White Widow seedlings..........More problems!

[chelsea69]

Hello, you've all been very helpful so far, i've now ran into more problems that i hope someone could help me solve. After repotting them, they showed signs of wilting, thats now fine, now though the first leaves that grew on all five plants have rust like spots over them and also the stems look a bit purple, i'm getting fairly concerned and i'm sure i need to do something to help them. Am i just being an overbearing father worrying about every little thing or should i just chill out and let them get on with it?
The soil i'm using is fox farm:ocean forest and i've watered once with plain water since they were repotted sunday morning, the temps 72 and humidity 48 and i've a small fan blowing on them.
Thanks for looking and any advice would be gladly accepted.

[sensilights]

i'm no professional, but I think those pots might be a bit large for the size of the seedlings there, also ocean forest might be a bit hot for them being as little as they are...but all in all i think they look fine, maybe its me, but it looks like the only leaves affected are the bottom set. Stems may be purple due to lower temps, (but I don't think thats a serious issue) what is the temp with the lights off? :) I'd probably just leave them to grow for a few days and see if the crispy leaves progress up the stem, or just stop where they're at. My last grow had crispy leaves like that on the first node, but it never went any higher up the stem.

As I've said I'm no pro, i've gleaned most of the knowledge i've gotten from reading the forums here, and the rest from practical experience (trying my own way and screwing it up so i have to ask for help here :P) Maybe one of the regulars could either confirm or deny my info :)

[Weedhound]

Did you mix anything with your oceans forest? And did the spotting start before or after you transplanted? How about the coloring in the stems?

I wonder about bugs of some kind.

YIPES....they are white widow babies!! I myself would consider FFOF too strong for WW' babies and keep them in Happy Frog. I also agree with sensi lights that your pot may be too big for them......something about 1/2 to 2/3 that size but FFOR is a hot soil and WW likes VERY LIGHT nutes.

[Weedhound]

Can you check the ph of your water?

[Weedhound]

And what kind of light is that and how close? if it's flouros its ok. If it's a 400mh then its too close.

[chelsea69]

Hi, the spotting was there before i repotted but nowhere near as bad as now and only on one plant, I germinated the seeds in peat pellets in a heated dome, but i mistakenly added nutes from the very start and them i didn't repot them soon enough, they were rootbound when i moved them to the larger pots, they are 2 and a half weeks old now. My water ph is 6.5 and my lights are a T5 compacts. I think they may still be suffering from the nutes i gave them too early, i'm just using water at the moment, not sure when to start giving them nutes again. Thanks for the quick responses to my questions.

[Weedhound]

DEFINITELY don't give them any nutes...FFOF should be plenty for them. If those are t5's I'd pull them back. despite the chatter about flouros being so close I find t5's run hotter than other flouros and benefit with the lights a bit more away.

The rust spots may/can be sign of a k def if not pests......BUT.......you need to understand that that is just a symptom.....not a true issue. Things like overfert, high ph, low humidity (like your T5's being real close) tend to present first as a k def. FFOF is not lacking in ANY nutes.

So the problem must be ph lockout or lighting too close or bugs. Since your water is good ph you say; pull your lights back .

WW can be delicate......ease up on the lights even if just to help ease stress on the plant. That may or may not be your only issue; but it's a fine place to start.

[chelsea69]

Thanks for theclaer and concise advice Weedhound, I've pulled the the lights up right away, my girlfriend thought the lights were too close as well , but i did'nt take any notice! I gonna test my water ph again before i use it and not put any nutes in, then keep my fingers crossed that my babies fight back. Thanks again for the tips, much appreciated.

[Weedhound]

I do think the lights are your issue.........same thing happened to some of my stuff when I got my lights way down......pulled them back to about a foot (they are t5's) and the plants did immediately better......too close, too hot, humidity drops, plants get unhappy.

Good luck.

[chelsea69]

Thanks again Weedhound, pulled my lights up last last night, the plants are looking happier today, the problem hasn't spread to any other leaves and they showing new growth. My temps 72 humidity 52. I do think i had the lights too close, the leaves that it affected are sort of burnt yellow coloured, dry and a bit crispy, as for the soil, it says on the bag no nutrients needed for 30 days, so thats what i'll do. I Didn't realise White Widow were of a delicate nature, hopefully i've not harmed them too much. Fingers crossed!!

[Weedhound]

that's good to hear. Sounds like they'll be fine after a day or two.

[stinkyattic]

FFOF is too ferty for seedlings of most strains. Intense light can make overfert symptoms and damage worse. Keep a close watch to see if they get worse, and if they do, do the next watering VERY heavy and to the point of runoff to try and get some of the available fertilizer knocked back to a level they can tolerate.

[chelsea69]

My little widow babies are looking far healthier now, new growth and no yellow spots anywhere. Another thing i'm unsure of though is when to water them. I haven't watered them since sunday when I repotted them. The soil still feels fairly moist, three days seems a long time to not water them. Any advice? Also a question of lights, I'm going to buy another light this weekend, an HPS, but I'm not sure whether to go for 250w or 400w, my grow space is fairly small, less than 4.5 square foot and about 7 foot high. I'm worried if I go 400 the space will get too hot, would the 250 be powerful enough to flower my five plants and get nice size buds? Any input would be gladly accepted.

[Weedhound]

400w will cover a 4 x 4 area which sounds more suited to your space. I have a 250 and a 400w so would tel you to go with the larger one.

As for overwatering....as long as you have adequate drainage and good soil I water mine every other day to every two or three days. You have small plants in large pots however and should water smaller amount directed toward the center (where the roots would be) more often. Water down at the very bottom of your pot will do your roots no good and would just sit there creating problems. I've found its hard to overwater FFOF unless, again, you just don't have good holes in the bottoms of your pots.

[Weezard]

My little widow babies are looking far healthier now, new growth and no yellow spots anywhere. Another thing i'm unsure of though is when to water them. I haven't watered them since sunday when I repotted them. The soil still feels fairly moist, three days seems a long time to not water them. Any advice? Also a question of lights, I'm going to buy another light this weekend, an HPS, but I'm not sure whether to go for 250w or 400w, my grow space is fairly small, less than 4.5 square foot and about 7 foot high. I'm worried if I go 400 the space will get too hot, would the 250 be powerful enough to flower my five plants and get nice size buds? Any input would be gladly accepted.


Aloha Chelsea,

The new soil may stay moist for a while, until the roots grow into it and start sucking the water out.
What you need to watch is the old root ball.
It can dry out and slow growth down until the roots spread.

Since you just re-potted, you may remember what the new pot weighed from moving it.
Heft it now.
A lot lighter?
It's time to do the "very heavy watering" that Stinky prescribed.

As for the lights? Ah dunno, sorry.

Best of luck.

Weezard

[chelsea69]

Hi Weezard, Weedhound and Stinky thanks for all the sound advice, you're giving me lots of good nuggets of info, it's been very helpful. Gave my Widows a good old watering yesterday, they loved it, soaked that water right up. My pots have good drainage, about an inch flowed into the trays and the next morning it was gone. I think I will go with the 400w, I want nice big juicy buds and I think that addition power will help my babies turn into beasts.
Thanks again people.

[Weedhound]

My advice here would be to water....then within a few hours empty your catch trays of any standing water; this will put you on a regular watering schedule. Remember, the bottom of your pot being wet ISNT helping unless there are roots down there and I doubt there are yet. So water on a regular schedule (which will increase as your plants get bigger) but don't leave any standing water behind.....get rid of it.

[reloadagain]

Looks to me like the leafs received a touch of fert on those areas. Happens, but I would avoid the foliage at such a tender age.

:D