Sick plants that are from bug infestation, ph problems and over watering/under watering Over watering
Over watering is one of the biggest mistakes new growers make, reason for this is, because they feel the need to give there plant everything and will overdue a lot of things and one of them is over watering. By over watering your plant you soak the roots so much, they can’t get enough oxygen and slowly die. The plant shows signs of over watering by: Wilting, droopy look, yellow and or dead leaves falling off, which includes leaves that don’t look dead falling off. One of the best ways to tell how NOT to over water is by, picking up the pot when it is dry and then picking up the pot after you water. (This is a reason why it’s smart to use light pots.) When you water, you want to water just enough to where you see a bit of water coming out of the bottom, not gushing or pouring out. Just enough to see a little bit, then you know the plant has enough water. To prevent over watering you can either: add more perlite to your soil, add hydrogen peroxide to your water for extra oxygen, all the while killing bacteria if any in the soil. After watering, wait a few days to water. Mj plants like a good watering and then a couple days to dry out in between watering. So it’s very easy to over water. Besides the weight of the pot, another way to test if your plant needs water is to stick your index finger a couple inches into the soil. If the soil at the tip of your finger feels almost dry, then it's time to water again. The top of the soil should be allowed to dry out between waterings if it's still moist the plant does NOT need watered. You can also use a moisture meter which will tell you the level of moisture down in the soil. You can buy them at most garden supplies or hydro shops.
Here is a picture of what over watering looks like:
(Picture Provided by ShopVac)
Under Watering
Under watering can show the exact same symptoms as over watering can, they show the droopiness along with the top soil being hard. To avoid this make sure every other other watering you give your plants a good watering, like use a bit more water then you normally do, because sometimes your plants will need a good quenching once in a while. So doing this will help the bottom roots and root hairs get enough water to produce newer growth. For new growers they tend to do both over watering and under watering.
More over watering then anything else, they tend to be to "generous", and then you have ones that are to afraid to water them to much and then they get the under watering symptom. Under watering seems to droop more than over watering does, the fan leaves will droop closer to the stalk and won't be as yellow as over watering looks like, under watering looks like this picture below, only way to stop under watering is to water when the pot feels lite. Make sure few drips of water come out at the bottom of the holes, that way you know the plant has enough water.
Root Rot
What causes root rot? Low Oxygen levels. (DO) Desolved Oxigen. Temp's are the main reason for root rot, Low temps will lower the DO levels and high temps will cause low DO levels. Keeping temps between 65 to 82 will allow MAX DO levels or max o2 for roots. (Thank you so much for the information syko2! has provided above!)
Over watering also causes root rot, Root Rot infects parts of the roots, which then spread infecting the whole roots causing death, Root Rot can be caused by to high of temps in hydro as well as over watering. Not enough drainage in your soil can cause Root Rot, even signs of it looking over watered, because the soil holds moisture to long for the roots to dry out. So these 3 things are all connected together. The main one that causes everything is over watering. Once you find out you have root rot, depending on how bad the problem is, you can add H202( Hydrogen Peroxide) with your water or hydro setup to kill the bacteria caused from root rot. If the plant is severely taken over by it, there are only a few things you can do, cut off the roots affected by it depending on if its hair roots or tap roots, add H202, or just chop the plant. To prevent Root Rot, adding product's like Thrive Alive B-1, See Weed, Super thrive will help protect your plant's from root rot and will help cure root problems. ( Again ty so much for giving me the info syko2!!!)
Here is what root rot looks like: 4eBig thanks goes out to buzz, diggerdigzit and Shop Vac! Thanks for the pics guys! :tup:
First pic is of to high temps in the bubbler: Last 2 pics came from chemical burn root rot first pic, moldy rock wool with root rot.
(Picture Provided by Buzz)
(Pictures 2 and 3 Provided by Chemical Burn)
(Picture 4 was contributed by Diggerdigzit)
Ph Problems
One of the first signs of having a slight ph problem is, your plant having part of the leaves kind of twisty, spotty with brown, yellowish, red spots within each other.
