Who can help a clueless beginner?

1st timer here… I have 3 WW autos that I planted 3 weeks ago and I’ve started to see some issues with two. The leaves are turning brown and crumpling and these two are much smaller than the healthy looking plant.

  • Grown in soil - miracle grow potting soul (I know, but I saw a lot of people used this with great results) using 5 gallon pots
  • Bergmans nutrients and feeding schedule has been followed (1x a week feeding with 1L of water)
  • About 1200 watt LED light used at 20ish inches (24in at planting) was at 24/0 for about a week and a half now 20/4 daily
  • temperature is consistently between 67-77 degrees depending on if the light is on and humidity is consistently between 35-50%
  • one photo is of the largest, healthiest looking plant of the 3 (I think it’s starting to show some similar signs though)

Between the moisture control, time released nutes, and then adding more nutrients, it could be a few things.

Definitely stop adding nutes.

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You have a bit of nute burn and need to get it out of the Miracle Grow. You won’t find very many growers who would recommend Miracle Grow. The opposite is the case. We see quite a few newer growers who start in Miracle Grow and have problems.

If you are growing in just about any kind of soil, you won’t need to add fertilizer (nutes) until 4 or 5 weeks into the grow.

Miracle Grow can also cause problems with drainage. Cannabis likes wet / dry cycles. Soils that retain moisture can lead to problems as well.

Welcome to ILGM and the forum and good luck going forward.

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Thanks for your recommendations. I was skeptical to feed early but the schedule provided had me starting from week 1.

How would you recommend safely getting it out of the Miracle Grow? Should I flush it or just try to get it into new soil completely? I’m not confident in my ability to do this without destroying these ladies :weary:

It’s more difficult to flush in pots rather than fabric bags. They aren’t too big. I would just transplant them. The root ball is probably about the same size as your plant above the soil. When I transplant from pots like that I will put pressure around all sides of the pot to loosen the soil. The root ball will then usually come out intact when you turn the pot upside down and give it a little shake. Try to avoid digging it out.

They don’t look too bad and should do fine.

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Most growers here favor Fox Farm Ocean Forest or Fox Farm Happy Frog. There are other alternatives, but I am not too familiar with them and thus cannot comment. In general, you should be fine with any soil that is specifically buffered for cannabis. Cannabis is a very resilient plant, but over feeding and soil that stays too wet are 2 things cannabis doesn’t tolerate very well.

Happy Frog is not as hot (has less nutrients) than Ocean Forest and works better for folks with less experience. Happy Frog still has enough nutes in it to last 4 weeks into your grow. I use Happy Frog and have been very happy with it.

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Fox Farms, Roots Organics and Black Magic are the most commonly used soil mixes available for cannabis. You really want soil optimized for it because you ain’t growing tomatoes haha. That MG is nasty stuff and good riddance.

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Perfect I will get Happy Frog tomorrow and transplant them into 5 gallon fabric pots. Since Happy Frog has enough nutes to last 4 weeks, would you recommend waiting that long until I feed them (unless the plants show any obvious need)?

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Yes. As an example, I have 2 plants in flower right now that are in Happy Frog. I didn’t introduce feeding until after I flipped them to flower, which was at 7 weeks. I would wait, and they will do fine.

If you’ve not considered it yet, you should think about getting pH and PPM meters. Soil pH should be ~6.2 to 6.7, and you should favor the high end of that range when you get to the flowering stage. PPM requirements vary depending on the age of your plant. Seedlings need no nutes at all and demand increases throughout veg and flowering. You’ll want to feed only water a couple of weeks before harvest.

When you get 4 or 5 weeks into your grow, then follow your Bergman soil feed schedule which references target PPMs. I’ll make it a point to say that the Bergman schedule calls for feeding during weeks 1 - 4; however, the target Bergman PPM for those weeks is 700 PPM. Happy Frog will provide you with PPMs well over 700 for those first 4 weeks. Ocean Forest has even higher PPMs out of the bag.

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Perfect. I appreciate all the information you have sent my way. I did order pH and PPM meters as well. Being my first grow ever, I’m just taking things in stride, buying more equipment as I can, and ultimately using this as a complete test run so every bit helps

You are doing all the right things and should do well.