Newbie needs help! Please!

[Caligurl]

I need help identifying and correcting a few problems. Top growth is very light green and newer top growth keeps showing signs of heat stress but I can’t get them to recover. See below for all of my specs:

The back two plants are clones (Dark Heart Nursery – Napoli Pink) and front is from an unknown seed.

Age: They are all in week 5 (both from clone and seed)

Soil: EB Stone’s 420 Blend

Fabric pots, sitting on racks 2.5 inches off the bottom of the drain pans (used to catch the water)

Water PH – I try to keep between 6.0 and 6.5, runoff has bee right around 6.2 (I use distilled water)

Nutrients Fox Farms Trio (followed their feeding schedule)

PPM/TDS or EC of nutrient: According to FF, week 5 is at 1960-2100

Indoor

Light system: Mars Hydro TSW2000 keeping them 24 inches above the canopy because I had some signs of light burn.

Temps; Day: 72, Night: 68 - Again keeping them cooler because of the signs of heat stress.

Humidity; Day: 50, Night: 50

Ventilation system: Not really right now they are just in an open closet with fan blowing over top of canopy (setting up my tent now – should be in there tomorrow)

AC – No, Heater - Yes, Humidifier - Yes, De-humidifier - No

Co2 – No

Pests – Yes, had fungus gnats but that seems to be 99% gone - the white pellets on the soil are actually mosquito pellets.

[Myfriendis410]

@Caligurl

Top growth is very light green

This is perfectly normal and your plants look fine. I would suggest just water only until flower as your soil should be fine and you will avoid issues with over feeding.

Everything else looks to be spot on. What is your light schedule? We will enjoy hearing a report on the light you are using as well.

[Caligurl]

Thank you for your response!! So appreciated!

I am still currently 16 on and 8 off… thinking of moving them to 12/12 soon… maybe this week or next. I want to move them into the new grow tent for a few days before I switch - what do you think?

The little one in the front was from an unknown seed and I can’t determine if it’s a boy or girl yet, can I still move it to 12/12 at the same time in hopes it will force it into showing me it’s gender? Otherwise I don’t have two lights to keep them separate.

Also, I can’t seem to get those young leaves to ‘unfold’ (top pic) and still perplexed how they got heat stress with the low temps I’m keeping? Do you think I need to adjust something else like humidity or watering? currently watering when the top 1.5 inch (or so) is dry and the pots feel light.

[Myfriendis410]

Plants won’t flower until they reach sexual maturity. Watch for signs on the plants to know when to flip.

[Caligurl]

@Myfriendis410 - I moved my plants to my new grow tent (4X4) 3 days ago and it is located under my house (basically a walk in crawl space) and its a very damp location. All of the specs are the same except for the location. Humidity was running up to 78%! It was that way for 3 days while I waited for my dehumidifier. Last night, while I was installing the dehumidifier, I notices some damaged leaves that I removed (stupid me didn’t take any pics) but this morning, the humidity was showing 68% with a temp of 69f (by using a heater hooked up to an Inkbird temp/humidity controller). I opened the tent and found some more damaged leaves (see pics). 2 different issues. One, the leaves on the plant from an unknown seed look a little thicker and there is damage directly down the center between the veins. The other photo is an example of brown/yellow spots of the leaves that hadn’t been there before over all 3 plants in the tent. Any advice? Thank you!

[Myfriendis410]

First pic shows what looks like maybe a PH departure at some time a few weeks back.

Second picture looks like a happy plant. I see the damage but believe most of it is mechanical. You certainly could have had condensation on leaves at lights on which can do that too.

Dehumidifier will bring temps up in tent: you do want to be around 75 to 78F if possible.

[Caligurl]

Thank you! I had been keeping the temps down because of the leaf cupping (taco-ing) that was happening around 72-73 degrees f. I will turn up the temp a little and keep you posted! I get confused about the temp and humidity thing. Will turning up the temp also lower the humidity?

[Myfriendis410]

@Caligurl

Will turning up the temp also lower the humidity?

Yes it should.

Light intensity may be to blame for the taco’ing. You might want to bring it up a few inches if you can.

[Caligurl]

Will do it right now

[Myfriendis410]

IIRC you bought some decent lights? You can also turn down the driver. If you don’t yet have anything like a ‘kill-a-watt’ you might consider that for setting power levels on lights.

