Bianca - New growth lighter green, thin droopy and brown tips

[Lou Paloma]

This is a Bianca at day 46 after sprouting. Went from jiffy cup, to 6" pot then 5 gal pail. Happy Frog potting soil, coco fiber & perlite. Around a 60/20/20 percent mix. MarsHydro 300 at 18-20" up until today. No nutes, just correct ph'ed water. Topped at 4th node on day 22. LST'ed about 5 days ago. Watered 1/2 gal 2 days ago. Average temps 77-81F. RH averages 40. 18/6 light cycle with fan on during that cycle.

Started getting brown tips on all the new growth a few days ago and I've snipped much of that off. All the new growth has thin droopy leaves and as you can see are a lighter shade of green. After giving her that 1/2 gal drink 2 days ago it started looking better as of yesterday but today I'm back the same situation. I've now raised the light to 24".

Not sure what the problem is. Any advice is appreciated. This is my first grow.

 

[MeJuana]

Ok nutrients, even organic nutrients, have a pH value so they buffer the environment in the direction of their pH. When you started out you gave them some bitchin soil it is actually very rich in nutrients + pH buffer so everything was fine. But you mixed other things in with that soil that normally requires nutrients to help buffer. As the nutrients were taken the soil/coco started having pH hot/cold spots and this is where the problems began. (It become a book to explain further). So here you are today you have new rich HOT soil on the outside with pH hot/cold spots in the juicy center.

Back the lights off and stabilize the pH of the soil through and through.

 

[Bugeye]

Looks over fed but happy frog is not a very hot soil. I see some signs of needing more cal/ mag but bigger issue is figuring out why leaf tips are so clawed. Water source? Ppm of your water? Coco fibers were rinsed to remove salts?

 

[Lou Paloma]

I haven't tested the ppm of my tap water, nor do I even know how. I just let it sit out for days to evaporate the chorine and adjust the ph prior to watering. The coco was a brick I bought off Amazon. I didn't rinse it but instead watered it so it expanded and then broke it up. It was dry as a bone before I started using it. I was told elsewhere that a good mix was 1/3 HF potting soil, 1/3 coco and 1/3 perlite. I got that ratio dead on for the 6" pot the plant was in until I decided to switch it into the 5 gal pail. As I ran out of coco and perlite the ratio of the 3 towards the top began leaning heavily towards just HF potting soil.

 

[Lou Paloma]

Back the lights off and stabilize the pH of the soil through and through.

How can I stabilize the soil pH? I just ran another 64oz of water into the pot, had some run off (no, not 20%) and now a few hours later the new lighter colored new growth seems to have literally grown a 1/2" or more. The droopy leaves however remain droopy and very thin compared to the more established leaves.

 

[MeJuana]

I think actually it will stabilize on it's own so if the new leaves are fine then it's probably pulling out. The damaged leaves may not straighten out, from memory I don't think they every do. But maybe I should mention hard buffering. You are using mostly a soiless mix so Silica might not be a bad idea for you anyway. Some forms of Silica raise or lower pH, so many people including me use it as a pH buffer. For example you could use Silica Blast first in your water which raises pH then use pH down to lower the pH to what you are currently using with this plant. This is commonly referred to as hard buffering. Simply hard buffering alone is enough to solve this problem unless exasperated I probably wouldn't flush. But I think also you might need to let your mix dry out a little more between watering make sure almost all the water is gone by picking up your planter.

 

[Woyaboy]

Looks like Nitrogen Claw, it's a toxicity. Make sure you leach a little when you're watering and don't even give it any teas or Recharge. I noticed when I fed my ladies the next day with Recharge all the leaves bent from Nitrogen toxicity. Weird you're getting this from Happy Frog though. Very weird. I use HF for clones and seedlings. It's verrrry light.

 

[Lou Paloma]

You are using mostly a soiless mix so Silica might not be a bad idea for you anyway. Some forms of Silica raise or lower pH, so many people including me use it as a pH buffer. For example you could use Silica Blast first in your water which raises pH then use pH down to lower the pH to what you are currently using with this plant.

I'm confused. How is 60% soil mostly soil-less? Also, I just read that Silica increases the availability of Nitrogen to the plant and I've got what looks to be nitrogen claw.

Is it possible the coco has sucked the calcium and magnesium out of the soil and caused a nitrogen burst in the new growth? Once again today I see all the newest leaves that have grown in the last 24-36 hours have the nitrogen claw look to them.

 

[MeJuana]

Sorry I read your soil wrong. If it's excess Nitrogen you flush and that's also an acceptable course of action for pH hot spots. Lately I been reading posts by folks claiming that flushing is a myth it doesn't really help. So I think my suggestion might be controversial even though I know better. So there it is there, two answers one says soil pH and the other says excess Nitrogen with one corrective action in both cases. I'm not always right I'm just a stoner but that's my thoughts.

 

[Lou Paloma]

Sorry I read your soil wrong. If it's excess Nitrogen you flush and that's also an acceptable course of action for pH hot spots. Lately I been reading posts by folks claiming that flushing is a myth it doesn't really help. So I think my suggestion might be controversial even though I know better. So there it is there, two answers one says soil pH and the other says excess Nitrogen with one corrective action in both cases. I'm not always right I'm just a stoner but that's my thoughts.

Dude. I appreciate your help. Don't be so hard on yourself, stoner.

Seriously, thank you. I'm looking for as much input as I can get.

 

[Lou Paloma]

PS. I'm going to do a huge flush tomorrow. #crossesfingers