I'm not talking about the embryonic leaves, I'm talking actual leaves. This is my first grow (in 6th week of veg and about 20" tall...going to flower at 24"). I have had to get rid of a couple necrotic leaves on each plant...they have all been at or near the bottom of the plant. They don't always die the same way either. Sometimes its browning/crispyness that spreads and other time there is yellowing. I usually cut the leaf off when 50% or more of it is basically useless. The vast majority of the plant is healthy, however, especially upper growth. Should I view these leaves dying as natural or am I screwing up somewhere (i.e., nute, ph, ppm) problems. I ask because I want to improve my growing skills. Basically, do most experienced growers have the occasional lower leaf die in veg or should this not be happening if everything is done right?
If it's just a little bit don't worry. Although it could be indicative of a pH imbalance, what's your pH? And what nutes are you giving, and how much how often?
I only got my pH meter in the last week, but when I watered with pH 7.3 RO water, the runoff was 6.8. I read somewhere that if the pH moves down in the runoff then the soil pH is actually a couple points lower. So I figure my soil pH is 6.3-6.5. I am growing in Sunshine #4/Pro-mix, a soilless sphagnum peat moss mix that includes a good amount of perlite and dolomitic lime. In terms of nutes, I am currently using AN's Sensigrow and B-52 as well as CalMagPlus. I've also fed one compost tea so far and am due for another one next week (I am on a 3 week cycle for teas and have different recipes for veg/flower). Initially, I started off at 1/4 strength and then moved up to about 50%. Since I got my ppm meter though, I stopped feeding a given % of the recommended dose and have moved to trying to hit a target ppm. For late veg, I read that the target ppm is between 450-700, not counting the ppm of the base water, which is 0 in my case but goes up to 100 when I add CalMag Plus. When feeding, I keep the nute ratios the same and just add until I get my desired ppm. When I fed today, the ppm was 700 (800 if you add the 100ppm from the calmag). Last feeding it was 600. Anything I'm doing wrong here? Here's the PPM chart I plan to follow. Anyone care to chime in and let me know if this sounds about right? The author of the post says to discount the PPM of the water before adding anything. Seedlings, Early Sprouts 100 to 250 Early Vegging 300 to 400 Full Vegetation 450 to 700 Early Blooming 750 to 950 Full Mature Blooms 1000 to 1600