AK48 young leaves DROOPY and losing color. Light Green. WEEK 3.

This is my first "real" indoor grow. I have 2 Feminized AK48 seeds, 19" away from a 400 watt MH light. They were transplanted last week from red party cups into 10" pots, with Fox Farm Ocean Forest/Perlite. Watering with rain water/distilled water and using Fox Farm nutes 1/4 strength.

As you can tell by the pictures, one seems to be perky and looking decent besides the discoloring on the biggest leaves. The other one looks pretty sad...and has been drooping like that pre-transplant believe it or not. I water every 2/3 days or so, and keep my temps around 80 lights on, 63 lights off. pH around 6.8. Can't seem to tell what I'm doing wrong here. Give them BIG BLOOM every other watering, and GROW BIG once a week. Both at 1/4 strength. Are they ok? They seem to be growing at a pretty slow rate for being week 3.

that looks to me like over watering.

is that a 6500 K bulb ? your light could be closer 14 inches minimum. Probably overwatered.

No nutes for now, FF has enough nutes to carry it 2-3 weeks.

JQuick said:

that looks to me like over watering.

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Agreed. You have big enough pots compared to the seedling's size that there is a substantial reserve it can access if needed.

Let the top inch or so get dried out before adding more water. Seedlings that size without a developed strong root system have a tendency to suffocate if overwatered.

If you mean your soil is pH 6.8, I have found a soil pH of 6.4-6.5 the best. If you mean you are watering with pH 6.8 water/food, I recommend going down to 6.3 or so.

Good luck, bud (pun intended)

moisture stress and the beginning of n lockout from moisture stress is what im thinking. Get that light closer, if you have to you should get an aircooled hood for it. I try to keep my 400w 4-6 inches from the tops max. It will make a huge difference. heres how to tell where your limit is, take the back of your hand and hold it where the tops of the plants are, if after 30-60 seconds it doesnt get uncomfortably warm your good to go at that height/distance.

Thanks for the help all, much appreciated! I lowered my light to about 12" away from the plants. Now it seems as if the general concenus is that I am overwatering...which may be true. However the way I guage it is to pick up the pots wet and dry to get a good idea of when to water. And on top of that, I have perlite mixed with my FFOF, so it drains fairly quick. I must digress, I am a new to this, so I will follow the advise I am given. Hopefully, theyll bounce back(ak strain is know to take an overwatering/overfert pretty well). I'll post a couple update pics next week. Thanks again.

GotYouLooking said:

No nutes for now, FF has enough nutes to carry it 2-3 weeks.

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I agree with that. Dont add anything but water until it really starts growing; it's too small now. The root system is still really small, and delicate.

frmrboi said:

is that a 6500 K bulb ? your light could be closer 14 inches minimum. Probably overwatered.

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Not sure on the kelvin rating for the bulb...picked it up cheap on amazon with hood, ballast, and 400 watt hps which I used to flower my last grow(vegged outside, flowered inside). It's probably a cheapy that I'll have to upgrade sometime in the future...but as of now, they'll be going in a fairly decent closet sizEd grow box that I'm constructing for stealth reasons. Flouros, fans, and Mylar will be their new home in a couple weeks, until they are ready to flower in which they will find a home in my "bloom box" that I'm constructing now

n00dle said:

This is my first "real" indoor grow. I have 2 Feminized AK48 seeds, 19" away from a 400 watt MH light. They were transplanted last week from red party cups into 10" pots, with Fox Farm Ocean Forest/Perlite. Watering with rain water/distilled water and using Fox Farm nutes 1/4 strength.
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As you can tell by the pictures, one seems to be perky and looking decent besides the discoloring on the biggest leaves. The other one looks pretty sad...and has been drooping like that pre-transplant believe it or not. I water every 2/3 days or so, and keep my temps around 80 lights on, 63 lights off. pH around 6.8. Can't seem to tell what I'm doing wrong here. Give them BIG BLOOM every other watering, and GROW BIG once a week. Both at 1/4 strength. Are they ok? They seem to be growing at a pretty slow rate for being week 3.

Click to expand...

ease back on waterings,roots need air ,give the medium an extra day to dry between waterings