What would you do/think?

I know enough about forums and marijuana to know that this whole post is pretty much steeped in ambiguity, but here goes.

And thank's in advance for putting up with some joker (me) making his first post about himself and his own problems.. but that is kind of what brings me here.

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Basic run down.. CFL grow (roughly 20,000 lumens collective lights in a 1.5 x 2 ft space) and a half plants (1 small one).

LST'd plants, about 20 days into flowering, they are flowering quickly and nicely.


About 5 days into flowering I decided I was going to go ahead and transplant them before it got too late as they were about the point of needing it (went from 1.5 gallon containers to 2.5 gallon containers.. not a big difference, but I wanted to give some extra room).

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ok.. here is where I ask you to bare with me.. I understand there is a right way and a wrong way to do things, but there is also just a way to get things done sometime depending on resources.


Until transplant the plants were bloody beautiful (they still are mostly).

The soil the plants were brought to maturity in were rarely fed, they never really indicated they needed it.. The soil was a mixed up bag of some of the ready fertilized 3 month soil we all hate (but I had it handy.. ooof, I gotta quit doing that) and my experience before dictated I wanted to dumb the spoil down so I mixed it with some neutral type commerical potting soil mix with no fetilizers so as to help buffer the 3 month crap a bit..

Anyways.. they grew great in it..

Then it came time to transplant..

Sooooo (I'm not dumb or cheap, but I do live in the sticks and the snow has dictated I am not going anywhere for quite some time at the moment.. on my shopping list is a PH meter because I haven't been able to find mine since this new grow) .. I used the soil my wife uses for her houseplants.. which is more 3 month fed crap.. I did flush it a tiny bit.. but not really.. I am under the assumption though (and PLEASE correct me if I am wrong) that this new soil is running at a high PH, certainly higher than one would like, but without meter we are just guessing.. which is what I have to do.. guess..


Anyway, long story short.. a few days after transplant a few leaves turned yellow on all the plants and I assumed it could be due to over watering or a bit of transplant shock as they can go hand in hand at transplant time.

A few days later, more yellow leaves.. ruled out over watering..

The yellow leaves started out on the bottom, and with LST I just figured I would keep an eye on them..

Well.. it just keeps progressing.. and almost more like an over watering rather than a nute burn, even though I am not certain and suspect it is neither..

This is what I THINK is happening, and why I come here for counsel from anyone with any insight..


I THINK the new soil was hot, and is causing random leaves (lower, higher, just one here, another one there.. leaves next to them are healthy, just assorted yellow leaves here and there, no rhyme nor reason) to die.. does this seem sound?

Again, I am doing what we all know not to.. I am trying to correct a problem without knowing exactly what the problem is..


Yesterday I decided to drop some organic nitrogen into the water .. I don't want to feed because of the new soil, but roots haven't really had time to develop into the new soil, so it's an odd one.. ]

I put the nitrogen in more to lower the PH of my filtered tap water (which if is consistent, ran at just over 7 last time I had a meter) and realized I am in a weird place because the new soil will have plenty of nutes, but the roots are not in there enough yet.. it's a mess.. I know..

But, I did notice the yellowing seemed to slow (ya, in just 24 hours it 'seems' to slow, but I am going to lose a lot of lower leaves).. so I don't know if it sucked up nitrogen it needed, or lowered the PH it needed (both?) or was a random fluke and in a few days I will regret it..


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But that brings me here.. knowing full well only thing anyone can do is 'guess'.

So please have a guess for me..

You think the combination of new time release soil, and perhaps a high PH as a result of the new soil and the natural PH of the filtered tap water could be kicking random leaves here and there?

Does anyone else have issues when transplanting neutral weak soil with new lush soil.. I mean it seems they would naturally be conflicting with each other..

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Anyone ever have a similar issue? Or a random guess would be good.. I'm just locked int he middle os a snow storm and fishing for ideas.. I'd sure like to save them..

You asked me two weeks ago I would of said I am easily going to get 2 ounces off these plants.. you ask me today, I think if I don't stop the spread of death I am going to have to start over..

Each plant has about 20 conas in complete normal development EXCEPT for the yellowing leaves heading their way..


The only other thing I can think of ding is flushing of course.. but I really don't think it is lockout as all the leaves are in random places..

Any thoughts..


Sorry for the rambling on..

god ,feel like iv just read a short novel. Anyway , dont think its ph or overwatering ,whats happened is your using the wifes old soil which has had the guts sucked out of it. If its been a few days since repot, start adding fert high in N as this is what its lacking. And ph in soil should be 7 not 4

Buds, thanks for the reply.. sorry about the novel..

To clarify, I didn't mean OLD soil. I just meant it was my ol ladies soil.. I stole it.. but it was new soil.. and of a crap 3 month feed mix variety.. (I knew there would be some degree of adaptation)..

Which is why I am kind of in the middle of PH and nutes.. the roots wont be dug into the new soil enough to get great benefit of the new nutes there, yet I don't want to over nute. And certainly there are PH variances in the now and old soil.

Everything was perfect before Transplant, each plant suffers the same symptom.

The common denominator is the soil I would think.

Everything else remains the same and I am well versed in gentle transplants..


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thanks again.. it's all a guessing game.. I'm land locked for awhile and going nowhere to get anything, so I'll 'experiment' and hope for the best.. a fine line between trying gentle changes, and the plant dying quicker than the changes will take effect.. arrrrgghhh..

UPDATE:

Not that anyone was paying attention, but ...

I was able to break out of the snow, and all I was able to find was a aquarium ph meter, but figured it was better than nothing..


So I brought it home and actually put the soil in it and filled it with drops and shook it and it was reading over 8.

This couldn't be.. so I hesitantly watered it MORE (I flushed it yesterday with tap water) and tested the drainage, and the water read exactly the same as a clump of soil.. it was over 8..

SO I leeched each plant with 6.5'ish water until the water coming out said it was in that range (except one plant I kept flushing .. maybe 10 times and could only get it down to about 7.. ironically it is a more pure Sativa strain LST'd to heck and was the plant that showed the least yellowing and dying of leaves since transplant, yet had this incredibly high ph (according the the fish meter.. it should be at least ballpark enough compared to nothing)... so I got it down to 7..

Watered with a light organic nitrogen, some molasses and a tiny bit of epsom.. everything in quite trace amounts but it should still subsidize the needs a bit till (if) things stabilize.


Anyway, I hope that is what was going on.. most everything I am trying are things I have learned about from reading this forum.. usually I just grown in most any ol soil and outside of a big mite problem once (that I ended up kicking the ass of thanks to advice from this forum) I've never had too much issue until now.

I suppose I'll know in a few days if I done good, or screwed up big time.. as they did look like they were starting to recover a bit this morning when I went back to town on them with the adjusted PH.


Here's hoping for the best.

that was strange ph 8 ,maybe that was your prob or bad trans shock.