So I have been having this problem 2 years in a row. Planted around June 1st. Rained like a mofo for all of June. Plants grew about twice their size, then just stopped growing and lower leaves started yellowing and dying. Brown spots on some of them. I thought this was from compacted soil from overwatering. I have heard that this can cause nutrient lockout. One or two of my plants are doing superb, but most of them are pretty lame. The plants are in 30 gallon pots with soil consisting of 1 part steer manure, 1 part sunshine pro-mix #4, and 1/2 part perlite (due to the fact that there was soo much perlite in the sunshine mix). When I dig down about 4 inches from the top, the soil is still moist (not wet, but not dry either). It is now July and these plants need to start growing or my summer crop is going to be as fucked as it was last year. I would love to give it some nitrogen fertilizer, but I'm not sure that will fix the nutrient lockout. Plus, I don't want to add more water to an already waterlogged plant. I haven't watered in like 3 weeks. Any suggestions? If you're going to tell me that it needs nitrogen, then don't bother posting. I'm not a newby and have already thought of this. The sunshine mix has everything a plant needs. Calcium, iron, mychorizaie (sp), bone meal, etc. I'm sure this is a nutrient lockout thing, but don't know how to address it. Here are some pics.
It sounds like the nutrients and ph are good. I personally think you were right when you mentioned compaction. I think your 30 gallon bags are much too large for the size of your plant. The top and middle of dirt is dry, while the bottom and lower median is wet. I think you may be experiencing drainage issues. Just a guess.
Angel, yea, my buddy told me the same thing. He has 20 gallon pots and his plants look great. I was just going off of the 9 footers I grew my first year. Just figured the bigger pots would benefit the root system. I guess that's not how weeds work. I guess they're used to not having space for roots. lol I was getting the same result in my 20 gallon tomato pots so I just went and tried adding some molasses to kickstart the mychorizai. We'll see how that does. The rest of the plants I'm just going to wait for them to start to wilt before watering them. Shouldn't be too long considering it's supposed to hit 98 this week. I know, 98 doesn't sound that hot to most people, but we haven't seen that hot a weather in 2 years. Thanks for the input Angeletti
sfrenger, its early in the season and to be sure, we'll have to see how things progress, but im betting that i see sceptoris or leaf blight. Its been absolutely rampant in the eastern US over the past 4 years and has devastated crops everywhere. Many of us are just learning to deal with it. But let me describe conditions so that you can assess the situation better. Iwill also provide a link to another site where we discuss the disease in depth and you can see multiple pics of its affect. When a plant is nute deficient there is a pattern of yellowing: the largest and lowest leaves will yellow and fall first if nutrients arent supplied and then systematically those larger leaves will yellow futher up the plant. If the condition persist, the lowest secondary leaves will yellow and then move up the plant from the bottom. With a fungal disease such as blight, leaves that have the fungus spot up,yellow and die first regaudless of their location on the plant. Not necessarily from the bottom up but instead, can yellow randomly on the plant. Lower leaves do often yellow but after that yellowing is random and not the systematic yellowing seen with nute deficiencies. I see lower leaves yelllowed on your plants but i also see some smaller foilage thats yellowed and some that is higher on the plant and out of sync with nutrient deficiencies. If its the blight, the plants will defoliate and even die over the next several weeks. Even if they survive, the yeild is devestated. Ill go to the link and post it. http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=184996
Clod, normally I would say that fungus isn't the problem because I treated all my plants about a week ago with Bayer advanced 3-in-1 Insect, disease, and mite control. However after reading that post and link, I think that you are correct. I'm going to go to town today and buy a systemic fungicide and treat my plants tonight right before dark. Luckily my plants are still in veg or this fungicide would worry me. I also already have some Earth Juice Micronutrients. I may mix the fungicide with the earth juice and foliar feed my plants. That way they will get the nutrients that are locked out and get the fungus treated. I will give everyone an update in a few days.
