What is Wrong with my weed?

[crimson]

Hi,

Over the last few days i have started to notice these blotches on my weed.

It has been growing for 4 weeks now, I am only using a normal 60watt buld is this the problem, how can i fix it???

please help!

 

[hasjman]

I think a 60 watt bulb is not enough heat and/or light for the plant...
buy a better lamp...

 

[CryingOutLoud]

Im pretty sure that the 60w bulb causes too much heat (and too little lumenes) and the heat harms your plants. 60w bulb is kind of useless when you are growing cannabis. Do the plants get sunlight as well?

You might consider buying a better growing lamp, such as HPS (high pressure sodium) lamp. This is a good and safe place to buy a lamp: http://www.hanfburg.de/. Of course this depends on you money situation.

 

[Viaticus]

As said above, regular lightbulbs produce too much heat and way too little light. If you can't afford a HPS then at least replace the bulb with an ESL (Energy Saving Light) or fluorescence tube(s). They provide a much better spectrum of light for your plants and also consume considerably less electricity.

 

[Sh8aN]

You have to buy a HPS lamp. On the one hand it's expensive, but on the on the other hand HPS is very cheap. Make the calcul : in France 1g of weed costs about 7€ ; a HPS costs about 100€. If you manage to harvest more than 20g your investment will be great :wink: .

Excuse me for my poor english, but if you didn't understand me, i'll try to make an effort.

Bye

 

[Rutger]

You are right that its a good investment but you are forgetting the costs of the power such a HPS lamp uses. Depends a bit on where you life ofcourse.

But a 400 Watt HPS on a 12/12 setting will cost about 25 euro in electric bills (at least here in Holland) so you should take that into consideration.

You could ofcourse steal the electricity but that is (in my opinion) very dumb since that is the main reason people get busted, better pay the bill then.

However the 60 Watt normal bulb will do you no good , would be more efficient to put it in the window , even in the winter.

 

[tryptonaut]

If you're having problems with the high power usage of a growing lamp, there are also special lightbulbs for plants (with a better spectrum) which only use 50-100 W or so. However these are not optimal for growing (they are made for decoration plants, but indoor growing is not decoration, it's high-power gardening...)

You could also search for HPS lamps wich use less power than 400W. They are not common, but I think I've seen 250W models - this would be the best compromise between energy usage and growing success. Less than 250W the HPS lamps' lumen output decreases so much that it's not worth considering (it's like a 250W outputs 2/3 of the lumen of a 400W, while a 150W outputs only 1/5 - the curve is not linear)

 

[Viaticus]

You could also search for HPS lamps wich use less power than 400W. They are not common, but I think I've seen 250W models - this would be the best compromise between energy usage and growing success.

Here in Finland 250W is pretty usual among "closet growers". 400W HPS produces a lot of heat, and if you are growing only few plants in a fairly small space, 250W is usually a better option. The amount of light is sufficient and you don't have so much heat on your hands to get rid of.

 

[Scinet]

Hi,

Over the last few days i have started to notice these blotches on my weed.

It has been growing for 4 weeks now, I am only using a normal 60watt buld is this the problem, how can i fix it???

please help!

Overgrow loves you, and you love Overgrow:
http://www.overgrow.com/growfaq/1111
Plant abuse chart

Comparing that data to your images, the most logical problems are either nutrient burn (you are feeding them too much) or pH fluctuation, which would mean that you have too high or too low pH in your grow. If you're running soil grow, find something that will neutralize the pH to 7, then add a little bit of citric acid (lemon juice or such) into the feed water to drop it back into a solid 6.0-6.7 range.

Are the pics you posted of the top leaves? Because if they are, this problem needs to be fixed. If the leaves affected are the lowest ones in the plant, then no prob. The plant is just sucking all the good juice off the leaves it doesn't intend to grow.

And yeah, like the other dudes said, more power to the lights. A 60w will give you canna, but not much of it. If you want to continue using normal lights, get incandescents, and get enough of them to produce a decent wattage, like something between 150 and 250w. Bulbs suck because they produce much more heat than actual light. If you want to move into the pro leagues, it's time to stack some dollars and acquire a High Pressure Sodium or Metal Halide light.