Sometimes they don’t have to have all the colors, they could just be spots that have yellowish brown, or just reddish brown and can happen anywhere on the plant. Mainly starts on big fan leaves then goes to little leaves.
When this happens you need to check your soil ph, water ph before and after adding your nutrients. One of the biggest causes is adding nutrients like earth juice; they take the ph down quite a bit. Also can happen when you add bone and blood meal to your soil, that will throw the ph off as well, so it’s smart to test the mix before putting your plants into the mix. After the spots happen you will soon see nutrients being locked out, when that happens
DO NOT ADD ANYTHING TO FIX THE PROBLEM UNTILL YOU GET YOUR PH FIXED!! Reason why is, because the plant isn’t absorbing that nutrient, by adding the nutrient it is deficient in, you are causing it to have a build up in the soil therefore can cause that nutrient to become toxic to the plant, because of buildup, to much buildup of certain nutrients will lock out other nutrients. In order to fix the problem you will need to first fix the ph and then if the soil is deficient in nutrients you can add it to fix the problem. A digital PH tester is the best tester to use as they are the most accurate. If you can’t afford a digital ph meter, then your best bet is to get ph testing papers. DO NOT get soil testers, those are the cheapest junk I ever seen and do not give good readings, so you cant rely on one of those. There are a lot of good ph testers out there, one of them is hanna. That is the one I use and is the best money ever spent! Vast majority of problems with soil ph comes from the soil if it has additives like peat moss, which is HILGY acidic..... and or the water you are using, as well as nutrient deficiencies from using the wrong ph for watering. You want to be careful when adjusting your ph, doing this over a week is the best idea, to fast will cause shock to the plant. If you can’t get a hold of a ph tester or ph test papers. If you have some dolomite lime, its always better to use it in soil rather than every time you water, imo and from others (Uncle Ben) That it really doesn’t stabilize as many people think it does, Soil pH and micronutrient availability are interrelated. Don’t Use to much lime to decrease the soil pH to a point where micronutrients can't be unavailable to plants. The micronutrients affected by pH include iron, manganese, zinc and, not as often copper. The problems when you apply to much lime can make it harder to correct your ph than what you would have when you didn’t add as much lime. You can always add more lime, but if you add to much you can’t remove it if you put to much lime in the soil. With great soil moisture, lime will work immediately and pH will start to change over a few months. However, it can take up to a year for the real benefit of lime to work. As the soil pH rises, the time it takes for lime to react decreases due to lower levels of soil acids. If you need to change your ph when its to high, if you choose to use lime it will not help as much as you think in lowering your ph, it would need alot of lime to lower your ph to a point where it would cause a toxcicity to the plants so look else where to use something to lower your ph rather than using lime.
So here at the bottom is a list of some buffers that are good to go with when raising and lowering ph!
Here are some ph buffers when your ph is too high: Use these SOIL PH Adjustments to lower your ph: sawdust, composted leaves, wood chips, cottonseed meal, leaf mold and peat moss. Sawdust, composted leaves, woodchips and, lemon juice, PH DOWN. Hydro PH Adjustments: PH Down (vinegar and lemon juices are good for soil, but not recommended for hydro use) Thanks goes out to syko2 for that one! (Only quality PH buffers should be used to adjust ph and be sure the buffer and nutrient work's well together.) Here are some that will raise the ph: use these SOIL Adjustments when your ph is to low: PH UP, dolomite lime, hardwood ash, bone meal, crushed marble, or crushed oyster shells, potassium hydroxide <--- Thank you Uncle Ben! Hydro Adjustments: PH UP, sodium bicarbonate or lime.(Only quality PH buffers should be used to adjust ph and be sure the buffer and nutrient work's well together.)
Here are a few pictures of ph spotting before nutrient lockout occurs. The last pic is shown is high ph with the twisty leaves. Note the edges are brown, this is a potassium deficiency that is caused by ph lockout.(Sometimes this gets confused with a nitrogen toxicity, so always keep your ph in check and test it often!)
Props goes to Chemical Burn For the Picture!
