Spots on leaves and lower ones dying

[Mr GreenJeans]

muscldancr
I'd stay away from the baking soda - the sodium will not be good for the plants. You could try 1 tablespoon dolomite lime in water, mix well and water in. More radical than that I wouldn't do at this point.

 

[muscldancr]

dolomite lime eh??? where can I get that? I've heard of a lot of people using it.

 

[Mr GreenJeans]

You should be able to find it in any hardware store that has a garden area. Lots of uses for it in the garden. Around here every hardware store, home depot, garden center has it.

Cheers!

 

[muscldancr]

I just took some soil and added some tap water to it and placed a pH strip in it. The color of the initial strip was yellow and it turned a little green, which I'm assuming means the soil is just slightly below a pH of 7 but since I'm using strips I have no exact measurement.

I bought some Organic Traditions Garden Lime in pellet form (on the back of the bag it says its dolomitic limestone). How much should I add to my soil , or should I add it to my next watering???

I have my plants in a 2.5 Gallon pot (I think) and have been giving my girl about 2 L of water regularly.

EDIT: Nvrmind bout all that , I'll try crushing up a 1/2tablespoon of that mix i bought and add it to 2 L of water..... I'll take some before and after pics too

 

[sproutco]

^^ If your ph is close to 7 (chart comes with the strips), you would not want to add dolomite lime because your ph would go up above 7. You want ph 6 in soilless mixes. After mixing your fertilizer water you would adjust the ph with an acid or base. You can use these: http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=31294&highlight=sulfuric+acid Try to dilutely feed your plants with every watering. Your soil ph will follow the ph of the liquid you apply.

 

[muscldancr]

pics taken with my camera phone:






Please help, I don't like having my girl sick!

 

[Mr GreenJeans]

muscldancr - would you mind testing the soil again? Check the pH of the water before putting the soil in - adjust to about 7, then to 2-3 oz of water add a tablespoon soil. Stir it up and let it sit for 10 minutes or so, then pour off some water and check pH. Does it match what the results you had before?

I agree with Sproutco - unless your medium is acidic, adding dolomite lime won't help. In these situations the only thing I can think of is a 3 x volume flush followed by 1/2-3/4 str nutes pHed to where you want, and see how they do in a week.

Cheers

 

[sproutco]

I created this thread with you in mind about testing ph. http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?p=533143#post533143
Your pot is too big for the size plant = You may be overwatering.

 

[MTF-Sandman]

Looks like nute burn from an OD of N (and possibly other elements) to me...from the clawing of the leaves and the extremely dark green newer growth.

 

[muscldancr]

I took a soil sample and will take it to my lab to analyze with a more accurate pH tester in a little bit. In terms of my pot size versus plant...... I had it in a 2L container about a month ago and didn't want the plant to get rootbound so I transplanted to a bigger pot i think its a 2.5 L container. But overwatering I don't think would cause the plants to have brown and yellow leaves.... that's usually a sign of nute burn I thought.

 

[Mr GreenJeans]

^^^ unless watered to the point of root rot - roots damaged by rot show similar symptoms to roots damaged by salts / pH.

 

[muscldancr]

I just took a pH reading and its 6.43 I guess I'll just refrain from watering for a few days then recheck the pH....

 

[sproutco]

I just wanted to let everyone know that I told him his ph is a little high. You want to test the soil everytime with same level of moisture. Letting the soil dry and retest will give you a different reading. Using the pour through method is easy to test ph. You have to have the soil thoroughly wet before testing. http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?p=534400#post534400

 

[Mr GreenJeans]

sproutco. I do this most every watering in flower to see where the soil is pH and EC wise - hate having the plants surprise me.....

Kudos for your patience on teachin soil testing....

 

[muscldancr]

I checked my pH again today and it was up to 6.7, so I added 10 drops of sulfuric acid to 1.5 L of water and 1/4 teaspoon of Bloom Boost (10-50-10) to hopefully bring my pH back down. Does this sound ok? My plants dont seem to have gotten any worse in the past few days since adding the lime and checking the pH, but they don't seem significantly better.... the budsites are looking perfect but the fan leaves are still looking like claws and are mostly brown and dead looking....

 

[Mr GreenJeans]

Yeah, the old leaves are not going to win any beauty contests - once they get kissed by the ugly stick.... But the viable areas of these older leaves should green up nicely and still do their photosynthetic thang, the curl may lessen some but won't go away on these older leaves. The newer leaves will look good if things are fixed and should be your new standard to compare for plant health.

I'd take it easy on the sulfuric acid now and give them a week. In soil things usually take 5-10 days ( depending ) to see correction of nute problems, not waiting can sometimes lead to see-sawing to the other side of things...

IMO as long as the soil is pH 6-7 watering with correct pH water should work fine - the soil pH will drift up some as they dry.

 

[muscldancr]

wow guys..... most of the fan leaves have fallen off and it looks like the yellowing is starting to progress on the leaves closest to the budsites now... I'm on day 42 on a 60 day strain (el nino)... and I'm getting kinda worried....

 

[muscldancr]

I was thinking about adding some HNO3 and H2SO4 to some water and adding some urine today lol...