 

[tryptonaut]

Scinet, you pointed out something very important: leaves that look burnt could almost be anything: too much water, not enough water, too much heat from the lamp (and not enough airstream), too much calcium in the soil (from tap water), wrong pH levels of the soil/water, overnutrition, undernutrition... you name it

What I learned a few years ago when I grew a few flushes of c. was that the most important things were a good, sterile soil (ended up buying in the headshop because they had the special stuff), pH control of your water (I got some special acid that turned the calcium into nitrogen, much better than citric acid which didn't work that well in my opinion). Then the pots must allow for flushing the soil once in a while (-->holes in the bottom so the water can drip through), the fertilizers are also best bought in a headshop where they got the specialized stuff and you need a strong fan to provide good ventilation and enough air-exchange with outside the room.

Man, growing was so much fun - I really miss it

 

[Scinet]

Scinet, you pointed out something very important: leaves that look burnt could almost be anything: too much water, not enough water, too much heat from the lamp (and not enough airstream), too much calcium in the soil (from tap water), wrong pH levels of the soil/water, overnutrition, undernutrition... you name it

There are definitely many possible causes, but in this case heat's probably not one. Of course, a pic of the whole plant would help a lot but heat usually shows as light leaves or burned, upturned leaf tips. Those spots on the OP's pics looked almost like an exact match to the pictures of pH-abused plants, so I guess that's the logical place to start and pretty easy to test too. In some places tap water is known to have a median pH of 7.0 so if he's unlucky to live in such a location, he really needs a pH-downer.

Undernutrition is not likely, the plants would probably look otherwise dead too if that was the case, and overwatering makes leaves go all droopy (I should know, I'm guilty of it ).

Yeah, growing is definitely fun business. There's always something to do, but god damn it is hard to keep your hands off the plants. "A little more water maybe." "I bet just a little more nutrients will make them happy." "I'll move the light a bit closer so they'll get more of it." And in the end you'll kill the plants by caring too much. So embarassing...

 

[tryptonaut]

In some places tap water is known to have a median pH of 7.0

7.0 wouldn't be too bad - at least it's neutral (AFAIK distilled water has exactly 7.0).
Where I lived the water had something above 8! I don't know how much exactly because the color scale of the test chemicals went to 8 only and my water turned to a deeper blue than the color for 8.0 on the scale...

I was really hesitant to drink that water after I had found out... (although they say it's very safe everywhere in the country to drink tap water)

 

[Scinet]

In some places tap water is known to have a median pH of 7.0

7.0 wouldn't be too bad - at least it's neutral (AFAIK distilled water has exactly 7.0).
Where I lived the water had something above 8! I don't know how much exactly because the color scale of the test chemicals went to 8 only and my water turned to a deeper blue than the color for 8.0 on the scale...

I was really hesitant to drink that water after I had found out... (although they say it's very safe everywhere in the country to drink tap water)

Eek! You now officially have Scary Water(tm).

 

[crimson]

Iv changed my 60watt bulbs to 60watt energy saving bulbs and the plants are producing healthy green leaves and the burning has stopped thank god,

I leave a pint of normal tap water in a glass in a room overnight and water them once most of the clorine is gone i usually give them a 1/4 pint each a day is that to much or two little???

One more thing I know because i used 60watt bulbs that the stem has streched alot but its not like any of the other pics of seen my plant is very bare i'll get some pics up 2morrow and show you guys.

Thanks for the advice

 

[Scinet]

Iv changed my 60watt bulbs to 60watt energy saving bulbs and the plants are producing healthy green leaves and the burning has stopped thank god,

I leave a pint of normal tap water in a glass in a room overnight and water them once most of the clorine is gone i usually give them a 1/4 pint each a day is that to much or two little???

One more thing I know because i used 60watt bulbs that the stem has streched alot but its not like any of the other pics of seen my plant is very bare i'll get some pics up 2morrow and show you guys.

Thanks for the advice

I don't know about those crazy non-decimal measurement units, but I'd say it's better to water them every other or every third day than every day, even if you have to give them a bit more water each time.


hasjman! A 450px wide Dragonball avatar is DEFINITELY NOT COOL. Please resize it.

edit: cheers.

 

[tryptonaut]

I leave a pint of normal tap water in a glass in a room overnight and water them once most of the clorine is gone i usually give them a 1/4 pint each a day is that to much or two little???

I also can't relate to that non-metric units - but it depends on how fast the plants are growing anyways.

Only water when the surface of the soil is dry. When the surface is still moist, don't water.