Newbies (Me) and overwatering---even if your careful

Yohimbe2

Member
I think a soil moisture meter would work better than trying to weigh it.

The plant itself is growing mass, after defoliating the weight will be less?
Was a lame attempt at humor on my end. When I say my plant is an Auto-Defoliator, I meant I never needed to defoliate as the plant seems to do it by itself.. Not one leaf lived all the way to the end. In fact, all I was left with at the end was Flower, every single leaf died but my buds stayed alive and green. Overwatering caused huge problems for me and my plant never fully recovered, A miracle I got any bud at all....
 

Kerowacked

Well-Known Member
Was a lame attempt at humor on my end. When I say my plant is an Auto-Defoliator, I meant I never needed to defoliate as the plant seems to do it by itself.. Not one leaf lived all the way to the end. In fact, all I was left with at the end was Flower, every single leaf died but my buds stayed alive and green. Overwatering caused huge problems for me and my plant never fully recovered, A miracle I got any bud at all....
Sounds like you’re on top of it and keep the scale for drying, its the best weigh to know when they’re ready to cure.
 

Yohimbe2

Member
Just a FYI to any interested in low odor strains, Northern lights IS low odor, it stinks but like Honey suckle. Think of the smell of juicy fruit gum and that exactly how this strain smells. I swear I'd roll around instead of wearing cologne if I could. I'm old school anyway and hate walking around with Pepe LePeu in my pocket. Northern Light's is amazing and reminds me of the best bud I ever smoked back in the 80's... 1/2 a bowl and I'm good to go, its just the right potency, very strong but not so much you regret that extra hit. Great relaxing high as well.... Leaves you tingly and relaxed like watching Bob Ross paint (ASMRish). No racing thoughts and no fast heart beat. I think I've found my favorite strain.
 

iPerculate

Well-Known Member
Congrats on getting something that is smokeable for the first grow. Hopefully overwatering was the biggest issue, but from those pics the plant was very stressed.

If you are using plain FFOF, you have to add at least 25% perlite for better drainage. It looks like you had some issues with nutrients going on as well. Not sure if you are supplementing with chemical nutrients or trying organic.

Regardless, go with the fabric pots next time with added perlite to the soil. I water my plants every day when they are mature and they love it. You need to have good airflow and the rest of your environment in check. I think that you are overcomplicating this too much for your own good, you may be overlooking something else causing the problem.
 

Yohimbe2

Member
Very overfed
Funny, someone else told me the opposite and said they look hungry. I doubt they are over fed as I used 1/2 to 1/4 the recommended Fox farm feeding schedule once per week.

I had a serious problem without any question as I said, none of my leaves lived NONE!. I'll be looking hard for Root Aphids in the soil but so far I cant see any signs of them. Other than that I'm blaming this crappy batch of Fox Farm Ocean Forest, everything was fine until I transplanted into the final pot full Fox Farm... People warned me not to use it, I should have listened. My latest plant is doing great in Happy Frog..

Could be too many things ! My troubleshooting list is way too big with way too many variables. Time to move on and hope for better luck next grow, lets just hope whatever disease this is doesn't follow my new plant.
 

Yohimbe2

Member
Congrats on getting something that is smokeable for the first grow. Hopefully overwatering was the biggest issue, but from those pics the plant was very stressed.

If you are using plain FFOF, you have to add at least 25% perlite for better drainage. It looks like you had some issues with nutrients going on as well. Not sure if you are supplementing with chemical nutrients or trying organic.

Regardless, go with the fabric pots next time with added perlite to the soil. I water my plants every day when they are mature and they love it. You need to have good airflow and the rest of your environment in check. I think that you are overcomplicating this too much for your own good, you may be overlooking something else causing the problem.
Congrats on getting something that is smokeable for the first grow. Hopefully overwatering was the biggest issue, but from those pics the plant was very stressed.

If you are using plain FFOF, you have to add at least 25% perlite for better drainage. It looks like you had some issues with nutrients going on as well. Not sure if you are supplementing with chemical nutrients or trying organic.

Regardless, go with the fabric pots next time with added perlite to the soil. I water my plants every day when they are mature and they love it. You need to have good airflow and the rest of your environment in check. I think that you are overcomplicating this too much for your own good, you may be overlooking something else causing the problem.
Congrats on getting something that is smokeable for the first grow. Hopefully overwatering was the biggest issue, but from those pics the plant was very stressed.

If you are using plain FFOF, you have to add at least 25% perlite for better drainage. It looks like you had some issues with nutrients going on as well. Not sure if you are supplementing with chemical nutrients or trying organic.

