Hello fellow gardeners,

my White Widows are sick and I fear they won’t make it. They seem to have a severe infection from bacteria, but I also cannot exclude a fungus infection. I may have overwatered them, especially when I thought I had given them too much fertilizer, so I rinsed the soil.

It all started with brown stains like shown above. Then the leaves got burned from the sides (see next picture). Also, the plants started smelling less than before and they grew very slowly.

It got worse before I decided to cut off all affected leaves. However, the disease came back quickly.

To the day, I find stained leaves every day. The upper leaves also started loosing their healthy green color again, turning yellowish. The tips of the leaves are reddish-brown. There also are holes.

The only good news is: the red leav-veins turned green again after the last watering with fertilizer. However, the plants seem to have almost ceased drinking water by now.

Is there anything I can do to save my ladies, or do I have hold a funeral and start all over again?

  • @d00ery
    6•18 days ago

    Overwatering any plants can cause issues. Give a little time for them to recover, staring again seems excessive when you are already quite far along.

    Speed of growth will change as a plant moves through the various growth stages.

  • @[email protected]
    4•18 days ago

    I think you may have overcorrected with the flush after trying to balance the excess nutrients. Broadly, it almost looks like it’s a sulfur deficiency? Difficult to be sure through photos, and honestly it matches a few possibilities so I don’t really know for sure.

    The drooping really feels like a watering issue. How damp is the soil if you go down a few inches?

    I don’t give up on plants very often, preferring to run them into the ground in the hopes of learning something, but I’m not positive this one can be saved.

    • @GartentherapieOP
      2•18 days ago

      The first inch is bonedry, but it’s damp below that. Soil moisture is about 40-50%.

      Apparently, my plants have all kinds of deviciencies. I should have used more fertilizer and better soil. This is almost pure coconut.

      • @AWistfulNihilist
        3•18 days ago

        Pure coco is a really hard medium for first time growers, you are feeding hydro style for all intents and purposes. You need to measure the water run-off of the plant, the water coming out after you water. You are also aiming to rinse the last feeding out of the coco with the new feeding to prevent salt build up.

        You are locking out the plants somehow (no nutrient uptake, limited water uptake, plant is running off the energy stored in the fan leaves), it will be almost impossible to figure out what is specifically wrong at this point because everything is wrong in lockout.

        https://www.cocoforcannabis.com/watering_coco/

        Check this guide, and if you keep going, this method works very well.

        • @GartentherapieOP
          2•18 days ago

          I guess I watered too little. I did it in 3 steps:

            1. spray dampen the top soil with water
            1. pour one half of the water with fertilizer
            1. pour the other half.

          That way, there was almost no run-off.

          I use BioBizz BioGrow (an organic fertilizer, but also feasible for hydros), but it turned out: in too little quantities, too.

      • @[email protected]English
        2•18 days ago

        “This is almost pure coconut.”

        That makes me think drainage/aeration is a problem. (Disclaimer: I have never grown cannabis; my input here comes from many houseplants). I tend to use perlite to improve drainage - I think I use 1:1 ratio of cococoir and perlite as a baseline, but I’m not 100% sure on that

        • @GartentherapieOP
          1•18 days ago

          Yup. I should have added some perlite, but it’s too late for now.

        • @GartentherapieOP
          2•18 days ago

          I guess I watered too little. I did it in 3 steps:

            1. spray dampen the top soil with water
            1. pour one half of the water with fertilizer
            1. pour the other half.

          That way, there was almost no run-off.

          I use BioBizz BioGrow (an organic fertilizer, but also feasible for hydros), but it turned out: in too little quantities, too.

  • @Dasus
    3•18 days ago

    The number one problem with new-ish growers is overtending plants.

    It seems like nuteburn, so yeah, you probably overfed them. If you flushed the soil, good. What sort of soil? If it’s very compacted soil, that would also explain, because the roots are finding it hard to “breathe” in such compact soil.

    I suggest always having some light materials in your soil to make it less dense. Perlite is good. I use 5050 vermiculite/perlite for my passive hydros (basically glorified tub watering pot).

    I’d say try to let it dry out a bit. However because it seems there’s also nute deficiencies, due to lockouts of some kind, do fertilise them as well, but like with a 1/4th of the suggested strength for the first time at least.

    Adding hydrogen peroxide to watering solution can be good, because it delivers oxygen to the roots. One of my friends liked watering her plants with carbonated water. I think it aerates the soil to some extent at least. And roots enjoy carbon dioxide as well.

    Just be patient. Once the leaves have gotten a bit fucked up, it might be they don’t really fix the colour or perk up too much even if the plant isn’t in as much distress anymore. Newer growth will though.

    So just take it easy with the watering and fertilising and you’ll be fine.

    Edit also good reading https://www.growweedeasy.com/curling-or-clawing-cannabis-leaves