Hey there GC. I posted this on the sick plants thread and I got some good feedback, but I would like to get some more opinions since the problem seems to be getting worse. Pleas any comments would be greatly appreciated. Light: 250W HPS about 18 inches away; recently added a few CFL's to help a bit since I have 4 plants under the 250. Nutes: Fox Farm Trio; I do not fert that much though. Soil: Fox Farm Ocean Temps: in the grow room < 80F, but in the canopy below the lights...IDK, maybe in the mid 80's. Vent: I have a carbon filter pulling fresh air in the room, a window fan to cool the canopy, a box fan to keep the air in the room circulating and a smaller fan to keep air on the pots. Ph: soil Ph (runoff) is right at 6.5, I try and keep the water that as well. Today I felt one of the top shade leaves and it was literally crispy. It is the leaf that is in the pictures. Thanks for any help! They are on day 46 of flower. Any ideas? It only seems to be on the top 1/3 of the plant
How exactly did you test the pH? Can you post how much of each FF fertilizer you use & how often? The curling you're seeing along the leaf blades' mid ribs, does that ever get better or worse? Are any plants showing more curling than others? Has the temperature gone up during their 46 days of flowering?
I use the strips to test the Ph. I am not sure how accurate those are though. I use 2tsp per gallon of the tiger bloom and 1 of the big bloom. I would say I probably use them once every 5 waterings...I would say time wise, like once every 10 days. The curling has been getting worse for sure. All the plants seem to show the same curling, but some only have a few rust spots here or there, others are looking bad. The temp has certainly gone up. It was usually never above 73ish now it is usually at least 78, but rarely over 80. Thanks again for the help. Its no fun messing this up in the home stretch
No I seen it happen when it was used though the flush took all the nutes from the soil and caused all kinds of deficiencies . There is one that makes the leaves look rusted and then burn up and crisp I need to research it show I can send the sight,
Not sure I can post this link please remove if not allowed Here is a link to a pretty good leaf site but its on 420mag. Cannabis Plant and Pest Problem Solver - Pictorial
Your pH testing is inaccurate. You're getting the same pH reading that you set the liquids to because you aren't giving their pH time to equalize with the soil. When testing runoff pH, first get some pure water and verify its pH. Water thoroughly all the way through the soil but don't flush. Allow the plants to sit for at least an hour; more is even better. Then, squeeze some liquid out from the soil. This can usually be accomplished by pressing on the soil surface and collecting the runoff. Finally, test the pH. The damage to the leaves and the drooping are probably two different issues. Overwatering combined with higher than ideal temps can cause drooping like you're seeing. It can basically steam the plants like dinner veggies. *Watering every other day is way too often.* Watering cycles should go from all of the soil being moist all the way through to about the top quarter of it being completely bone dry. While not necessarily causing any damage to your plants, your light is too far away to work efficiently. A new 250w bulb can be as close as 8" to any plant parts. Leaving room for plant growth between lamp height adjustments, you should try to set it to at most about 11" from the tallest plant tops. That is of course after working out the temperature issues. The #1 thing to focus on is better cooling for your lamp & grow area. Next watering try to get a more accurate pH reading and post your results. The leaf damage you're seeing looks alot like lockout from incorrect pH.
Thanks Jellyman. I will address these issues. I will see if I can't get a better estimate of the soil Ph as well. I will let everyone know how it goes
I concur with the Jellybelly lol. I just look at this also the ph lockout could be causing the deficiency Look at the reason this happens read whole thing please Note: Blood Meal, Dried Blood, Guanos, Kelp Meal, Cotton Seed Meal, Peat Moss, Sulfur and fish meal are all acidic and can bring your ph down, so if you add these please monitor your ph when using those. Note: Bone Meal, Rock Phosphate, Wood Ashes pretty much all ashes, Shellfish Compost and Crab Meal are all alkaline and can make your ph go up, so if you add any of these please monitor your ph Potassium (K) Mobile Element and Macro Element Potassium plays a big role as well. Having good amounts of potassium in your plants helps in having sturdy and thick stems, disease-resistance, water respiration, as well aids in photosynthesis. Potassium is also found in the whole plant. It is necessary for all activities having to do with water transportation. Potassium is necessary for all stages of growth, especially important in the development of Buds. Having to little of Potassium in your plants causes the plants leaves to show retarded growth and show a scorched tip and edges around the leaves. Plants may stretch and your branches can be easily broken or weak. Don’t get this deficiency confused with iron, because it almost acts like iron but to tell the difference in the two is: for potassium the tips of the leaves curl and the edges burn and die. Older leaves may show a red color and leaves could curl upwards. Dead patches (Necrosis) can happen on the margins of larger fan leaves thus, the leaves will eventually die off