Regardless, go with the fabric pots next time with added perlite to the soil. I water my plants every day when they are mature and they love it. You need to have good airflow and the rest of your environment in check. I think that you are overcomplicating this too much for your own good, you may be overlooking something else causing the problem.

Thanks ! Definitely something really wrong first grow but I crossed the finish line with some very tasty bud. I made the mistake of not using enough perlite and wont make it again. I'll be using Fox Farm Happy Frog/Perlite this time, not sure if I'll mix with my ocean forest, that stuff may be poison.
 

iPerculate

Well-Known Member
I have been using Fox Farm Ocean Forest for years as my base soil with no issues. It really depends on what else you are adding.

What other nutrients are you giving? Liquid chemical fertilizer?
 

Yohimbe2

Member
I have been using Fox Farm Ocean Forest for years as my base soil with no issues. It really depends on what else you are adding.

What other nutrients are you giving? Liquid chemical fertilizer?
For this go around I used the Fox Farm Trio at 1/2 to 1/4 strength (feeding every other watering), but my problem with leaves yellowing and dying never stopped and I tried just about everything. I went the first 5 weeks without nutrients as my plant was getting nute burns from Ocean Forest (and losing leaves). My new plant is the same strain, Nirvana Northern Lights Fem and its doing great in Happy frog. I also bought a Sensi CalMag supplement, but used it sparingly and it did not solve problems. I PH'd to approx 6.5 or so using General Hydroponics drops to test. ( using yellow as the color)

I've done a lot of research on Fox farm soils, and many say that it is possible to get a bad batch especially on the east coast. At my local gardening store, they really tried to get me to avoid it and recommended Coast of Maine Platinum. I was also watching a youtube video where some guy grew a bunch of different vegetables in 5 different store bought soils and guess which one roasted his plants? His exact comment was, " they must be putting something bad in the ocean forest". Who knows, but at this point my only option is to try something else which I'm doing now.

And, I DID OVERWATER. So maybe its a combination of Fox Farm ocean and my overwatering that hurt my plant. Apparently aeration in Fox farm isn't great unless you mix it hard with perlite.... Its a shame too I bought a huge bag of it which I'll probably dump outside.

Last thing, this hobby has become an obsession of mine, I'm enjoying it that much. (please excuse my excess typing)I've been dealing with what I think are fungus gnats and BTI seems to work well getting rid of them. Is it possible I have root aphids? I've spent countless hours trying to figure out the difference between the two but the flyers look very similar. All symptoms appear to be either a lockout or something like root aphids. My plant lived off eating its own leaves all the way to the end.....Luckily it didn't eat its flowers !
 
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drsaltzman

Well-Known Member
100w LED doesn’t put out a lot of heat.
Not sure what your temps were but plants drink more when it’s warm.
 

Yohimbe2

Member
100w LED doesn’t put out a lot of heat.
Not sure what your temps were but plants drink more when it’s warm.
I'm using a Spiderfarmer sf-1000 and it runs super cool. I kept my temperatures at around 74 for Veg and dropped it to 71-73 for flower as many advised that lower flowering temps keep the odor low. (True--- the smell went up when the temps climbed) Humidity was around 55-60 for most of Veg and around 40 for flower. I'm also running an AC afinity fan/carbon filter and an oscillating fan lightly on the leaves/stems.. No temperature problems for me, the Spiderfarmer is perfect for my cabinet.
 

Nizza

Well-Known Member
The best place to start, is controlling temperature and humidity. Then using good soil/medium combined with good watering/propogation techniques for what works in your situation will give great results if you are having a hard time with watering
 

drsaltzman

Well-Known Member
I'm using a Spiderfarmer sf-1000 and it runs super cool. I kept my temperatures at around 74 for Veg and dropped it to 71-73 for flower as many advised that lower flowering temps keep the odor low. (True--- the smell went up when the temps climbed) Humidity was around 55-60 for most of Veg and around 40 for flower. I'm also running an AC afinity fan/carbon filter and an oscillating fan lightly on the leaves/stems.. No temperature problems for me, the Spiderfarmer is perfect for my cabinet.
Those are good temps if a little low.
The warmer the tent the quicker the soil dries between uptake and evaporation.
The felt pots will assist also.
 

Yohimbe2

Member
Yes, thank you for the clarification.
FF trio is shit.
I'm starting to think all Fox farm is garbage including their soil. They may have had good stuff in the past but apparently soil quality is questionable now.

I don't believe in all the nutrient hype and am trying to learn what my plant needs so that I know what I'm doing instead of just following a companies grow schedule. They are in it to make money and jack the price on nutrients with fancy labels etc... I need to know what my plant needs to be healthy and feed it with my own skill and knowledge. I'll get there. I take my hobbies very seriously.
 
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