Help please. Plants are getting worse. (5 weeks into flower)

I feel like an idiot. Close to 5 weeks into flower for my indoor grow. Watering every 2nd day.
Light Cycle: 12/12
Lights: 4x 2700k 13w EcoSmart Bulbs (1500 lumens each)
Medium: Around 70% Coco & 30% Perlite w/ the entire bottom layer being perlite to where the drainage is (it's a hempy bucket)
Nutrients: Tap water (+ around 100mg of calcium ascorbate to neutralize chlorine/ETC), 3g Megacrop, + 1.5g of Bud Explosion(0-26-37 pk booster) + pH down to get it to 6.2.
PH: 6.2
TEMP/HUMIDITY: 77-82F / 50-65% (around 50-60% during the day and jumps to 65% @ lights out). I am planning on adding a dehumidifier during the last few weeks because that's when I heard of people dropping the humidity real low.

The leaves are also not yellowing at all and going straight to brown. So I didn't think it was nute burn. The nutrients seem on par with what I see a lot of others getting away with (not completely ruling it out though). I just upped the "Bud Explosion(0-26-37 pk booster)" to 1.5g for the last 4 days because someone elsewhere said it was potassium deficiency, but I'm thinking something else.

I suspected it was the lights being too close on my other plant, so I switch to only 4 lights instead of 6 to help that one plant. This was 2 weeks ago. I thought after going that it would all correct it self, but it's getting worse and it's affecting all my plants (even the two that are far away from the lights) now.

Thanks for any feedback.



same pictures as above(just on imgur):

that really looks like magnesium deficiency to me.
are you getting run off every time you water? that's important in coco, flushes out the depleted salts from the last feeding, keeps them from building up and cooking your roots.
when was the last time you checked your ph meter? 6.2 should be a good spot for mag, but if your meter is off, you could be causing a lockout.
only other suggestion i have is to make up a fresh double batch of nutes, make sure the ph is right, and flush them out. do not just add more mag without figuring out what is causing the problem

I’ve only run coco once…..but I had to water DAILY With plenty of runoff As Roger said To avoid that. How large is your pot?

Roger A. Shrubber said:

that really looks like magnesium deficiency to me.
are you getting run off every time you water? that's important in coco, flushes out the depleted salts from the last feeding, keeps them from building up and cooking your roots.
when was the last time you checked your ph meter? 6.2 should be a good spot for mag, but if your meter is off, you could be causing a lockout.
only other suggestion i have is to make up a fresh double batch of nutes, make sure the ph is right, and flush them out. do not just add more mag without figuring out what is causing the problem

Click to expand...

I get water coming out each time I water. Around 20% or so from what I add.
I have no way of telling if my ph meter is correct (have no calibration solution, but I did calibrate it when I got it (a year ago)).
So it could be some type of lockout due to faulty reading. I do have the pH drop testing solution and vial, so I will give that a try and post back.
I'll whip up a few nute solutions and test.

twalte said:

I’ve only run coco once…..but I had to water DAILY With plenty of runoff As Roger said To avoid that. How large is your pot?

Click to expand...

A little over 1 gallon pot(1.2ish?) for 2 plants and 1 gallon for the 3rd.

I did a pH test and it seems it might be off around the 6-8 pH range, but more accurate @ lower pH.
Guess I can't really know for sure without getting calibration solution. I can't purchase that for a few days.

I will use the pH drops and get it to the 2nd picture(from the top) from now on.

Does anyone think this might be the issue? I really want to add around 1g of epsom salt. Not sure how much damage these plants can take. It's starting to affect the bud sites.



same pictures as above(just on imgur):

So I made some fresh nutes (2am in the morning messing w/ this shit).
Seems the pH meter is being an idiot (+ a bit of me as well) and now I'm going w/ the pH drops reading.
NUTES: Tap water (+ around 50mg of calcium ascorbate to neutralize chlorine/ETC), 3g Megacrop, + 1.5g of Bud Explosion(0-26-37 pk booster) + 1g Epsom Salt.

I didn't add any pH down/up and this was the result I got. Normally I would add pH down to get it to around 6.2. So it seems if the pH pen is off, then I'm not sure what the final pH actually was that I was using. Just assumed it was all fine and dandy. Been working good so far until the past few weeks. Probably was reading in the low 5's or something.

