Plants are dieing, please help!

[redaaron]

im glad you said it was the ones on the bottom and not the ones on the top. my plants do that too. its actually a good thing. i think its because they dont get much light so the plant figures it for useless and starts to drop them so it can have food for the parts that need it the most , i.e. the new growth.

you do want to watch how much stuff youre adding to your water. cannabis has a certain TDS factor or EC its pretty much the same. Too much stuff in your water and it's too full of crap and blocks it from getting through the veins. its another type of lockout. so dont add too much stuff. usually for me if i want to raise my ph i just add tap water instead. but yes the most important part is keeping the TDS in the correct range just like pH.

[sum1cull911]

So, you don't think it's a nute def.?
The PH up stuff is pretty wicked, I spilt some on my concrete floor and it basically bleached it. That's the only thing I've changed too. My nutes are the 3 part series GH and I've been in the bloom phase now for the past week. I've added the PH up maybe 3 days ago.

[redaaron]

i think its a light deficiency. it's no worries at all. you're going to want to trim a lot of that stuff at the bottom anyway. it's hard to explain for me. the small stuff at the bottom sort of robs the plant of peak productivity since its shaded by your canopy. its still alive, therefore using valuable water and nute resources. So anything and the bottom of your plant is okay to fall off. I think the plant might just be doing what it does best and letting go of what it doesnt need anymore.

[sum1cull911]

Alright sooo... I finally got the 3000k lights installed 2 days ago, after waiting an extremely long time for them through the mail. Then I decided to add some cfl's too. My lights are now this:

-4 24" fluorescent lights at 3000k
-1 24" fluorescent light at 9380k
-2 18" fluorescent light at 9380k
-7 100w cfl @ 2700k


I STILL haven't seen any signs of sex yet. I think it's because I didn't have the 2700k lights installed. Any ideas?
And the "light deficiency" still looks the same. Slow progressing, turning the lower leaves bright pale green. I'll be using a new batch of nutes tomorrow without premixing the PH-up in it.

PS... still can't upload photos? what's up with that?

[redaaron]

congrats on the lights coming in! that sounds like a good amount light especially since i think you're surrounding the plant with beneficial light rather than just one source of light from above.

A completely healthy plant may not lose some of its lower leaves and you are correct there might have been some sort of deficiency as to your nutes. It sounds like a manganese defeciency or iron IIRC but I would still look it up I think there's a section here on the boards for that.

sound off on nutrient strengths and ph and more [updated for 2010] - The Garden's Cure

here's a link to a chart on uptake levels of nutrients at different pH ranges for both soil and hydro. You can see that there is not one perfect level that will uptake all nutrients. This is why many growers allow their ranges to fluctuate. From generally 5.5-6.5 in hydroponic use. However, it is not impossible for cannabis to survive at let's say a 6.3 constant pH level. i also have some gh nutes laying around and I see they do carry all the important macro and micro-nutrients. I couldn't account for differences in genetics as to what ranges are specifically taken up by them but the chart is a good reference point... i just don't know for certain but as for now I'm ok with that. So, depending on your system and your water source, specifically whether your ranges tend to drop or raise while feeding, will tell you how to let them adjust. Simply, if your pH tends to rise you'll start at 5.5 and let it rise to about 6.3 or the other way around if your water drops. That's not for everybody. People are going to have different reasons for pH level changing, like algae or improper dosing to waste/nute buildup . So, just think about things logically. Read your charts, know your pH and EC. Those are the best three rules I can think of for offering advice to others.

Check out the phosphorus scale, very important to producing buds and having a healthy plant. The absorbtion does not start until about 5.8!! So you may want to get a water dropper and manually change your pH throughout the week. I'd say let it sit at 5.5 for the first day (day and a half) after feeding and for the rest of the week let it be something like 6.0. Careful of feeding to much pH up or down, that's why I suggest a dropper it messes with your TDS.

I hope I explained it ok.
As far as the pictures go, it's happening to everyone, so no worries...

[sum1cull911]

:rasta:Even after the endless hours of doing my own research, you always come back with NEW info to me, man. Definitely appreciated!:thumbsup:

As for the "deficiency" the plants are experiencing, I think I'll wait a few days after I start the new batch of water/nutes tomorrow. I'll see if they get healthy, and if they don't I'll know it's the PH-up I've been adding.

[redaaron]

no problem at all, Be sure to only feed once a week and top off the tank when it gets low with properly pH'ed water. If you're using tap it's a good idea to let it sit out (open) for a good two days to let the chlorine evaporate. I believe it lowers solids, not sure, and will harm most plants.

[sum1cull911]

After many weeks... more weeks than normal, I've found out the sex of the plants!!!! I was looking too low on the plants and was stumped on why they weren't showing sex for sooooo long. Can you tell?

[sleeperls93]

Are they all females?? How's flowering coming along?

[sum1cull911]

ALL Females... I was hoping some would be male for the simple fact that I do not have much space in the grow area. Flowering is slow. I'm getting impatient.