What’s up everyone first I just want to say I appreciate all this great content the search bar on this site is an invaluable tool so thanks to the Crew and the community for making this a thing.
I have a few questions I have these six plants in veg reg seeds that were freebies from seeds here now. They took off with such vigor I got really excited until about 2 weeks ago the leaves started curling up on the edges and taking on this twisted look. They are in a quality coco 1 gal pots my temp and humidity is pretty good I think 75-80 60-65%. I’m using New Millennium nutes. No added cal mag at this point although my water measures 0 ppm. From my research this could be caused from root stress. I have been dealing with a gnat problem that went from 0-50 in what seems like over night. I suspect they came from some worm castings that I added when I transplanted. Could this leaf curling be caused from a gnat infestation? Or is it a more serious pest? I scoped a few of the worst leaves and couldn’t see anything. Christmas Eve I sprayed them with an insecticidal soap and resprayed this morning. I’m in week 3-4 of veg and they have slowed down considerably in the last week and a half. My pH in and out is 5.9-6.1. My water schedule has been every 3-4 days max once the gnats started to take hold I have been trying to really let them dry out as much as possible. Should I just throw these into a snow bank and start over or can I turn this around? I treated with nematodes about a week ago with no positive result on the fly population and am currently waiting on delivery of a second treatment. I’m sure I’m missing info so let me know. I have three plants in another tent in the same room that are healthy and ready to flower no gnats no leaf curling.
Your watering frequency should be at least once a day, coco should not dry out. What percentage of worm castings did you add? Looks like you can repot. Your pH could be a couple points lower and I suggest adding calmag with zero ppm water. The cation exchange sites in coco will lock onto calcium and magnesium and make them unavailable to the plant, so a larger dose is needed.
I’ve been nervous about adding cal mag the stems and leaf veins have been turning really purple and from what I’ve read on here this can be from too much calcium. I wasn’t to scientific about measuring the castings it was a heaping handful to a one gallon pot. To be more clear about the watering I was watering everyday or every other day for the first 2 1/2 weeks at that point I noticed some minor curling on one fan leaf on one plant then the flies started and then I started tapering back in the watering. The abnormal looking leaves are now on every plant. It sounds like I should keep my water/feed at 5.8 and see if things improve. I always try and shoot for that and overshoot it by a point or two every time and instead of adding ph down and the fear of going too low and then having to add ph up again I just role with it since its within the recommended range. Thanks for the advice.
Purple stems are sometimes related to phosphorus and will typically show a magnesium deficiency as well since phosphorus helps the absorption of magnesium. Too much calcium will cause calcium phosphate bonds which is not available to the plant.
In your case it looks like it’s related to the leaf symptoms caused by some sort of root stress. It could be from the gnats, but I’m only addressing the things I know. Soup has you covered on that, team work makes the..and so on.
A good feed with added calmag and plenty of runoff should get things balanced. Upping to a 3gl might speed up the recovery as new roots are encouraged to grow.
If you haven’t yet, check out the tutorials on Cocoforcannabis.com
Thanks Steve for the tips I’m on it. Gave them a good drenching today with cal mag at 180 ppm plus nutrients all together it measured 1.8 ec and 5.8 ph. I will check that link out.
Yeah I’m guessing they got stressed from drying out too much. Or at least that’s part of the issue. Good advice from Steve above. ^^^
A second dose of nematodes should help with the gnats. Sometimes it takes a few applications, and occasionally you can get a bad batch of nematodes that won’t really do anything. Be patient and keep applying. You can split your order into multiple doses too. Apply half now and stick the other half in the fridge to apply next week.
Sticky traps can help catch the flying gnats which will help prevent them from laying more eggs. Like I said, be patient though. It can take a couple weeks to beat a bad infestation.
I plan to treat with the nematodes tomorrow if they actually arrive the mail is messed up these days. Should I ph the water before adding the nematodes? I’m unsure if this will harm them.
I hung some sticky traps five days ago and good lord they are covered. I stripped off the top layer of the pots and disposed of it yesterday and this has greatly reduced the population. I think I read a comment of yours suggesting this. Great advice