Hey sfrenger, Ive used the immunox for 2 years now. As long as you have a 30 day lag between last spray and harvest, there is no residue, taste or problems. Here is the method ive come to use and have found it crop savingly effective. I use 2ozs per gallon and treat all plants late June. I apply a 2nd dose in early july, about 12 days after the first dose. I then apply a 3rd application at the end of july, aug 1. These 3 doses have a cumulitive effect and protect the plants until late august while at the same time, it creates nearly a 60 day lag time between last spray and harvest. If i have any fear of the disease in aug/sept, i may apply a application of Daconil. its a contact and not a systemic. It only requires a 14 day lag time but if applied mid tolate august, its 3o days til oct 1 and thats plenty of time for it to wash off. Ive used these products and their safe when used properly
Hey Clodhopper, Good deal. I'm heading to home depot and they have some immunox products, but not sure which ones to get. Can you be more specific? There are a bunch of different types. Thanks man. S.
Get the Immunox Multi purpose fungicide. This year mine is in a black bottle but last year it was in a grey bottle. It contains the chemical myclobutanil Daconil works too. It contains Chloranthanil. They have changed the name and is now sold as Ortho garden fungicide.
Clod and Smoker, I couldn't find that immunox shit at the home depot when I went in so I ended up buying Bonide Liquid Copper Fungicide (which I already dosed my plants with) and today I went and bought some Ortho MAX Garden Disease Control. It's active ingredient is Chloro(fuck my eyes are getting bad)thalonil. I'm trying to figure out when to go put that on since I already dosed my garden with the copper a couple days ago. No new yellowing or at least not hardly noticable for now. What do you guys think?
If your watering everyday you could dry letting it dry out some than flood it so all your soil gets saturated,if theres dry and wet pockets in your soil it can cause nute lock or so ive read try researching dry/wet cycles,its good to let it dry out every so often,i dont think its the size of your pot ive grew plant that size in way smaller pots without issue besides smaller yeild.
In the past I've watered pretty regularly but my buddy told me to stop watering soo much. Before 2 days ago, I hadn't watered in like 3 weeks. Of course the rain didn't stop falling until a week prior to me using the copper sulfide. Seems like th plants really liked my watering them and I added some Earth Juice micronute with the copper when I sprayed. The plants look ok now, but it's only been a couple days. That's why I'm really wondering if I should spray them down again tonight with the Ortho Max stuff I just bought. Gotta read up a little more on it.
FINALLY! Found some Spectracide Immunox® Multi-Purpose Fungicide Spray Concentrate at Lowes. If this shit works as well as everyone says, why doesn't everyone carry it?
Still losing some leaves on the plants. Only been a week, but figured I should have been able to stop the plants from losing their leaves by now. Liquid Copper, Chlorothalonil, and now this Immunox stuff will be the last stuff I try. It's been raining off and on for 4 days now. Put another light dose of Liquid Copper on last night even though I knew it might rain overnight. Woke up this morning with a downpoor again . Now I get to go out and reapply. This shit is getting expensive. Think I may wait until the rain is supposed to quit then go spray with the Immunox. I hate this shit. Now that I know what I have, next year I plan on dosing them the first week after transplanting my babies into the garden. Then every couple weeks thereafter. I can't afford to go through this shit again.
I'm also still losing leaves on my sour diesel plants. I got one good dose on mine and it dried but now its raining every day so it will be awhile before I can get more on it. If this blight is in the soil I wonder if I could drench the soil around my plants with Immunox?
I've been spraying the top of my soil as well as the plants, but i'm not sure if it is helping or hurting. I haven't put on the immunox yet, but i will when it stops raining. Supposed to rain for another 4 days. Good luck Smoker. Definitely starting early next year, long before I see it.
Rain.....rain.......go away, don't come again until next May. Sometimes living in the Pacific Northwest sucks ass. At least I don't live on the coast where it rains for 100 days straight. lol