My plants are confusing me with varying symptoms - help!

[giggletwig]

This is my first grow. The plants are now 6 weeks old. I've had troubles with fungus gnats (now dead) and with yellowing lower leaves, and some brown spots on leaves. Since I have 3 different plants, they are showing different symptoms. I have a Jack Herrer, a White Widow, and a Pineapple Express. First here's my official sheet:
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What is your experience level? (first timer, novice, experienced...) First timer

Your Equipment:
.1) Type and wattage of lights. (MH, HPS, CFL's, tube fluorescents, LED's) 4 ft. 4 lamp T5 tube flourescents 95 watt T5 VHO 6500K
.2) Distance from tops? one foot
.3) Reflector type? (cool tube set-up, bat wing, enclosed reflector, bare bulb...) Sun BLaze 44 light fixture built in reflectors
.4) Is there a consistent fresh air supply? door to room is open, hvac vent in room
.5) Do you have an exhaust fan and a circulation fan? have circulation fan
.6) What are the bulb wattages, kelvin ratings, and schedule? 6500k, 95 watt, on 24 hours.

Your medium:
.7) Specific brand and type of soil, (coco, peat based soilless...) and anything you've added to it. (vermiculite, perlite...) Black Cow brand humus and manure with perlite added (2 parts soil and 1 part perlite)
.8) Size of container. 1 gal.
.9) Did you use peat pucks (or similar) to root clones or germinate seedlings? coco to germinate

Your nutrients and water:
10) Source of water? (tap, bottled or filtered) What's it's ph before adjusting? tap water 7.0 ph, adusted to 6.5
11) Method of checking water ph. (ph pen, test strips, aquarium test kit...) aquarium test kit
12) Method of adjusting water ph. (phosphoric acid, white vinegar, hydrated lime, PH Up...) PH down
13) Specific brand and N-P-K ratio for each bottle. List dosages (quantity per gallon) and current feeding schedule. Foxfarms Grow Big and TigerBloom, can't seem to find the correct dosage. 1 tsp not enuf? 2 tsp too much?
14) How often are you watering between feedings, and how much per watering? I water these guys every 6 days since they seem to stay damp. I have 4 plants and they take about 1/2 gallon for all.
15) Any additives or tea's? (Superthrive, CalMag, molasses, Mother's Earth...) just tried molasses, jury not in on that yet
16) Are your ph levels stable, or do they fluctuate?stable
17) What is your ingoing water's ph? ...your runoff ph? ingoing = 6.5, runoff - 6.5
18) Do you foliar feed? If so, with what, how often, and at what time do you spray? no

Your growroom:
19) Indoors or outdoors? Indoors
20) What size of closet, room or hut? Room size 10 x 10
21) What are the temps and humidity levels while lights are on? ...With lights off? humidity 40%, temps day 78 deg., lights not off yet
22) Have you seen signs of insects in the growroom? gnats were a problem but they have been nuked to oblivion by several methods. (muh haa haaa!!!)

Your strain:
23) What strain are you growing? (Indica dominate or Sativa dom?) Pineapple Express, White Widow, White Domina, Jack Herer White Domina is a 3 leaf mutation so she's not mentioned further here.
24) From seeds or clones? seed
25) Is this an autoflower strain? No.
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I know that WW is more sensitive than some plants but is she turning so light from not enuf food or what? I fed them heavy last week and you can see they're all a tiny bit nute burned on the tips. I'm cutting down, but can't quite get the amounts straight. All three show yellow leaves on the bottom some worse than others as you can see. Some have brown spots (calcium deficiency?) White Widow is turning yellow/white on bottom leaves (magnesium deficiency?)
okay, pictures:
Attachment 292486Attachment 292487Attachment 292488

Please let me know what your ideas are for fixing one or more of these plants. I think they may need differing treatments. How often do you feed and water 6 wk. plants in one gal. containers? (by the way I'm repotting them all this weekend to 3 gal.)

giggletwig Reviewed by giggletwig on 06-19-2013. My plants are confusing me with varying symptoms - help! This is my first grow. The plants are now 6 weeks old. I've had troubles with fungus gnats (now dead) and with yellowing lower leaves, and some brown spots on leaves. Since I have 3 different plants, they are showing different symptoms. I have a Jack Herrer, a White Widow, and a Pineapple Express. First here's my official sheet: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ What is your experience level? (first timer, Rating: 5

[Weezard]

I see no element "deficiencies"
Those kine things are actually quite rare.

What I do see is root damage from the gnat larvae.
Looks like several "deficiencies," but it's not that elements are lacking.

The plants are trying to grow faster than their damaged roots can support.
That's why the symptoms are confusing.
The up-potting should help with that.

Also noted the sand.
Good move!
You are doing your homework.:thumbsup:
The sand is a pain to deal with so I switched to dryer sheets.
They prevent re-infestation

The new growth looks healthy.
Those bottom leaves show the trouble that you had.
The new growth says that it's been handled.

Don't over-water the 3 gallon pots so the new roots grow fast and they will be fine.