[Caligurl]

I have the Mars Hydro TSW2000. It has an dimmer on it and have been experimenting with it. Here’s a reader’s digest version of my grow log:

Days 1-13: I only had a single FS now light bulb while I waiting for my light to arrive.
Days 14-23: Mars Hydro @ 100% starting at 49" above tops (Just because I didn’t really know it could be adjusted and I wanted to take it slow with the young ones) and lowered light 2" every other day until at 30" above tops. At that point I had some burnt edges and tips.
Days 24-33: Adjusted light to lowest setting and 30" from tops (they looked much happier but leaf taco’ing not correcting itself but not getting worse either)
Days 34-40: Turned light up to 25% lowered light 2" every other day until 21" from tops. By day 40, started showing more burnt edges and tips along with leaves taco’ing so I lowered to lowest setting again.
Days 41-45: Serious growth! had to raise light every day to keep them at 21"
Day 46: Moved to the grow tent underneath my house and moved light to 24" above tops (wanted to go slow again to see how things looked moving to the tent). Humidity skyrocketed and yes, I did have a little condensation on the leaves so bought a dehumidifier but had to wait for it to arrive so I opened both vents (I have an exhaust fan and 2 small clip fans (one blowing one the top of the canopy and one blowing on the bottom.
Day 49: Turned lights back up to 25% and 23" from top.
Day 50: Installed the dehumidifier
Day 51 (today) The humidifier reservoir was almost full (18 ounces) and humidity was 59%! Just turned up the temp to 74 degrees f and will see how that works and possibly turn it up again tomorrow.

QUESTION: With the environment being cold and damp, should I keep the lights-out temp the same as lights-on? I’ve been turning it down a few degrees at night.

[Myfriendis410]

@Caligurl

burnt edges and tips.

More to do with nutrient load most likely

@Caligurl

turning it down a few degrees at night

I think it’s reasonable for the plant to expect a drop in temps once light is off. Just remember that the colder the space at night, the longer it takes to heat up in the morning and biological processes slow down in colder weather. If you let temps drop to 70F at night and 78F for a peak during ‘day’ then I think you should be good.

The taco’ing of leaves may have to do with temps at the canopy that are causing this, or nutrient load a bit high, or too cold temps can cause it.

Why not put up a good overall shot of each plant in white light? I think you’re gucci but just to be sure.

[Caligurl]

Here are the pics in natural light. Perfect time to move them out for a pic because it was time to water them… BUT now one more problem, the ph of the water out is only at 4.5! It’s been o.k. until now but I did a Sledgehammer Flush last time do you think that had something to do with it and how do I get the soil ph back up?

Unknown seedling:

Napali Pink Clone #1

Napali Pink Clone #2

[Myfriendis410]

Do you measure the TDS of the runoff too? It’s more important than the PH in my opinion. That said; check again in a few days and if it hasn’t come back up you can top dress the soil layer with some dolomite lime. 1 or 2 Tablespoons is plenty. This should buffer your media to 6+ PH.

[Caligurl]

Thank you SOOO much!! I just ordered a TDS/EC meter. Oh and my hubby just added an additional inline exhaust fan and the humidity is about 58… way better than 78! Might need a stronger dehumidifier!

[Myfriendis410]

Mine’s in my tent haha. It drains to a 5 gallon bucket too which I like and yes it’s perfectly fine to water with. Don’t drink it though.

[Caligurl]

Hola @Myfriendis410! I’m just checking in to update my progress (thanks to your advice)! I stopped nutrients for 2 waterings then on the third only added a small amount of Kelp Me Kelp You and just before lights on in them morning spray very lightly with some CalMag. on 3rd watering I did sprinkle some dolomite lime in before and the ph of the runoff was 6.7 (woohoo) They seem to love this! Also today is day three that I switched to 12/12! Yesterday I added another small dehumidifier and this morning when I woke up humidity was at 51 (to sure how to get it down even more when they start flowering other get a larger dehumidifier (ugh!). My lights are still at 23" above the canopy at 25%.

When do I start turning up the lights and at that time do I raise them as well? And… I bought a TDS/EC meter just not sure how to read it yet. At this point what should the TDS be of the runoff?

Thank you soooo much for your help!

[Myfriendis410]

Bump up your lights to 75% and keep them at that height. This will also lower your RH.

Plants look great!

FFOF runoff numbers could be anywhere from 1,000 ppm to 4,000 ppm. Just an FYI. It will be time to supplement when the runoff drops below about 2,000 in OF.

[Caligurl]

Thank you!

[Caligurl]

Hi @Myfriendis41!! OK, so I bought A BlueLab TDS/EC meter and according to the internet I get this:

• ppm500 = EC x 500** scale: 2.4EC x 500 = 1200ppm [500 scale] here is what I fed them today:
  for 4 Gallons of water - 6 t Big Bloom, 3 t Grow Big and 3 t of Tiger Bloom. That was about 1/4 of the recommend dose. Changed light to 50% (I’ll increase it to 75% tomorrow) I didn’t want to change too everything too drastically all at once. So in order to increase the TDS on the next watering do I do the recommended dose (3 t/gal of Big Bloom, 2 t/gal Got Big and 2 t/gal Tiger Bloom). Oh, and PH of runoff was 6.1 (yay!..I think)