Bud Rot
During the last week or two of flowering, depending on if you use chemical or organics. If you use chemical, you want to flush 1 ½ weeks to 2 weeks before harvest to flush out all of the chemical nutrients that your plant was using. If you are using Organics then you would want to flush about a week before harvest. Giving them plain water is fine, flushing them also improves the overall quality of your bud. Once you start to 'flush' you should check extra careful for bud rot. Bud Rot Happens when the humidity is high, if you have fat dense buds, or if mold spores are in the air. Bud rot looks like a black brownish sludge that can quickly take over your plant and ruin your harvest. The mold spores are air-borne.
Prevent and Control
Removing any dead or dying material from the plant helps prevent bud rot so does decreasing humidity and increasing ventilation. There are also safe anti fungal sprays from hydro shops that help. If you do find gray mould, cut off the infected part of the plant well above and below the effected area and remove it from the grow room. Decreasing the humidity from 55% to around 40% will make a big difference in preventing bud mold. Also having very big buds can cause bud rot, and would advise watching the areas on your plant that have the biggest, thickest and the more dense buds. Try to have medium size buds rather than having big thick buds. Having a dehumidify around when high humidity days can help as well.
To protect them against bud rot for outside. DO NOT foliar spary at night, doing this the heat will not evaporate the water as well because it is night.
Water the plants in the day instead of so close to being night. Same as foliar spraying.
Make sure your plants are stress free as possible and checking plants often can aid in getting rid of moldy bud before the spores spread onto other areas of the plant! Have a lot of air going around the plants for bad ventilation= sick plants and a breeding ground for spores!
Keep leaves away from soil making sure they do NOT touch the soil.
Keep cooler temps at night while plants are on there down time.
If you have gotten bud rot already the best thing to do is cut off the bad buds discard them away from you’re grow and apply any of the following: Neem oil, Neem2 which is a ready made solution!
Using high ph water for foliar spray prevents them from spreading as well kills the mold. pythium is another good product to use! There are many other chemicals and organics that work, but these are the most popular and they work very very well!
Fungus
Fungus is another problem when you are in flowering, because they are susceptible to a fungus or bud rot. Growing conditions for fungus are best when temps are between 60 and 80 degrees and the humidity is high. The fungus is very destructive and spreads quickly. These kinds of fungus are air borne and can travel to other bud sites. If you already have been infected by them the best thing you can do is cut off and remove the infected area and then discard out of the grow area, then get a hold of some anti-fungal spray and apply.
Fungi can kill your crop quick, so invest in some SAFE fungicide and spray down the plants as much as you can and as soon as you can. The faster the safer.. If you have had problems with fungus before, do NOT spray them you will contribute to the fungus becoming resistant to the spray/chemicals you are using. Try to keep the humidity down to the range fungus do not grow to well in. Keep a good amount of ventilation around your grow, and if you have plants outside, always keep them quarantined away you’re your indoor plants until you know they are safe.
Most fungicides are very nasty and eating them can be very dangerous so its best to use something on them that is safe on plants that you can eat., Safer makes a very safe product that can be found in most stores and hydro shops. it contains only sulfur in solution. Here is a picture of what bud rot looks like when it starts to form.
Control
To control to prevent fungus from forming there are a few things you should do.
DO NOT foliar feed at night, tends to make humidity higher rather than when you water in the day the water has time to evaporate where at night will linger in the air.
Same goes for watering plants at night, wait till the morning or afternoon to water!
Keep a happy plant and will not become prone to infections. Checking plants often can aid in getting rid of any fungus that may attack other leaves and or bud!
Have a lot of air going around the plants for bad ventilation= sick plants and a breeding ground for spores!
Keep leaves away from soil making sure they do NOT touch the soil.
Keep cooler temps at night while plants are on there down time.
If you have already gotten some kind of fungus there are things you can use: neem2, neem oil works wonders!! Potassium Bicarbonate, Baking soda and for other chemical agents you can use Plant Shield, Serenade and pythium! There are many other chemicals and organics that work but these are the most popular and they work very very well!
BIG THANKS goes out to Bud63 for letting me use the pics!! :tup:
