So this 34" tall sour diesel seedling is only 3 days into flower and a few leaves are starting to brown. And a couple are drying and curling. Plants are in ffof soil. Been in it since beginning of October. I also use fox farm nutes, and use there feeding schedule. I also use botanicare cal/mag. It's only been watered once since transitioning into flower and my first guess is that this strain is more sensitive to FF Bloom nutes then my other strain and I gave them a little nute burn?? Plants look super green all through veg under 2'-8 tube t5's . Flowering under 1000hps Light, light is 12-14" above plant and that is farther then I've done for my other ones, and a soft white 300W CFL down low for the undersides of the plants. It is a sealed room with a cooled light, 12" oscillitang fan blowing directly across tops of plants 24/7, temps between 70-83F, (21-28C) humidity set to 45%, co2 set to 1500 ppm, PH at 6.6-6.8. I've been using city water and trying to leave 6-8 one gallon jugs out to try and evap as much chlorine as possible, But I've also produced super dank buds with same method and same city water!?
I did a foliar spray this morning at lights out with Aza Max, botanicare cal/mag and very little big bloom. I just started to follow the fox farm feeding schedule, but am only using 1/2 recommended doses. I also just started using the FF Sledgehammer. So with consistent PH watering and foliar sprays things should clear up in a week or two. I am putting another one (same strain and size) into flower next week so hopefully I can dial it in beforehand. I also need to save up for a ppm/tds tester and good water filter.
Foliage feeding with micro's is one of the best methods for faster correction. Next water through, check the root-zone ph after collecting about 10% run-off. If it still checking low, bring it up by pouring water through that you've collected from the hot side of your tap. Ph rises on the hot side more than the cold.
Ok so here's the deal. I checked the plants that I watered tonight and I watered them all with 6.6 PH just with different mixes of nutes. The two that just started there 8th week in flower came back with 6.2 PH, but since I started cal/mag three weeks ago the leaves stopped dying off by the dozen. The three in veg that were all transplanted 2 weeks ago tested at; 5.6 for 3 week old clone in one gallon pot 5.0 for 8-9 week old clone that was transported to #10 5.3 for 33" tall 8 week old from seed. In 5 gallon square pot. All with FFOF soil I have three more to test, but want to make some adjustments first. When you say to water with warm water, how warm are you talking? And should I just use warm water and water as usual? Nutes and all? The water I am watering with now is 52 – 58F or 11 – 14 1/2C. Or do you recommend something else now seeing these results??
Ok after some more research I found that I can use dolomite lime to bring the PH of the soil up, which in the future I will mix into the soil prior to planting. But for now I'm going to run to depot and get this stuff. http://t.homedepot.com/p/Espoma-6-75-lb-Garden-Lime-100508617/203192761/
I watered the 3rd plant in flower last night with 100 tap water. That's 40 Higher then normal. I will test again in 1-3 days when it needs water again. Should I continue to water with warmer water? I'm going to start the dolomite lime treatments next waterings.
It goes without saying: one should let hot water sit till room temperature. I apologize if you misunderstood. Don't think plant will suffer any ill effects, but not quite sure, my gut tells me you'll be okay.
100 is tepid and wont harm it, heck it grew 2" last night so it's now at 7" in 7 days. I did however sprinkle 2 table spoons of dolomite lime tonight and will let it sit until tomorrow or the next night when I water again. Thanks for the help. If you live in CO or ever come to CO I'm definitely hookin ya up.
This bad girl is loving the cal/mag and dolomite lime. She grew 2" last night since watering with dolomite lime to bring the soil PH up. I'll be testing it again in a couple days.
So one good watering with tepid water and another with two table spoons of dolomite lime and a good watering and the root zone is now testing at 6.1. That's up from 5.0. So thanks for the point in the right direction. Just a little more dialing in and will be perfect. I threw another one in flower tonight and hopefully got it dialed in from day one.
Wonderful, you're on your way to correction. Next water through you ought to be able to get it up to snuff. Well done.
Start of the third week in flower and the same brown spots are coming back as usual. It hasn't ever effected the final product, but I'd like to keep the leaves greener a little longer now that I'm running a 12 week flower. It wasn't so bad before because I was only flowering 9 weeks. Cal mag and a steady ph helped before, but here it arises again. Any ideas what to try next? Water filter being added in the next couple weeks to remove chlorine.... And only two leaves curled on the entire plant.
Ca deficit my friend. If I keep plants longer than intended, I'll add nutes that contain Ca or crush eggs shells and work into the top couples inches of soil.
I've been using 5-6 Ml per gal of Botanicare cal mag +. The eggshell thing sounds good, but I'm limited on free time. You suggest using something other then Botanicare for Ca? And I'll up it to 8-10ml per gal and see what happens. I've also been using cal mag+ in foliar spray.
Have you been checking the run-off ph? I've never used the ingredients you mention, and would have to research it, but sounds strange that you would have this issue after applying Cal/Mag. Check the run-off and make sure you're not over-loading the plant.
Yeah, my runoff has been 6.4 on average. I added a cup of dolomite lime from the beginning and haven't had any issues with low runoff yet. It was pretty stable through veg too. Thinking of mixing in FF Happy Frog soil next time, or some Roots 707. I had the same issue with no calmag additives so I am leaning towards a lack of, rather then too much...