77-80 Degrees w/ 35% humidity. Possible heat problem?

[Weedhound]

Ps....I'm putting my (imaginary) money on nuteburn.

Good luck.

[daihashi]

Usually your plants will go AWAY from the heat source.....not toward it. What kind of light do you have going and how close is it? The temps themselves are not bad.......but if your light is too close it will increase the heat around the seedlings. And do you have a fan or some sort of ventilation going for them? They should definitely have that as well.

I'm no soil pro....hence the link to problems for soil growers....to me the issue seems to be either ph or too much nutes for seedlings. It just doesn't LOOK like a heat issue....but then seedlings can do funny things. Also....which three are we talking about.......the three closest to the light? If its heat you should see it in a clear pattern from the closet plants outward.

I'm afraid that is all I can offer you here so feel free to take my advice with a grain of salt.....as I said soil is NOT my strong point.....at all.

No your help is well welcomed. You know a worldly amount more about this than I do so I appreciate your input. If nothing else it gives me something to bounce ideas off of. I have pictures of the setup in my grow log but I'll post some here as well.

Previously the pots were probably about 1" away from my CFL's. Here's a quick rundown of my setup.

1 cardboard box 23"x23"x30"
Lined with Mylar inside.
1 19" box fan for the exhaust, set on low.
1 3 speed oscillating fan set in a fixed position also set on low.
12 CFL's:
4 60watt Equivelant CFLs
8 100 watt Equivelant CFL's
Total Lumen output = approx 14k (inside of a 2'x2' area).
Light schedule is 18/6, was 24/0 before.

Thermometer/hygrometer reads usually about 77 degrees and 35-37% humidity.

For PH testing I use an actual digital meter.

For nutes (which I don't use yet) I have a soil kit but looking for something to give me a better/more accurate read out of NPK.

All plants were pretty much equally distanced from the light.

I've since lowered the plants 4" away from the light. I'm hoping this resolves my problem.

The one plant with the mega super ultra retarded curled leaf looks to be doing a little better after only a couple of hours. It's second set of leaves are slowly coming back down.

The picture is my grow box before I lowered the plants. For reference those lights are about 1", maybe a little over away from the plants. I would say no more than 1.5"

I've since gone ahead and moved the plants to 4" away from the lights.

[daihashi]

Oh. I forgot to add. Before I Started using this soil I flushed the pots with about 1 gallon of water each. Another reason I don't believe it to be a fert problem. (I let the soil dry out before I used it.)

[rhizome]

There are no nutes in my soil.

The soil is calloways enriched soil.

So then what's it enriched with?

All "soils", by definition, contain nutrients. Planting mixes which don't contain any macronutrients are called " potting mixes".

If you want a nute-free potting mix, I'd recommend ProMix.

[daihashi]

So then what's it enriched with?

All "soils", by definition, contain nutrients. Planting mixes which don't contain any macronutrients are called " potting mixes".

If you want a nute-free potting mix, I'd recommend ProMix.

Here's the entire read out of the bag:

Front of the bag:

"Calloway's

because life should be beautiful

Enriched
Potting Mixture

All Organic with Canadians Sphagnum Peat

Used for All container Plants including:

House Plants
Annuals
Perennials & Herbs

New and Improved: Now with Expanded Shale and Lava Sand."


Back of the bag:

Uses and Benefits of Calloways Enriched Potting Mixture:

To realize the greatest joy from your container plants, grow them in Calloways Enriched Potting Mixture, a blend of purified composted fines, expanded shale, lava sand and Brown Canadian Sphagnum Peat.

• Compost Fines and Brown Canadian Sphagnum Peat provide immediatley available, finely textured, organic matter to nurture the delicate roots of your container plants.
• Expanded shale creates space for the movement of air, water and nutrients.

It seems to me there are no nutes in this. The bag doesn't say it, the owner told me it didn't have it, my soil test kit comes back clean and just to be sure I flushed the soil with 1 gallon of ph'd water per pot (pots are 4" square pots... small pots.).

I suppose after it all there could be some nutes somewhere, but it doesn't seem likely but I'm open minded.

