2Week old plants, curling, spotting, yellowing

[Rusty Trichome]

Hello everyone

Hello.

I have heard differences as to what the pH level should be, but I believe I am in the correct range.

For soil grows (peat based) keep ingoing ph to between 6.3 and 6.8ish. Higher or lower and you'll lock-out specific nutrients.

Perhaps I need to begin fertilizers?

Too young yet, but they are already being fertilized.

placed in Solo cups with slits cut in the bottom for drainage.

Make sure the slits are large enough to properly drain the water. Consistently saturated soil is a death sentance.

Soil is Schultz potting soil with some sand mixed in for drainage at the bottom.

Sand will retain moisture too well.

NPK is 12-9-7 for the soil.

Wow. Must be the Scotts Potting Soil Plus, huh? (9 month formula?)
Next time go for something with less nutrients. You'll want the control. The nutrients in the mix will fade at about half the time listed, as will the ph buffers. Before you do a final transplant, you'll want a potting mix without all that nitrogen. Check the soil label, and see what other nutrients are in the time-release pellets. you might or might not need an additional source of micronutrients.

Watering when the soil gets crusty, using reverse osmosis water pH 6.8 - 7.0 by test kit

Should be fine unadjusted, but in flower you'll want a source of calcium. For my source of micronutrients and calcium, I use molasses.

No nutrients at the moment, other than what is already in the soil mix from the bag.

That's enough for a few cannabis lifetimes.

The art looks like overfertilizing, but could be artistic license.
No camera on your cellphone...? :wtf:

As I said above, I suspect that pH levels are locking out nutrients from getting to the roots, and they are going through calcium deficiency.

Your stated ph sounds fine, but they are really too young for additional calcium. Usually not necessary till flower, but if it makes you feel better, and since you're using R/O water, I'd add 1/4 tsp of unsulfered molasses per gallon of water, once a week during the growth stage.

The next picture could be from bugs or nutrients. Check the undersides of your leaves for little dots moving around.

Just finished testing Cindy, she's the worst off at the moment. I poured some water into the pot, until I got a little run-off from it, then took the sample from the reservoir dish. Tested it with the hth kit using 5 drops of phenol red as instructed. Runoff is in the 6.8 - 7.0 range.

Isn't that a pool water test kit? Since the results are color-coded, any tinting of the water will skew results.

Isn't that last picture from one of the many troubleshooting charts? (looks familiar)

Is the pH too high at 6.8 - 7.0? I've read that 6.5 is ideal for soil. Is there some other cause perhaps? Hopefully this information helps you to help me! Thanks again for taking the time to read my post.

Your ph should be fine. Check the soil's ingredients for ph buffers like lime or limestone.
Your plants will either adapt, or they won't. But the barrage of nutrients won't go away. I do know that with the Mitracle Grow 6 month, the N-P-K is 0.21 - 0.07 - 0.14, with .06 of that nitrogen is for immediate release. This means, at least with the Miracle Grow, you can flush some of the nitrogen before adding your ladies to the soil. But over time, you'll still get that slow release of the remainder.

It wouldn't hurt to contact Scotts, and ask them about the N-P-K. I'd ask them if the number listed is based on a time-weighted average over a week? 10 days...? two weeks... a month...?

But I'd make sure the slits in the cups were large enough to do the job, ditch the sand at the bottom. Rocks are fine as they don't hold water. Or, you could do like I do, and add nothing to the bottoms of the pot, but I put a layer of rocks in the drip tray. (raises the pot out of the runoff)
Not much you can do about the overfertilizing, except choose a different soil mix.


Good luck, hope this helps.

Rusty Trichome Reviewed by Rusty Trichome on 09-09-2010. 2Week old plants, curling, spotting, yellowing Hello everyone, Thank you for taking the time to open my post and read it, I really appreciate it! For those of you who do not wish to read the rest of the post, and simply wish to know the problem - TL;DR: I think Marsha and Cindy have a calcium deficiency caused by pH levels locking out nutrients. Testing pH reads 6.8; I have heard differences as to what the pH level should be, but I believe I am in the correct range. Perhaps I need to begin fertilizers? Background history: Rating: 5