Nute burn / Nitrogen toxicity?

Yes I know I'm probably making the classic newb mistake. My plant is about 17 days old, yesterday I noticed her drooping a bit so I checked the soil and yeah it was dry, 5 gallon pot, watered about 4.5 days ago. I gave some distilled water with my second dose of 1/4 str nutes measuring in total 150ppm.

She perked up a bit today but now is drooping again, and I think I'm seeing maybe a claw thing starting to happen. Is this a nitrogen toxicity / nute burn? The tips of the leaves are more dark green than the rest of the leaves and I know this can be the start of either one.

So should I do anything at all? I'd prefer to just let the pot dry out completely and then the next watering do pure distilled water to flush some of the nutes out of the soil. But if I'm in danger of some worse damage I could flush now, if it's the right thing to do.

Thanks in advance.

Anytime the medium has excessive water or not enough it will droop. With young seedlings ill water every day once the lights turn on but i try to make sure its somewhat dry before the lights come on the next day and that makes a BIG difference with rooth growth.

If you pour a shot glass of water at the base of the stem during droop does she perk up? If yes then increase the water amount slightly if no then your overwatering.

The nitrogen you've fed it doesnt seem like much, and will probably grow out of it in about 7-10 days.

What he ^ said. What kind of soil are you using?

Thanks , it's an auto so i wanted it to be in its final pot but I probably should have gone with a 3 gallon. I have my other girl in a 3 gallon who is 2 days younger and farther along in growth. I'm using ffof.

Skylan01 said:

Thanks , it's an auto so i wanted it to be in its final pot but I probably should have gone with a 3 gallon. I have my other girl in a 3 gallon who is 2 days younger and farther along in growth. I'm using ffof.

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With an auto in a 5 gallon with FFOF I wouldn't feed any nutes until it looks like it might need some. I use the same soil with regular seeds and don't even feed them until they're flowering. FFOF has plenty of stuff in it to get the plant by for a long time. If it were my grow I'd just stick with plain water for now.

Did you add perlite?

Pete Townshend said:

With an auto in a 5 gallon with FFOF I wouldn't feed any nutes until it looks like it might need some. I use the same soil with regular seeds and don't even feed them until they're flowering. FFOF has plenty of stuff in it to get the plant by for a long time. If it were my grow I'd just stick with plain water for now.

Did you add perlite?

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I agree.. If thats a fresh ffof 5 gal transplant i wouldn't feed anymore for atleast a few weeks.

OK, I'll just let her dry out and then stick to just water. I did add perlite, about 30 % in the mix and a thin layer down at the bottom because I figured it may help drainage.

Skylan01 said:

OK, I'll just let her dry out and then stick to just water. I did add perlite, about 30 % in the mix and a thin layer down at the bottom because I figured it may help drainage.

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Good job. I add about the same amount. What strain you have there?

It's a Med gom 1.0 auto (high CBD strain).

My tap water is around 100 ppm, I'll bump that to around 200 or so with cal-mag, then go to around 400-500 ppm with tiger bloom. These are my best plants, yet. I'm running autos in 3 gal fabric pots with ffof & perlite and a 1/4 cup of sweet lime per bag. I bubble my tap water for 24 hrs, also. Good luck at leaving it alone, it really makes a difference!

I started feeding at around 18 days but I was using 1/2 the nutes same cal-mag. I'm using a lot of perlite so you might want to wait longer than 18 days though, maybe add a week or two. A pH meter & TDS meter makes things easier. I starting to believe less nutes is better (as a beginner, myself) than more.

I agree, I wish I would have waited to start them. I got some conflicting info in another thread - I had my LED's a little too close to them as seedlings and it was causing some minor light bleaching. Had a few people tell me they looked hungry so I decided to give it a shot. I do think I'll continue with CaMg every other water for now since I'm using distilled but yeah I'm definitely backing off for now. My girl in a 3 gallon pot is looking so good now with the same amount of nutes, so I think the 5 gallon may just not be drying out enough even though my moisture meter was reading dry and the pot felt light. I think it may be staying more moist than I am able to gauge in the center of the pot since I'm afraid to stick a probe near the stalk.

Yeah my Mazaar, in a 5 gal fab pot, has a lil different water schedule. I use CFL's & hps, so LEDs are different but seen a big difference when my temps came down to the high 60s low 70s. I cal-mag every water, plan to nutes as the plant tells me to until about a week from chop. My room is dry so I water good before I chop.

Well, she looked better yesterday... not perky like my other but not drooping either. There was no nute burn but the pot seems to be drying out faster than normal. My moisture meter is 3/10 in several spots and pot feels really light. Past first knuckle it's dry. She's drooping again this morning but it did reach 84 degrees in there last night as I had the fan on too low. Sitting at 76 now and 45 % humidity. Should I just give distilled water without CaMg when I get home or do as someone else said and give a shot of water at the base and see if she responds first. I'm nervous about overwatering now and the pot was taking 4-5 days to dry before and now it's only been less than 2.

Sounds weird to me too. I thought the shot of water sounded like a good idea. I've read about using half the volume of the pots as a starting point for your waterings. If you have a 3 gal pot use 1.5 gal of water. I've always have a little run off but I start mixing less solution as I go. I give the pots a while to pull runoff back up, but never leave it sitting for too long.

upnsmoke13 said:

Sounds weird to me too. I thought the shot of water sounded like a good idea. I've read about using half the volume of the pots as a starting point for your waterings. If you have a 3 gal pot use 1.5 gal of water. I've always have a little run off but I start mixing less solution as I go. I give the pots a while to pull runoff back up, but never leave it sitting for too long.

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I tried the shot of water thing, really didn't do anything so I guess I'll hold off. It does feel dry/light but I'm starting to wonder if the pot was too big to begin with. Maybe it wasn't drying out enough at the center. She's still droopy. Not sure what to do other than hold off then flush with distilled water. Unless anyone else has a suggestion.

Looking back at my original picture it does look better, so I'll stay the course and not overreact. It's just hard when I have one 2 days younger same strain that's killing her in growth / health

Just curious, why is your pot only half full?

I wouldn't flush just water when the pot is dry. It'll be fine.

HandyGringo said:

Just curious, why is your pot only half full?

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I think that was more of a camera angle thing. It's about the depth of my 3gallon
Not filling it was driven by the understanding that a 3gallon is more ideal for autos.