Did 3 gallons of nutes. Two reading of each gallon container (didn't test 3rd as it all seemed pretty good so far).
Then added about 1/4 of a gallon to each pot. Will do more tomorrow as I've watered them before I made this post + the fresh 1/4 of a gal each.



same pictures as above(just on imgur):

I’d make sure the run of ph and e.c is same as what you are~ putting in. I would also try lower ph

I’m not an expert but that is what I would do and can’t you use distilled water just to verify how far meter is off? It seems close enough to make sure you are way off.

Pawtz said:

I did a pH test and it seems it might be off around the 6-8 pH range, but more accurate @ lower pH.
Guess I can't really know for sure without getting calibration solution. I can't purchase that for a few days.

I will use the pH drops and get it to the 2nd picture(from the top) from now on.

Does anyone think this might be the issue? I really want to add around 1g of epsom salt. Not sure how much damage these plants can take. It's starting to affect the bud sites.

View attachment 5001132

same pictures as above(just on imgur):

http://imgur.com/a/teAl3rE

Click to expand...

Your meter is off for sure if it was at 8.9 that water would be dark dark blue....yellow is closer to 5...6 should be a pissy yellow- green... 6.5 is almost the color of rollitup green or the color of money Everytime I see that color I say "money" because that's my sweet spot at about 6.5...now above 7 is brighter or darker than money I can explain it but that's how I know I went too far....and once you hit the blue greens and the dark blues you way past 7...like I said blue is 8 or higher meter is off for sure

I only use test solutions because they are always right no need to calibrate...yea it's more work but less work in the end

I'm thinking you've overfed and under-lit the plant and you're seeing lockout as a result. Your using fluorescent lights, correct? About 50 watts? Well, there is no way a plant can use the nutrients you are giving it at that low wattage. Most likely PH is a factor too-those cheap PH meters are totally inaccurate-the drops are a little better, but coco works best if you can set your PH reliably to 5.8 each time. I'd rethink your lighting, drop the bud explosion completely, and get accurate TDS/PH meters. Good luck!

I'm telling you if there is anything I Kno it's how this test solution is...your meter is wayyyyyy off...

Between 7-8

Here's one over 8.1-8.5 or higher

OneMoreRip said:

I’d make sure the run of ph and e.c is same as what you are~ putting in. I would also try lower ph

I’m not an expert but that is what I would do and can’t you use distilled water just to verify how far meter is off? It seems close enough to make sure you are way off.

Click to expand...

From what I'm gathering online, distilled water is a bad benchmark to gauge pH as there's a lot of variables that can change the pH. I'm going to have to opt for some calibration solution if I want to keep using this pH pen it seems. Just going to stick with the drops for the duration of this grow.

I did test it though and this is the pH that I got when testing (had to google why it kept dipping (factors: temp/co2/ETC)). Freshly opened distilled water (OCT/2022 EXP).


same pictures as above(just on imgur):

Cotyledon420 said:

Your meter is off for sure if it was at 8.9 that water would be dark dark blue....yellow is closer to 5...6 should be a pissy yellow- green... 6.5 is almost the color of rollitup green or the color of money Everytime I see that color I say "money" because that's my sweet spot at about 6.5...now above 7 is brighter or darker than money I can explain it but that's how I know I went too far....and once you hit the blue greens and the dark blues you way past 7...like I said blue is 8 or higher meter is off for sure

Click to expand...

The highest I got was 8.39. The test drops seem to indicate around closer to 7.0. pH pen does seem very off @ that high of pH.

Cotyledon420 said:

I only use test solutions because they are always right no need to calibrate...yea it's more work but less work in the end

Click to expand...

I'm going to have to test it out more with pH up/down to test the colors because I'm having a hell of a time reading these test drops. Would love the pen if it worked .

Rurumo said:

I'm thinking you've overfed and under-lit the plant and you're seeing lockout as a result. Your using fluorescent lights, correct? About 50 watts? Well, there is no way a plant can use the nutrients you are giving it at that low wattage. Most likely PH is a factor too-those cheap PH meters are totally inaccurate-the drops are a little better, but coco works best if you can set your PH reliably to 5.8 each time. I'd rethink your lighting, drop the bud explosion completely, and get accurate TDS/PH meters. Good luck!

