young plants problem

Hello fellow growers.
This is my third growing but this time everything goes wrong so I would appreciate some help from more experienced growers.
I used to grown in a closet with fluorescent lights but this time I have chanced my grow room setup.
I grow in a room with dimensions 2x10 feet. I use 2 mh lights. One is 150w and the other is 400(550w in total). The distance of the plants from the light is about 1.5 foot. I leave my hand on the top of the plants for a few minutes and it doesnâ??t get uncomfortable so I guess the distance is ok.
The soil has 6.8ph and I havenâ??t used any fertilizers.
For some reason leaves of the plants started to turn yellow and dry. Some pointed upwards.
Some other plants had small brown spots on the leaves. Now they seem to die.
I donâ??t care to save those plants but I will start a new grow and I donâ??t want to make the same mistakes again.
What can be the problem?
Some of the possible reasons I think can be:
1: Over watering. I used larger pots this time and after the first watering it took almost a week for the soil to dry. After that I left them for 2 days in completely dry soil and that seemed to make the situation even worse,
2: Heat. The first few days the heat was high but after that I used the fun and now the place is cool. If that was the reason shouldnâ??t the plants recover? They only get worse.
3: Bad selection of soil. I use soil for indoor plants. It doesnâ??t contain any nutrients.
I attach some pics of the plants.
Thanks in advance for the help.

Hello Zart :) I know you asked for experienced growers but you've got me instead :)

Well I'm prehaps the worst one at trying to see the problems, been having a few of my own just lately :o
I think that smaller pots are the best at first and when I water them when they are very small I just use one of the spray guns and give them a fine spray of water ;)
As for heat well I would rather let mine strech a little than frazzle them :) but that's just me :o
For soil I use my homemade compost, I have a compost heap in the corner of the garden. What type are you using, is it shop bought compost or just out of the garden ?

Can I also ask Zart, this is you're third grow, how did you're others turn out ?


love mand xxx :)

Looks like they are getting light burn.

1.5 feet is too close for seedlings. Start higher up and work your way down as they start growing more nodes.

.... right? :stoned:

Thanks for the answers guys.
It might be lignt burn but it really doesnt seem to be hot at the top of the plants. Just in case i will move the light for my next grow to 2.5-3 feet. Do you think that distance would be ok?They might stretch but thats better than to getting burn.
I will also use smaller pots and transplant the plants later.This time i have started with large pots because i wanted to avoid transplanting and stressing the plants. The guy from the flower shop who sold me the pots though told me that its not good to start seeds in large pots because they get over watered and their roots rot.
I dont have much info about the soil.I got it from a shop.I have used it in my previous grow and it was ok.
As for the question about my previous grows the first one went completely wrong. I have made lots of mistakes. I have also cooked my plants with a halogen light :) Only one plant survived and gave me less than 1/2 ounce of average quality weed.
The second went much better with 3 ounces out of 2 plants and the quality of my weed was great.
How old are your plants mand?

Light burn and heat burn are different things. Light burn is due to the actual amount of energy being radiated, not the heat produced by that energy.

from information ive gathered in forums i'd say if ustill have those flouresentlights use them till midway through veging then switch over to the mh's to finish veging and start flowering

I think it may be the soil, it seems to be to fine. Try adding some perlite and the lights may be too close... peace

Hello Zart :) well love if you used that soil with results before then it should be ok ;)
As for you're second grow, three ounces out of two plants is not to bad, I never weigh mine but I don't produce an awful lot of weight in buds, as long as there is enough for me then I'm happy :)
Three ounces doesn't sound much but when you see what three ounces looks like then there is a fair amount.
To be honest I really can't say what the problem might be, I'm following the same pattern with mine as I always do but this time they aren't quite right and I haven't got a clue why.............all I can say is put it down to experience and hopefully the next grow will be better :)

Hope you don't mind if I just add a couple of my pics that one of my lads took for me today.
This is a totally strange situation to me, they have picked up a little and are starting to bud but there is no resin as yet............absolutely nothing :o and by now I would expect them to be getting quite sticky.
Hmmm buds with no resin that's a new one to me ;)


love mand xxx :)


Oh how old are they ?....................well I just checked on my journal and they were four days old on September 14th, ............so there around nine weeks..................I think, maths was never a strong point of mine :o

they look a bit dry??

Are you sure those lights are MH?

The look like Halogen to me...

Hi folks!

zart, i strongly suggest you buy full spectrum floros and use those for the first 2 weeks instead of halogen... halogen doesn't have the right spectrum for any growth phase and is emitting a tremendous amount of heat.. perhaps thats why your seedlings are burnt.. ok, i think you got my point for halogen lights, its crap trust me ;)

Floros will give you economical way to veg your seedlings till they reach 2 - 3 weeks, and then you can put them under stronger lights like Metal Halide or HPS (Sodium). Remember, keep the distance between plants and MH or HPS light lil higher for the first couple of days to avoid heat stress and stunt :)

Hope this help a bit :D

Good Luck & Happy Growing! :)

Hello everybody. I started new seedlings with fluorescent lights and smaller pots but i had the same problem. My last hope was to use some fertilizer. After that the plants turn green again and started to grow fast.
I hope that may help if anyone has the same problem.
My lights are metal halide not halogen. I am sure about that.
Take care:)