becoming a GROWING problem...please help meh!!

hello everyone and thank you in advance for ANY insight into alleviating the problem.last week my soil and water PH level were high, causing my stems to purple and show what i thought was phos def. So I added 5 drops out of a dropper of vinegar to 32 oz. of room temp, tap water that had sat overnight. After watering with solution stems lost the purple tint, and growth began to speed up.

2 days ago i noticed that 1/3 plants was growing substantially slower then the rest, if any at all. PH soil test showed between 6.5-7.0, based on color of solution. therefore i continued to water as usual, thinking it was residual effects of the previous issue. Last night, with no apparent improvement, I thought that perhaps it was too acidic, causing a calcium deficiency, so i began watering with distilled water.

Its been 24 hours now, and still now showing signs of improvement, so i looked in the soil with a sterile toothpick, and found that the root wasnt reaching downward and taking root as i had imagined it would have. It cant barely support itself with only 2 leaves and the cotly leaves and its working on it second, so im fearful it'll fall over. Its exerting slight yellowing of the overall leaf, like a light green or almost yellow hue, and the very tips of the leafs are brown.

My question is could it be my medium being too dense for the root to grow deeper? Im using 3/4 soil and 1/4 seed starting mix, as a topping or dressing.

I will load photos as soon as I can, within a hour or so tops. Sorry for the book

1. plants usually dont recover in 24 hours.

2. ph 6.5-70 is ok in soil.

3. stop digging around in the root ball.

4. you over caring for your plants.

5. pix.

EDIT*
This is one pic i have. The problem plant is
the bottom right one. I know I'm probably over caring for them, but today I found that what I bought for
soil was rocks,mulch,and wet sand with a splash of dirt. So the roots were growing sideways and not downward at all, because of the density.

Leave them alone before you kill em

Appreciate the straight forward replies. We've established Im overcaring for them, so im backing off as told. However I feel like I need to tell you everything ive done up to this point so as to give you guys an idea of how they are being maintained. After confirming the soil was too dense, I gently transplanted each (without damaging or breaking any roots) into a BlackGold Waterhold CoCo Coir Blend with jiffy pots instead of solo cups, for obvious reasons. Im going to try soilless, even though its not recommended for first time grows I feel I have the time and will power to care for them as they are needed to be and I have the environment to do so. I am really trying to be a student of the mind and learn as much as possible. Oh and for nutes, when the time comes, I was planning on using a worm tea. any more suggestions for natural fertilizers? thank you in advance.

Your original soil was better looking IMO. Were those "rocks" the white almost chalky like chunks that you could break by squeezing? cause if so that's perlite and meant to provide drainage to a soil. You need that stuff. Def' take kites advice. One of the biggest hurdles to overcome when starting out is the tendencies to fuck with shit every chance you get. When you find yourself wanting to change something but your plants are green and standing up don't.

Yea no it wasn't perlite, I do somewhat know about mediums and there contents. It was rocks, specifically smooth rocks, sand, mulch, and some soil. But yea Im done messin with them. Im going to focus on better lights and ventilation and learning more about supercropping and lst n what not. Thank you for the input it reinforces that im doing the right thing.

Coirs not to complicated just ph your water and your nute solution and you'll be fine. A mix of 10-15% perlite to coir is good but even straight up coir is fine, I would do the mix personally. You'll need a nute regimen to go with it though, sumthing like maxsea or the maxi series will work fine if you want to keep it simple, if you want to go complex theres a million products out there. Just keep in mind coir in pots is treated just like a drain to waste hydro system.

Thank You for that information, that's extremely helpful for me. I was going to go to the local hydro store when they open from the holiday is maxsea available at most hydro stores? Do I introduce it slowly and diluted or per directions on bottle?

Galvatron said:

Coirs not to complicated just ph your water and your nute solution and you'll be fine. A mix of 10-15% perlite to coir is good but even straight up coir is fine, I would do the mix personally. You'll need a nute regimen to go with it though, sumthing like maxsea or the maxi series will work fine if you want to keep it simple, if you want to go complex theres a million products out there. Just keep in mind coir in pots is treated just like a drain to waste hydro system.

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UPDATE***

thank you for leading me onto drain to waste system. I really had no idea how much easier it is to make hempy buckets then it is to try in soil for me. Over watering is/was my main problem and a passive hydro system is EXACTLY what the doctor ordered. plants look great today, the leaves were drooping slightly on 1 last night but today they all look GREAT. Thank you guys and any info or tips on hempy buckets would be very much appreciated! Thank you to everyone for inputs

Here's what I've got for now, basically jiffy pots with holes in the side about a 1" up and approx 3/4" of water in the tub I have them in for now. I have buckets but I wanted them to stay at my "incubation station" as long as possible before I move them into my stealth box.

