Nutrient burn or nutrient deficiency? You be the judge. Help please? :)

[johny1212]

dont quote me on this but i was told by a family meber that "typically" nute burn happens up top and a lack of nutes shows up on the bottom. New to indoor growing but this basic principle has helped me on many successful outdoor grows.

That is correct. Bottom yellowing is typically n p or k deficiency. They are hungry and look pretty soggy. Maybe lay off on the watering.

 

[Wetdog]

Wouldn't it be just as good to adjust water ph with PH up/down as using the dolo-lime? If not, I'll make sure to pick up some dolomite lime on my next trip to the shop.

pHng water will not change the soils pH in any sort of long term manner.

One application of the dolomite and your pH is taken care of for the entire grow.

IDK what pH+- cost, but at $5 for a 40lb bag and only needing 2tbl/gallon of mix, you can do the math.

Wet

 

[silusbotwin]

Not much to worry about here. The first leaves are dying off no big deal ,when it starts to veg soon you wont even notice the bottom leaves. The sag is from the fushing as you have taken most of the air from the soil, be right in couple days. I doubt the ph was ever 4.5, looks spot on to me.

I'm beginning to wonder how well my ph meter works. I bought it on ebay for about 1/2 the price it's worth. I'm thinking it might need a new probe tip but it read the calibration buffer solutions perfectly accurate so it confuses me.

They need nitrogen, but I wouldn't add nutrients at this point to get where you want to go. It's transplanting time. If you put them in some FFOF with dolomite lime as suggested and maybe a little perlite they will be happy as a pig in shit.

Maybe I should wait until I have some dolo before I transplant. Can dolo be added after soil is set or is it something that must be mixed in pre-transplant? I did pick up a couple bags of perlite today too.

That is correct. Bottom yellowing is typically n p or k deficiency. They are hungry and look pretty soggy. Maybe lay off on the watering.

The sag was from the flush. I don't overwater and I'm sure of that. If you read the OP again, you will see that I said they perked right up an hour after watering. If they were over watered they wouldn't have perked up at all and my soil wouldn't be dry every other day.

pHng water will not change the soils pH in any sort of long term manner.

One application of the dolomite and your pH is taken care of for the entire grow.

IDK what pH+- cost, but at $5 for a 40lb bag and only needing 2tbl/gallon of mix, you can do the math.

Wet

Can dolo be added after soil is set or is it something that must be mixed in pre-transplant? I already have a bottle of PH up and PH down from General Hydroponics on hand so it wouldn't cost me anything for now. Maybe I could rely on the ph up and down for now?

 

[max316420]

I'm sure people will tell you to run ph'd water thru your soil until desired ph is reached but like wet said.. It wont change the ph of your soil for long. Most soils are peat based and as time goes on the peat starts to break down and become acidic which in turn lowers your ph. Adding lime will prevent this.

 

[max316420]

I'm beginning to wonder how well my ph meter works. I bought it on ebay for about 1/2 the price it's worth. I'm thinking it might need a new probe tip but it read the calibration buffer solutions perfectly accurate so it confuses me.



Maybe I should wait until I have some dolo before I transplant. Can dolo be added after soil is set or is it something that must be mixed in pre-transplant? I did pick up a couple bags of perlite today too.



The sag was from the flush. I don't overwater and I'm sure of that. If you read the OP again, you will see that I said they perked right up an hour after watering. If they were over watered they wouldn't have perked up at all and my soil wouldn't be dry every other day.



Can dolo be added after soil is set or is it something that must be mixed in pre-transplant? I already have a bottle of PH up and PH down from General Hydroponics on hand so it wouldn't cost me anything for now. Maybe I could rely on the ph up and down for now?

the thing about that is if your soil ph is off it won't change it.. get some lime and topdress with it. Save the ph up and down if you ever wanna try hydro lol

 

[silusbotwin]

I'm sure people will tell you to run ph'd water thru your soil until desired ph is reached but like wet said.. It wont change the ph of your soil for long. Most soils are peat based and as time goes on the peat starts to break down and become acidic which in turn lowers your ph. Adding lime will prevent this.

What are typical prices for dolo?

 

[max316420]

like 5 bucks for a 40-50 lb bag

 

[laserbrn]

Ph up will help, but you'll be using it through your entire grow and it is spotty. I use FFOF, believe me, you need to add lime, Max is right on that one. Testing the runoff water from your soil isn't even an accurate way to measure the PH of the SOIL, that just tells you the ph of the water. If the ph of the water goes down while going through the pot, then yes, your ph must be low, but what is at? Who knows, we just know it's low...I don't like that method at all.

