Not sure what's up with my seedlings?

[Donothing-garden]

There you go, overwatering! Tensiometer Moisture meters are critical for soil IMO.

 

[veritas629]

I've decided that I need to recalibrate my Finger Moisture Meter. I've filled a big pot with some potting soil, but no plants. Typical organic potting soil from Bunnings that I bought for some house plants. I've put the Blumat Digital in this soil and will water this until a perfect moisture as determined by the sensor. I will also let it dry and also water heavily. All the while stuffing my finger in and comparing to the meter. Hopefully, this will help me and my finger get better at monitoring the soil...

 

[Old fox]

I've decided that I need to recalibrate my Finger Moisture Meter. I've filled a big pot with some potting soil, but no plants. Typical organic potting soil from Bunnings that I bought for some house plants. I've put the Blumat Digital in this soil and will water this until a perfect moisture as determined by the sensor. I will also let it dry and also water heavily. All the while stuffing my finger in and comparing to the meter. Hopefully, this will help me and my finger get better at monitoring the soil...

Weight of pot is another indicator. Takes a bit more practise, and definitely easier to learn when using a high percentage of perlite, as weight "disappears" when perlite/mix is dry.

 

[QuiteContrary]

My 2 cents. Good aeration, if you've got a soggy bottom your mix could probably use more; or you could penetrate it here and there with chopsticks or something, being careful not to damage any roots. And if your lights are too hot for the babies they might need some fan action.

 

[veritas629]

Pot weight is a good one. However, it won't work very well for me. The test is in a pot, but my main garden is a bed with 200+ litres of soil.

Aeration is something I can consider next round. The soil is 1/3 each peat, compost, and hydroton-type expanded clay pebbles for aeration. When I re-ammend between grows I've been adding rice hulls from the homebrew store. After this grow is done, maybe its time to dig the soil out and add more hulls to the bulk of the soil, not just the surface layers. Could be the clay pebbles aren't doing a great job.

 

[Donothing-garden]

Pot weight is a good one. However, it won't work very well for me. The test is in a pot, but my main garden is a bed with 200+ litres of soil.

Aeration is something I can consider next round. The soil is 1/3 each peat, compost, and hydroton-type expanded clay pebbles for aeration. When I re-ammend between grows I've been adding rice hulls from the homebrew store. After this grow is done, maybe its time to dig the soil out and add more hulls to the bulk of the soil, not just the surface layers. Could be the clay pebbles aren't doing a great job.

Perlite, pumice or scoria under 6 or 7mm is ideal. Real big chunky stuff leaves less volume for roots... Also, medium sized pumice/perlite/scoria prevent soil compaction over time as other organic particles break down and pore space is reduced. Rice hulls break down over time and also are notoriously high in arsenic.

 

[veritas629]

I'm pretty sure I've got my watering sorted out. No more wet soil deep down, which was my problem early on. I'm just about at the 12/12 light flip and some yellowing has popped up. It is mostly on the newer top leaves and starts as a yellow tip. It then spreads to the serrations down the sides of the leaves. The lower and mid height leaves are a pretty deep green. The top leaves have been a little twisty and occasionally taco-shaped. Light is relatively mild (500 ppfd). Humidity and VPD are good at around (65% RH, 1-1.1), temps fine at 21-25C. Plenty of ventilation and circulation. No signs of pests. This is a cross of Triangle Kush x Chem #1 from CSI and I hear both strains can be a bit finicky. I'd love to get this issue sorted out before the flip, so it doesn't impact yield or quality. Any ideas?

The water drops on the leaves are just a bit of foliar spray (Overgrow) that I thought might help fix the problem. Didn't seem to help much.

 

[Porky]

I'm pretty sure I've got my watering sorted out. No more wet soil deep down, which was my problem early on. I'm just about at the 12/12 light flip and some yellowing has popped up. It is mostly on the newer top leaves and starts as a yellow tip. It then spreads to the serrations down the sides of the leaves. The lower and mid height leaves are a pretty deep green. The top leaves have been a little twisty and occasionally taco-shaped. Light is relatively mild (500 ppfd). Humidity and VPD are good at around (65% RH, 1-1.1), temps fine at 21-25C. Plenty of ventilation and circulation. No signs of pests. This is a cross of Triangle Kush x Chem #1 from CSI and I hear both strains can be a bit finicky. I'd love to get this issue sorted out before the flip, so it doesn't impact yield or quality. Any ideas?

The water drops on the leaves are just a bit of foliar spray (Overgrow) that I thought might help fix the problem. Didn't seem to help much.

View attachment 34938
View attachment 34939
View attachment 34940

Looks a bit over fed mate!
The lower leaves are very dark green!
Maybe a bit to much N.

 

[veritas629]

I wondered about that too. However, I haven't been using N since I had the overwatering issue. Could still be the cause though. Being an organic soil, if it is a N overload, I must have way over-done it somehow. Not really viable to flush, in my system it would be a huge mess and would probably strip all the other nutes.

I've also wondered if it was a K deficiency, the symptoms look pretty close.

 

[Hudo]

G

Gnats suck but they shouldn’t cause a huge problem. It’s the larvae that do most of the damage.

