HELP! yellowing of leaves, brown spots

need some advice...

this is my first time growing and i've hit a bit of a problem... 2 weeks into the grow all 5 of my northern lights are showing yellowing of the leaves. some even have brown spots appearing. growth has more or less stopped and i don't have a clue what it is...

the temp sits about 25deg and there is a constant supply of fresh air circulating the grow room. i have a PH tester and always check to ensure the correct levels of PH are being met while watering the plants

initially i thought it was light stress because i was keeping my 400w sodium lamp on 24hrs a day but since reducing the "light on" time down to 18hrs nothing has changed.

i introduced nutes about 4 days ago hoping the yellowing was a nitrogen deficiency. i use Bio_Grow 8,2,6. still no change since then, yellowing has continued... i am i just being too impatient?

if they dont have nutes .. hook em up... if they gettin nutes they gettin to much time to flush the soil... flush with 3x the amount of pot container keep me updated im on my first grow too... o dont over water as well

bennybueno said:

if they dont have nutes .. hook em up... if they gettin nutes they gettin to much time to flush the soil... flush with 3x the amount of pot container keep me updated im on my first grow too... o dont over water as well

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i am feeding them nutes... started using Bio-Grow 8,2,6 about 4 days ago... was hoping that would sort the problem but nothing has really changed. growth is still very slow and yellowing has continued.

Jim McColl said:

i am feeding them nutes... started using Bio-Grow 8,2,6 about 4 days ago... was hoping that would sort the problem but nothing has really changed. growth is still very slow and yellowing has continued.

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So you started to feed nutes when they were just 10 days old?

Airwave said:

So you started to feed nutes when they were just 10 days old?

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yeah... i thought the soil i was using didn't have the correct levels of nutrients in it thus the reason why the leaves were turning yellow...

ok so it looks like i was being impatient... growth has resumed and the yellowing of the leaves has stopped.

i'm assuming it was a nutrient deficiency as things started picking up after i started feeding the plants nutes...

bennybueno said:

if they dont have nutes .. hook em up... if they gettin nutes they gettin to much time to flush the soil... flush with 3x the amount of pot container keep me updated im on my first grow too... o dont over water as well

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I think u will come to find out that it gets a little more complex than this

Phelps said:

I think u will come to find out that it gets a little more complex than this, but good luck

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i realise this already but as i'm new to growing i asked for advice with a problem i had, never really got a response so had to try and work it out for myself...

bennybueno said:

if they dont have nutes .. hook em up... if they gettin nutes they gettin to much time to flush the soil... flush with 3x the amount of pot container keep me updated im on my first grow too... o dont over water as well

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I've often seen "flushing" and "dont over water" as suggestions for new growers with problems.

Wouldnt flushing and not over watering be contradicting?

Yes it is, and you will often hear this from new growers who are under the impression that they are experts.

My recommendation to you is to pick up a bottle of micro nutrients. Your on a good start, but your plant is lacking in essential nutrients. Find something that has a good amount of micro and maybe even trace nutrients. There are alot of good products available just do a search for"micro" nutes.

Smokey95033 said:

Yes it is, and you will often hear this from new growers who are under the impression that they are experts.

My recommendation to you is to pick up a bottle of micro nutrients. Your on a good start, but your plant is lacking in essential nutrients. Find something that has a good amount of micro and maybe even trace nutrients. There are alot of good products available just do a search for"micro" nutes.

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thanks for the advice!

so would adding micro nutes be an addition to the existing Bio-grow 8,2,6 nutes i'm currently using?
or would i stop the bio-grow nutes and start feeding the micro nutes?

existing product i'm using:

BioBizz Bio-Grow
Bio-Grow is a liquid plant food that promotes lush growth and is suitable for most all soil mixtures. It is a fertilizer and soil activator that can be used with drip irrigation systems. Bio-Grow can be used late in flowering as a plant tonic.


micro nutes i'd possibly buy:

FloraMicro
FloraMicro provides the plant with all the necessary micro-elements, in a chelated form. It includes also sub micro-elements, and organic buffers which help to stabilise the solution’s pH. FloraMicro complements FloraGro and FloraBloom in secondary and major nutrients.

also when would i start to use the micro nutes to avoid the problem i faced in the pics above? (for future crops)

thanks for your help on this...

Jim McColl said:

thanks for the advice!

so would adding micro nutes be an addition to the existing Bio-grow 8,2,6 nutes i'm currently using?
or would i stop the bio-grow nutes and start feeding the micro nutes?

existing product i'm using:

BioBizz Bio-Grow
Bio-Grow is a liquid plant food that promotes lush growth and is suitable for most all soil mixtures. It is a fertilizer and soil activator that can be used with drip irrigation systems. Bio-Grow can be used late in flowering as a plant tonic.


micro nutes i'd possibly buy:

FloraMicro
FloraMicro provides the plant with all the necessary micro-elements, in a chelated form. It includes also sub micro-elements, and organic buffers which help to stabilise the solution’s pH. FloraMicro complements FloraGro and FloraBloom in secondary and major nutrients.

also when would i start to use the micro nutes to avoid the problem i faced in the pics above? (for future crops)

thanks for your help on this...

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Used in conjunction with each other. The bloom is gonna contain macro and maybe some micro nutes. The micro will supply all the micro nutes you need and maybe some trace elements.

man the yellowing ur seeing from 4 leaves, the first 2 sets...................... those naturally die off. just leave em be, dont trip out, and my reccommendations is gather all the nute info you want but dont use anything for a solid month after the seedling sprouts. I believe ph'd corrected tap water for the first month to be the best thing for them, plus fresh air and plenty of light. I slowly bring them onto veg nutes after they have 6-7 nodes.

They shouldn't die off as early as the ones in your pic!

probably just due to overwatering..

tilemaster said:

man the yellowing ur seeing from 4 leaves, the first 2 sets...................... those naturally die off. just leave em be, dont trip out, and my reccommendations is gather all the nute info you want but dont use anything for a solid month after the seedling sprouts. I believe ph'd corrected tap water for the first month to be the best thing for them, plus fresh air and plenty of light. I slowly bring them onto veg nutes after they have 6-7 nodes.

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pH corrected tap water? Are you kidding me? My tap water and that of many others is soooo high that it will kill my seedlings. You have no idea as to what's in this person's tap water. It's always best to start with distilled or RO water and only use that. It's another story if you have your city's water report and you're an expert grower, but that's another level.

I agree with Smokey9 that they shouldn't yellow that fast. It seems that a lot of people have these rules about when you should start giving nutes, but in reality it always depends on what you're growing in. I grow in a coco/perlite mix, which has zero nutes, and I start to see deficiencies like yours only 7 days after the seed sprouts (if I don't add nutes). And this leads me to my question-what brand of soil are you using?

Also, what type of pH tester do you have (a meter hopefully) and what are you keeping the pH at?

How often are you watering? It doesn't look like a deficiency to me, and shouldn't if its in soil. In soil grows you don't need to give ANY fertilizer for a little while. 3 weeks or so depending on volume. I doubt any amount of micro nutes are going to do anything to help the situation, if anything you will end up burning the plants with too much fert. That bottom leaf is called a petiole and it can fall off anytime after a real leaf has grown, do not worry about that little petiole leaf, its supposed to brown,crisp and fall off.

IMO its overwatered, but without knowing your schedule its hard to definitively say.

bigbong1411 said:

pH corrected tap water? Are you kidding me? My tap water and that of many others is soooo high that it will kill my seedlings. You have no idea as to what's in this person's tap water. It's always best to start with distilled or RO water and only use that. It's another story if you have your city's water report and you're an expert grower, but that's another level.

I agree with Smokey9 that they shouldn't yellow that fast. It seems that a lot of people have these rules about when you should start giving nutes, but in reality it always depends on what you're growing in. I grow in a coco/perlite mix, which has zero nutes, and I start to see deficiencies like yours only 7 days after the seed sprouts (if I don't add nutes). And this leads me to my question-what brand of soil are you using?

Also, what type of pH tester do you have (a meter hopefully) and what are you keeping the pH at?

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NoDrama said:

How often are you watering? It doesn't look like a deficiency to me, and shouldn't if its in soil. In soil grows you don't need to give ANY fertilizer for a little while. 3 weeks or so depending on volume. I doubt any amount of micro nutes are going to do anything to help the situation, if anything you will end up burning the plants with too much fert. That bottom leaf is called a petiole and it can fall off anytime after a real leaf has grown, do not worry about that little petiole leaf, its supposed to brown,crisp and fall off.

IMO its overwatered, but without knowing your schedule its hard to definitively say.

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i'm using Miracle-Gro Organic Choice All Purpose Peat Free Compost mixed with vermiculite.
when looking to purchase soil for my crop i went to 3 different gardening centres and this looked to be the best out of their crappy selections (seriously, why call it a garden centre when they sell more fricken birthday cards and kids toys then gardening products?!?!)


The product (soil) stated that it supplied the plant with enough food for up to 6 weeks... that's why i became worried when yellowing of the leaves and brown spots started appearing after only 2 weeks... i thought perhaps the product never contained enough nitrogen (no details were given regarding the NPK content of the soil on the packaging or website) so i purchased some nutes and started feeding them whenever they required water.
i felt the problem i had wasn't because of over-watering as the method i used to determine if the plant needed water or not was to feel the weight of the pot... to be even more sure of this method i actually had a pot full of dry soil with not plant in it to compare weights.

the PH tester i use due to funding problems at the minute is unfortunately the solution type... i try to be as accurate as possible when testing but i realise i do have to get myself an electronic tester to get it spot on... hey it's better than nothing right?!
the PH down i use is- EasyControl 25 (phosphoric acid 25%) i find that 2 drips out of a dropper per 1L brings the PH just below the 7 mark. i've been doing this since first planting them and haven't changed my method.

since feeding the plant with nutes they're doing a lot better... the leaves are greener, no more brown spots and growth has sped up a lot!

the leaves you can see in the pics with brown spots are the ones i started this post about.

thanks for all your help and comments...

NoDrama said:

How often are you watering? It doesn't look like a deficiency to me, and shouldn't if its in soil. In soil grows you don't need to give ANY fertilizer for a little while. 3 weeks or so depending on volume. I doubt any amount of micro nutes are going to do anything to help the situation, if anything you will end up burning the plants with too much fert. That bottom leaf is called a petiole and it can fall off anytime after a real leaf has grown, do not worry about that little petiole leaf, its supposed to brown,crisp and fall off.

IMO its overwatered, but without knowing your schedule its hard to definitively say.

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I hope you still don't think he doesn't need micro nutrients. That miracle grow soil has a good solid npk value. Does it contain the time release capsules as well?

Doesn't sound like you have a good selection of stores around you. Try finding some type of organic nutrient that contains much more than just N-P-K.

Smokey95033 said:

I hope you still don't think he doesn't need micro nutrients. That miracle grow soil has a good solid npk value. Does it contain the time release capsules as well?

Doesn't sound like you have a good selection of stores around you. Try finding some type of organic nutrient that contains much more than just N-P-K.

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nah it doesn't contain the time release capsules... http://www.lovethegarden.com/products/composts/mgocallpurpose.html

TBH in NoDrama's defence i never gave enough information to start with and apologise, all future posts will be far more detailed...