Strange brown spots, limited to lower leaves only

[Dr Herbivore]

What STRAIN are you growing?
Green house cheese
What was the establishing technique? (seed or clone?)
seed
What is the age of your plants?
26-27 Days
How Tall are the plants?
4-5 inches
What PHASE (seedling, vegetative or flower) are the plants in?
Veg/Seedling
What Technique are you using? (SOG, SCROG etc)
scrog/lst eventually
What size pots are you using? (Include how many subjects to pot)
2.5 gallon pot (rather large
What substrate/medium are you using? What brand of soil mixture are you using?(percentage of perlite, vermiculite...etc?)
30%perlite/potting mix/vermiculite 10%
What Nutrient's are you using?How much of each with how much water? How Often? *Knowing the brand is very helpful*
Fish Emulsion 5-1-1, 1 tbs per gallon, every 6 days (every other watering but have ceased)
What is the TDS/EC/PPM of your nutrients used?
5-1-1 fish emulsion/ 2-3-1 neptunes harvest for flower (not yet)
What is the pH of the "RUN-OFF"?
not testeed
What method of pH test was administered? Using Strips? pH pen?
rapitest soil/water capsules
How often are you watering?
every 3 days
When was your last feeding and how often are you feeding?

What size bulb are you using?
132w daylight and a 42w red/warm white
What is the distance to the canopy?
2-4 inches daylight, the 42 is about 2.5 inches
What is your RH Factor? (Relative Humidity)
30-60%
What is the canopy temperature?
67-81 average 74-76
What is the Day/Night Temp? (Include fluctuation range)
^ above
What is the current Air Flow? (cfm etc.)
120mm for intake and 120mm for exhaust
Is the fan blowing directly at plants?
yes
Is the grow substrate constantly wet or moist?
yes misted 4 times daily for added moisture inside rubbermaid
Is your water HARD or SOFT?
? 6.5 ph
What water are you using? Reverse Osmosis (RO)? Tap? Bottled? Well water? Distilled? Mineral Water?
poland spring water
Has plant been recently pruned, cloned or pinched?
nope
Have any pest chemicals been used? If so what and when?
no
Are plant's infected with pest's?
no

Hey everyone im growing green house cheese in a rubbermaid setup, I have noticed Strange brown spots, which is limited to the lowest leaves. This is a shot from 10 minutes prior to posting of the infected areas. Any help is appriciated, i visited stich's sticky and posted my own thread here with his survey.




these are also what the plant looks like on the whole:

 

[whatsthatsmell]

I cant zoom into the pics all that much with my cell phone browser, but it looks like mold on the one photo, being that you are close to the 30 day mark, personally i would start upping the nutes a little at a time. Your temps and humidity seem to be correct, but something is wrong, i would double check that again. Other than that i think they are doing alright.

Hope that helps.

 

[Bozo]

Looks like the begining of a magnesium problem caused by ph

Also your fish emulsion may not have the needed magnesium and when mixxed with your spring water it could be creating a deffiency
A cheap ph pen would help alot so you can read the run off
I would try using your tap water if its hard enough there will be enough magnesium to correct the problem for now but you will need to supplement as your plant gets bigger and needs more
Also should concider some different ferts if its Alaska fish emulsion 5-1-1 it lacks what you need for a complete diet and is not organic anyway(full of heavy metals)

 

[Dr Herbivore]

i do have epsom salt to supplement for the magnesium, or i could use tap water. do i still need to leave it out for 24 hrs before i use it, or should i use it right away straight from the tap to get the MG? thank you, you've been very helpful.


what else would you recommend for veg fertilizers

 

[Dr Herbivore]

I also have blackstrap unsulphered molasses, and i thought that is a good source of calcium, iron, and magnesium....could i use that in the water to help? anyone have a good opinion on this?

 

[Bozo]

yes it is best to let tap water sit 24 hours for chlorine to gas off
yes the black strap is good stuff I use carbo load so research doseage
I like botanicares PBP its mostly organic grows tastey herb and I have had no trouble with it.i have many grows start to finish with PBP and have no qualms about saying its good stuff (make sure you get the soil formula for flower it has higher PK than the hydro flower formula )

Now back to your biggerst problem i see PH PH PH what is it going in? If you are gonna do this right I would really invest in a ph meter .Decent diet and ph of 6.0 in 6.0 out =no more spots

that one spot does kinda look like mold misting 4 times a day seems exessive I never spray water on my plants unless its a neem fungiside bath that wouldnt hurt you just incase that is a spot of mold

Dont panic those are ph spots fix the ph then see what you need next

 

[MynameStitch]

Your problem is simple, the purpling on the leaves coming out, your temps are too cold at night, your temps should not go under 72 F.

Bring the temps up, colder temps the plant stops eating and drinking as much and slows growth.

As for the spotting, don't worry about that right now, first fix the temps and the spotting should be fixed right along with it, if not then you have another problem that is not caused by temprature, but will be caused by pH. Since you have not tested the pH I would suggest doing so after the plant's purpling goes away.

Do you know how to test the pH?

