First time grower

Well, I finally did it. I saved some seeds and started my own crop (two beautiful plants) :D

Everything has been going quite well except...

Some of the lower leaves are showing signs of nutrient burn, or at least I think it is nutrient burn.

You can check out the pictures on my flickr page here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cannabis420/

One spot looks sort of like a cigarette burn or hole.
A few of the fan leaf tips are brown (about 0.5cm of the tip).
One of the fan leaves has what appears to be nutrient burn on one side.

If you can help in any way or have suggestions for me, please don't hesitate to reply to this thread or post comments on my flickr page! Your help is very very much appriciated! :dance:

I would purchase an EC/ppm meter if I could afford, but some are so darn expensive! I'm a college student living on a college budget! Looks like another week of Ramen noodles lol! ;)

What do you think of this product?

Sunleaves TDS Essential Pen for $39.95

Quote:

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The Sunleaves TDS Essential Digital Pen measures total dissolved solids from 0 to 9,999 parts per million with a resolution of one part per million and includes a data hold feature for temporary TDS reading storage.

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Has anyone used this product? I am unsure of the quality of Sunleaves products..

Could be nute burn or heat stress... Unfortunately, the pix are so dark on my monitor that I can't make out any of the damage.

These appear to be lower leaves, which makes heat stress unlikely unless you have heat built-up in the area just above your soil. This can occur if you use compost in your soil, or if you have heavy low growth and poor air circulation. Aiming your fan to blow near the bottoms of your plants from time to time will help either of these problems, but they don't seem to be problems for you now.

The cig-hole damage sounds like K deficiency, but if occurred a few weeks after the leaf grew as you said, and it is an older leaf, and no other leaves show this, I wouldn't sweat that one.

Some of the damage on the older leaves could simply be because they are older! Remember, when you go into flower, nutes will be sucked to the flowering areas, and older leaves will often yellow and wilt (N deficiency). This is normal.

When it comes to nutrient deficiencies, problems that show up on older leaves usually indicate Mobile Elemement deficiencies (Nitrogen, Potassium, Phosporous, Magnesium, Zinc), and new leaf troubles are often due to lacking Immobile Elements.

All in all, your plants look quite healthy. If these problems are localized, I don't think you need to worry much.

A bit of side lighting might make your beauties smile... Clamp lamps are great for this. It may give them a bit more width & bulk.

Other pix comments:

~Rooting hormone - Yep, they all say this. I think it is a CYA (Cover Your Ass) thing.

~I laughed out loud at your Moisture Meter comment. *grin*

~Remember when you mist to aim for the UNDERsides of leaves. That's where they "drink".

You're getting close to flowering time... Congrats!

i managed to see the pics just fine. yes it is nutrient burn. you said you feed them every day. don't do this. you should not feed every watering, and you definitely shouldn't be watering every day- unless the plants are in very tiny pots that dry out quick. but ya your plants look really healthy overall though, so you should keep an eye out to see if your burnt tips get worse. cause they don't go back to looking normal once they have been burnt. so you might not actually be harming them anymore, if the burn doesn't progress. does that make sense?

Well Ken,

You may also look into getting a cheap pH tester. You never know.

Loco

i got a pH tester off Ebay for $30, and it's digital, has one decimal place, and you can calibrate it. Great deal, only downside- goes thru batteries pretty quick. Definitely worth $30 though! The cheapest I have seen in stores is $60.

Correction on Misting Comment:

I've been doing some research, and read that although the stomata (pores used for respiration) are indeed on the undersides of the leaves, when you hit them with liquids, they actually close up! (Not buying this? Pluck a piece of a leaf, put it under a microscope, and check it out for yourself.)This is counter most accepted info that foliar sprays should be applied to the undersides of leaves. So for good measure, it seems worthwhile to spray the entire leaf. I wonder if adding CO2 to the environment first might open the stomata enough that they'd stay open during spray, but I don't have CO2 with which to test this.

When misting simply for humidity, I doubt it matters much where you spray... You're just trying to add moisture to the environment.

Also, research indicates that you should aim for a pH of 5.0 for foliar sprays. So add a touch of pH down, unless your potassium is already to high... Then you may wish to add vinegar instead - but not Apple Cider Vinegar, because this is also high in potassium!