Deficiency or Toxicity

This is my first attempt at growing and I've thrown the bank at this project so that I can ensure I have the tools to do this right. I'm a month from sprout and I've been having this issue since the beginning, as the plant grows the older leaves start to die off and in different ways each time. I'm using AN products and I started out slowly with them at about week two and gradually increased the strength. PH is good, PPM is between 1000 and 1200. I've gone through the plant symptoms section on here and frankly it looks like my plants are suffering from every deficiency there is. I'm using Sunshine mix #4 with some additional perlite added, I water/feed every second day, plants are in a 1gal plastic pot with holes at the bottom for drainage.

I've cut off most of the dead ones, but I took a picture of some of ones that are causing me concern, also I'm experimenting with one of them by bending it, a lot, probably something I'll get flamed for, but the problem exists on ones that i'm not messing about with also.

Maybe someone can see something I cant and give me a hand.
Thanks in advance.

Someone help me out, is 1000/1200 too high a ppm for these plants, they look green and hardly deficient. Did the problems start at week two when you fertilized? I am too scared to go over 1000 in soil with bigger plants but thats just me??

I've only just started letting it go up to 1200, the reason being my tap water is 250 out the tap, I let it sit for a few days like I've been hearing others do then add the neuts. I started fertilizing with about 25% dose at week 2, even now i'm not fully at 100% like the bottle says to do, which is why I'm thinking deficiency. The problem did start when I started fertilizing tho but it's been getting worse as the plant gets bigger, which is also what makes me think deficiency. Are you suggesting toxicity tho?

Is it possible that this is a Mg deficiency due to the hard water? I've got a soil PH meter and it's bang on 7, would adding Epson Salts be a bad idea at this point?

I think it would be a deficiency since its the bottom leaves that are dying, as new growth forms at the top it does not have enough nutrients so it is sucking the life out of the bottom leaves but thats just my guess, let me know what happens.

In my experience this is fairly normal, lower fan leaves will die off as plant gets older...no worries

Looks like (phosphorus deficiency) maybe try Checking the pH and flush yo system dog. An excess of Fe and Zn may cause a phosphorus deficiency. If you've tried everything else, then you may try adding a bit more phosphorus to your feeding schedule and see if that helps clear up the problem. Cannabis plants love phosphorus, and therefore it is unlikely that you will give your cannabis too much phosphorus.

nexxtea said:

This is my first attempt at growing and I've thrown the bank at this project so that I can ensure I have the tools to do this right. I'm a month from sprout and I've been having this issue since the beginning, as the plant grows the older leaves start to die off and in different ways each time. I'm using AN products and I started out slowly with them at about week two and gradually increased the strength. PH is good, PPM is between 1000 and 1200. I've gone through the plant symptoms section on here and frankly it looks like my plants are suffering from every deficiency there is. I'm using Sunshine mix #4 with some additional perlite added, I water/feed every second day, plants are in a 1gal plastic pot with holes at the bottom for drainage.

I've cut off most of the dead ones, but I took a picture of some of ones that are causing me concern, also I'm experimenting with one of them by bending it, a lot, probably something I'll get flamed for, but the problem exists on ones that i'm not messing about with also.

Maybe someone can see something I cant and give me a hand.
Thanks in advance.

Click to expand...

That looks like both def or tox. Ppm is really high so am I. 1200 is like as high you go in full bloom maybe 1500 some poeple but I don't get that high!
I gave up dirt! Cuz I was having a lot of trouble too!

Ok so everyone thinks that 1000/1200 is too high for the plant, maybe back that down a bit, i have never gone above 1000 even in full flower but i feed quite reguarly and differ to some in that i think 1000ppm is very high for soil even in full flower.

I need time to work out this hard water problem, i know a lot about water but this is gona take some reaserching still, i will be right back in ten mins to explain hard water and plants, maybe we can see the problem there too.

God damn hard water seems bad, yes you can water plants with it but hell i wouldn't water mine!!! I am so lucky my water is soft and PH7 out of the tap! Ok dude i could make a whole thread just on hard water if you want! Everything i say is through research and have no pratical experience with it so i will try just to stick to the scientific side of it -

"Water that is very high in salts such as sodium, calcium and magnesium can injure houseplants if used over a prolonged period. Water high in salts can cause leaf necrosis (speckling of the leaf), leaf burn (drying of leaf tips and margins), and in severe case, leaf drop. Water with a high concentration of calcium and magnesium is referred to as "hard" water."

"How high is high? Hard water has greater than 150 parts per million (ppm) of calcium and magnesium." So my research says but when you measure the water you get the toatal dissolved solids as ppm and does not tell you the exact minerals dissolved in the water. Could have aluminimun as well. Maybe say where you live roughly like what state or country would help give a better water analysis.

Hmm on a side note people in hard water that grow aquatic plants seem to increase the magnesium levels as it helps balance the excess calcium although what this has to do with marijuana i don't know. It might be why you see signs of iron and other deficiency in lower leaves but they are actually magnesium deficiency masking as iron etc deficiency due to excess calcium, maybe like your leaves but i am no expert.

Anyway i see easy ways to fix it, can you get down the shop and buy a small water filter for the tap or a jug with a britax filter or similar. This will take a lot of the mineral content out?

Sources -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_water
http://gardenline.usask.ca/plants/ppwater.html
http://gardenline.usask.ca/plants/ppwater.html
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/fertilizing/46275-once-more-about-soft-vs-hard.html

I think the best thing you could do is lower your ppm or just go straight water for a few days and see what happens or if you have to buy some distilled water or collect rain water and see if that helps since you have such bad water. my water out of the faucet has way to much chlorine.

Blumpkin&nextta there are two different types of chlorine in water read this for which one you have, this thread is pretty much the diffinitive water guide for me! What do you reckon?

thanks kingrow1 that is a very helpful thread, answers alot of my questions about water.

Wow good responses guys, thanks a lot. So the general feeling I'm getting then is my hard water is locking out some of the neuts required so I'm getting signs of deficiency even tho the PH is bang on.

I'll try adding some Ebson salts to the general watering cycle and see if that helps, if not then i'll get a water purifier.

Side note, I sprayed some espson salt water on the leaves and this morning they were perky as can be.

Here are some pics from just now.

So how are the girls coming along? what strains you got going there?

These are all Kandy Kush, I think I'm starting to see some improvement but it's hard to tell so far, I've still got lots of leaves dieing off but the top parts are growing fast. I'll post some more pics I took last night. I'm starting to think that maybe the bottom ones are dieing off just because they are growing so fast, maybe the plant just doesn't need them any more. Most of these pics are from just two plants, but they all look similar.

Well man i think they look good i would just cut the dead leaves off but thats me and that kandy kush sounds delicious lol + rep

I fed them last night with water that was put through an RO machine, 10-30ppm to start with. I went with the exact instructions on the AN website dosage wise for veg plants, I used Sensi Grow A&B and B-52 only, the ppm jumped to 1350 so I diluted it down to about 750-800, I haven't noticed a difference yet with the lower leaves but the top ones look crazy good.

I've switched to RO water, been feeding watering with input PH at 6.0 or a little higher, been lowering my PPM to about 750-900 and this is where i'm at now.

This is just one plant, the worst one, but the others have basically the same symptoms.