Should i just stick to buying it??

[franko007]

Hi guys and girls. Hope i can pick at your wealth of experience here.
I got problems and its my first grow. i have researched a lot and i have searched much around here but my findings are inconclusive so i ask;
Take a looksie at 'hollys baby'. her leaves are curled up. then look at 'hermione'. her leaf looks a little burnt. am i correct that these two problems go hand in hand and that they are over-nuting? i am growing white widow, plants are generally about 250mm(10 inch to you old schoolers and people over the water):) i was told they are sensitive to nutes and i initially hit them with 1/4 strength. after a few days i topped up with more water and hit them with more nutes probably up to 1/3 strength. maybe over. too much you think? i flushed them with PH'd water( i stick around 5.8????) from above and have fed them for 24hrs purely on this water. i found them drooping this morning so have returned to 1/4 nutes. is this long enough flushing and should i expect these leaves to un-curl or are they f**ked forever?
also looking back at hollys baby, that particular leaf has seven parts to it!! is this normal or have i stressed them too much with my amateur shenanigans? theres a number that are like this so i am a little concerned. temps always up at 80 degrees at the mo. 24hr full time and i use 3x600w hps fittings. 16 babys in a hydro/aero cross type thing with 8 inch spare depth of chamber for the nice white healthy roots to dangle as they lovingly do.
also i cant seem to find anywhere any real info on white widow and her little nuances. can anyone suggest somewhere or someone who knows her likes and dislikes?
when i bought the cuttings i had assumed they were from one mother but although most are tall and pretty, there's four runts of the litter. is this me and my setup conditions screwing it up? i thought clones grew uniformally.
sorry this is more of an essay people. theres just so much i wish i knew!!
thanks in advance for any help. really appreciated.

[Weedhound]

I have no clue but honestly that doesn't look like a "nuance" to me--it looks much more like a problem. Wish I could tell you which one it is but no such luck. What are the ppms of your water, what nutes are you using, how far away is your light etc?

[DamianLucifer]

How big of a space? I had 1 400w hps in a space that was 4' by 4' about 7' high I kept my light about 2' above the plants hold your hand between your plants and the light when you can't feel heat on the back of your hand add about 6" or so cause you need room to grow:) Can't help with ferts I used soil If you can save them great if not I would use some bagseed for a few grows till you have more experiance If you kill some bagseed plants no big loss

[franko007]

Thanks for taking the time to reply guys. really appreciated but tbh you've fukkin scared me now!!
i am using vita link grow a/b solution and my lights are quite a distance away in all honesty. probably about two feet. the grow table is three feet wide and nine feet long and i have 3x600 watt hps fittings along the length which i am sure is ample.
i dont feel that until i get this sorted that i can drop the heights and i certainly wasnt thinking that this problem is down to a lack of light.
i discoverd this morning that my ph pen was out of calibration!!!! so me setting ph at around 5.7 or 5.8 was in fact 5.3/5.4 is this too low anmd a possible culprit?
again, any help is really appreciated because i cant afford to fook this up. not at the price i paid for these cuttings!

[franko007]

situation is not getting better and i cant find anything to help so please, any advice is great
the leaves are now wilting also and the edges and tips on some are now blackening or at least turning very dark green. nutrient deficiency? i really dont know and i am starting to panic.
please help. thanks to you all

[Weedhound]

Frank how long do you think your ph was out of whack? To me ph is the absolute biggest key in hydro. I do think 5.3 is too low but others know more than I do about it and may think it isn't bad I don't know. If the foliage is turning dark green that sounds like nitrogen overdose--done that myself---so maybe your nutrient solution is too high? That coupled with lockout from abnormal ph could certainly kill off your plants.....

[Weedhound]

Afer rereading your first thread it doesn't sound like overfert-- sounds more like nute lockout if your ph has been off. I think the affected leaves are probably toast--adjust your ph and see if any new growth forms. I have heard that nitrogen does well in a slightly lower ph (5.5) so perhaps your plants are overdosing on N while locking out other nutes.

[franko007]

thanks very much weedhound. much obliged. the ph is now set at 5.9 though a specific level is impossible for me to maintain. between 5.8 and 6.2 is how it go's. doesnt take long to climb back up at all. the ph pen was second hand along with everything else. before we got the cuttings i checked it at 7 with buffer solution. i have only had the plants two weeks so god knows how long its been out of cal. for. i am now running my nutes at 0.8/8/580ppm and most are about a foot in size so is this too much or too little? as i said earlier i was told that this white widow was sensitive to nutes so to take it easy on them.
essentially there hasnt been any improvement but another thought is humidity. i have read various opinions for and against humidity. can anyone categorically state that it is or is not needed? i am running the lights 24/7 at the moment. should i spray the leaves with just plain water or not? is that likely to scorch them under the lights that are about 1 1/2 feet away?
thanks for any help guys and girls.

