Please Help My Dying Babies!!!! NEW GROWER - Pics Inc.

[SiKoh]

Hello Ladies n Gentlemen I'm hoping some of you knowledgable folk can help me out! Ive been growing 3 white widow plants from seedlings, and I've hit some problems...

First off ill explain my setup:
Its a 6ft clothes cupboard with 2 doors at the front the plants - now in their flowering stage, the 125w Eco-light (RED) with a home made defuser (the side of a computer bent to a V shape and covered in tin foil) is about 3ft above the plants.
They have been subjected to high temperatures as high as 35 deg but I've sorted this with 2 extractor fans, 1 at the bottom to suck in fresh air, and one at the top to blow out the hot air and ive also added a rotating desk fan to simulate wind, these are on a timer and come on every 15 mins this keeps the temperature around 30 deg, it's hard to get the temps any lower because we are in the middle of a heatwave in Britain at the moment!!! (Not Compaining!) Humidity is steady at around 40% sometimes 50%

About My Babies...
...3 days germination, 4 weeks vegitative and they're now in their 2nd week flowering.
After 2 weeks in soil they weren't doing so good because I used the wrong soil so I repotted in a proper soil mix I made - 50% Potting soil + 50% perlite, this was a good soil as it had all the right textures and the plants continued growing with no problems.
During their 3rd vegetitve week I started feeding them some nutes my mate made up from Miracle-Gro, BIG MISTAKE! The big fan leaves started going brown down the edges and tips, curling and so did the lower 1/4 leaves but these basically died and fell off, I checked the Plant Abuse post and realised it was a massive nitrogen over fert so I flushed them until the pot was dripping clear, clean water. This seemed to do the trick and my babies were growing fine, even though they were still shedding the already damaged leaves.
I fed them only with un-ferted ph balanced tap water until they were in they were re-potted and in the flowering stage for a week, I then started feeding them once every 3 days with ChemPak No. 8 Low Nitrogen Feed - 12.5+25+25

Now in their 2nd flowering week the very lowest leaves are wilting and dying, Is this normal? Are the larger fan leaves preventing light getting to the baby leaves? Something more sinister?
This is my main concern, the big fan leaves i think will always be damaged because I read somewhere that a leaf can't repair itself, how do my babies look in general? they are all around 9" from the top of the soil - 2nd week flowering and have around 7 rows of leaves. My mates are twice the height of mine and are a week older but they look skinny and stretched

Any comments would be greatly appreciated :thumbsup:

SiKoh Reviewed by SiKoh on 07-30-2006. Please Help My Dying Babies!!!! NEW GROWER - Pics Inc. Hello Ladies n Gentlemen :D I'm hoping some of you knowledgable folk can help me out! Ive been growing 3 white widow plants from seedlings, and I've hit some problems... First off ill explain my setup: Its a 6ft clothes cupboard with 2 doors at the front the plants - now in their flowering stage, the 125w Eco-light (RED) with a home made defuser (the side of a computer bent to a V shape and covered in tin foil) is about 3ft above the plants. They have been subjected to high temperatures as Rating: 5

[SiKoh]

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Please note:
Everything I say on these message boards is entirely fictional, I make it all up because im a compulsive liar
The pics are computer generated from the images in my messed up hazy mind :thumbsup:

[s12fever]

Hey mate. To me that definatly looks like a salt build-up in your soil gathered from unused fertilisers the roots aren't absorbing... flush your grow medium ASAP! Do this by taking it to a sink, turn on the tap and fill the soil up till it's completly drenched. 3 or 4x the amount water as you have grow medium. Then let the eccess water run out the drainage holes. The damage isn't fixable, but it's stopped.

[slowthestone]

When in doubt...flush it out

[SiKoh]

Thanks for the info, I'll do it now... Should i continue feeding with clean water for a while or carry on wiv the nutes?

[s12fever]

id lay off the nutes for the next watering (flush) or 2, better safe then sorry... good luck with them

I agree

[Weed4Life]

Yeah but make sure you flush with room temp water. Also make sure the ph of the water is around 6.0-7.0(nuetral) I do. I always let my tap water sit for 24 hours before use though. I heard this from countless people. You dont want to give your plants too cold of water.IMO

[SiKoh]

Yeah but make sure you flush with room temp water. Also make sure the ph of the water is around 6.0-7.0(nuetral) I do. I always let my tap water sit for 24 hours before use though. I heard this from countless people. You dont want to give your plants too cold of water.IMO

Yea, when I flushed 'em yesturday i used tap water but made it mildly warm with the hot tap, I always use P.H Balanced water and I know that the water out my taps is only around 7.0 so i'm sure one untreated dose wont hurt...will it
They're looking better over night except... I think i got a male! I attached some photos, pleaaaase someone tell me it's not true!!!
(Sorry bout the dodgy pics, it's fookin hard takin a pic wiv a camera fone thru a magnefying glass lol)
Thanks for all your info fellas i'll keep u all posted

[mellogold]

judging by the pic yea you got a male, see if you can get a clearer pic... im 99% sure its a male tho

[SiKoh]

judging by the pic yea you got a male, see if you can get a clearer pic... im 99% sure its a male tho

Yea i'm sure it's a male too Heres a newer pic