THCJunkie420 said:

Yea no it wasn't perlite, I do somewhat know about mediums and there contents. It was rocks, specifically smooth rocks, sand, mulch, and some soil. But yea Im done messin with them. Im going to focus on better lights and ventilation and learning more about supercropping and lst n what not. Thank you for the input it reinforces that im doing the right thing.

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I dont give much advice to people on growing since I have only been doing indoor grows for less than a year and still wet behind the ears when it comes to indoor growing. (a completely different ball game than outdoor growing), but here is some advice that you can take or leave, but im just telling do to my own experience.
IMO, if i was able to start over and do it agian. Stick to the basics, its easy when starting off and reading all the cool new ideas that you read about on RIU, to try this and that, supercrop, LSTing, FIMing, and all the new information you are filling your brain with. Just grow some plants, keep it simple. Learn what they like, what they dont. Just try growing healthy, happy plants. Perfect just growing a plant before you start trying to do all the other things or you will be all over the place.

Mr. Outdoors said:

I dont give much advice to people on growing since I have only been doing indoor grows for less than a year and still wet behind the ears when it comes to indoor growing. (a completely different ball game than outdoor growing), but here is some advice that you can take or leave, but im just telling do to my own experience.
IMO, if i was able to start over and do it agian. Stick to the basics, its easy when starting off and reading all the cool new ideas that you read about on RIU, to try this and that, supercrop, LSTing, FIMing, and all the new information you are filling your brain with. Just grow some plants, keep it simple. Learn what they like, what they dont. Just try growing healthy, happy plants. Perfect just growing a plant before you start trying to do all the other things or you will be all over the place.

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Thank you for that. I have the first time grow problem of over analyzing, and trying to constantly better my grow. I'n very satisfied withy decision to go soilless, but I do believe for my first grow I need to simplify things as much as possible. I've come to the conclusion that hempy buckets will be my easiest and most efficient method for my environment. My plants are between 1-2 weeks old and I was trying to find out when I should begin feeding them? Would u consider LST and supercropping for your first grow? I wanted to experiment with LST cause I'm doing it in a stealth box, the large storage totes stacked on top of each other style. I'm goin to upscale my size of grow substantially once I get my feet wet n the milk off my breathe.

LST is simple, even for a first time grow. Just make sure your LST doesn't turn into high stress training. If you are in a limited space, LST really is a must. Just like everyone else is saying here, the most common killer of plants is YOU. So try to leave them alone, when you get a hankering to try to fix something just wait it out and avoid the temptations.

Growing plants is a great 2nd (or 3rd, 4th, etc) hobby because otherwise it is like watching the grass grow . Marijuana is like a hot chick, sometimes they respond best when you ignore them a bit.

hbbum said:

LST is simple, even for a first time grow. Just make sure your LST doesn't turn into high stress training. If you are in a limited space, LST really is a must. Just like everyone else is saying here, the most common killer of plants is YOU. So try to leave them alone, when you get a hankering to try to fix something just wait it out and avoid the temptations.

Growing plants is a great 2nd (or 3rd, 4th, etc) hobby because otherwise it is like watching the grass grow . Marijuana is like a hot chick, sometimes they respond best when you ignore them a bit.

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YES! That's what I needed to here

Why do you have the biodegradable pots soaking in water? You want the soil to be moist and in a humid environment, not completely soaked.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this would lead to overwatering/rootrot.

Yea that was a really bad idea of mine I tried to made some make shift Hempy buckets and yada yada yada I was making it more difficult then it really is. I'm just really, REALLY, hoping I can make it to my first harvest. I'm heavy handed with watering and gotten better about it, but using a waterhold mix wasn't the best idea for a guy like me. But thank you, root rot was EXACTLY where I was headed.

older thread but hows it growing? i think the hempys are very newb friendly as well as good for expirienced growers as well. i cant count the times ive talked to someone who is thinking of doing like a dwc kit or a flood table and im all like try a hempy bucket first save some money....i know the hempy cant out produce a dialed in bubble bucket but all things considered its a fucking awesome way to grow...

as far as lts'ing i am pretty fucking lazy so i dont like it turns out my time is better spent on sog methods for tight spaces bonus is not messing with nets and i am able to prune each plant without being a contorsionist.......your stealth cab with a few small pots lst'd to cover the area vs a bunch of small pots like your pics crammed together all growing straight up to cover the same area my vote is for the cram....not knocking lst'ing at all if you dont have room to clone but you can just clone to your cab once you have some mature clones that is to say with alternating nodes.