If you want to grow long term and you want to be successful the key is to get it right from the beginning. If you plan to stick with soil, get a soil ph meter, I think there's one out now for about $50 that works pretty well. The key is to grow your entire grow and monitor your ph. If your ph is falling (or rising, but much less common) then adjust your soil ammendments on the NEXT grow. Yes, ph up will help with your low ph problem, but ideally you want to know what to do on the next go around to make conditions perfect.

People are telling you from their experience that FFOF is going to have a falling ph problem, as it will, and that you need to add lime. That's free experience and you don't have go through your first one to figure out what to do, the advice is good. If you don't care to get "good" at this, then disregard the advice.

 

[max316420]

well said my man....

 

[silusbotwin]

Ph up will help, but you'll be using it through your entire grow and it is spotty. I use FFOF, believe me, you need to add lime, Max is right on that one. Testing the runoff water from your soil isn't even an accurate way to measure the PH of the SOIL, that just tells you the ph of the water. If the ph of the water goes down while going through the pot, then yes, your ph must be low, but what is at? Who knows, we just know it's low...I don't like that method at all.

If you want to grow long term and you want to be successful the key is to get it right from the beginning. If you plan to stick with soil, get a soil ph meter, I think there's one out now for about $50 that works pretty well. The key is to grow your entire grow and monitor your ph. If your ph is falling (or rising, but much less common) then adjust your soil ammendments on the NEXT grow. Yes, ph up will help with your low ph problem, but ideally you want to know what to do on the next go around to make conditions perfect.

People are telling you from their experience that FFOF is going to have a falling ph problem, as it will, and that you need to add lime. That's free experience and you don't have go through your first one to figure out what to do, the advice is good. If you don't care to get "good" at this, then disregard the advice.

Again, is it feasible to add dolo lime after transplanting or is it necessary to mix in before transplanting? I really want to get them transplanted tonight but I don't have any money at all right now. I have patience so if theres a big difference between premixing it and adding it after the soil sets I'll hold off on transplanting until I can get a bag of dolo.

I value everyones advice greatly or else I wouldn't have asked. And again, this is not my first grow. It's more like grow number ten. Granted it's only my 3rd indoor grow but it's my first grow with good equipment, genetics, and materials.

 

[laserbrn]

You can add some on top of the soil, but it's best to mix it into your premix before transplanting. You can get by without it, it's just good advice to add it. I'm not going to say that if you don't do it you have zero chance of success, that's just not true. You will likely do just fine. If you just can't scrape together the $5.00 to buy some lime at the hardware store, then go ahead and transplant, your plants need a move. With FFOF you'll survive without the lime, you will just likely be fighting strange ph fluctuations more often. If you test the runoff of your ph now and it's really low (<~5.2) then transplant and make sure that you are checking the ph of your water/nutrient mixture during waterings. Ensure that it's high enough to keep your solution alkaline enough.

It's not until much later on in life that you'll have very real problems and while they will be hard to fix then, but then it's generally just about over and all you'll think is...."next time I'm adding lime".

 

[silusbotwin]

So I didn't end up testing the run off ph since it's new soil anyways. I could only afford 4 Smart Pots so one of them is still in its small 4 inch pot until hopefully tomorrow when I can figure out a way to scrape a few bucks up. Got them all transplanted. Here are some better photos.

 

[max316420]

they don't look bad at all, the yellowing is due to lack of light because your canopy is pretty thick... My man you have nothing to worry about, your on the right track. Keep up the good work

 

[max316420]

But I also think that you could up your feeding, I see no signs of any overfeeding.. What food are you using again?

 

[max316420]

but make sure you let your soil dry completely out between waterings, the first pic looks a tad overwatered

 

[silusbotwin]

but make sure you let your soil dry completely out between waterings, the first pic looks a tad overwatered

I am 150% certain it is not over watered. I know it looks that way in the photo but the leaves are so brittle and dry they almost crack into a million pieces when you touch them. They're actually quite crispy. I let my soil dry out 100% between waterings and it drains very well. I feed with Fox Farms but I think I'm going to lay off on the feeding for awhile.

 

[laserbrn]

I don't know how people can be getting away with feeding straight away. They look a little hungry, but the transplant should take care of that. These plants that I have here have been fed 1/4 strength 1 time and that was yesterday.

I didn't give them ANYTHING other than their transplant into these bigger pots with FFOF.

 

[dannyboy602]

Isn't ph up/down more for hydro grows? And I've added dolo lime after the fact. Still works. Better to have it in your mix but its nice to know if I forget all is not lost.

 

[Cotton Candy Kush]

Burn brother