Click to expand...

Those lights I'm using are LED. I'm @ around 52w about my grow space is slightly over 1 sq ft (maybe 1.3). That's @ 4 bulbs. I did have 6 (78w) which did burn the tips of my blue dream plant because it stretched the most and was 3" away from the lights @ the plants highest point. So I went to 4 bulbs. That's why I didn't have much concern of nutrient issue because I was under the impression that the other plants might have got bit a little by light burn, but their issue(s) have only been getting worse. The temps were around 82 during me using 6 bulbs and are now 77-79 @ 4 bulbs.

I never had stretching issues early on due to low light output. I'm assuming that's usually the first indicator unless the leaves are eating away at themselves due to being underfed.


~Full grow for more context (taken 2 days ago)


same picture as above(just on imgur):

Pawtz said:

From what I'm gathering online, distilled water is a bad benchmark to gauge pH as there's a lot of variables that can change the pH. I'm going to have to opt for some calibration solution if I want to keep using this pH pen it seems. Just going to stick with the drops for the duration of this grow.

I did test it though and this is the pH that I got when testing (had to google why it kept dipping (factors: temp/co2/ETC)). Freshly opened distilled water (OCT/2022 EXP).

View attachment 5001523
same pictures as above(just on imgur):

http://imgur.com/a/0zSCgIp

The highest I got was 8.39. The test drops seem to indicate around closer to 7.0. pH pen does seem very off @ that high of pH.



I'm going to have to test it out more with pH up/down to test the colors because I'm having a hell of a time reading these test drops. Would love the pen if it worked .



Those lights I'm using are LED. I'm @ around 52w about my grow space is slightly over 1 sq ft (maybe 1.3). That's @ 4 bulbs. I did have 6 (78w) which did burn the tips of my blue dream plant because it stretched the most and was 3" away from the lights @ the plants highest point. So I went to 4 bulbs. That's why I didn't have much concern of nutrient issue because I was under the impression that the other plants might have got bit a little by light burn, but their issue(s) have only been getting worse. The temps were around 82 during me using 6 bulbs and are now 77-79 @ 4 bulbs.

I never had stretching issues early on due to low light output. I'm assuming that's usually the first indicator unless the leaves are eating away at themselves due to being underfed.

Click to expand...

You have a test solution use that to check the pH of your nutrient solution does the same thing your pen does besides the fact it's always accurate and call it a day

Cotyledon420 said:

You have a test solution use that to check the pH of your nutrient solution does the same thing your pen does besides the fact it's always accurate and call it a day

Click to expand...

I stuck w/ what I got here: https://www.rollitup.org/t/help-please-plants-are-getting-worse-5-weeks-into-flower.1063601/post-16569459
Just using that reading from now on. Looks to be around 6. Figure it's probably not within lockout territory there.

Pawtz said:

I stuck w/ what I got here: https://www.rollitup.org/t/help-please-plants-are-getting-worse-5-weeks-into-flower.1063601/post-16569459
Just using that reading from now on. Looks to be around 6. Figure it's probably not within lockout territory there.

Click to expand...

What I don't understand is why ours are different colors at 6.5 urs is orange I don't even have a orange

Cotyledon420 said:

What I don't understand is why ours are different colors at 6.5 urs is orange I don't even have a orange

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Yes it's very odd, it must be the camera lighting or something.

I have a bottle right here (from GHE, but appears to be the same stuff):
6 is bright yellow, 7 is green, and 6.5 is the middle of the two (greenish yellow).
Lower than 6 goes into orange.
Above 7 goes into dark green, then cyan.

Not sure what everybody is looking at. They're the same color indicators. My bottle doesn't have writing @ the bottom in the middle.

Test your run off 4hrs after your last feed…..do this by adding just enough water to collect enough to test your ph…..if it’s 1.5-2+ph lower than what went in you got root rot…….iv run into this a dozen or so times…..looked a lot like yours do now….do that and check back in