I just put my photos into 12/12 lighting and now it looks like I’m having some potassium/zink deficiencies? They were looking great up till flowering. They have started to flower. I have yellowing/light green leaves towards the bottom and new bud sites and random leaves with brown tips as in the photo. Not as many of these as yellowing. I’ve been feeding the GH trip and calimag from GH. Growing 2 in coco/perlite and 2 in Pete/vermiculite (was trying to see which produces better results). All 4 plants have the same symptoms. I’m following the flood to drain feed charts from GH. Water 2 times with nutes then flush with ph balanced water and feed on the 3rd watering. Watering roughly every 4 days in 5 gallon fabric pots. They dry right out between watering. Balanced ph to 6.0-6.2.
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Nutrient Deficiency??
- Thread starter Izzie1701
- Start date
crucialbunny
Well-known member
Without seeing the entire plant it is very difficult to say what's going on. Usually burnt tips indicate over feeding. Yellowing lower leaves during flower and bud could just mean the plants are entering the new phase and they don't need the older sun leaves anymore. Again, without an overall picture of the plants, everything I say is conjecture.
TOKABIGONE
New member
Hi Izzie, I haven'y done peat but have experienced this when my coco pH was 6.0 to 6.5. Had to reduce to 5.5 to 6.0 to clear up. Don't worry about being precise, it is actually better to have some variations in pH to allow uptake of diff nutes.
crucialbunny sorry these are the full plant pics. A little droopy as it’s watering day tonight and it’s hot today.
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DeadlyFruit
New member
TOKABIGONE Izzie1701 I grow with peat sometimes as it is easier to get where I am in Canada than coco. It actually works pretty well but you are correct that the pH needs watching a little more than coco. And agree with toka’s advice to let the pH wander it bit more and having a pH over 6 is a touch high. It might have been ok in veg but once in flower they are likely a bit more sensitive to prolonged high pH.
My other suggestion is less nutes than the GH instructions. Start at half and go up as your plants need it. The burned tips are usually over feeding nitrogen. Yellowing a few leaves in bloom is not uncommon. Sometimes yellowing can also be under feeding but it could also be that the slightly high pH has locked out some nutrients or given it is only slightly high perhaps it has just been a gradual reduction in certain nutes that need a lower pH. There is a chart somewhere on GWE that will give you the pH each nutrient needs to be absorbed by the plant.
My other suggestion is less nutes than the GH instructions. Start at half and go up as your plants need it. The burned tips are usually over feeding nitrogen. Yellowing a few leaves in bloom is not uncommon. Sometimes yellowing can also be under feeding but it could also be that the slightly high pH has locked out some nutrients or given it is only slightly high perhaps it has just been a gradual reduction in certain nutes that need a lower pH. There is a chart somewhere on GWE that will give you the pH each nutrient needs to be absorbed by the plant.
DeadlyFruit home hardware carries it where I am now and a 5kg block is only $10.99. I was surprised they had it as I can’t find it anywhere else here in Saskatchewan.
I’m going to lower my ph to 5.5 and flush and start lower nutes. Save me on nutes too. I know my water here is very hard to do guessing I’m getting some nutrients from that as well and likely salts.
I’m going to lower my ph to 5.5 and flush and start lower nutes. Save me on nutes too. I know my water here is very hard to do guessing I’m getting some nutrients from that as well and likely salts.
DeadlyFruit
New member
Yay, another Canuck! We are taking over the world! (One polite apology at a time 🙂)
Did you mean home hardware carries coco or peat? Home hardware or home despot are usually where I get my peat in bales. Coco is rarely for sale in regular stores here in Ontario so I either have to get it at a grow shop or online, both of which are more expensive. I often just use peat if that is all I have when I am planting and it works fine. Mix in more perlite to lighten it a bit but it is generally pretty light to start with. Make sure to add cal-mag with most waterings the same way you do with coco and watch the pH (I find it a little more base than coco). I honestly don’t see a really noticeable difference between the two. I use coco when it is around mainly because that is what most people use and it allows me to better compare to what other people experience when we are comparing problems - it eliminates one factor.
Well/hard water can be pretty good for growing as it has all those other trace nutrients that the bottled nutes probably don’t have. Are you out in farming country or in a city? Just curious why you would have salts in your water - I am guessing you are in farming country and on a well? I think that is probably a good thing for your plants although you may want to check your ppm to see if your water is really hard. Perhaps you or a neighbour just fertilized a field nearby and some of the nutes ended up in your well water. If you don’t have one you can order a cheap pen type tester for EC/PPM and it will let you gauge roughly how much stuff is in it. Probably wouldn’t want to drink a lot of mineral salts but if you are stuck with it then it would be great payback if your neighbour's fertilizer is also feeding your weed plants!
Did you mean home hardware carries coco or peat? Home hardware or home despot are usually where I get my peat in bales. Coco is rarely for sale in regular stores here in Ontario so I either have to get it at a grow shop or online, both of which are more expensive. I often just use peat if that is all I have when I am planting and it works fine. Mix in more perlite to lighten it a bit but it is generally pretty light to start with. Make sure to add cal-mag with most waterings the same way you do with coco and watch the pH (I find it a little more base than coco). I honestly don’t see a really noticeable difference between the two. I use coco when it is around mainly because that is what most people use and it allows me to better compare to what other people experience when we are comparing problems - it eliminates one factor.
