Lockout of nutrients or a deficiency? Need advice

[Malkosashi88]

Hello growers, hope everyone is doing great and is healthy. Im currently on a week 8 from seed and i’ve ran into some problems. All my babies exhibit the same problem, some are more affected then others though. Im growing in biobizz light mix soil and using biobizz bio grow and cal-mag thus far and AN Voodoo juice. Im doing a water only watering after each nute watering. The schedule is - biogrow - water only - cal mag - water only and so on. PH of each watering is between 6.2-6.5. Im not sure what im missing, so all opinions will be very welcomed. Thinking of switching to flower on monday next week. Im growing under 600w hps and the temps in the tent are - 20 c at night and around 25-6 c when the light is on.
ps: i think that i probably gave them a bit more cal-mag in the last watering, that was yesterday (the problem seemed to escalated after that). My initial thoughts were to give them only water next week and then add nutes again in half dose, but please critique on this, because im not sure what is actually happening.
Thanks in advance 🙏❤️

[OldManGrower]

You do not mention your waters PH both in and out. This is crucial. It appears to me that you have a severe PH issue that is resulting in nutrient lockout. Get your PH to 6.5-6.7 range asap or lose the plants. This problem is quite advanced and will definitely result in a greatly reduced yield. You may also have some potential light burn causing canoeing of the leave at the tops of your plants.

[OldManGrower]

I stand corrected. I missed the PH numbers in your post. 6.2-6.5 is too low for the substrate you are using.

[Malkosashi88]

Thanks for your fast reply OldManGrower 🙏❤️ Ill up the PH of my waterings above 6.5 as u suggest. I havent yet water the plants till runoff, since im giving them only 1.5 l each watering. They are in 15 l pots, filled with around 20 l of soil. Should i use only water next few waterings to correct the issue ?

[AGH]

A couple of questions then a suggestion...

- How often are you watering? I saw your schedule of alternating water, nutes, water, calmag, etc but how often are you watering?
- Depending on how often you're watering, you could be overwatering them, even if you're not getting runoff. Soil can hold a TON of water without runoff which can suffocate the roots which can manifest itself in a variety of ways including pH issues, nutrient lockout, etc. I use 7 gallon pots (26 liters if Google is to be trusted) and even when the plants are full grown, I only water 8 cups (about 2 liters) every 3 days.

Now my suggestion: You mentioned that you were thinking of flipping to flower soon. Problems happen faster and progress faster when in flowering stage and they're often a bit more difficult to address since they use a LOT of energy producing buds. If you have the time, I would suggest getting your current issues under control BEFORE you flip them, even if it means an extra week or two in veg. It can be tough to wait, but it can be even tougher to suffer through issues for the next 8-10 weeks of flower only to get a mediocre harvest.

Totally up to you, but do keep us updated with what you decide and how it goes!

[Malkosashi88]

Thanks for your reply, AGH. I water every 3rd or 4th day and slowly went up to 1.5 l, which was the last watering. Ill follow your advice and wait before i flip them to flower. Hopefully i will be able to get things under control. Tomorrow ill add more photos of all plants in day light for better perspective.

[Malkosashi88]

Update: Hello again, growers ! Hope everyone is doing good. I think that i managed to halt the problem and after the last watering all babies are doing good. The new growth looks healthy and the problem is not spreading. I think that i made a big mistake with the ph of my water, being too low as mentioned and that i underestimated the effect that chlorine evaporation has on the PH. I let them veg for one more week and if everything is still going good, will flower them the next week. Thanks for the replies, they helped immensely. 🙏❤️🍁

[SoOrbudgal]

Good job that's a learning moment

[Malkosashi88]

Hello growers, hope everyone is doing good. Unfortunately, this problem came back again, after my last watering with light amount of Biogrow, so ive decided to flush all my plants and see how things will turn out after that. This is the first time ive encounter lockout during veg. I use Voodoo juice, Biogrow from Biobizz, cal-mag biobizz and molasses. The only thing, that i added new was that in every pot there is 1 gram of chicken manure in 4 small pallets and that i once watered them with manure tea. Can the manure produce some kind of bad reaction with the other nutes. If anyone knows it will be great. Also i have a question regardless my flush. Since there are 11 15l pots i wont be able to flush all of them at once, so i will flush 3 at a time. My question is should i water the ones waiting for the flusht with only water or i should still give them nutes ?
Thanks in advance to everyone !

[SoOrbudgal]

I guess it's possible with the manure, chicken poo is real hot and along with the other stuff perhaps they got overloaded? I do use molasses but not usually during veg. i only use it with flowering midway. 1tablespoon per gallon. No nutes just water and you don't need to drown them just till it runs out some and allow them to dry out before you go back to your combo nutes. I'm not familiar with bio biz soil products. I build my own soil mix and don't really add much till plants start really taking off and showing slight yellowing then i'd introduce more N.

I think your plants will recover but they need the less is more fix right now. Good luck and breath this is how we learn.

[Malkosashi88]

Hello 🙏❤️ So yesterday i watered the babies with more water till good runoff ( i used 5 litres for each pot) with PHed water to 6.6-6.7 ph instead of heavy flush as suggested and today they are just exploded. Literally they have gained ao much size in one night that its great to watch them. However the yellowing and some other leave discolouration seems to increase as well. I gathered runoff water and it was 6.4-6.5 ph between plants. Im not sure if this is telling me that they need more nutrients now or what and im not sure how to proceed with the next watering also. I will try to post some pics, if only im able to free some space on my phone. Regardless, all advises are very, very welcomed fellow growers. Thanks again for the help thus far and for all help that will follow 🙏❤️🍁

[Bluey]

Keep measuring that nute runoff. You appear to be now where you need to be...make sure you can keep it there and watch your leaves closely for any changes in colour, shape, droop..etc...they really do talk to you.

[Malkosashi88]

Pics incoming 🔥🍁

[Malkosashi88]

Update: Hello guys and gals, hope everyone is doing good 🙏❤️ So the little ones are now doing good and growing like wild. After the last watering i did another one with 1/2 strength Biogrow and Voodoo Juice again till run-off but this time with only 3 litres. A day after the watering they looked their all time best thus far. I switched them to flowering and will keep u updated how they are doing. Thanks again for the help thus far, it made all the difference.

[AGH]

What a nice full tent! Keep it up and thanks for the updates!

[Malkosashi88]

Hello again, its update time: One week into flowering and one more watering down (only water with 2.5 litres at 6.8 ph). Ive decided to water with less water this time, with no runoff. My logic was to spare the nutes left in the soil and dont leech them out. Nevertheless, the babies are doing really good and i’ve managed to separate them in two tents now, since they grew very big. Will keep u updated every week, until the end of this grow. Hope everyone’s fine and in good health 🙏❤️