Which deficiency am I experiencing?

[JustAnotherGrower]

Hey y'all, I'm having a deficiency that's affecting different strains to different degrees and I'm not sure what I'm looking at. Transplanted 4" pots of 70/30 coco perlite into 4 gallons of same media. Plants were kept in too small a pot for the size of them, but were healthy. Assumedly the media ec was high in the small container and when transplanted into a larger container with a much lower ec of 3.0, they lacked something. The plan currently is to stay the course with a 3.0 ec feed with little runoff to start stacking the media ec until I see improvement. Still curious as to what they're lacking as this hasn't happened before. Appreciate any input, thanks!

 

[troutman]

The 1st thing I check if plants have nutrient issues is the pH of runoff.
Nutrients aren't as available to plants if the pH is too high or too low.

 

[RobFromTX]

That definitely looks like a ph issue. What nutrients are you using? Growing in coco can be a real challenge. Ive read a lot of thread about it

 

[JustAnotherGrower]

I'm using Athena blended line and have not had runoff yet. During transplant I hydrated the coco with a 3.0 ec 5.8 ph solution and it took about a week before they needed anything. The roots were spreading out into the new media and that's when it began. Only topped off once so far with 1000 ml's each and will give a full feeding to runoff in the next couple of days when the media dries a little more.

 

[Creeperpark]

You are burning your plants with too high of an EC. If you are in coco use 1/2 the amount of nutrients and flush your plants with it to lower the EC.

 

[troutman]

Note: The pH going in isn't always the same going out.

So do test it there also.

 

[JustAnotherGrower]

Ok Thank you guys. Any idea what the plants are not getting/locked out of based on the photos? I will take a runoff reading on the next feeding and check that out.

 

[Three Berries]

When you do a run off use some nutes too or you will really shock the plant. I just started into flower and found out the pH was too high as I didn't really check in veg but once early. All above 7.4. on my third watering with 5.0 pH nutes, about half runs off. And I'm down to low 7.0s now. My issue was too much hard water.

So here's my RunOff testing flushing technique if you are interested.

Not bothering to see if it needs watered and using low ec water and nutes about a half a gallon for the 3 gallon container and I get a quart or so run off. I use flat bottom trays wider than the bucket, 14". Using a baster suck it up and measure pH of the last of it.

Then dry out the tray so no mineral build up happens. The synthetic micro fiber towels work good for this. The low pH water doesn't eat them up and they are pretty absorbent once they start sucking it up.

This is usually done at the beginning of the day. At the end I give them some K,Mg, Ca chloride at the stem base. Before they got really flowered out I would folair spray the K, Mg and Ca.

The low ec water doesn't carry much pH ing weight if you will, not compared to the buffering of the mineral build up. But it does dissolve the mineral build up and carry it off. II you check the ec of the run off you can see that drop pretty fast.

 

[Creeperpark]

A good way to test the run-off is on a watering day after you water let the pots set for an hr. Make sure the pots are watered well enough to wet all the substrate. After an hr take 250 to 500 ml or a quarter to 1/2 of cup of pure water and pour it thru. Catch it in a clean drain tray and test it.

 

[Brother Nature]

Your burning the shit out of your plant. 3.o is an insane EC to run a coco based plant at, especially with no run off. Coco requires run off, I used to aim for 10% at an ec of 1.2, every feed. What are you input and output PH levels?

 

[TanzanianMagic]

Hey y'all, I'm having a deficiency that's affecting different strains to different degrees and I'm not sure what I'm looking at.

Hi JustAnotherGrower,

Drastic overfeeding.

Transplanted 4" pots of 70/30 coco perlite into 4 gallons of same media. Plants were kept in too small a pot for the size of them, but were healthy.

Good move.

Assumedly the media ec was high in the small container and when transplanted into a larger container with a much lower ec of 3.0, they lacked something.

Big mistake.

When plants are transplanted into a bigger container, the first thing they need to do is grow a bigger root system.

By giving them a high EC, you are stopping the roots from looking for food.

Roots are stimulated by:

1. Phosphorus (P)
2. Relative dryness of the medium

Once you see roots sticking out of the pots, you can increase the nutrient concentration. However keep in mind, the bigger and healthier the root system is, the more efficient it is in taking up nutrients - so in the end, you actually feed them less.

The plan currently is to stay the course with a 3.0 ec feed with little runoff to start stacking the media ec until I see improvement. Still curious as to what they're lacking as this hasn't happened before. Appreciate any input, thanks!

Very gently flush with 0.2 EC of high P/K nutrients (for instance Plagron Green Sensation) and 0.1 EC of Epsom Salt (MgSO4 for magnesium), until they recover.

And another thing. When you use good quality bagged coco coir, you do not need to add anything else to it like perlite. Yes, it makes it even airier, however it also makes it hold less water, which means you have to water more frequently.

Plants like stability, and the less you need to water or feed the plant, the better they like it.

If you use just bagged coco coir (Canna, Plagron, Biobizz), you just water like on soil - water slowly and thoroughly, then don't water again until the top of the medium is no longer moist before the lights go on. You should always do that, however especially after transplanting, when the roots need to explore the new medium. In the beginning you may end up watering 2x per week, then every other day.

Also, perlite and coco coir buffer to different pH's. Coco is around 6.0, perlite 7.0. So that just complicates things for no reason other than aerating an already light and aerated medium more. In my opinion.