Fan leaves drying out from the bottom up....(pics)

This is my first grow. I'm using a dual 4ft T12 40W light ballast with 4 27W CFL twistys, and 2 45W CFL twistys (All Daylight.) This plant is 5 weeks old, and into its 2nd week of 18/6 light cycle with a fan blowing a slight breeze. My medium is Schultz potting soil with an NPK of 0.08-0.12-0.08, and the nutes (up until this became a problem) were a simple 1-1-1 used at 1/2 strength. I've been watering with distilled water. At this point I have no means of measuring humidity, however the temperature ranges between 68-77F as far as I have seen it.

This has been going for a couple weeks almost. I did some research into it when this started appearing on the initial pair of fan leaves and was eventually led to believe it was normal. Well, now it has spread to the following set of leaves and it seems to be progressing upward. The leaves are brittle and crumble in extreme cases, otherwise they have a rough dry type texture and seems to start from the very tip of the leaf.

The final picture is tough to see, but it seems chunks are missing from the edge of the fan leaf...my first idea was pests obviously but when you see it its almost as if the leaf grew without those chunks there....again sorry for the pic quality.

Please help!

Step one- repot them! From what I can see that baby should at least be in a 1-2 gallon container.
Step two-flush your plants with 2-3x the volume of the container your plant is in. It looks like a common sign of nutes burn. With plants that small I would use 1/4 strength nutes and increase the dosage back to 1/2 strengthas it grows. You say the problem had continued after you standing using distilled water, but did you flush your soil? Those nutrients will stay there and burn tor baby. Keep it coming; we'll figure this thing out.

Thanks for being patient!
TD

Patience is my forte my friend

I have taken your advice and have transplanted into a 2 gal pot. I noticed she was slowing down in growth so after a bit of research I determined it may be rootbound and once I transplanted I saw that it was definitely the case.

When you say I should flush, should I flush that amount all at once next watering? (That day being sunday)

dude you cant water with distilled water, this will kill the plants.

Plants, like all organisms, require stable concentration gradients (NO I DID NOT SAY EQUILIBRIUM!).... when you water with distilled water, there is NO solute in the water, just plain ole H20, and H20 attracts POLAR molecules. This means that nutrients within the plant are being pulled OUT of the roots and into your soil. THIS IS A NO NO.

This also means that any nutrients that you have added are being flushed from the soil HOPEFULLY U HAVE DRAINAGE HOLES!

Humidity matters, but this is not the problem. What is your water pH? Did you add dolomite lime to your soil (this helps maintain a steady pH, so that ph problems dont persist)? If not go buy some and spread some on top of the soil. Also, when the plants are sleeping (aka in dark cycle), they being to expand their roots. With it being on 18/6 they are still vegging and wanting to get larger, and with that cup you have them in, they cannot grow. A larger container = more room for roots = larger plant = more buds!. Come back let us know what your pH of water is and ditch the distilled water. Its fine to add nutrients to the distilled water and then feed, but watering with strictly DO is bad.

You want the concentration of your feed to be higher than that of which is in the plant always, UNLESS you have severe burning, then a flush with DO I would think would not hurt the plant. But dont over do it.

Its okay for your humidity to be low, as long as you water enough... The higher the humidity the less the plant transpires. Water wants to go from high to low areas as well, which means transpiration is essential for nutrient and water uptake. Without the two, the plant cannot perform photosynthesis for the light and dark reactions involved, therefore it doenst need all that chlorophyll, so it begins to break it down. Ie. your brown spots etc. Usually nute burn starts at the tips of leaves (from my observations), but I could be wrong.

I to am a learning grower, a learning plant biologist, and simply a newb (with some decent knowledge on plants).

one more note, because Im wired... If you want to grow in those small containers, its best to let the seed sprout, then immediately change to 12/12 light cycle, you dont have a large plant, but finishes earlier.

I HAVE SEEN.... a guy grow out of 1 liter coke bottles, he used an indica strain, and would 12/12 from seed, getting 1oz per plant. It was really cool.

When you say I should flush, should I flush that amount all at once next watering? (That day being sunday)

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Absolutely, bud! Just take the volume of your pot and double it. That's the amount of water you will use. Pour slowly and try to drenched all of the soil. Definitely check your pH as well! If it isn't at the proper level your plant cant use it! Wait until the top of your soil is dry for your next watering. I would suggest giving hem nothing but water until they get back on their feet. Once you start adding nutes again, start at a quarter strength.

TD

Do you have pics of the whole plant?

I think a simple transplant with mild feedings and you will be fine.

Thank you for constructive input. Everyone here knows than I right now so everyone's view is appreciated.

The water pH is 6.9. I have no lime, but bet your ass I'll pick it up as soon as I can.

So,

1) if I don't water with the pure distilled water, would I just use tap water instead?
2) How long would it be best for me to wait until I start using nutes? I'm set to begin flowering in approx a week and a half or so.

treedoctor said:

Absolutely, bud! Just take the volume of your pot and double it. That's the amount of water you will use. Pour slowly and try to drenched all of the soil. Definitely check your pH as well! If it isn't at the proper level your plant cant use it! Wait until the top of your soil is dry for your next watering. I would suggest giving hem nothing but water until they get back on their feet. Once you start adding nutes again, start at a quarter strength.

TD

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Thank ya sir I will measure the ph of the runoff, right now she's a hair under 7.

@Dankster

I don't have whole pics just yet as my camera on my phone sucks donkey balls...thats something else I'm working on.

Do you know anything about your tap water?City or well?

What kind of nutes do you have?You will need more than just the 1-1-1

I don't know too much about the municipal water supply....what should I look for? It's not well water, I know that much.

And recently I obtained some Miracle Grow All Purpose, which has 3-1-2 w/micros

I use pH adjusted tap water. But the tap water in your area could be hard for all we know. Adjust your pH in between 5.5-6.5.
And wow, you're going to flower in about a week? Are you trying to keep your plant small? I'd definitely veg it out some more. At least until you know she's stable and healthy.

My original plan was to flower 3-4wks after switching to 18/6, but all of this has thrown a wrench into my gears. I'm putting a lot of effort into trying to learn how to read my plants....this is all very helpful

I think the fact you didn't transplant earlier kept your plant from growing. You'll learn over time. Give your baby another two weeks to veg so she's nice and healthy when you cut her light by 6 hours (I would suggest doing this gradually as to prevent shock and stunted growth). As far as tor tap water goes, the three things you want to check are pH, parts per million(ppm) of dissolved solids and temp. We've gone over pH and temp isn't necessary since your not running deep water culture, aero, hydroponic, etc set-up. The ability to absorb nutrients is related to the pH of your water. Checking the ppm of you water is also very important. Hard water prevents balanced nutrient uptake as well. If your water is treated with a softener you should avoid it as it may have sodium in it. Sodium is sucked up by tor plant before any other nutrient and it will break down tor plant's vascular system. Additionalllllly, city water is treated with chloramines. Chlorine can kill beneficial microorganisms in your soil, slows growth and can burn leaf tips. Tap water treated with chloramines cannot be dechlorinated by boiling, only by doing something as using an activated carbon filter.

Most of this information I've given you I've remembered from Marijuana Garden Saver by JC Stitch. I've read it a million times, the pages are starting to fall out lol. Grab yourself a copy, I've found it to be invaluable as a quick reference for nutrients, pests, environmental stresses, diseases and controls

TD

I shall do that. Thanks for your input yall, its much appreciated.

May the force be with me