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Bad nutrient burn in organic soil.

Biohpilic

Member
Hi guys,

I usually get away with searching in these forums for what I need but this time I would really benefit from the experience and advice from some of the most advanced growers in here.

The thing is, I popped an OG Kush and a Moby Dick about two months ago, and the MD is now burned pretty bad. I used perlite, sphagnum, and hummus as a base soil, and added to that organic fertilizer for tomatoes, seaweed extract, lime, two different types of guano and some granite sand I found which I thought could be a good substitute for rock dust. I made the MD's soil just a little hotter because I thought since it has a slightly longer flowering period it would benefit from the extra nutes. At first the MD grew like a monster, considerably faster than the OG but then the tips started to burn and when we flipped to 12/12 about a week ago it started to get very bad. A couple of days ago we took off the scrog net we had installed a couple of weeks back (which was a huge PITA, but not impossible) and flushed the shit out of the MD, but since it's gotten worse I'm guessing that flushing is not really that useful with slow release nutrients, which makes sense. So, my question is, knowing that I have already been growing these plants for more than two months, which of the following do you think is my best option?

-Keep them as they are, keep training them while they stretch and leave them alone when they cover the whole net, hoping that the MD survives and produces something (this is what I'm leaning towards)

-Revert back to veg, kill the MD and transplant the OG to a bigger pot (they are in 11L now) so that she can fill the whole cabinet (60cmx60cm or 2ftx2ft) by herself (I don't like the idea of waiting a month for them to revert back to veg and then add another month for the og to grow more, nor do I like the idea of killing the MD)

Either way, I took clones of both, which are hopefully rooting right now (first time I take clones and all I used was aloe vera and seaweed extract as the rooting comoound) and my plan is to take a few more during flowering to give monster cropping a try. Anyway I'll be making bonsai moms and doing SOG for the next run so I'm not that worried about production right now but it's just so sad to see these beautiful ladies suffer so much.

Thanks in advance for the help, and I'll try to post pictures as soon as I can. Oh and by the way I'm writing this from a mobile phone so sorry if it's full of mistakes.
 

VerdantGreen

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at first glance, what seems odd is that the plant grew well to start with and then started getting burnt, usually this would start to happen pretty much right away, unless the soil was very badly mixed.
what are you using to water? could there be chloramine in the water?
 

Biohpilic

Member
It wasn't badly mixed, I put a little more nutrients on the lower third of the pot, supersoil style, for her to have enough during flowering. And for the water I use plain tap water, I let it sit for at least 24h with some molasses because organic matter is supposed to break chloramine and let the chlorine evaporate (correct me if I'm wrong)
 

VerdantGreen

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right, so i guess that could explain the delay in burning. i have heard the same about chloramine but it doesnt get used in the UK so never tried that

not sure what to recommend, it may sort itself out after a while, keep in mind that the stronger the light a plant recieves, the more nutrients it can use - so putting it in the best light possible may help.

VG
 

Biohpilic

Member
I already turned the light around so that she has the hps right over her. Also, temps were a littlw too low yesterday so I disconnected the intake fun just in case. Do you think that supplementing a little bit of CO2 might help too? I can set up a few gallons with yeast and sugar to fermentate and close the ventilating system so that it refrigerates the light without depleting the cabinet of CO2. So you really think it might eventually recover?

By the way verdantgreem it's so cool that you are helping me out. As you might have realized I think we have a very similar setup (60cmx60cm closet with 250hid), and in the past few months I've lurked around so many of your threads, you are a huge source of inspiration and have already been really helpful! I might even try the modular scrog thing someday, although right now the sog is more appealing.
 

Biohpilic

Member
Hey hh, as far as I know, by letting it sit for 24h the chlorine will evaporate, but if your local tap water has chloramine in it it won't evaporate just by leaving it in open air. You need to mix it first with some kind of organic matter for the chloramine molecules to break down, I guess that's the reason why they use it wverywhere now, because it won't evaporate as easily
 

TedNugget

Member
Instead of moving your light closer, I would actually recommend the opposite - move the light further away. Sometimes more intense light just makes problems worse. I just had a very similar issue. New flowering plant starting to nutrient burn from super soil mix. I raised my light and watered with plain water with cal/mag (I also upped the co2 level as well) and the plant has since gotten better and I was able to lower my light again.
 

Biohpilic

Member
The plant has already gone through a huge shock from the nutrient burn and it has a lot of burnt/dead foliage, so I don't think depriving her of light even further would be the right thing to do, but you might be right. Do you guys think I should take away the fucked up leaves? I think it would be good for the foliage underneath, which still has a pretty decent dark green color to it, to get more light, but I'm afraid that the soil will keep burning the plant and instead of burning leafs that are already dying, if I take them out the healthy ones will suffer
 

TedNugget

Member
Leaving the damaged leaves in will in no way prevent other leaves from nutrient burn. You have to watch the new growth to see if it is still nute burned. If those burned leaves are so damaged that they are not helping the plants processes anymore then remove them if you want. Whether you remove them or not, it will make no differnece in whether or not the new growth is nutrient burned... And I'm not suggesting leaving the light further away the whole time, just until the plant comes out of the shock and recovers. It made a big difference for me, but every scenario is different...
 
C

ct guy2

I've never been a fan of the supersoil layer method. No such practice exists in commercial horticulture that I'm aware of. I know it's not much help now, but I would recommend mixing the soil homogeneously next time as it makes it easier to deal with issues like this right from the start.

Can you post some photos? One thing that may be useful is that silicone has been shown to help mitigate micronutrient toxicities in plants by helping spread the nutrient evenly throughout the leaf tissue. Could be worth a try.
 

vostok

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Avoid Moss, and anything else that will 'hold' water as it will hold nutes too, if in doubt always add 20% river sand or perlite if you can, just to dilute these hot effects
 

VerdantGreen

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yes i would move the dead leaves, some CO2 might help. nice to hear my grows have helped you :)


Hey Verdant. Is letting your water sit for a few days a good way to deal with chloramine?

yeah microbeman says that a bit of organic matter mixed in, compost /ewc/molasses will neutralise the chloramine

VG
 

Mikell

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Peeetchurs. 10 +/- weeks in a 2.5 gallon pot, if I read that correctly? Some idea of the level of added nutrients (beyond base soil) would be helpful as well.
 

Microbeman

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Some good points given. It sounds like the nutrients layered lower in the media was the problem. I suggest what was said about a more homogenous mix next go around.

I'm more a fan of topdressing if nutrients are required. It is easier to add to than subtract from.

Personally, I usually remove damaged leaves which are contributing nothing to the plant.

Nothing wrong with using peatmoss as one person suggested.
 

VerdantGreen

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o can see the pic in the post above (you have to copy and paste the IMG link). you cant completely delete posts but can edit them down to a .

looks pretty bad i must say... i think if it was me i'd ditch the plants and start again.. but then i have lots of weed to smoke so wouldnt go without!

VG
 

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