Aloha,
Weeze

[lipps]

Your medium:
.7) Specific brand and type of soil, (coco, peat based soilless...) and anything you've added to it. (vermiculite, perlite...) Black Cow brand humus and manure with perlite added (2 parts soil and 1 part perlite)

Vermiculite holds water you already have peat so with both the soil will hold too much water. You need a soil that lets you feed the plants without water logging because the plants are heavy feeders and will use the available nuts from the soil very fast so you will need to feed them often but you can't if the soil is water logged. Make sure that the manure is composted and add some worm castings but not too much, good luck

[giggletwig]

Weeze, so nice to hear from you again. I think you always give good advice. You've relieved my mind on this one. I've been using the dryer sheets under the bottom of the pots and when I repot I might try them on top as well. The sand is a pain, that's for sure. But it did a nice job against the gnats. Also your idea of the "death chamber" where you use pest strips in a small area for a few hours on the plants is a life saver for killing gnats also. There's some sad, hungry spiders living in the room now.

lipps, thanks for the reply. When I repot I'm going to Ocean Forest and hoping that will help out a lot. I'm using perlite, not vermiculite and it holds air. But you're right, the soil seems too dense and holds water too long. The sand on top may also add to that.

Anyone use Grow Big as their fert? I'm wondering if I should feed them every time since I water/feed only every 6 days. I'm also wondering what the best amounts (tsp. per gallon) to use on 1 gallon pots, and also on 3 gallon pots.

[Shaggybuckets]

WTF are your growing in? sand? Try a recirculating bubbler my freind, your plants are seriously not happy.

[Shovelhandle]

WTF are your growing in? sand? Try a recirculating bubbler my freind, your plants are seriously not happy.

wtf? recirculating bubbler? he's growing in soil with sand on top to repel insects.

[Weezard]

"the soil seems too dense and holds water too long."

Folks are quick to say "over-watered".

Without examining variables, that's not very helpful.
Mo' betta to explain why dey stay wet.

No worry about the sand.
We do not want to lose water to evaporation, we want the plant to use every drop for transpiration.

When there is way more soil than root, the plant can not suck the soil dry.
Water that stays for days loses dissolved air and goes stagnant.

Fungus gnats are "scent hunters".
They sniff for signs of weakness, and that's where they lay their eggs.
The larva damage feeder roots.
Root damage changes the soil:root ratio.
Water stagnates, roots die, gnats smell dat.
Downward spiral.

Dryer sheet on top of the sand bollixes their "nose".
I've seen them do U-turns as soon as the approach a sheet.
Same thing with other scent hunters like mosquitoes!
(I rub my dogs with dryer sheet during mosquito season)

But, I digress.Attachment 292506

The soil:root ratio is the reason that we start in small containers and then re-pot several times.
A healthy plant, with healthy roots is hard to overwater.
Hard to drown when dey almos' rootbound.

So, my advice is do not transplant too early or in too big a step.
And, of course, give less water to damaged plants.
Most new growers see a distressed plant and try to fix it by "giving" water, nutes, mendicants and light.
All of which exacerbate the original problem
The soil needs to be a little dry so the new "Water roots" have to grow to find some.
And so that the remaining roots can breathe.

If the soils is evenly wet and saturated with nutes, all the time, there's little incentive to produce more roots.
As a rule, healthy plants, with a good soil:root ratio, will need fresh water every couple days or so.

Figured this out when I grew in DWC.
Was able to actually see the root development over time.
I teased the roots with faint nutes until they filled the bucket.
Attachment 292507
Then I put on a spread.

Careful observation is the root of knowledge.

@Shove: That's no way to talk about a lady.

@Shaggy. Please read the entire thread before "helping".

Don't mean to sound pedantic, but I am, so that's how it comes out.

Aloha,
Weeze

[giggletwig]

Thanks again, Weeze. I am a she. And hopefully a lady as well.

Repotted these gals today and I think they'll be getting happy in a few more days. They were pretty full-o-roots. Ocean Forest soil looks and feels really great compared to the mix I was using. Since I have such bad gnat problems here (open the front door and 20 fly in) I put sand on top again, and dryer sheets around the bottom. If it works, why change? Was a challenge to repot (getting all the sand off first) but I love not seeing any gnats in the room. I didn't realize that you were supposed to mix ferts at times (Tiger Bloom + Grow Big, etc.) so I think the plants are perhaps a bit low on cal/mag/pot. I think the addition of molasses will be helping them too. Thanks to everyone who replied!

[Shovelhandle]

OH! so sorry ms twig. :giveflower:

and a simple way to help 'overwatered', wet plants is to introduce air into the root zone. If it's almost time to transplant then do so. Or, you can tap around the outside of the container, squeeze the sides and rake the top of the soil to get it to dry out quicker. The yellowing of the bottom leaves is often a sign of low oxygen (air) in the soil. One could also put an air line from a pump (like a bubbler ) down into the soil to help revive a drowning plant.

[giggletwig]

Hey, Shov. I've never heard the bit about yellow bottom leaves being caused by low oxygen in the soil. Hopefully now they're repotted in better soil, it won't be a problem. I put extra perlite in too. I'm still learning! Hopefully after this first grow, I'll have gotten a lot of experience for the next one.