Well/hard water can be pretty good for growing as it has all those other trace nutrients that the bottled nutes probably don’t have. Are you out in farming country or in a city? Just curious why you would have salts in your water - I am guessing you are in farming country and on a well? I think that is probably a good thing for your plants although you may want to check your ppm to see if your water is really hard. Perhaps you or a neighbour just fertilized a field nearby and some of the nutes ended up in your well water. If you don’t have one you can order a cheap pen type tester for EC/PPM and it will let you gauge roughly how much stuff is in it. Probably wouldn’t want to drink a lot of mineral salts but if you are stuck with it then it would be great payback if your neighbour's fertilizer is also feeding your weed plants!
crucialbunny
Well-known member
I don't see anything to be alarmed about. They're doing a little flower stretch right now and often during that phase they give up some of the lower fan leaves. My suggestion would be to cut your nutrients to about half of what you're currently doing and trim up some of those lower fan leaves for better light penetration and air flow. I think they look fine and should begin to develop more bud sites soon.
Tersky
New member
I agree with crucialbunny in cutting the nutes. IMO i see the beginning of nitrogen tox because of the darkness and almost waxy look to your leaves. It's not horrible but can get out of control quick if not addressed.
DeadlyFruit they have bales of compressed coco now. Im in a small town and the local home hardware stocks it and you can order online with free delivery to your local store if you have one. It’s Plantbeat coconut coir. They have smaller bricks for the same price so make sure you get the right ones. Our local grow shop only carries bags of hydrated coco and it’s about $36/bag.
I’m out in a small town by a lake but out water comes from an aquifer. Well feeds a water tower they toss some chlorine in it a d we get it. My tap water is around 800ppm. Ph is around 8.2 out of the tap. Calcium bicarbonate, gypsum and calcium chloride (reason I think we have some salt) are all higher.
I’m out in a small town by a lake but out water comes from an aquifer. Well feeds a water tower they toss some chlorine in it a d we get it. My tap water is around 800ppm. Ph is around 8.2 out of the tap. Calcium bicarbonate, gypsum and calcium chloride (reason I think we have some salt) are all higher.
DeadlyFruit
New member
Oh that is cool, Izzie1701 I will have to go look at home hardware. One suggestion, double check that it is buffered or you will have even more salt. Usually it is buffered but not always, and in particular not when it is a compressed bale. That much salt can lead to lock out on other nutrients.
Wow, that is extremely high ppm in your parts and also a very high pH. Are you sure it is ppm and not mg/L? I did a quick search for the site I last used for this info ( https://www.aquatell.ca/pages/water-hardness-level-by-city-ontario city water in cities across Canada) and just realized they use mg/ml. Based on my own testing my tap water is about pH 7.2. My water after the nutrients are added has a ppm close to your water with no nutrients added which seems wild but mine comes out of the tap at I think about 130. According to the above site 800 ppm wouldn’t be fit for drinking (although I think they might be selling water products). If you hunt around you may be able to find a water analysis for your town showing the exact makeup of the water.
Wow, that is extremely high ppm in your parts and also a very high pH. Are you sure it is ppm and not mg/L? I did a quick search for the site I last used for this info ( https://www.aquatell.ca/pages/water-hardness-level-by-city-ontario city water in cities across Canada) and just realized they use mg/ml. Based on my own testing my tap water is about pH 7.2. My water after the nutrients are added has a ppm close to your water with no nutrients added which seems wild but mine comes out of the tap at I think about 130. According to the above site 800 ppm wouldn’t be fit for drinking (although I think they might be selling water products). If you hunt around you may be able to find a water analysis for your town showing the exact makeup of the water.
DeadlyFruit we actually just had a treatment plant installed as we were high in arsenic. Our water analysis is posted somewhere but I can’t find it now. I brew beer as well so needed it for that. I tested the tap water last night and we are down to a Ph of 7.6 now and about 660ppm. I flushed last night and think I was getting salt build up. EC going in was around 850 and coming out was 1350. I flushed with about 7g per pot to get the EC to about 900 coming out. I think I’m going to finish this grow using alfalfa and worm casting tea rather then general hydro nutes. Have a buddy here and that’s all he uses and has had great success.
DeadlyFruit
New member
Worm castings and that sort of thing are best if you are in live soil. Might not be best for a coco/peat grow because it doesn't have the microbes to break it down properly. There are others here that are far better than me for knowing about soils and nutrients but I’m not sure I would want to change your nutrients this late in the game. I think if it were me I would just dial back the GH nutrients a bit. I might also consider watering more often than every 3 or 4 days since you are in smallish fabric pots. It is honestly pretty hard to over water in a fabric pot, just make sure they are not sitting in the run off. I actually water mine every 1-2 days but I water more often than most with a little less liquid and I monitor them to be sure they start to dry a bit before I give them another drink. I use an 8 gallon pot. If you are worried about salts in your tap water can you set out a rain collection barrel or get some water from a nearby water source? I know some people here use rain water but not sure what your drought situation is right now.