First grow - Help me grow my baby, it's drooping!!

[TheWhiteRider]

Hey everyone, first grow and having some droopy leaves problems. Please help me cure my baby!! It's my only one!!

indoor or outdoor-Indoor
soil, soilless, coco, aero, or hydroponic-Soil
Soil type/brand-Miracle Grow Moisture Control
SCL-Anything you have added to the soil-Sprinkled some Perlite (the white stuff right?) in the top part of the soil because I thought it might help with overwatering (which I thought was the problem).
Soil or slab runoff pH-6.3-6.4
Water sourceVaries. I started with mineral drinking water (I know....) , then bought some distilled water but read it's acidic. So ended up using half mineral water and half tap water
Source water pH-~6.6
Age of plant-Planted two weeks ago and one day (sprouted in about 2 days).
Type of fertilizer-None as of yet
Lighting source and distance from plant-(3) 20W 6500K CFL's kept ~4-5 in. mostly, but sometimes closer sometimes further away
Air temperature-Started seedling outdoors at ~95 F, after 1 week moved it inside where my A/C runs at ~75. So with the heat of lamps I would say plant sees ~80 F
Air % Relative humidity-Pretty dry weather here, I'd say about 30% RH
Lighting schedule-Started seedling outdoors which was 12/12 for a week, then moved inside at 12/12 for a day, then slowly increased light period to 13/11, then next day to 14/10, then next day to 16/8 and using this eversince
Type of ventilation your room has-Plant is being grown in the room where I sleep where there is a ceiling fan at full blast and A/C vent. I'd say plant gets decent ventilation
I ran a dip test and I came up with these numbers:
(soil runoff from ~6.6 pH water)
Alkanility - 40 KH ppm (before runoff 20)
Hardness 300
Nitrite 0.1-0.2 NO2- ppm mg/L
Nitrate 10 ppm NO3- ppm mg/L

Some background. First round leaves, one of them came out yellow and half dead (I am thinking it's because of MG). But the first set of serrated leaves came out great. Then the next node leaves started coming out a bit more yellow then the first ones but not that yellow. Right before I moved it inside, the same leaves started drooping, then the first node leaves followed (not as bad as the second one though). Now the two next sets of nodes are coming out (symetrically and simultaneously) and are looking a bit yellow also. I watered with a sprayer about twice a day (never actually giving the soil runoff because of the sprayer). So I thought it was overwatering, so I stopped putting water for 1 1/2 day (i usually let the top of the soil dry out in between watering and sink my finger into the soil to see if it needs watering below the surface), but today I came back from work and it still looked droopy. So I flushed it with the same water and went to buy a test kit to give my official report. This was the first time I actually let the water runoff through the bottom holes since I did not use sprayer.

I went today and bought some Superthrive since I heard it can revitilize your plants a bit and make them stronger. I have not applied any yet, so it'd be nice if someone could tell me how much to use for such a young plant.

You can see pictures below. Soil looks really wet because I just flushed.

I am so sorry for the long post, but I'd thought you guys would like a lot of detail. Stinky, please help!!!!!

TheWhiteRider Reviewed by TheWhiteRider on 09-09-2008. First grow - Help me grow my baby, it's drooping!! Hey everyone, first grow and having some droopy leaves problems. Please help me cure my baby!! It's my only one!! indoor or outdoor-Indoor soil, soilless, coco, aero, or hydroponic-Soil Soil type/brand-Miracle Grow Moisture Control SCL-Anything you have added to the soil-Sprinkled some Perlite (the white stuff right?) in the top part of the soil because I thought it might help with overwatering (which I thought was the problem). Soil or slab runoff pH-6.3-6.4 Water sourceVaries. I Rating: 5

[veggii]

hey umm use the happy frog next grow for seedlings and then transplant seedlings into FF/OC soil and follow the FoxFarm nutes schedule after a couple sucsessful grows start looking into advanced nutes/amendments and stuff as things get expensive fast! and you really want to know how too tell whats going on with plants by looking at them a wrong diagnosis can be fatal.
go easy on all nutes etc and flush once a month and be prepared for the emergency flush! you are know a Cannabis EMT ! lol got ph tester? they sell the liquid ones cheap and read stinky's logs! she knows her stuff! keep your grow area clean and sanitized good luck

[TheWhiteRider]

What's the difference between the Happy Frog Soil and Happy Frog Conditioner?

