Nutrient Burn or Possibly Early Signs of Root Rot?

Hey all,

This is my afghan girl. Shes 37 days old today. Vegging under a 250 watt CFL. Temps are at 74-82. RH at 35-40%. Soil medium (merical grow). For the past week, several of these fan leaves have begun to dry, brown, and die from the edges inward. I water every 3-4 days, and have only given nutrients twice. New shoots are health and green, as well as all the stalks and stems.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

That's definitely nutrient burn. To my knowledge, all miracle grow potting soil has nutrients in place already. Maybe you found some kind that doesn't, but barring that, I think you should definitely not be adding any more nutes on top of what's already in the mix.

Flushing may make things worse. Miracle grow uses time release fertilizer. Which really means water released fertilizer. It dissolves the way a jawbreaker dissolves when its wet. Adding more moisture to the medium will just release more. You could be damned if you do and damned if you don't here.

If it were me, I'd probably feel I had a better chance trying to ride it out. No more nutes and be extra careful on the watering. If the new growth looks good you may get past it.

Someone will come through and bitch about Miracle grow, but the real problem is that newbies generally are the ones trying to use it and their skills aren't up to snuff for not having control over the nutrient load. I did it too, as did a lot of people here. Anyhow, couple that together with the poor watering ability most new growers suffer from at first and Miracle grow probably isn't the best choice to start with for most of us. That being said, I'm willing to bet that the guys (and gals) here who know how to knock it out of the park consistently could figure out how to get the job done with Miracle grow just the same.

Okay, thanks. the new growth is great right now. Mainly the large fan leaves and a few random small ones are affected. I'll not give her any more nutes.