P and Mg deficiency or not???

[El Conejo]

this is Penny she is on vegetative grow.

Water = since the humidity is from 50-40% I water the plant every 4 or 5 days with bottle water, but only when the pot losses weigh and all the top soil is dry.

Light = (2 24W blue spectrum 2 42 W yellow spectrum)

Soil and Nutrients = 15% of humus and 85% of dirt. I get it from this bag it says it has a combination of black dirt, leaf compost, ideal proportion of organic matter to produce humus and perlite. but two weeks ago I transplanted to a bigger pot and I didn't add any humus because it already precented the symptoms of nitrogen toxicity so I decided to back of the humus.

Temperature and humidity % : all week has been in the 75-90 F and the humidity from 50% to 45 %
The room looks like this and I have a fan circulating air flow on the room all day and night.

The older leaves turned yellow from the last smaller pot she was and I made the mistake of compacting soil and , so I transplanted from a 2 gallon pot to this pot 2 weeks ago. The yellowing didn't spread to top leaves, but the yellowing has been spreading more and more really slowly . and all leaves have been presenting the claw like a nitrogen toxicity and also burn tips.
and this is a picture of the day of transplant and today ( 2 weeks 1 day)
Just today I notice this brownish spots in one leaf and discoloration of chlorophyl

So I started to concern more about the soil PH and I cant buy ph strips to read the ph 1 because I don't know were can i buy them close were i live and because I don't have money at the moment xDjajaja but, my ph is not high or low enough to precent Nitrogen deficiency right?, so its en the range of 5.5 to 7.5 and if its presenting what I think is (P) and (Mg) deficiency because of the red stems ( that maybe its genetic but may also precent in P deficiency), the red spots on 2 leaves, the burn tips and the discoloration of chlorophyl. So my conclusion is that the PH its becoming more acidic and has passed the range of P and Mg so it PH<5.9 and not presenting B, Fe, Mn, K so its not alkaline.

So I am thinking of sprinkle some wood ashes to elevate the Ph in the soil and add P K and Ca what do you all think of this solution to the problem? because I know if I add wood ashes the soil PH would go up . I know dolomite lime is better for this problem but here were I live there is no Dolomite lime -__- I have been looking like crazy for that stuff.

or is it a healthy plant and I am being all paranoid about it xD but no seriously the brown spots already grew more

 

[az2000]

Looks like Mg def. I don't see P def, that would be a purple'ish blotching. The brown spot could be the start of calcium def. Mg and Ca def sometimes accompany each other. But, one or two spots is too soon to decide.

You need a ph pen and measure your runoff, which will help you assess the ph of your soil. Without that, you can't know if it's a deficiency or lockout. A soil ph probe can be useful to confirm runoff (and vice versa). I have the Control Wizard Accurate 8 ($50 US) and it's been very helpful for me to monitor trends in my soil (through the grow, and how ph fluctates between wet and dry).

You can also water/feed at higher ph to pull acidic soil higher. But, without a ph pen, you don't know what you're ph is that you're feeding your plant.

Be sure to let your soil dry well before watering. Ph of soil is higher when dryer, which would make nutrients available during that dryer period time. If you keep the soil too wet it's like holding the average ph down.

 

[El Conejo]

Looks like Mg def. I don't see P def, that would be a purple'ish blotching. The brown spot could be the start of calcium def. Mg and Ca def sometimes accompany each other. But, one or two spots is too soon to decide.

You need a ph pen and measure your runoff, which will help you assess the ph of your soil. Without that, you can't know if it's a deficiency or lockout. A soil ph probe can be useful to confirm runoff (and vice versa). I have the Control Wizard Accurate 8 ($50 US) and it's been very helpful for me to monitor trends in my soil (through the grow, and how ph fluctates between wet and dry).

You can also water/feed at higher ph to pull acidic soil higher. But, without a ph pen, you don't know what you're ph is that you're feeding your plant.

Be sure to let your soil dry well before watering. Ph of soil is higher when dryer, which would make nutrients available during that dryer period time. If you keep the soil too wet it's like holding the average ph down.