With all that said what do you think rhizome? Also does promix come in a giant black bag? I think I Saw some at a hydro shop but was told it was coconut? I could've seen something else that wasn't proMix.

Is there a chain store I could pick up this stuff at?

[rhizome]

Calloways Enriched Potting Mixture, a blend of purified composted fines, expanded shale, lava sand and Brown Canadian Sphagnum Peat.
[LIST][*]Compost Fines

Ding! And we have a winner!

Compost is a fertilizer as much as ammonium nitrate is- and there may be a bit too much compost for some of your plants.

Also- all that peat and no lime? What's keeping pH in range?

Promix comes in a bunch of differant packaging, and differant varieties- I really like the BX, which comes in a grey/silver bag or bale.

Equivalents are Sunshine, Faffrd's ( actually how they spell it). Home Depot will usually have one of the three, varying by region. Agway as well, if ya got one.

Umm- if you're using a soil that's proud to contain compost, and yer NPK testing w/ 0ppm results, something's wrong... Why isn't the compost showing up?

[daihashi]

Ding! And we have a winner!

Compost is a fertilizer as much as ammonium nitrate is- and there may be a bit too much compost for some of your plants.

Also- all that peat and no lime? What's keeping pH in range?

Promix comes in a bunch of differant packaging, and differant varieties- I really like the BX, which comes in a grey/silver bag or bale.

Equivalents are Sunshine, Faffrd's ( actually how they spell it). Home Depot will usually have one of the three, varying by region. Agway as well, if ya got one.

Umm- if you're using a soil that's proud to contain compost, and yer NPK testing w/ 0ppm results, something's wrong... Why isn't the compost showing up?

I'm not sure but everything is coming out pretty clear in the test kit. It's a crappy color test kit, not a ppm digital meter.

As far as what's keeping the PH down. I use ph down in my water and use it at every watering. If I use ph 5.9 my soil run off tests between 6.3 and 6.6.

The soil itself is probably about 7. My tap is 7.7ph, and if I water with that my soil run off is 7.3-7.4.

luckily these were just put into these pots not too long ago. I'm going to see if I can pick up some of this stuff tomorrow and some more pertilite and transfer the rapid rooters into the new soil.

Thanks rhizome. As you can see I'm a complete moron when it comes to plants. :thumbsup:

edit: wouldn't me flushing the soil prior to using the potting mix have removed the nutes?I was pretty thorough I thought .

either way better to start off with something people knows works. Thanks again!

[Weedhound]

Hey Rhizome!!
Great to see you and thank GOD someone who understand the mystery that is soil.

Dai...this is why I don't play with soil.....I quite simply don't understand it. Luckily Rhiz know his shit!! :thumbsup:

Rhiz...stop by my log when you have a chance. GREAT to see you......have missed your input.

[daihashi]

Hey Rhizome!!
Great to see you and thank GOD someone who understand the mystery that is soil.

Dai...this is why I don't play with soil.....I quite simply don't understand it. Luckily Rhiz know his shit!! :thumbsup:

Rhiz...stop by my log when you have a chance. GREAT to see you......have missed your input.

yeah, I don't understand anything at all. ROFL, but I'm trying desperately to learn.

I'm finding that I'm starting to get more excited over figuring out my plants problems than I am at the potential thought of a harvest.

I'll probably update this thread in a week to post the results. I"m just glad that the plants are still small enough to probably just be transfered with the rapid rooters as opposed to having to transfer some of the soil with the plants.

[rhizome]

Keep a close eye on the pH of the Promix as it get's older- they mix lime w/ the peat to buffer the pH up- peat is naturally very acidic. Eventually the lime is consumed and pH starts to nose-dive. No big thing if ya watch for it.

The compost must act as buffer in the Calloways ( or maybe the shale- very broad term)- otherwise you'd be treating the water the other way. Prob a fair bit of compost, or at least a fair bit of surface area.

Go ahead and use the Calloway's- just cut it with a bunch of perlite. You'll have consistant chemistry, makes it much easier to manage. Multiple media is a headache that you can avoid. Perlite's inert, so chem remains the same, just dilutes it. will drain much quicker, which is usually a good thing.

Hmm- album title in that... " The Chem Remains The Same".