 

[Dr Herbivore]

The night temps are pretty low. I have tested the PH, and I use the rapidtest that you add a little soil to, and a amount of the water you normally use, and a capsule to dissolve into the mixture. It read around 6.5-7 by the color...but Im going to invest in a digital PH pen...is the rapitest brand a good one to choose? Also should i disconnect my intake/exhaust to let the temperatures rise? The room the maid is in stays between 68-75 at all times...so maybe its the dual 120mm fans for exhaust/intake that are cooling things down. The main stem is green, but the side branches are purple like you said...so night temps are our issue first. Is there a way to fix the PH without having to amend the soil? such as a flush, or use of certain ingredients? thanks for taking your time stitch, i will take care of the temperatures promptly....my little trainwreck seedling has sprouted also

 

[MynameStitch]

Those are not accurate at all, you should either use a digital pH pen, or pH test strips that have a good pH range on the bottle.

Stay away from the rpitest brand too, those do not work period, they always tell you your pH is 7 or very near it.

You want temps up so the plant will start eating better and taking nutrients from the soil, temps is not the way to fix the pH, first I would get something else to test the pH first.

What potting mixture are you using? Brand? Is is soil or soiless mixture? Both have different pH range needs.

 

[Dr Herbivore]

I'm using a blend of 30% perlite and hyponex potting soil, amended with a bag of seed starter which is very light and airy (30%verm30%perlite40%peat) soil was decent, or so i thought. So youre saying that the digital PH pen from rapitest is no good to buy? Any brand reccomendations? The temps have been higher around 70 at night last night. Been around 78-84 during light hours running 20/4.
The plant has progressed very much in the past two days, and the odd spots are staying on the lower leaves. The little mini leaves you see in the center are now a very nice size, ill post more pics soon and go after a nice PH meter per your reccomendation. thanks for all the help

 

[MynameStitch]

Rapitest does not make a digital one, they make a one with numbers on it 0- 10 I think.....
It almost always stays in the middle. The one you are talking about is the little probe and has a wire going to it from the meter right?
Tests soil pH?
Spring water may not have a lot of nutrients in it.... I would mix it with your tap water a bit, 50/50.\

For the size of your plants, do not let them drop below 72 F keep them above that and you will be alright, and no higher than 84F

 

[Dr Herbivore]

Thanks man, the one i'm talking about has the rod with the wire that tests the soil PH, yes. Its like 15 dollars at home despot. I turned up the heat in the room where it is located, but it was still around 65 when i looked at it right when the lights came on, so I need to work on the heat...besides home heating are there other solutions i should think about? Like turning off one of my fans, or a mini heater? Also what brand is the best for digital Ph testing? what one do you personally use? thanks for your help!

 

[HeadyPete]

btw, someone mentioned magnesium deficiency causing the spotting and that is incorrect. If it is a def, it would be calcium, not magnesium, and epsom salts will do you no good.

Mag def causes light green fading leaves with dark green veins and it is textbook to diagnose.

If you need calcium, CalMag is the easiest, 5ml/4L once a month or so, depending on your strains. Some need more than others. Lime in your soil will also provide calcium,

The first thing is ph. If it is not correct then adding anything will not help.

 

[MynameStitch]

Yup, I agree with petey, never ever seen magneisum cause spotting, it's always got green veins in the leaves.

As for the tester you are talking about, yes that is the one I am referring too, ditch it!
Ya, those temps are too low, that is why it's purpling, pH may be a cause, if not then calcium may be the problem, but like petey has said, first pH before you can do anything.

There are many different pH testers on the market, it's personal preference really...... I really like hanna pens, there extra diodes you can order are pretty damn accurate, the ones they come with are, but margial error, but the error is not really bad enough to cause any problems and are good pens to use, there is also oakton and brands that self calbrate with one touch button.

You need to order solution when you get a pen, most of the time they come with some small bottles so you can calbrate it for the first time, but I would never recommend using it more than once, risk of contamination increases too much.

Each bottle has different pH ranges, for self calibrating ones you have like one bottle and you put it in there and push a button. With the ones that don't, you have 2 pins on them that let you adjust while it is sitting in the solution and you turn it to what pH the pen is in the solution, so if the pen is in 4.1 pH, you keep the pen in there and twist the little pin until the meter reads 4.1. SOmetimes you have to leave them in the soliution for 2 hours, and you have to recalbrate every 2 weeks max.

 

[Bozo]

I was looking at the yellowing leave edge .I call those little brown spots ph spots sry if I confused you in anyway they are probably a cal def like pete said.I should have just said I thought you needed to check your PH as not to confuse the issue .here is a link to a cheap ph pen they work great till you drop em in water there not waterproof like the nicer ones hanna makes


http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-Hanna-Check...8760790QQihZ021QQcategoryZ42291QQcmdZViewItem

I had 2 of these you will need to get the 7.0 and 4.0 buffer solution to keep them callibrated but they were great till i dropped whole unit in water .This guy has the better metters if your budget allows .cleaning and storage solution are also recomended Your in good hands here just wanted to link ya the ph meter GL