WTF am I doing wrong? Weird burning to plants

[DaGanajaFarmer]

Hello,

First time poster here because I could really use some help from the online community of experienced growers.

I have some Paradise Seeds White Berry that have recently started showing problems in VEG. This is my 3rd grow.

They about 2ft from two 600W MH bulbs. Temperature ranges from 77 - 84F degrees with humidity between 55-60%RH.

Using:
Dyna-Gro Protek @ 4ml/gal
Dyna-Gro Foliage Pro @ 5ml/gal
H&G Drip clean @ .4ml/gal
GH Floralicious Plus @ 1ml/gal

Growing in coco and PH adjusted to 5.7 at every feeding

Recently some plants started going yellow at the top of the plant and burning.. The bottom leaves are still green.



Anyone have experience or could guestimate what is happening to my plants?

THANK YOU.

-GF

 

[Coconutz]

Have you checked for pests?
Id look at the roots & new growth shoots

 

[Richard Nose]

5.7 ph seems a little low..imo

 

[Coconutz]

I use 5.5, but the last few bags of coco I bought said that 5.2-6.1 is kosher.
Unless the pen is way off I dont think ph is an issue.
Coco is a great buffer

 

[rangergord]

Too much fertilizer, not enough humidity, temperatures too high, growing in coco or soiless mix makes it even more of a problem. Do a search on VPD or vapour pressure deficit. With your temps so high you need higher humidity. What happens is your plants absorb too much fertilizer because they are transpiring and absorbing water to stay cool. No matter how little I used to feed my plants they would burn. Once I learned about VPD, I replaced my soil with hydro. Now if I have nutrient burn its simple to take away the nutrients completely until they recover. It also raised the humidity because I use a flood and drain tray.

 

[Coconutz]

5ml of foliage pro is about 1.0 ec
4ml of protek is a bit too much, but its probably not the issue.
Temps and humidity seem fine to me.

 

[Cannavore]

Whenever I have problems its usually pH but I don't grow in coco.

I'd check your pH again and also do what coconutz said. Check your roots and shoots lol. And for pests.

 

[DaGanajaFarmer]

Thanks for the replies.

I will admit that I have fungus gnats (that originated from a bag of FFOF a year ago). The fungus gnats don't seem to be responding to high doses of Liquid BTI or even allowing the coco to dry out between feedings.

I use a Hanna Hi 98129 and callibrate it frequently. The PH is always between 5.6 - 5.8 so I know I'm within acceptable intake ranges for hydro.

I flushed the coco with straight tap water (170ppm on .5 scale) and a ph of 7.2

I'm hoping that just flushing it out with the tap water I'll be able to flush out any build up in fertilizer. I didn't feel that with a 3-1-2 ratio such as Dyna-Gro Foliage Pro, I'd run into any over-feeding problems..

-GF

 

[DaGanajaFarmer]

Now if I have nutrient burn its simple to take away the nutrients completely until they recover. It also raised the humidity because I use a flood and drain tray.

Perhaps it could be the humidity but I'm not so sure.. at times when it drops down to around 45-50% RH I will give it a good spray down with 20ppm filtered water. That helps raise the humidity in the room as well..

The puzzling part is that the leaves on the bottom are still green and happy... only the tops look like that. Meanwhile some of the other clones are doing just fine. They've all received the same treatment...

Next move will be to feed light with perhaps 3ml/gal of the Foliage Pro and holding back on any additives. I know that coco doesn't have much in the way of buffering the nutes so I'm thinking this will be a light feed for the roots to keep growing.

How long does it typically take for your plants to recover and are you giving them PH adjusted water when you flush?

 

[Richard Nose]

I use 5.5, but the last few bags of coco I bought said that 5.2-6.1 is kosher.
Unless the pen is way off I dont think

I believe you are right, but I would go check a PH availability chart and maybe adjust from there after you have decided the proper ph to allow maximum availibilty for coco

 

[Richard Nose]

Thanks for the replies.

I will admit that I have fungus gnats (that originated from a bag of FFOF a year ago). The fungus gnats don't seem to be responding to high doses of Liquid BTI or even allowing the coco to dry out between feedings.

I use a Hanna Hi 98129 and callibrate it frequently. The PH is always between 5.6 - 5.8 so I know I'm within acceptable intake ranges for hydro.

I flushed the coco with straight tap water (170ppm on .5 scale) and a ph of 7.2

I'm hoping that just flushing it out with the tap water I'll be able to flush out any build up in fertilizer. I didn't feel that with a 3-1-2 ratio such as Dyna-Gro Foliage Pro, I'd run into any over-feeding problems..

-GF

Did you happen to let the tap water dechlorinate first? This will help as not to kill you benefici.al bacteria and mychorezea. Do you check your ppm/ec?