[franko007]

sorry, just to add also that my sprayers and misters are only on a 24hr timer. with 15minute segments. so i am running the pump on 15 off 15. is this normal? noone seems to have addressed this situation that i can find. i know a proper cycle timer would likely be better, 1min on 4 mins off etc but i aint got one. i can build one for about £30 and will do but havent yet. are my times ok or am i way off the mark? i dont want the roots drying out but am i overwatering them? is it so that if the roots are suspended in the air and trailing on the ground as they are now, i can hit them permanently with water? i am aerating the nutrient tub so there should be oxygen in the water? or would this saturate and bring on root rot? again theres a lot of differing opinions.
thaks again in advance. any opinions are very appreciated

[Weedhound]

As far as timing for watering goes I'm afraid I cannot help you--I have a bubbler system that runs 24/7 so I know nothing about watering times or anything--sorry. With your numbers--they sound good--ph will travel around and I remember reading somewhere that it will rise as parts of the plant die off. That may be wrong but that's what I remember. I try to keep my ph between 5.6-6.1 (6.2 on a lazy day) but anything withing that range I don't worry about. I was taught that when in doubt go with less nutes...lower ranges may slow them down but won't kill them...too many nutes will. As for humidity Ill probably hear about this but honestly I don't worry about it at all. I grow from seed so don't know much about clones either although I know they do like humidity. You need someone with more experience than me to answer your questions about timing and humidity etc. I would start a new thread with those two questions and see what you get. Watch for any new growth popping up from your kids--I don't think that the leaves you are seeing now will improve really. Any new growth would be a good sign that they are on their way back.

[Weedhound]

One last note--I would not spray those leaves with an hps light 1 1/2 feet away unless you raised it quite a bit or turned it off until they were dry. I have a 1kw hps and remember reading not to let it get closer than 2 feet to my plants. I know you can go closer to the plants with lesser wattage but I don't know how close is too close for your kids.

[franko007]

thanks again pal. i will start that new thread. tbh i wouldnt really say that my babies have ever stopped growing the whole time. temperemental but strong little buggers all the same, i guess. thanks for your help and as always, if anyone else has anything to throw into the pot....................

[latewood]

Has anyone asked about the temps and humidity levels in your grow area? at 1st glance, looks like heat exhaustion. sounds like a nice system. you are right to have ph at 5.8 and you were right to flush with water after seeing problem...can't hurt. it looks like heat stress to me. check ya later, peace

[franko007]

well bugger me backwards. cracked it!!
as i said earlier i bought everything of a guy i knew for an absolute bargain price but didnt ask how old it all was. turns out its all 3 yrs old. just taking up space in his garage. that includes the vitalink a/b!!!!
lent it to one of my amigo's to have a shot with and fuck me sideways. a day later and his leaves are curling up!!!! kinda feel bad for him but at least i know i wasnt doing anything directly wrong myself. probably locking out some nutes to my poor little babies. so its a flush for 18hrs and onto the new.
one last question and then i'll stop:)
as these pictures show, tallest is 14 inches@2 weeks. but only a few. should i top these to slow 'em and get two colas? give the others chance to catch up? can this be done to good results with white widow? is the growth good for age and do the tall ones look ok or a bit spindly? i'm happy but what the fukk do i know?
thanks guys for your continued help

[latewood]

I would seperate the biggest from the smallest and build a partition and make it light tight. Flower the big ones to sex them. the little ones I would take cuttings and root them to find a mother plant. Then in a couple weeks I would flower them. goodluck.

Or just take 2 cuttings form each strong plant...root for 2 weeks and veg for 2 weeks then flower just to determine sex of plants still in veg...this will allow you to weed out the males. right about the time the sex shows on the young clones and you weed out the males. It will be time to flower your females. you just kill the young clones. they were sexed too young to yield enough to be worth the trouble of growing them out to finish.

[monty5309]

as these pictures show, tallest is 14 inches@2 weeks. but only a few. should i top these to slow 'em and get two colas? give the others chance to catch up?

I just finished one that started bloom stage at 20 in and it went ape shit taking over a lot of space causing me to take extreme measures to reign it in. The other one was about 12 in and stunted because of a caterpillar infestation delaying growth. If they are getting too tall and lanky, wouldn't hurt to top them and get the other buds to fill out equally. I like to see equal size growth instead of a few spindly-ass tops chasing the light with no growth in between.

[MadHatter79]

I think your plants look fine. Perfect grows are rare. I know a 20-30 plant grower that always has yellow tipped plants. The tips are the most sensitive to imbalances. Old sun leaves will turn yellow and die as the plant deems necessary. The thing I noticed the most is how orange/red your lighting is. Are you using the bulb that came with the light set? I switched to a hortilux metal ace after my clones were doing really shitty under a 15 dollar stock phillips bulb. The orange/red is used in construction, and while it still works to grow under, a bulb with more blue light would guarantee you better growth. It's worth the 100 bucks.

[BlueBear]

Like GK said, temps may be playing a part, and def the nutes. Most nutes have about a 1 year shelf life and after that they under go changes that do things like what you are experiencing right now.
If your lights are not MH they will cause your lights to stretch durring the veg period and also, you want to get those 600w lights about 1FT away from the plants if heat permits. At 2FT away you can lose up to 20% of light penatration if not more. Closer than 12 inches you can lose out on your lights foot print and bleach the top coalas. I keep my 1K Hortilux about 10 to 12 inches away and with my 400W I have it about 6 to 8 inches away.
Good luck.
Adieu