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HELP! Yellow leaves pointing to possible manganese deficiency. How would I remedy?

LunarsDankCage

New member
Hello Growers!

This is my first ever grow. I started out by raising 2 seedlings sourced from a friend's 4-year-old seedy weed and I have no genetic information on it other than it being something Indica-dominant, and it's a photoperiod. It could be ditch weed for all I know! But, going by the size of the seedy nugs, I'm hoping it's something interesting. Both were raised in my hydroponics station, then were transplanted to soil in 2 gallon cloth pots, then about a month ago transplanted to 5 gallon cloth pots. Sadly, One turned out to be male, so I no longer have him.

My female however is on week 2 of the flowering stage and I am starting to notice moderate yellowing of the lower leaves with brown spots mainly in the middle. some of the older fan leaves in the middle are just starting to show signs too. Going by the plant problem list it looks closest to either a manganese or calcium deficiency. Could it be a pH issue? Both plants have always had some sort of yellowing that would come and go as new foliage and branching would replace the dying leaves. I didn't think anything of it until now since my female needs to start focusing a lot of energy on the buds rather than new foliage.

I give her 1 gallon tap every evening (weather permitting). My tap water is stored outside in 1 gallon jugs, so any chlorine can burn off during the day. The pH of the tap is somewhere from 6-6.5.
every Saturday I feed her fox farm products going by their feeding ratio schedule. Grow Big, Big Bloom have been used weekly since transplanted to soil. (Tiger Bloom as well since buds have appeared)
thinking it might be a calcium deficiency, I topped the soil with a couple of teaspoons of lime. That was 2 days ago.
I have not done a soil runoff pH test.

The three pictures show 2 close-ups of bottom leaves (more yellow) and middle leaves (just starting to yellow). The last older picture shows both the male (left) and female (right) in the Dank Cage.
 

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Not a soil grower but i do grow in 5 gal pots of coco. I think your pH is a bit low for soil(soil growers can chime in). Since your getting towards flowering i would do a run off pH test to get her set up for the final stretch(correct any problems now before she starts budding) If it were mine, i would be adding cal/mag to every water. Im guessing the soil is loosing all of its goodness over time.
 
For sure will do a runoff pH test tonight. I do need to run out and get some mag later today too. Thank you for the pointers! I'll give an update when I get that runoff pH result.
 
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UPDATE: I did a runoff pH test and it's about a 6. I also did a quick test of the tap water straight from the faucet and it tests at around 8?? I wonder if having the jug sit in the sun outside lowers the pH?
 
Test the water after adding everything to it. Nutes typically bring pH down.

Runoff pH tests are not accurate nor should they be relied upon as an indication of the pH in the medium.

What are you using to measure the pH? There are a lot of pH testers on the market sold at hydro shops that belong in the trash.. Tap water pH should not vary from 6 to 8 which is what you are measuring. That doesn't sound right to me.
 
It really caught me off guard because I have tested the pH from the tap in my upstairs bath and it reads quite acidic. The liquid pH tester I am using is from a "General Hydroponics" testing kit that comes with pH up and down bottles. I did in fact get this at a local Hydro shop for my hydroponics station lol. Sadly it's the only thing I have to get any reading for pH. What do you recommend for a quality pH tool? Also, should I add some pH up along with my nutrient mix?
 
The Apera PH60 or Apera PC 60 if you don't have an EC meter.

They have a shop on Amazon. Get it from there with calibration fluid and storage fluid.

You will get perfect readings ever time if you look after it and calibrate it occasionally
 
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