I have an outdoor plant that I believe has magnesium deficiency. I'm wondering how much dolomite lime can I use so that I don't burn the plant? I have a 5 gallon pot. I added some pictures of the problem. Leaves are turning yellow from the bottom towards the top very quickly and falling off. Also the stems have become purple which they weren't before. The plant has just started flowering and has several more weeks to go.
Yup, again. ^^^^^ But, a tsp-tbl/gallon of water won't hurt anything, and if there's a big improvement ................ Add some and observe, that's your real learning curve. Wet Dolomite is a bit slow to release Mg. I've had to add epsom salts once to mixes before the dolo started releasing the mg. A second application wasn't necessary. Wet
Let's say for the sake of argument that this IS a Magnesium deficiency - I just don't see powdered rock breaking down quickly enough to do him any good at all with the several weeks that are left in the outdoor growing season. I have no doubt that it wouldn't hurt anything but I sincerely believe it wouldn't help anything either. I'm 99% sure it's just senescence anyhow. J
Jerry It's a fool's errand to discuss reality much less science when it comes to dolomite lime. Not every problem with growing plants is centered around Magnesium and if one did in fact need additional Mg the worst source possible fix would be dolomite lime. Ol' Cervantes certainly did a lot for the Dolomite Lime industry, I'll give him credit for that. CC
I wouldn't be giving Hoor Hay all that much credit for dolomite. My Dad was telling me he remembers helping spread dolomite lime back in the mid/late 30's with a mule drawn spreader. The one tractor in the area was rented out for heavy discing, harrowing, whatnot. Pretty much everything else was done with mule power. He's 85, but his recall of places, dates, people, are amazing. Wet
I cannot for the life of me know why every grower thinks they have Mg deficiency when they have purple stems.......purple stems in my research is much more attributed to the temperature drop from light to nite IIRC
It's also been remarked upon, by those that use them, purple stems when using T-5 HO's. I know I've noticed it, especially when only the 1/2 of the stem/branch exposed to the light is purple and the other side, green. Doesn't do it all the time, so I just don't worry about it anymore. I know my mix has sufficient Mg, so, no worries. Plus, this plant turns purple at the drop of a hat, or a decent drop in temperature. Wet
I suppose that depends where this guy is and what strain he's growing. Not untypical for people in NorCal to chop around Halloween or even Thanksgiving, if he's running a greenie. Either way that's 6 weeks left to the season or more...he will start seeing results in less than a week.
true, but a picture's worth a thousand words and his is saying the end of the growing season and it's not measured in months.
Patanjali Maybe you can explain sumpin' to me then - if all plants in the universe only produce chlorophyll with a single magnesium ion then how could 'this plant' be hungrier for magnesium than 'that plant' - puzzling isn't it? Does magnesium hungry mean that a specific strain of weed has two or more magnesium ions in the chlorophyll that it produces? Signs' and wonder, eh? Or does it mean that a magnesium hungry plant 'destroys' an ion and replaces it with a fresh one? Oh wait - that's impossible because magnesium is an element - can't be destroyed but then again all rules of physics, chemistry, botany, biology and common sense are suspended when it comes to Uncle Jack's Kush perhaps? It's a real enigma isn't it? pppffffttttt
"The plant has just started flowering and has several more weeks to go." - from the OP Not to mention that you can clearly see this by looking at these two pics. To the OP. I would not only topdress w/ EWC and kelp. I would also give them alfalfa/kelp tea or fish hydrolysate, perhaps some coconut water, certainly aloe, compost tea, SST's, protek, etc. Things can turn around for ya. Post back up and we can help ya out man. Let us know what you have on hand or can get. Edit: Can you post up a pic of an entire plant? Thanks.
Lol, I got nothing. Maybe OG stands for Out of Galaxy and is actually an alien strain? It requires 20x more Mg then other plants to produce those really dank buds. Lucky for us CalMg now comes in 5 gallon containers! Added bonus, get a 5 gallon bucket of CalMg and throw in about 50lbs of dolo lime and make a lime slurry! We're talking BIG buds!!! P-
I was going to pass on this thread but reflecting on it and in the spirit of gentlemanly discourse I think it worthwhile to dive in. Coot has directly or indirectly forced us to think about Mg and its role in producing chlorophyll. Without me writing paragraphs trying to explain what I understand his point to be I offer one takeaway point; if there were a Mg deficiency there would be zero chlorophyll produced. If no chlorophyll is produced the result is chlorosis and ultimately senescence. So, unless “purple stems†ultimately results in senescence “purple stems†should not be diagnosed solely as a Mg deficiency. My experience with “purple stems†is that is most likely attributable to a genetic manifestation. It seems a lot of the so-call Kush varieties will often purple on the meristem and that's no big deal. My experience with purple petioles (what is incorrectly referred to as “stems†– it's the thing that attaches a leaf to a stem) is that something is indeed amiss but in all likelihood it's not a result of a Mg deficiency. Very interesting Coot. indeed... Was that a point you were making? No Mg = no chlorophyll = chlorosis = senesence.
It depend on the needs of the growing plant. A vigorous and healthy plant could deplete available Mg or any other element for that matter. No? One single ion of Mg does not produce 100% of the chlorophyll needed by the plant over its life cycle so it is quite conceiveable, based on a host of factors, that Mg might in fact be insufficient or unavailable. No?