plant droopage (questions)

[la marea]

well my plants have been doin pretty well except recently some of their fanleaves have began to droop downards and a few of the lower leaves have started turning yellow. We though perhaps it might be a nutrient defficiency, however, we've stopped feeding and thats when they turned yellow and drooped even more. Here are some pics, any advice/suggestions/ideas would be greatly appreciated.

[deftdrummer]

your plants are being overwatered. The drooping evenly over all fan leaves is a tell tale sign. The yellowing is due to nitrogen defficiency - something your plants are going to need the most of during veg state. You are growing in soil so I recommend flushing the plants out good, let the soil dry up enough until you can poke your finger in a few cm and feel that it is dry and water again at that point. I also would have recommended that you not feed your plants up until this point. Right about now (especially for the plant in pic 2 on the left) is when you would want to add very little nutrients ie: 25% strength to stimulte the beginnings of veg state. Hope this helps

[Tom Green Thumb]

You really should be careful feeding your plants when they are so young. I would feed them very lightly at this stage, like a sixth of a regular dose (just aprox.) and then slowly go up from there. How much nitrogen were you using and did it have any micro nutrients in it also?

If you were feeding heavily I would suggest the same as deftdrummer has and flush them well. If not I wouldn't flush them as the over-watering is probably your problem. If so the best thing to do is to let them dry out and not feed until the pot is light when picked up. I find the plants do best when you let them go through a dry spell (but not to the point of drooping) and then give them a good soaking. Make sure you have good drainage. This also promotes good root development as the roots are encouraged to search for water hence making them larger and stronger. If watered always they start to look the same as being under-watered and droop. Also, the water always available makes it so the roots don't have to search and you eventually get a small root mass, which contributes to smaller end product and weaker plants.

I hope this helps a bit and good luck!

TGT

[la marea]

ok, so i leached my ten plants in pure water and set them back to the light. I plan on discontuning feeding for about 5 days and then going from there. I'm feeding advancednutrients microbloomgrow, + growth excell. tangent question, how long do you think before a clone could be cut? thanks.

[Tom Green Thumb]

YOu said you are using a product that reads 'microbloom'. This seems to suggest that it is for budding plants, hense the word 'bloom'. I could be wrong, but look on the label and if it has more Phospherous than Nitrogen, then you are using the wrong nutrients. You need more Nitrogen, but the micro nutrients are good. Just a suggestion as you might already be doing it correctly. Just the name imply's a bud sollution. Let us know.

I forgot to address your last question - clones can be cut anytime there is growth to be cut. Usually you will want to veg until you have enough bottom branches to clone and not take from the tops. You can take from the tops, but this usually will cause smaller bud formation as appose to large main cola's forming. I usually take clones anywhere from 4 weeks to six weeks veg, although I grow my plants a little larger than some.

TGT

[harris7]

no, he is using a grow micro bloom system. Its a 3 part fert

[harris7]

Ok well i know this guy, and I was over yesterday. we measured the soil moisture and it was very dry. If this is an over watering problem what is the best course of action, ie dont water at all for a week or let it dry out real good b4 you water? and how long till one would see positive effects

[Tom Green Thumb]

I usually don't water by sight. I pick up the pot and if it is light I water. If it's still fairly heavy I wait. This has worked well for me. If it is an over-watering problem, I would say two or three days after the soil has dried out you would start to see results. Hope this helps!

TGT