 

[Coconutz]

I thought those charts had been debunked?
Anyhow... I would never give them plain water, or anything that wasnt ph adjusted until harvest time
Tap waters ph will keep rising

 

[Richard Nose]

I thought those charts had been debunked?
Anyhow... I would never give them plain water, or anything that wasnt ph adjusted.
Tap waters ph will keep rising

I don't believe so..I use them all the time. I agree with the ph'ed water as well..also I imo , use the "Keep it Simple Stupid" approach to gardening. Its really not as complex as some make it out to grow high quality meds. In nature PH is never completely stable therefore the plants visits a broader ph range...although I am no scientist..lol

 

[Mr.23]

How tall and old are the plants?

 

[DaGanajaFarmer]

How tall and old are the plants?

The plants are roughly 5 weeks old and were topped at around 8-10 inches. They now stand at an average of 24-26 inches.

No problems with the roots as they even seem to be popping out of the coco. Found a few Fungus Gnat larvae but that's just my life now.. can't stop these little f*ckers no matter what...

Did you happen to let the tap water dechlorinate first? This will help as not to kill you benefici.al bacteria and mychorezea. Do you check your ppm/ec?

I leave 5gal buckets full of water out for 2 days before I use them. I was thinking the same with the bennies and the chlorine since the water stinks and is at 170PPM.

Looking back perhaps I shouldn't have fed with straight tap water.. the PH and high PPM probably screwed up some of the potted coco plants. The ones with the most intense light on them appear to have been most affected as shown in the pictures.



I really can't THANK YOU everyone here enough on helping me with these issues. I'm leaning towards the PH inbalance so I flushed the affected plants with a light ph'd feeding last night.

2ml Protek
5ml Foliage Pro

PH adjusted to 5.5

The run-off was 5.7PH so I'm hoping this will help eliminate any PH related issues. Now to wait a few days to see how they recover. I'll be keeping an eye on the new shoots.

-DF

 

[Richard Nose]

The plants are roughly 5 weeks old and were topped at around 8-10 inches. They now stand at an average of 24-26 inches.

No problems with the roots as they even seem to be popping out of the coco. Found a few Fungus Gnat larvae but that's just my life now.. can't stop these little f*ckers no matter what...



I leave 5gal buckets full of water out for 2 days before I use them. I was thinking the same with the bennies and the chlorine since the water stinks and is at 170PPM.

Looking back perhaps I shouldn't have fed with straight tap water.. the PH and high PPM probably screwed up some of the potted coco plants. The ones with the most intense light on them appear to have been most affected as shown in the pictures.



I really can't THANK YOU everyone here enough on helping me with these issues. I'm leaning towards the PH inbalance so I flushed the affected plants with a light ph'd feeding last night.

2ml Protek
5ml Foliage Pro

PH adjusted to 5.5

The run-off was 5.7PH so I'm hoping this will help eliminate any PH related issues. Now to wait a few days to see how they recover. I'll be keeping an eye on the new shoots.

-DF

IMO Ph around 5.-6.0...and if your tap water is 1700ppm u need a reverse osmosis filter..I would guess you severely burnt ur plants (especially if new growth is fine)..get a ppm meter and track it..good luck

 

[Richard Nose]

IMO Ph around 5.-6.0...and if your tap water is 1700ppm u need a reverse osmosis filter..I would guess you severely burnt ur plants (especially if new growth is fine)..get a ppm meter and track it..good luck

I meant 5.8 ph on the low side

 

[Mr.23]

Using tap water can throw the calcium/mag ratio to the point of lockout. Flush plants out, then use ro'd water. Some tap from certain cities are ok to use and others will mess everything up. Seems that your tap wayer is preety heavily loaded with the minerals. If your ph is runoff at 5.7 then thats not the prob. I say your tap is what is causing the problems.

 

[DaGanajaFarmer]

Using tap water can throw the calcium/mag ratio to the point of lockout. Flush plants out, then use ro'd water. Some tap from certain cities are ok to use and others will mess everything up. Seems that your tap wayer is preety heavily loaded with the minerals. If your ph is runoff at 5.7 then thats not the prob. I say your tap is what is causing the problems.

Damn, I was hoping that the 170 PPM water (on .5 scale) was still within acceptable ranges. I have too many plants to justify RO in this garden. The amount of waste would just be phenomenal..

Perhaps there's another water filter I could use to just bring the PPM's down lower. Fill a plastic trash bin with the filtered water and just use that instead of the 170 PPM tap. I'm sure I could even automate this with a float valve..

I've been doing 5.7 PH because I notice that even with Dyna-Gro products the PH will eventually creep up slowly.. probably because of the Protekt but could also be the tap water...

Thanks again for the ideas.

-GF

 

[DaGanajaFarmer]

I meant 5.8 ph on the low side

From everything I've read... PH of 5.8 is perfect for coco. That's the sweet spot is what I've mostly read.

I mix 2 parts coco coir and 1 part coco chips. I've found this make the medium drain better which in turn improves aeration.