Seedling Red / Not Growing

This is our second grow and we are having a ton of problems. This same procedure worked well on our first grow. This time we are using real seed rather then bag seed. These pictures are from our White Widow group but we're also experiencing problem with our Ghana's Dream grow too (although they are greener). We think its either an nute imbalance or some pest / disease.

These plants were germinated about a month and half ago. They are not really growing anymore. The plants seem to be turning red from the bottom upward and the bottom leaves continue to die. The plants regenerate, but only to go red / brown again. We started using nutes about 15 days ago (earth juice grow) and B'cuzz grow thinking they were not getting enough nutes... Still no good. We also moved to a full size pot because the roots had hit the bottom of their cups.

Pictures should tell the story!

Thanks in advance for any help!

i have no help to offer you, im a newb.


but i love your avatar, and the dead. so im just offering sympathy for some fellow family....


that really sucks.....especially if you paid good money for the seeds. really sucks.

those plantys look very small for being that old. are you using tap water? they look as though they are not receiving any nutrients from the soil. how much perlite did you add? how big were they when you started to add nutes? im pretty sure you shouldnt add any, in most cases, until the initial two leaves start to fall off. is there adequate drainage? maybe you are overwatering as well since the roots might not be strong enough to get any of the nutrients. when did you transplant them and did you make sure to push them into the soil mix so that the roots have contact with soil? these are the things i think may be wrong.

To answer your questions:

1. We are using tap water which has sat out at least 24 hours. We also PH all water 6.5~6.0

2. We are using foxfarms happy frog soil. We added 50% paralite when we re-potted.

3. We added the nutes thinking we missed something along the way. Clearly the plants need something. Normally we would have waiting until the plants were larger, but these guys are old.

4. Plastic cups had holes in the bottom as do these square pots.

5. We have another crop which we were able to grow successfully. I guess it could be over watering but this isn't my first time. We use a water meter and wait until in dry area to rewater.

5. These plants have looked this way since before the transplant so I don't think they are hurting from that.

Any additional help would be great!

Thanks to everyone who's already added their input!

well i suggested overwatering because they look a tad droopy. so maybe wait a little while longer to water the plants. id say maybe try to move the lights closer to power up those leaves and get them working again. if you added nutes maybe they were not the right strength. try pouring a sh*tload of water to get some of those nutes out and see how that works. 6.0 is slightly acidic so maybe try to get the soil to 7.0. this could affect the nutrient uptake. i use about 30-40% perlite so my plants have good drainage but still retaining nutrients in the soil itself. what is happy frog soil exactly? i use pro-mix and my plants are doing very well. maybe you should start germinating another few plants in case these go the way of the buffalo. they are too weak too late in the game in my opinion. coul take quite a bit of time and effort to get these back to life. it might be easier just to start over. they do look stretched out though so maybe the light is a tad far away. good luck.

I have seen all of the issues you are having now and I am still on my first grow. I have killed off about 20 plants during my learning curve and now have 2 viable females left. One of the biggest issues I had was PH! and then of course nute burn as well. PH is trickey but instead of focusing on the PH balance in the water you water the plants with, check the PH level of the water once it has drained through the soil and out the drain holes. I promise this will give you a completely different PH reading. It's the drain water that gives a more accurate reading of PH because the PH levels of the soil is what really counts. Try giving the soil that your plants are in now a complete rinse which will clean out the extra nutes. Then test the PH in the run off again see what happens and give them time recover from the imbalance. If at that time you need to get the PH levels balanced you can use vineger OR baking soda to create the balance they need.

Also in a good organic soil the plants do not need any extra nutes especially in the first month. Then after that is a good time to introduce your NPK's.

I hope this helps out.

if they aren't light burned then they look nute burned to me. might want to change out that soil and just give them fresh, clean, pH-corrected water and nothing else (no nutes) for a week or two.

Please note: i have never grown in soil.

Thanks for all your input. I normally run water / nute / water / nute. I am going to give the plants a nice flush out and see if that helps.

Do you think that switching from a grow nute to something more generic (like jack's classic 20-20-20) might help?

Thanks,

Dustin

Just my opinion but I think 50% perlite is a bit much too. You might want to yank your baby out, add 100% more FFHF soil, mix it up, replant and not water as often. Also, it looks like it might be light starved too; might want to get that light a bit closer.

if the stems are turning red and the lower leafs are turning yellow, its definitely a deficiency. Looks like you need Nitrogen, Phosphorous, Potassium and Magnesium. The new growth should be ok after you correct these deficiencies.

Based upon the issues your observing; it is my opinion you are over fertilizing and over watering your babies. You don't need to fertilize daily nor water daily. Do so only when needed. Your soil already has some nutrients in it; so adding nutrients at this stage will kill your babies. You only need to water when the soil calls for it...let your babies drink otherwise you will drown them.

Check your ph levels....also.

Well we're not watering every day. We have a moisture meter and only do it when they need it. We also only nute every other time, so they really only get nuted 1 /week or less.We ph our water and soil also, and that all has been fine.

We're going to switch to a new kind of nutes and get them closer. Hopefully we'll get this figured out before it's too late!

Oh and they're not babies...they've been planted since beginning of October!

any change, basement?

We flushed them out good last night as they all needed water. We'll be watching closely over the next few days to determine if they will come back around or not. Will keep you posted.