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SOIL Help Me Save My LAST Surviving Plant!

600m

600m

New member
About ten days ago, this plant looked great, though the other three of the four plants I had are now dead. :sad-frown:

I can't figure this one out. The leaves, once dark green and perky, are now starting to fade and droop, though the worst of the heat seems to be over with for a while...and the new leaves are not a wholesome green either. It looks as though the plant is trying to die from the bottom upward, as the other three did, I thought because of heat damage this one hasn't apparently sustained.

It looks kind of like low nitrogen to me, but I have given it fertilizer and it should have perked up by now. I'm stumped!

This is my LAST surviving plant and it looks like it might yet be salvageable...if I knew what was wrong.

HELP!
 

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Hi 600m. It looks as if the plant is over watered. However, that could also be a sign of nitrogen toxicity! Nitrogen toxicity mimics the symptoms of over watering AND nitrogen toxicity in that the leaves look clawed and the lower leaves yellow and fall off. Here is more info on how to correct it if that is the problem: http://www.growweedeasy.com/nitrogen-toxicity-cannabis
 
Howdy, my first thought was overwatering. Do you let the soil dry a bit between waters? Hopefully this one will pull through! 🌿
 
I'm 99.9% sure that it's not too much N for several reasons, starting with the timing of the problem, which came several weeks after the last light use of fertilizer. And it looks nothing like N poisoning anyway. The first symptom was faded new growth, then more fading of old growth. N poisoning pictures I've seen look more like everything gets so intensely green it dies. The problem more resembles an N deficiency, though I doubt it's that.

About overwatering, I'm unsure. If you look, you can see that the soil on top is mostly dried out, and I never water -- and not much then -- until I feel the soil is dry an inch or two down (as the how-to instructions here say). Still, maybe the water isn't draining out, though there are plenty of holes in the bottom. I will drill some large holes in the side of the pot and see if the soil feels wet if I grope around inside. I was more suspecting underwatering, if anything.

I had four absolutely beautiful plants...now I'm down to one dying in front of my eyes...and I have no idea what to do! :(
 
I feel your pain! I wish I had more helpful info but along with feeling the soil, lifting the pot is also important. When people told me that at first I figured I'd never be able to tell the difference but I really is very obvious when it's dry vs wet. Particularly helpful if you're growing outside and you get enough rain to dampen the top of the soil but not get down to the roots.

I have no first-hand experience with overwatering but when my plants are getting too dry, the leaves go limp -- no clawing like you have.

Have you checked the GWE symptom checker?

Good luck!
 
What are you using for soil? Did you check the roots of the ones that died? Anything funky going on in the roots? Is your water source OK? Most important, are you adjusting PH?
 
Yeah, I've looked at the symptom/picture page about a hundred times, but it's inconclusive to me. To the extent it resembles any of this, it resembles several. The pictures and explanations for overwatering and underwatering are almost identical.

The distinct symptom that some expert should recognize is the paleness (not yellow) of the new growth. I don't see that in the symptom pictures. This happened to this plant a couple of months back and a dose of fertilizer brought it around. It hasn't this time.

I've checked the water pH and it's fine. Checking the soil pH is much more difficult.

As far as I could tell, the ones that have already died had roots that looked OK. They were in smaller pots, so I could just pick them up and feel when they were getting "light" and needed watering. Though they were heat damaged, they died in the same way as this one is trying to do, so maybe it wasn't the heat/wind damage that actually killed them, but the same thing that's killing this one.

It doesn't rain here at all (0) for about seven months out of the year, so I have to manually water. I do this sparingly, and I've thought that perhaps there's some accumulation of something in the soil that has become toxic because it hasn't been washed out -- but the soil is so moisture-retentive that very little comes out at the bottom of the pot and I've been afraid of getting root rot by doing this.

Soil is a recommended mix of organic planting soil with chicken manure and better-quality potting soil. For the first few months, this worked perfectly, given a little 15-15-15 generic fertilizer (also according to grow page here). The plants were absolutely perfect.
 
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I just went out to move it and jammed my hand down into the dirt about 5". It was neither overwatered or underwatered as far as I could tell, just damp enough to notice and for the soil to cling to my hand. My understanding is that this is about the level of watering you try to get, and also indicates that the soil isn't badly impacted.

But it looks to me like this plant is going to be stone dead by Monday if we don't come up with an answer. It's visibly fading.
 
It isn't rootbound and I have two more of these crappy, oversized pots I didn't use, so it seems like I could take this out of the existing pot, roll (and perhaps wash) as much existing soil off the rootball as I could and then repot it in a new pot with fresh planting mix.

That seems almost certain to kill it from shock, but if no one comes up with a better solution, I think I'm going to have to try something like that. :(
 
I think you should try it in FF Ocean Forest or Roots Organic, or some other hydro shop soil with perlite for drainage. Clean up the root ball and give it a shot. If something in the roots is killing it, it's probably you're only shot.
 
Mr.furley said:
What is the PH of your runoff water?
Click to expand...

There's never been enough to really measure. It also just occurred to me that I didn't order litmus paper back when I thought I did some weeks ago.

The soil mix soaks up and retains the water so much that there's no immediate runoff. Unless I really dangerously overwater, there's nothing coming out the bottom for a long time, and not much then. It's like watering a bucket full of cellulose sponges. Seriously.

This has been a concern of mine from the start, but there's never been any problem so far...though I suspect (based on nothing but intuition) some sort of undiagnosed cumulative toxicity is behind the current problem.
 
If it's already dying on it's own, it might be all that you really can do. It will likely shock the plant but then again, if it's going to die like it sits that might be the only way. I wish you the very best of luck with it either way! I have lost quite a few plants in my day due to a number of things so I feel your pain. :(
 
If I bite the bullet and re-pot this thing, should I use the B1/Boron stuff to reduce transplant shock?
 
I would look at testing some runoff even if it's a little bit. You my have a problem at your root zone with the PH which is causing a nutrient lockout.
 
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