and turn brown. The Older leaves will show different patches of color (mottle) and turn yellow between the veins, following by whole leaves that turn dark yellow and die. The plants overall growth slows down, mostly when they are in vegetative stage. To little amount of potassium also slows the growth of buds during flowering stages. Dark edges will appear around the edges of the leaf when the deficiency is starting to happen. When your Relative humidity is low, you can almost bet your going to soon get a potassium deficiency from your plants perspiration. Potassium can get poorly absorbed when having too much Calcium or ammonium nitrogen, and maybe cold weather. Having to much sodium (Na) causes potassium to be displaced. SO keep those in mind… Parts affected by a Potassium Deficiency are: older leaves and leaf margins. When you have too much Potassium in your soil, it can lead to big troubles, like salt damage and acid fixation of the root system, as well as too much potassium can cause a calcium deficiency. Your fan leaves will show like a light to a dark yellow to whitish color in between the veins. Due to a molecular imbalance, potassium toxicity can cause a reduced uptake and lead to the deficiencies of Mg, and in some cases, Ca. Also leads to the other nutrients to not be absorbed properly leading to lots of other deficiency such as: magnesium, manganese, zinc and iron and can cause problems with calcium as well. This here Problems with Potassium being locked out by PH troubles Soils with excessive Leeching and High ph soils and or water.Soils that are potassium fixated. An excess of kitchen salts (sodium) in the root system/enviroment. Soil Potassium gets locked out of soil growing at ph levels of 4.0-5.5 Potassium is absorbed best in soil at a ph level of 6.0-9.5. (Wouldn’t recommend having a ph of over 7.0 in soil) anything out of the ranges listed will contribute to a Potassium deficiency.
growerBabe, I guess I should mention that about a month ago I had to quick fix a water reservoir Ph with baking soda. I was out of town for 10 days and did not have the ability to get anything else in the time I had (I realized my Ph was jacked up the day before my trip). Since then it seems like I have been having one problem after another. I did a flush yesterday and figure I will let the soil really dry out and then go from there. Also some of the lower leaves def. have the classic signs of K deficiency, and have since the baking soda mistake. It must be getting worse? I will do my best to get a better measure of the Ph as well. I want to get a digital meter, but I do not have the funds. I really appreciate all of your help!
You know you may have hit the monkey on the head I have heard never to use plain kitchen baking soda but others will hopefully chime in on the That may very well be your problem, youmay have a few more because of it. Get a good PH reading following Jellys post and let use know GOOD LUCK/ Its sohard toget it right but when you do its worth it!
One more thing in the past with unstable PH I have seen lime used to balance it. Do a search here on lime in soil. Ihave seen it added even after the plant was well into flower but not as late as yours its not much maybe a few tablespoons (not cups sorry) per gallon so Please check this out 1st though Im going on memory. check this post http://forum.grasscity.com/indoor-marijuana-growing/982130-adding-dolomitic-lime-help-numbnutts.html
Hey there everyone. I just and wanted to give an update: I dealt with the heat issue by installing a new fan to move the hot air under the lights out. I waited a few days....They got a lot worse.... I flushed them and gave them a mild nute dose and added some dolomite to the soil (just sprinkled it on top before the flush). I know it is a little late, but it couldn't hurt. I got some epsom salt and did some foliar feeding, which seemed to stop the continued downhill ride. All of this is a bit crazy, because two of my plants are fine and look great (and I have done the same thing to all of them. All bag seed though). The other two look terrible. That said, one of the two might just be finishing up; the buds look excellent, dense and healthy, but the leaves are yellowing, showing a bit of brown, dying and falling off. These are mainly the shade and older leaves. Anyway, I figured I would load a few pics of the worst looking plant. What do you guys think? I keep checking the trichs, but none are amber yet. Sorry for the HPS, I was able to put a bit of normal light on one of the pics to help with the color. Today is day 54 of 12/12
Wikdman They look great are you looking at them under 30X scope Those thricomes look almost plump and the Pistols are started to draw back in turning redbrown they look close very close
I have this little jewelers scope that is supposedly 30x, but I can't tell if there are any amber or not. They all just look the same to me haha. Most of the hairs are red and I agree the look to be receding. I will do my best to get a real good close up of the trichs tomorrow. Maybe you can take a look and tell me what you think? I really appreciate all of the help! Thank you!
They def. got too much water when I was out of town and they were on the automatic watering system I rigged up (back in early March). Since then though I wait until the pots are nearly completely dry before I water. I know I mentioned watering in the original post, but that was not accurate. My bad. Here are the pics of the trichs. Let me know what you guys think and as always thanks for all the help!