Gnat infestation has those symptoms they eat all the hairs off your roots and the plants can't take up nutrients. I consistently have problems with them because I brew beer and it attracts them. There are 3 products I use that fucks them. Gnatural or if you can't get that get mosquito bits off ebay they have the same bacteria you just soak them in your water and the bacteria comes off. Tanlin you put about 2 drops in your water there microscopic crystals that sit near the roots and they eat them and it tears them a new arsehole. These 2 products they can't build up a resistance to unlike neem oil. And now I'm using living soil I've read they don't like fresh worm castings for some reason so I topdressing with about an inch and also a thin layer of neem meal then a layer of mulch and I see the odd one now but they can't really infest.the Tanlin is about 45 bucks but I've done about 3 grows and the mozzy bits are about 30

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Gnatural

It is not effective against the Adult fungus fly/Gnat - just its offspring larvae which can live in the root system and damage the roots of the plant.

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[Porky]

I wondered about that too. However, I haven't been using N since I had the overwatering issue. Could still be the cause though. Being an organic soil, if it is a N overload, I must have way over-done it somehow. Not really viable to flush, in my system it would be a huge mess and would probably strip all the other nutes.

I've also wondered if it was a K deficiency, the symptoms look pretty close.

I was saying N because of how dark the lower leaves are!
Could be K because they starting to bud!

 

[Madmick]

Do you have white flies , they look bad

They suck , in more ways than 1 , nearly impossible to rid , they suck on the leaves and leave goey poop all 9ver them

 

[Yamumzbum]

Looks like we're in a similar position, veritas. Though mine is purely heat related. Another week of temps in the mid-30's isn't working in my favour either.

I recently received my new Cloudforge humidifier Indy and to be frank I didn't have any idea just how much difference it makes to the environment in my tent. I'm able to achieve steady vpd levels and I have some what seems to be very happy ladies.

It's quite surprising just how high humidity levels need to be in order to achieve optimal vpd levels for example the target level I aim for is approximately 1.0 kilopascals and with temps around the 26⁰c it calls for around 73ish percent humidity!

Anyway, it's been a game changer that's for sure

 

[itchybro]

I'm pretty sure I've got my watering sorted out. No more wet soil deep down, which was my problem early on. I'm just about at the 12/12 light flip and some yellowing has popped up. It is mostly on the newer top leaves and starts as a yellow tip. It then spreads to the serrations down the sides of the leaves. The lower and mid height leaves are a pretty deep green. The top leaves have been a little twisty and occasionally taco-shaped. Light is relatively mild (500 ppfd). Humidity and VPD are good at around (65% RH, 1-1.1), temps fine at 21-25C. Plenty of ventilation and circulation. No signs of pests. This is a cross of Triangle Kush x Chem #1 from CSI and I hear both strains can be a bit finicky. I'd love to get this issue sorted out before the flip, so it doesn't impact yield or quality. Any ideas?

The water drops on the leaves are just a bit of foliar spray (Overgrow) that I thought might help fix the problem. Didn't seem to help much.

View attachment 34938
View attachment 34939
View attachment 34940

i would say she's not the happiest of girls , i'd like to see those leaves pointing more towards the light rather down towards the soil

are you measuring leaf surface temps or going by room temps , an average across leaf temps are the preferred measurement to work VPD numbers out

do you bottle feed NPK nutrients ?

believe it or not leaf tips can still be burnt with water only , if you stick to the living soil hand watering of only adding 5 to 10% pot volume in water & you let the pot dry a little to much , adding water to a pot full of plant available nutrients that is slightly on the dryer side can have the same effect as to much bottled nutrients in 2 little water , not sure this is the case with you but something to keep in mind for the future , of cause blumats should solve that issue because of the moisture consistency they provide , keeping your moisture meter numbers between 100 to 120 millibar should keep plants pretty happy

 

[Madmick]

So no pests , what's all the white stuff 9n lower leaves ?

 

[Hudo]

, of cause blumats should solve that issue because of the moisture consistency

Are you referring to those carrot looking auto watering things Mate

 

[itchybro]

Are you referring to those carrot looking auto watering things Mate

yep , blumats only water when the soil around the carrot begins to dry

if temps are high causing the soil to dry quicker the system will water more frequently
V a V if temps are cooler & the soil drys slower the system waters less frequently

no timers needed no guessing required , the soil & plant drive water requirements
watering stops when the soil around the carrot re moistens

 

[Yamumzbum]

i would say she's not the happiest of girls , i'd like to see those leaves pointing more towards the light rather down towards the soil

are you measuring leaf surface temps or going by room temps , an average across leaf temps are the preferred measurement to work VPD numbers out

do you bottle feed NPK nutrients ?

believe it or not leaf tips can still be burnt with water only , if you stick to the living soil hand watering of only adding 5 to 10% pot volume in water & you let the pot dry a little to much , adding water to a pot full of plant available nutrients that is slightly on the dryer side can have the same effect as to much bottled nutrients in 2 little water , not sure this is the case with you but something to keep in mind for the future , of cause blumats should solve that issue because of the moisture consistency they provide , keeping your moisture meter numbers between 100 to 120 millibar should keep plants pretty happy

G'day @itchybro the leaf surface temperature is something I've been playing around with since I noticed the vpd calibration function in the AC Infinity controller which allows you to put in the leaf surface temps, are you aware of this?

So I bought a temp gun with the laser beam and when aimed on the leaf surface I was getting readings from a couple of different areas of the canopy and for the most part it was reading around 2⁰c lower than the room temp so the number I entered into the vpd calibration setting was minus 2⁰c, does that sound right to you?

Any tips on this is greatly appreciated.

 

[Yamumzbum]

@itchybro this is what I was referring to mate

 

[Hudo]

@itchybro maze do a version and have a sale on would they work as good

Maze Moisture Sensing Irrigation System - Maze Products Australia

Maze Moisture Sensing Irrigation System - by Maze Products -

mazeproducts.com.au