Just noticed a change in color on most of the tops...

[NorCalRx]

The tips of the leaves started browning after the stretch finished and the yellowing tops happened last night. I recently flushed so I'm thinking its either a deficiency or ph problem or both. My ph has been closer to 7 when it should be closer to 5. I will try to keep my nutrient mixture at 5.5/6


Distilled Water
Cal-Mag
Liquid Karma
PBP Bloom
Guano
Sweet
H202
O2 pumped in 1Gal Jug for 30-60 min

 

[SDBX2]

I'm guessing but looks like a deficiency based on your ph information.

Also - do you have the lights too close?

 

[NorCalRx]

The light was too close yeah. Will yellowing occur like that from the light? These ladies faked me out stopped stretching then a few days later decided to go a couple more inches. Its an aircooled hood so the temps have been 68-78. Is it bad for the temps to be cooler while the lights are on as opposed to when theyre off? This is a tropical south african landrace sativa crossed with skunk.

PS
None of the nutes I'm using will conflict right? I just mix my measurements into a single gallon of water and run the air pump in it for a while. Would I need to divide up my supplements and core nutes into different waterings? Before this recent flush I have been constantly feeding them every watering. I'm using coco soiless mix.

 

[MTF-Sandman]

Looks like nute lockout of micros to me...possibly from PH. What's your medium (if soil list amendments), PPM, and how much of what nutes?

I'd ditch the H2O2 from your mix unless you have to use it for root rot...it'll kill the beneficial microbes from the organic nutes.

 

[Rosy Cheeks]

As the Sandman said, your ph could be the problem. A low ph in hydro is simply a precaution against root rot, especially in summer grows when rez temps tend to go high. Plants will not feed better at ph 5, on the contrary it is slightly too acid and you'd do better to fix it around ph 6, if you can get away with it.
The H2O2 is a good phytium protection, but it kills just about everything in your tank. I concider it a good remedy against certain problems, but perhaps a bit radical as a preventive protection on a continuous basis.
I don't think your problems come from any of this though. You say you recently flushed, from what you described it sounds like an overfert. If so, it means that your plant's natural defenses first were weakened by overfert, and now they're once again weakened by the flush (when you flush, the plants miss out on all essential substances), which means your plants are really fragile. That's normally when all kinds of problems turn up, because the plants can't deal with what they normally deal with. Margins for error in terms of nutrient concentration, ph and likewise diminish drastically. It fools you to believe that further action needs to be taken to deal with the problems, while in fact what the plants need is a stable environment in order to recuperate. I believe you should feed them weak nutrients, and stay in the safety zone on all points; no shock therapies. I could be totally wrong or totally right on this one though.

 

[MynameStitch]

i agree with sandman, but one thing i do want to know is are you growing in soil?

it looks to me you have a few problems here, are you hydro or soil?

it looks to me you have a buildup of salts, you got some micronutrient problems like sulphur

not to mention distiled water lacks some of the micros the plant needs that it doesnt sometimes get with the nutrient mixture people use on there plants

i wouldnt use distilled water or bottled water that has sodium, i would get RO water or tap water

as long as the tap water isnt from a water softner your fine,
if you use RO water you need to suppliment with calcium magniseum

but in this case you had a potassium problem, those brown edges is whats left over after a potassium deficiency once its been corrected the brown edges will turn the way they are and stay that way,

so the problems you got now are micronute problems and a buildup of salts

and how much of each of the nutrients are you using? and how often do you water?

also did you wash out that coco really good before using it? coco contains lots of salts depending on who or what brand it is, even if they wash it, its always good to wash it before using it because left over salts do stay with it

but i think you may be causing a buildup of nutrients and salts are left over

and i would ditch the cal mag and use some other water like tap water

if you use RO stay with the cal mag

 

[NorCalRx]

Ok I think I will ditch the distilled water. Can I just switch to arrowhead mountain spring water? I really like using the 1 gallon jugs. I purchased Bcuzz Coco soiless mix and threw in some leftover botanicare readygro and some extra perlite at the bottom. I didnt rinse the soil and regret doing so!

I started using Veg nutes (2tbsp) then slowly phased in bloom (1tbsp) while phasing out veg (1tbsp) for first week of flower then added in the liquid karma (1tbsp) and air pump and h202 (1tsp) I had a feeling when i was pouring the h202 into my water i was killing everything!!! I added the sweet, guano, and cal-mag about a week ago. click my signature for a more precise timeline.

I was watering daily sometimes skipping when the soil didnt dry out and I never changed my nutrient levels. I'm fairly certain my PH never went above 7 and never under 5. This was the first time I flushed and it wasnt a true flush it was just a severely low dose of food. It was also the first time I let them dry out more and then I added 3 gallons of low nute solution to the pots (normally all the pots would share only a gallon!). I had been watering incorrectly for a long time and what I think might have happened now that Stich pointed this out was salt buildups. I believe since my soil wasnt soaking completely it created a dry salty zone that the roots are just starting to explore now that the area is getting drenched. Any more comments and suggestions welcome.

 

[Rosy Cheeks]

Okay, let's go through this again. One question; you say you're using Bcuzz coco soilless mix with perlite and Botanicare readygro at the bottom, but further down in your post you refer to "soil" a couple of times.
Which one is it; coco, soil or both? It does make a difference.

