately need something to blow the canopies though.