Droopy plant - please help!

Hey guys!

This is my first post here. I haven't needed to post anything due to the insanely large amounts of awesome knowledge here, but now I'm stumped! SWIM (someone who is me) is on his first grow, and can't seem to figure out this droopage.

This girl just turned 7 weeks old from sprout, and she's been doing great! I've been using 4 43w CFLs (2x 2700k & 2x 6500k) kept about 2 inches from the top of the canopy. Heat has never been an issue as I have a 10" fan right beside it. I have more lights to add for flowering, but I've been happy with the light coverage so far.

Unfortunately, I didn't know any better and used Miracle Grow potting soil that my girlfriend had laying around the house, but after a couple flushes and pH correction it seems to be doing fine. Due to space restrictions, I actually started to flower about 10 days ago by shortening the daylight time by an hour a day (from 18/6). I only got it down to 14/10 when I noticed she was starting to have problems, so I immediately reverted back to the veg cycle. I had originally thought that I had over-watered, so I let it dry out completely, but it didn't bounce back like it has before.

After a little more observation, I noticed that the lower leaves were yellowing and the stems were turning red, leading me to believe it was a nitrogen deficiency. 4 days ago (after it had dried out completely) I gave it 1/2 gallon of half strength Fox Farm Grow Big (6-4-4) and sprayed the leaves with Advanced Nutrients Revive (1-0-0 and a bunch of minerals) that I had mixed to 2mL per L. This was the first time any nutrients had been added due to the time release nutes in MG. The runoff pH after the watering read right at 6.0, which I thought was perfect.

Now for the questions: 4 days after adding the nitrogen, the foliage droopage has not improved whatsoever. I have not noticed any new yellowing, but she still just looks a little ragged, and I want her to be healthy when she goes into flowering. Does anyone know why my plant might look like this? Could it actually be overwatering, or could it be that 4 days is just not enough time for it to improve? I checked the soil today, and about 2-3" deep I still feel just a LITTLE moisture, so I'm not sure if I sure water again just in case it is an overwatering issue.

Also, does anyone know why the leaves are twisting in the second pic?

Please let me know if you need any other information, and thank you so much in advance for your help.

-Steve

P.S. The pipe cleaners (or Fuzzy Sticks as it says on the package lol) were for a little LST action.

i would suggest flushing, and repotting into new soil ...asap.

the twisting could be nirtrogen toxicity.
"
Signs of Nitrogen Toxicity

• Dark green leaves and foliage
• Leaf tips may turn down, without signs of overwatering.
• You may notice yellowing on the affected leaves or other signs of nutrient deficiencies as time goes on
• Nitrogen toxicity is often but not always accompanied by nutrient burn
• The Claw often seems random, affecting leaves here and there
• Heat and pH problems will make the clawing worse, as they stress out the plant and lower her defenses
• As time goes on, the claw leaves will eventually start turning yellow, getting spots, and dying"
  
  <span style="font-family: arial">[video=youtube;-_IM7XEcxgw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_IM7XEcxgw[/video]
  

first mistake... mg potting mix, it works for 3 weeks then fuks everything up, your pics are proff of that. 6.8 is the ideal ph for mj in soil. https://www.rollitup.org/marijuana-plant-problems/763067-high-ph-signs-symptoms-correcting.html check this out... or https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=11688

sativa indica pits said:

first mistake... mg potting mix, it works for 3 weeks then fuks everything up, your pics are proff of that. 6.8 is the ideal ph for mj in soil.

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The sub-par quality of MG is just one of ten thousand things I've learned since I started this one plant lol. For whatever reason, I thought the perfect pH was 5.5-6.5 (maybe it says it on one of the bottles of pH testing liquid laying around) so thank you so much for giving me the exact number. I'll chock that up with another good thing learned. +1 for you, man!

sunni said:

• i would suggest flushing, and repotting into new soil ...asap.
  
  the twisting could be nirtrogen toxicity.​

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• 
  
  I'm afraid the root-ball is too large for new soil, but I will definitely take your advice and flush the plant to try and get it up to the CORRECT pH. I'm not going to add any nutes for a while to see if it was indeed pH issues. Hopefully that would help if it was too much nitrogen, as well.
  
  Thanks to both of you for your quick responses. There is no way via the internet for me to express how much I appreciate it.​
  
  
  
  

Yea, its best to learn from your mistakes.... So many people do the same exact thing over and over again and wonder why there fukt up. One of my buddies killed like 25 seeds from amsterdam because he kept putting them in peat pellets. I got the same number of seeds if not more and every single seed grew into a bad ass plant... he was so pisssed at the seed company for sending him bunk seeds...lol I told him to put them right in the soil in a cup? but keep on trying and you will figure out how to read your plants and know what the problem is right when it starts happening. good luck

You've been overwatering and experiencing nute lock out. Best to simply no add any nutes. let it dry out to where soil I dry first inch or more.
Otherwise, make some clones and start over.

the twisting could be nirtrogen toxicity

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.

This is correct and the yellowing is also N toxicity. When salts(N) build up the plant can no longer take up much needed N.

I'm afraid the root-ball is too large for new soil

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What does this mean here steve?

*BUDS said:

What does this mean here steve?

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Thanks for taking the time to reply!

It means I don't have a bigger pot, nor could I fit one in my grow space. So, I'm not sure how I could give it new soil without tearing up all my roots!

Turns out, my soil was super acidic. I spent the better part of 2 hours last night running many, many gallons of pH'd water through it until it came up to 6.6. Just 14 hours later, I can already tell a small difference. Some of the lower fan leaves are starting to perk back up. I'm praying that the rest of the plant will follow over the next couple of days. No nutrients were added, and hopefully all that flushing got rid of any excess salts.

I'll post a new picture and a small update if/when she starts feeling better. Otherwise, I may just take thcscreener's advice and just clone and start again with all the new knowledge I've gained. I'm excited for my second grow!

You cant find anything a little bit bigger to transplant into?

I use all types of pots......like gallon jugs, water jugs, 2 and 3 liter soda bottles.... small totes. Try to find something just a little bit bigger. I transplant every 2 weeks so the roots are always having fresh soil to explore. I start with lg. dunkin donut cups, then up to 2 liter bottles and 1/2gallon oj boxes, then on to the gallon jugs and so on. it really helps the roots. And if a few roots break or get torn its not that big of a deal, they will grow more. keep the ph in the right range and you plants will grow fast and healthy.