My first potential Problem

Okay, I've had my plants for around 18 days now and I'm wondering about a few of them. The color looks fine, they're starting to get lots of secondary and tertiary growth, however, a few of the leaves have drooped, not necessarily on the end, but kind of on the sides, forming an upside down "C". The leaves also feel dry, like paper to the touch. I've been reading a few of the problem threads and I believe this to be a moisture issue....Perhaps watering too little, perhaps too much. I will purchase a moisture meter later today. However, I wanted you guys's opinions...I'll try to put up a few pics later.

For the record, for my nutrients, I am using Miracle grow plant food. Its very diluted, and my watering schedule is every other day, one squirt of a water/nute mix (.25 tablespoons per 32 oz. water) and two squirts of distilled water. I'm also misting the leaves like twice a week with the distilled water.

Drainage is another issue to consider. It's nonexistent. Due to inexperience I put all my plants in one big tupperware container with no drain holes of any kind hoping to save space. For those of you saying "you idiot" You're right I'm beating myself up over it and won't repeat that mistake on the next grow.

Any opinions/requests for further information/advice would be appreciated.

Thanks!

oh yes...lighting, I forgot about lighting....there are seven 75 watt cfls (the screw looking lights) evenly spaced in the area no more than an inch and a half away from the lighting source. I've put my hand inbetween the light and the plant and it did not feel hot so I don't think the plants are being burnt.

Also have a fan blowing across the stems. It's hitting all plants and helping circulate the air.

Without proper drainage, the roots can get damaged.

I would transplant the plants out of this tuperware container and pot them into some decent pots with GOOD drainage =)

I believe you'll get root rot without proper drainage. I have a feeling doing if ya do this, your plants will love ya!

I also dont think its a good idea to use nutes every time you water the plants (I could be wrong)... from my readings here, I think most people do it once a week or once every 2 weeks. I could be off (I'm a noob myself, but read a lot), but I'm pretty sure its not a good idea to be feeding your plants nutes each and every time you water them.

Hope this helps!


Cheers,
-bwbig

resolve the problems you are aware of before you worry about others.

Do you ph test? Don't fert plants that are less then 3 weeks old.

Yes I do ph test...water is slightly acidic, maybe 6.6, 6.8...I have one of those ph testers designed for pools so it's not pinpoint accurate.

Do you guys think I could transfer the plants to draining pots without damaging roots...the biggest plant is about 6 inches tall.

mogie, honestly I did fertilize them....not a lot though, a very diluted solution and very few times do you think that will be horrible for them.

bwbig said:

I would transplant the plants out of this tuperware container and pot them into some decent pots with GOOD drainage =)

I believe you'll get root rot without proper drainage. I have a feeling doing if ya do this, your plants will love ya!

Cheers,
-bwbig

Click to expand...

I agree with you, unfortunately my situation is such that I cannot transplant them....like I said I made some very stupid mistakes which you'll see when I put some pics up.

Ok here is a pic of my first plant, note the furthest left leaf...its one of the ones curling up. This is what I'm experienceing with one other plant. Also, does the top, newer growth look a little yellow?

EDIT: I removed the pic of the plant, it was posted improperly and was a risk for me, I'll repost it along with more pics soon. Sorry....

why do you have the lid on the rubbermaid container. Thats gonna cause watering problems.

your gonna have to cut that lid off there thats not good..

^^^^^exactly.....lots of potential problems..good luck with the rest of the grow

Only a first timer but is your plant staked to the ground at this early stage? is there a fan in your grow box coz from what i read everywhere you need a small deskfan blowing on your plant to create strong stems

NO GROW said:

why do you have the lid on the rubbermaid container. Thats gonna cause watering problems.

Click to expand...

Heh, cause I'm an idiot. I'm kicking myself now...but I didn't know better at the time.

Damn damn damn...I may have thrown gas on the fire. Ok I got some pots and transfered them to pots, but of the five plants I distincly heard the 'ripping' sound of roots. I may have killed all but two of them....

Do you guys think taking switching the light cycle down to 14/10 from 16/8 might give the roots a chance to reestablish themselves?

pretender, I think your lights might be too close, and you might be over watering, maybe over-nuting.
from my experience, I had four of those 42 watters an inch or so over my plants the last few days and they started to yellow out, which I think was due to the heat from the lamps. If you have a thermometer you should be able to tell the temperature, anything over 80 might be too much. I was running 90 at some points, even with all lights pulled about 6 inches back.

on watering i read that watering too much can make root rot, and with your situation you need to watch out because you have no drainage. try making holes in the bottom or something. maybe transplant to seperate pots.

also I went from a daily watering squirts to everyother day, and i only nuted them twice ten days apart and probably wont again for a few more days. less is more... i read.

i dont know about your other problems, but I looked here https://www.rollitup.org/view.php?pg=faq&cmd=category&id=33 and found a lot of helpful info.

I havent seen the pic, but if they look iffy you might want to chance giving them a better enviro in thier own pots. I would and did.

goodluck

just put some drain holes in the container you have them in. use a drill at the lowest point on the container they don't have to go in very far just far enough to let water drain. or use a push pin to make holes

maybe bring your lights back some, i was burning my plants with 42 watt of CFL. also your roots are in a bad situation, and probably you should chance a transplant, i havent seen the pics though. anyway, you should check the faq for your problems, good info under plant problems.
goodluck.

Thanks guys for the advice....I've gotten them out of that container and into individual pots. I'm going to give it another day or so and then I'll post more pics....Just from looking at them it seems like most of the plants have responded positively to the transplant...One of them however looks like it might be in slow decline.