Secondly, about coco and salt build-ups. Some types of coco coir are very high in sodium (salt) due to the nature of Coconut Palms growing close to the sea and being processed in the salt air. This is generally not the case with high quality coco choir used as growing medium though, nutrient manufacturers (such as Bcuzz) choose low-salt coco fibre or even pre-wash it to avoid this problem. Think about it, coco would be useless as a grow medium if the sodium content caused these kind of problems. They very rarely do.

Neither should there be any salt build-ups from Pure Blend Pro, which is a close to 100% organic nutrient. Salt build-ups come from refined mineral or salt-based nutrients (AKA chemical or synthetic nutrients). With time, non-consumed salts have a tendency to accumulate in certain mediums.

The cal/mag is a salt-based product, but I don't believe in salt build-ups from that. So where did the salts come from?

The ph shouldn't be a problem if you're using coco/soil and keeping the nutrient solution wandering between ph 5 and 7.

The distilled water shouldn't be a problem while using complete nutrients plus cal/mag additive.

Growing in coco/perlite can cause CEC problems; take a look at this post I wrote the othe day on the subject:
http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?p=591137#post591137

I hope this didn't confuse you further.

 

[MynameStitch]

how often are you using each nutrient? every time you feed? ive seen alot of peopleuse distilled and have problems, theres just not alot of nutrients in s distiled its completely ridden of magniseum calicum and other elements in water. for this plants ned small amounts of them and get suppliment from water and when its not there they get deficient when the nutrients they are using isnt 100% complete

this is one reason why i tell people to not use it when they are having problems with there grow,

spring water will be fine to use as lonjg as it doesnt have taste additives like sodium in it.

 

[NorCalRx]

Yeah I'm stumped... it definetly cant be overferting because I dont use enough to have that happen (unless my improper watering was causing some sort of buildup) and rosey cheeks im using pure soiless blends nothing soil sorry i mention soil cuz anything "dirt like" i call soil lol. but anyways i stopped using that peroxide maybe the liquid karma will start taking effect....

One good thing is that I noticed the green start to return to the tops from the inside making its way toward the tips. Hopefully they will continue their recovery on their own... I think my recent change in watering (quenching the whole pot) is helping along with lifting the light a couple inches. Here's pics when I took some out of the cab... (day 26 flower)










some dying undergrowth...

 

[Rosy Cheeks]

One good thing is that I noticed the green start to return to the tops from the inside making its way toward the tips. Hopefully they will continue their recovery on their own...

If healthy shoots are coming through, then you're on the right track NorCalRx. I don't think you've got an overfert problem either. I think I'll just stick to what I said in my first post. You had an overfert problem, you flushed, and these two things got your plants out of synch for a while.

What you must know is that coco does not treat your plants in the same way as soil. It is organic, but that's where the similarities stop. It's more of an inert medium, it breathes better but absorbs less water and nutrients. The cation-exchange-capacity (CEC) is lower than in mediums such as high-quality soil and peat moss. Cations are positively charged ions, such as Calcium, Magnesium, Sodium, and Potassium. This means that the growing media will hold these ions in a matrix, releasing them as required by plants. There is one slight drawback to this. Until the cation exchange capacity of the growing media is filled, the growing media may hold positively charged nutrient ions, most notably calcium, in reserve, making them less available to plants. If you want good scientific info on how coco coir works as a grow medium, download this pdf-file from Utah State University:

http://www.usu.edu/cpl/PDF/CoconutCoirPaper.pdf

What can be read from this is that, as long as you use coco coir as a less than 50% addition to another medium with better CEC capacity (like soil), it works fine, but when coco coir becomes the dominant medium (50% +) you rely on it's less-than-soil capacity to distribute nutrients to the plants, and when coco coir is mixed with totally inert mediums such as perlite (0 CEC), then you may experience nutrient uptake problems in your grow, especially if the plants are close to saturating the medium ( becoming root bound). This will appear as deficiency signs and fool the inexperienced grower into thinking that the plants are not getting enough of something, while in fact the problem is in the medium.

What happened when you flushed was that you deprived your plants almost entirely of nutrients, no wonder they looked bad. They can't live on love and water only.
Next time around, unless you're using a drip-system where the plants are in regular contact with the nutrient solution, try mixing the coco with soil, peat moss or some other better absorbing medium, for better nutrient uptake.

The dying undergrowth is nothing to worry about. Since you're running a 400w bulb and your plants are getting tall, the lower growth is not getting enough light. Your plants therefore supress the lower growth for the benefit of the top growth.

 

[NorCalRx]

BEFORE

AFTER

 

[Herbsman_OS]

Yellowing like that usually means that there's a nitrogen deficiency. Nitrogen helps the plant grow. It's normal to have yellowing from the bottom up, but whenever you notice the yellowing starting from the top, you know something's going on.

It also looks like your plant may have been burned from the light being too close as well.
When a plant has been too close to the light, it can and will stunt its growth.

--Herbsman_OS

 

[Guest]

perhaps ph

 

[Azra3l]

BEFORE

AFTER

Ouchh,

It really looks like a sulfur deficiency to me...
Just my 2 cents


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