I thought that using FF/OC in addition with nutes is too hot for the plant? Maybe too hot for vegging but not for flowering?

[stinkyattic]

Too much water
MG soil is too 'hot' for seedlings, and 'moisture control' indoors is not good- it stays too damp.
You MUST run CalMAg Plus when you use distilled water.
Distilled water is not acidic in a way that matters; its ionic strength is incredibly low and the pH reading is irrelevant. Unless your tap water is HORRIBLE, use it.
Don't spray seedlings or any plant with distilled water, and avoid spraying with plain water. This is called 'reverse foliar feeding' and leaches mobile nutes right out of the leaves.

Plan for your flower time... that's a small space.

[TheWhiteRider]

Rust Trichome,

Thank you for such an elaborate reply, it's just what I was looking for.

I will go ahead and get the Fox Farm soil and nutes and start using them once the plant is ready for it. Once I receive the FF nutes I will get rid of the ST.

About the current size of the pot... I chose it because when I started I was not even aware of this forum and had no actual cannabis growing knowledge whatsoever. I realized after reading many posts that the size of the pot IS too big just like you said, and that it's better to transplant 3-4 times. Next time I will do things much more different, such as starting in a 3" pot or cup or something and then transplant appropriately. But I will have to contradict you in the fact that the roots ARE coming out from the bottom (just two in a single hole out of 8). They were very small at the 2 weeks and are now much bigger, but not overflowing. I think the fast root development is due to the MG.

As for the flowering period... I know that they need very strict drakness perios and for this I will put the plant in my room closet (where there is no ventilation, but I think that at night the plant doesn't require as much CO2 as during the day (is this correct or not). I thought plants transpired during the day mostly. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

As for the fan, I will get a new small fan to aim more towards the plant and give it some more fresh air and stem strength development as you suggested.

The A/C vent is not directly blowing towards the plant, it's just right above the plant.

But anyways, thanks for the comments and please stay close to give me some more great advice!! :thumbsup:

[TheWhiteRider]

If anyone does suggest any additives or nutes or anything to add, please bre really specific (brand, where to get, etc.). I live in a small town so my choices may be limited. Also, right now I'm VERY poor.

Thanks in advance for any help and sorry if I am annoying you wity my ridiculous long post. I'm a noob at this...

[veggii]

you have to be very careful seedlings overwater easily, you could list the available stores in area but a cheap "grow" fert Alaska fish emulsion

[Weedhound]

My first thought would be with veggi....overwater or perhaps check your soil runoff and make sure its coming out the same way as going in.......whooops....you already did, good for you!!

My vote is for overwater and keep your lights about 6 inches because she's obviously a bit stressed.

Raise tropical fish or something do you? You probably talk Rusy Trichomes language.

[Weedhound]

Stop using a water spray as it is probably just leaching the leaves out further with that......you can add ST at ONE DROP a gallon for seedlings......warning....will lower ph a bit so check. Water small amounts.....not necessarrily to runoff, just get the medium damp/wet and not have runoff each time...... lots of runoff means you could be flushing the good stuff straight though as I found it from personal experience . Stinky may suggest some sort of foliar spray with nutes but I wouldn't really know how to give instructions for that or even if it's needed because I'm just not knowledgable in enough in soil to say.

If you can spare the $8-10 ish dollar to buy a nice big bag of Happy Frog soil for your plant and it will reward both you and the plant with good soil ph and some good nutes perfect for seedlings along with great growing for quite a while and make your life a lot easier at the same time. A quality soil (MAKE SURE ITS THE RIGHT KIND FOR THE JOB! YOU WANT!) will save you both dollars for extras and give you MANY less headaches with playing around with a lousy soil like Miracle Grow and pay for it self MANY TIMES OVER per grow. Worth every penny.

[veggii]

If you can spare the $8-10 ish dollar to buy a nice big bag of Happy Frog soil for your plant and it will reward both you and the plant with good soil ph and great growing for quite a while and make your life a lot easier at the same time. A quality soil (MAKE SURE ITS THE RIGHT KIND FOR THE JOB! YOU WANT!) will save you both dollars for extras and give you MANY less headaches with playing around with a lousy soil like Miracle Grow and pay for it self MANY TIMES OVER per grow. Worth every penny.

LoL everytime I hear someone cry GNATS!!! I know their using MG soil !
I have heard that the Happy Frog Soil Conditioner is Excellent Also !
I used FF/OC this time, but next time I'm going with the Happy Frog

Plant sex