Ok but do you think its a bad problem or a simple one? I don't want to lose this plant x3 so what I would do its letting the plant dry more until the plant ask me for water. so the plant absorbs enough nutrients to hold on the acidic state when the soil is wet. I'll buy the ph meter strips in like 3 or 5 days because I am broke now.

 

[az2000]

Ok but do you think its a bad problem or a simple one? I don't want to lose this plant x3 so what I would do its letting the plant dry more until the plant ask me for water. so the plant absorbs enough nutrients to hold on the acidic state when the soil is wet. I'll buy the ph meter strips in like 3 or 5 days because I am broke now.

There aren't any easy answers without knowing the ph. If those are color-changing strips, they're not very accurate to measure runoff (which is darker colored than perhaps your nutrients). I'm sorry you're broke, but you need a ph pen, and eventually a soil probe. (I've used this one for almost a year: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0087LOWIA/ref=oh_details_o09_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 .) But, you'll also need to buy calibration and storage solution, and probe cleaning solution but this one isn't needed immediately.

If it's lockout it's likely to get worse. You could add 1/4 tsp / gal Epsom salt to take a chance it's deficiency. That much might help, and probably wouldn't hurt much if you find it's ph lockout.

If it's acidic soil, and *if* you've been keeping it too wet, allowing it to experience dryer conditions could help because the soil's ph rises as it dries. You could let it dry until the lower leaves droop down. That's a bit stressful to the plant (at a time when something else is happening but you don't understand what it is), but if you feel you've been not letting it dry enough, that might be the only way to know it's become too dry. I let mine do that 2-3 times during the grow. I always lift the container, feeling how heavy it is. I know what it feels like before the leaves droop down.

Without knowing your ph, you're in a tough spot.

When you measure your runoff, try to measure how long it took to get runoff. I.e., if you water slowly and allow the water to saturate before watering more (causing runoff), that amount of time the water sat in the container will affect the runoff. If you get immediate runoff, it's ph (and reflection of the soil's ph) would be different than if you watered, waited 30 minutes, and watered again to get runoff. So, try to keep that time variable in mind because it will affect how to interpret the runoff ph.

 

[El Conejo]

When you measure your runoff, try to measure how long it took to get runoff. I.e., if you water slowly and allow the water to saturate before watering more (causing runoff), that amount of time the water sat in the container will affect the runoff. If you get immediate runoff, it's ph (and reflection of the soil's ph) would be different than if you watered, waited 30 minutes, and watered again to get runoff. So, try to keep that time variable in mind because it will affect how to interpret the runoff ph.

well I'll try to buy a pen meter for the time i grow seeds from internet and definite strains. but now that I am practicing Ill try with the strips something is better than nothing, but how would you say its better to wait 30 min o 15min so the runoff water becomes the Ph of the soil right?

 

[az2000]

but how would you say its better to wait 30 min o 15min so the runoff water becomes the Ph of the soil right?

The longer the water sits in the soil, the more it reaches equilibrium. If you water until you get runoff (i.e., fairly immediate runoff) then the difference between the runoff and what you poured in is approximately your soil ph. I.e.,:

Acidic soil:

Runoff - (Poured in - runoff)

Runoff = 5.8
Poured in = 6.5
Soil ph = 5.1 (5.8 - 0.7)

But, if you water until you almost get runoff, let it sit 30 minutes, and water just enough to get measureable runoff (like 50ml), the ph of that runoff should be close to the soil's ph. (This is called the Pour-Thru method. See http://www.ncsu.edu/project/hortsublab/pourthru/M_M.htm

It's not that one way is better than the other. If you don't have 30 minutes you can adjust your interpretation of the runoff depending how long you let the water saturate before being displaced into runoff.

This is where a decent soil probe is useful. After measuring runoff and using a probe you begin to see the correlation to the time variable.

 

[mr sunshine]

Your going to need some cal mag your soil has none it says so on the bag..or I guess it doesn't...

 

[El Conejo]

Your going to need some cal mag your soil has none it says so on the bag..or I guess it doesn't...

thats why I want to add to he soil Ash Wood to add more Mg Ca K P and get the PH higger. I am just going to waith and buy the Ph strips and then apply ash wood.