Leaves of seedlings turning yellowish with whitish spots

@GrowManFitz @Majiktoker @BIGE @bob31
I have a very large (1 1/2 acre) farm pond out in my yard with lots of different kinds of fish in it, plus I have geese and ducks that are in it nearly all the time and wild geese and ducks visit all the time. I tested the water in it and it registered a scant 020ppm on the TDS meter. I used to water my flower containers with it thinking that I was giving them good nutrients. Apparently, that is not the case. I would have thought with all the fish and geese and ducks that it would be a good source of fertilizer. I wonder why it isn’t? :thinking:

@Lornakins how does the pond get it’s water? From springs, or Creek or just general rain water runoff?

My guess is the later. Rainwater is very low in ppm. Water from springs etc that are filtered through groundwater are higher in TDS.

It has a small spring under it in one corner, so it doesn’t go down as bad as other ponds in the area during dry spells, otherwise, it does get its water from rain and runoff. But I would have thought that the fish and geese and ducks would add nutrients to it.

The pond is filtering the water pretty well I guess!

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Sorry I work and therefore don’t get to every thread instantly but do tend to respond I see @Majiktoker has been helping you and as I read through thread I think he has got you on the right track :wink:

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@Countryboyjvd1971 @GrowManFitz @latewood @BIGE @Majiktoker
Here is a little more info on my girls and some more pictures taken today. The 2 on the left are WW with the healthy looking one being several days younger than the others and is in FFOF. The rest of them are in coco coir and they are 22 days old. the 4 on the right are GL. None are autoflower. The 4 GLs were put outside in the sun for about 7 hours a day when they were about 6 or 7 days old. The 2 WW have never been outside and the GLs have not been outside for around 8 days because we have been having storms. Some have mentioned that they were outside too soon and the sun was too much for them, but the WW on the left has never been outside and looks bad too, although not quite as bad as the others. It was the one that I couldn’t get the PH down to less than 6.4 even with 5.4 going in. That one is now really saturated since I also added the epsom water. All of them are really wet now. They are under an MH light of 600 watts since Wednesday. Before that, they were under a 24 watt T-5 grow light with an added 24 watt LED grow light. The MH light is 36" above them and there are 2 ceiling fans in this little room on all the time and an A/C (built into the outside wall) going all the time. The room temp is 72°F. I need to let these girls dry out before I do anything else, and I hope I haven’t drowned them. I don’t understand why the 5 in coco coir have such long stems, as they have always had plenty of light, including sunlight for several days. And when I put the peat pods that they were started in, into the coco coir in their present containers, I buried them to just about 1/4 inch below the feed leaves. They were about 2 and 1/2 " tall when I did that. The stems have continued to get tall. The WW in the FFOF has not done that.

This is all 6 of them with 5 of them looking pretty bad. <img A close up of one of the sick GLs. (top right) The 2 bottom right GLs. This is my setup. I can’t afford a tent at this time and I hope I can raise them all here until I can put 4 of them permanently outside and keep the other 2 in here.
All help is greatly appreciated from the bottom of my heart! Are these girls (the sick ones) salvageable? :confused:

uS/cm is a unit of measure used to measure electrical conductivity [EC]. uS stands for microsiemens. Most [EC] recommendations are in terms of milisiemens [mS]. 1000 uS = 1.0 mS. If your meter has a x10 then it probably reads to 3 digits as opposed to 4 digits. So if your nutes call for an EC of 2.1 you want a reading of 210 on your meter. Hope that makes sense.

@Lornakins, yes they are salvageable

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@Lornakins Looking at those pictures has me even more convinced it’s a pH issue. If the WW is in FFOF, then your pH is perfect for that since its a soil… which is why it doesn’t look as bad. The others in Coco need to be treated like hydro… those are the ones that need the 5.8 pH.

