Hi I have never grown anything before this and I have poured so much into this to try and help a few people that need for medical reasons. I am growing Blue Dream Photo and Super Silver Haze photo from seeds purchased through ILGM. I have been battling fungus gnats for months nut have them under control but not gone. I transplanted 5 of my 12 plants into 10 gallon cloth pots when I changed light schedule to 13/11. But I used a different soil mix then before. Was using FoxFarms Ocean Forest and Strawberry Fields then added potting soil from Home Depot that I was told is a very decent product. I have been pulling my hair out trying to figure out why my plants are show signs of deficiency. Lime green leaves entire plant, slowed bud development and brown spots. I believed it was ca and mag deficiency so I added a little more cal mag which did not remedy the problem. I have burnt tips so I lowered the nitrogen thinking it was blocking phosphorus etc… no change. Following many failed attempts to identify the culprit I came to a conclusion that there must be a problem with the soil and tested the ph two different ways. I mixed equal parts soil from root zone with neutral distilled water and let it set 24 hrs then filtered. Using a ph pen I got 7.5. I then used GH soil kit and it was light green. This validated my first test and high ph. High ph would explain the lime green leaves, slowed developement, loss of pistols, brown spots and burnt tips to start. so as long as I have properly identified the problem I need to lower the ph caused by what I think is either a build up of salts or bad soil. I am thinking ph down or sulffer products maybe vinegar or comparable will be the course of action but I am a total newbie so I am turning to you all to tell me what I need to do. Since I am at the end of the 5th week I know i need a solution quick and it still may not help much. Replanting in better soil is not an option this late in the game I am sure. So should I mix vinegar with water or use ph down to at least start neutralizing the akalinity or wait until I get sulfer sulphate etc…? I appreciate your help as I have put countless hours, all my $$ and so much work into these plants. I built the room around them in 3 parts mostly in summer here in Arizona. NOT an easy job and keeping the plants away from the heat and high humidity during monsoons. But I somehow did and they looked awesome going into flower. If you need certain pics or more explanation on whatever let me know and I will post it as quickly as I can. Here are some pics to illustrate what I am looking at. Also I should add that most of the leaves that were dead or bad including many spots I removed already. What is very disappointing is the buds where almost the same size 2 weeks ago …
Just a slightly educated guess here. Put PH to 6.5 -- 7.0 on your slurry test. Add Cal-Mag and more Nitrogen to your nutes. LED's suck the Calcium out of the feed. Give that a week maybe a bit more and see if they don't turn back green and start to grow. What are you feeding? PPM's etc...
Hi… thanks for replying. I’m not sure what you are asking me to do by putting PH to 6.5-7.0? I have been feeding them in accordance with GH Flora 3 part liquid fertilizer. More specifically 10 of Flora Grow, 15-20 ml of Flora micro, 25-30 ml of Flora Bloom to 2 gallons per plant. I also give 12-15 ml of cal mag, 3-5 ml of Tiger Bloom and bud candy or black strap molasses. I ph water to 6.0-6.3 after adding all nutrients. I have not taken any measurements with a tds meter until recently because I haven’t had any issues other than gnats until now. So a tds meter wouldn’t help me with that. I can take a reading this next feeding. The test I performed on the soil showed a high ppm but not sure if you can test that sample for ppm that way. Tell me what you would like me to do and I will do it.
Thanks for the help. I did what you said and flushed my plants with ph 6.0 and GH Flushing solution. I ran 10 gallons through my 10 gallon pots initially then another 5 gallons with GH flushing solution. They actually declined further then turned the corner 2 fays ago. Then yesterday was my first watering since flushing 5 days ago which included 1/2 strength on nutes. This evening the plants looked better than they have in a while and appear to be back on track which will last for another 7 days then flush and harvest. Ha ha… I’m not sure if what I did was worth it for the plants but it was invaluable for me. I learned a lot most importantly that I switching to hydroponics next grow. So what method is the best for indoor 5-8 plants EBB and Flood, DWC, NFT or ?
Instead of guessing and asking folks that may or may not be able to help, why not get a soil test? You can get one for around $25 and it will tell you exactly what is wrong. I do one between every grow to make sure my soil is still good to go. Takes less than a week and the results show up in my email. I use Logan Labs, but there are many online you could use. For consistency, I use the same lab every test. Good luck!