Also if using the FF nutrients, you’ll need to get the Grow Big for soil and the Grow Big for hydro. Use the one for soil with any plants you have in the FFOF. Use the one for hydro on any plants you have in Coco. pH the plants in FFOF to 6.5 and the ones in Coco to 5.8. Always pH your water after adding your nutrients, since the nutrients will affect the pH.

As for the plants size/height… plants grow faster in hydro because the nutrients are more readily available to the roots. So it makes sense that the plants in hydro are taller. Also, it looks like the ones on the right are in smaller pots, so they have been further away from the light. A difference of even 1" can make a big difference in this stage of their growth.

She said there was a screw @bob31 to adjust it so I would say yes adjust to correct read @Lornakins
Sorry for delay
But the rest of the guys have you some good advice

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Oh, thank you so much, that does make sense, GrowMan. So that reads ppm on the meter, right?
I was glad that I do have the one in FFOF because I can use the green label Grow Big that I bought and I will get the blue label that I ordered for the others. The pictures are kind of deceptive, as they are all in the same size containers. The 2 on the left (both WW) just look taller because I have the youngest one in back setting on something to make it higher and closer to the light. The one in front of it is sitting on a glass so that it can drain better because I ran a lot of water through it yesterday, trying to get the PH down on it and then added epsom salt water to it and it was really soaked. For some reason, the PH runoff from it was much higher than the others.
So I guess you would recommend that I just leave them alone now till they dry out some and by then I should have the cal mag and the Grow Big for hydro?
@Majiktoker It really makes me feel better that you said they are salvageable. I have really been worried about them. I hope I can get them well.
Thanks again, guys, I don’t know what I would do without you! I saw on another thread where someone said he thought raising kids was hard, and compared to this, they are easy. I had to really laugh at that one, and thought, yep… lol!! :+1:

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Yes I would let them dry up some for now

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I have some more questions… dummyt here… lol!! I have been reading on some other threads abut the distance the light should be from the top of the plants. Mine are under a 600watt MH bulb and I have them at 36". Is that too close for these girls? Also, I checked the spring water that we use for our drinking water. We get it from a local spring that has a pipe running out of the hillside. I had only checked the PH of it, which is quite high at 7.9 but I had never checked the ppm because I didn’t know how to set the TDS meter until yesterday. @bob31 said spring water is usually higher PPM than rainwater and some other sources (certainly, my pond) so I checked it a while ago and sure enough, it registered 129 ppm. So I guess maybe I should start using it, and of course, adjust the PH first. I wish I had known that before and maybe my girls wouldn’t be in such crisis, as the rainwater I have been using registered only 011. I will have the cal mag and the Grow Big by the time they need watering again, but starting with a water that has a higher ppm would be a good thing, or no? @GrowManFitz @Countryboyjvd1971 Thanks for helping this PITA old lady out, guys. :grinning:

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Believe me @Lornakins most of us have already gone thru this almost exactly! Some you learn on your own, some you need to lean on others for. We are a community here and all eager to help. When you succeed we all look like geniuses! So we are rooting for you and your girls!

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exactly bob! well stated sir!

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@BIGE But neither one of you answered my questions… LOL!! :laughing:

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i have had no problem with my 260something ppm tap water…in answering your question using the spring water would be fine,in my book…

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What about the distance I have them from the light? Are they too close or is 36" ok? Thanks!

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@Niala i believe did a chart on watts vs. how high light should be…i will try finding it…36 inches should be good for now,watch out for stretching though…

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Thanks, E (right, it is E?) They do appear to be stretching, but they were doing that when they were just a few inches below a 2’ T-5 light of 24 watts. 2 tubes which runs very cool. They were also reaching when I had them outside in direct sun for about 7 hours a day and under the T-5 light the rest of the day and night. Which brings me to another question… I have had them under the light for 24 hours a day as I have seen where others recommend this for faster growth and others say, no, don’t do that, put them on 18/6 schedule. It’s so confusing. I have a timer so I can change them to 18/6. I will go with whatever you guys say. They are all photo. @GrowManFitz @Countryboyjvd1971 @Majiktoker :+1:

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