Help Identify The Issue

So I have my plants vegging 18/6 under 3 - 2 bulb T8s, growing in a 35% Roots Organic, 35% Organic mix from local green house, 20% perlite, and 10% EWC (or very close to that ballpark). I have been using distilled water, ph periodically and runs between 6.2-6.7, and at this time the only thing fed to the plants was a little CalMag yesterday. They were recently transplanted from cups into 1 gallon pots.

I'm having what appears to be a deficiency with multiple plants in my veg room. I first noticed this yesterday, as I have been gone a bit lately dealing with some family issues. At first I thought it was a Magnesium deficiency, but after looking through the sticky posts, and some different charts I'm wondering if it may be a Manganese deficiency, or possibly something else. Trying to get some suggestions from more experienced growers. Always like to hear multiple ideas as well, but would be very thankful if someone can identify this with clear certainty.


15 Days From Germ

Give it a couple days and see if the CalMag helps.

Joe Blows Trees said:

Give it a couple days and see if the CalMag helps.

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That's my plan. Just more so posted cause I was second guessing the deficiency of Mag, and figured I'd see if anyone has dealt with this before.

I actually went looking myself because of how the deficiency is in the middle of the leaf and a yellowish brown and not a real dark brown. Since you mentioned you recently gave it CalMag, I figured it best to allow time to work before trying something else. No need to compound the problem.

Joe Blows Trees said:

I actually went looking myself because of how the deficiency is in the middle of the leaf and a yellowish brown and not a real dark brown. Since you mentioned you recently gave it CalMag, I figured it best to allow time to work before trying something else. No need to compound the problem.

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I hear that, don't want to try multiple things and make matters worse, and if I can fix it I want to know how I did. The reason I started seconding guessing the Mag was because of the placement of the discoloration, as it seems low Mag usually comes in from the edges from what I read. The other problem is I didn't catch it right away as I was around for a couple days. I have about 1/4 of my veg room showing similar issues.

Have seen no signs of any bugs or anything in the room, just makes me wonder if the organic mix I got from my local green house wasn't as good as I was lead to believe. We'll let her ride and see what happens over the next couple days.

Just a little bit of an update. Went into my veg room during lights out and my surprise, lights were still on. Just thankful that it happened in the veg and not in the flower room. Replaced the time and hopefully will be running smoothly. Since the light was on I figured I'd take a look. The discoloration seems to be continue on the plants at this point, however the new growth coming in looks relatively healthy overall. Going to let them go another day or two and if no positive change then I guess its back to the drawing board.

Good idea. Keep an eye on the new growth and hopefully the discoloration will stop spreading soon. I'll be waiting for another update which hopefully will be much better news.

Glad you caught the timer issue.

Joe Blows Trees said:

Good idea. Keep an eye on the new growth and hopefully the discoloration will stop spreading soon. I'll be waiting for another update which hopefully will be much better news.

Glad you caught the timer issue.

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I'm glad I caught it but even more glad it was in my flower room!

Well another day has passed, and the plant that seemed to do have the worst hit to it seems to be producing healthy new growth, and the issues with the leaves on all affected plants seems to have stopped. Obviously the leaves won't repair themselves, but as long as new growth keeps looking good I'm happy. Going to continue to keep an on them though. Picture below is of same plant that I posted before. Hoping I got it under control.

tntgreen13 said:

Well another day has passed, and the plant that seemed to do have the worst hit to it seems to be producing healthy new growth, and the issues with the leaves on all affected plants seems to have stopped. Obviously the leaves won't repair themselves, but as long as new growth keeps looking good I'm happy. Going to continue to keep an on them though. Picture below is of same plant that I posted before. Hoping I got it under control.

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That kind of looks like a zinc deficiency. If you see more in a few days, maybe zinc. New leaves look pretty good.

NewtoMJ said:

That kind of looks like a zinc deficiency. If you see more in a few days, maybe zinc. New leaves look pretty good.

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If I do see more in the next couple days, do have any personal experience or recommendations on a step to take to help it recover from a zinc deficiency. Read a little online, but if you've experienced it and found something that worked for you that your willing to share, it would be greatly appreciated!

I get it a lot, but for me it happens when I overfeed. There is something about my soil that causes zinc lockout when I feed too heavily. I would take an inventory of what the plants have had. I use a kelp foliage spray with zinc.

The reason I thought zinc, was because of the way the more prominent damage was located nearer the stem, and the lines are still green.

that looks like a boron deficiency to me. The pattern of marks is unforgettable to me lol. They feel almost rough and scab-like don't they?
I had my entire rack of plants about your plant's size look quite similar to yours, but mine also had yellowing in between the leaf veins. But they all had that distinct pattern-ish look that I self-diagnosed as boron deficiency. That and a calcium / magnesium issue were that problems that I am 90% sure was from ph'ing my water with an unreliable meter. So I had essentially locked out their nutrient uptake by giving them some acid ass water. Problem was 100% fixed after giving a dose of calmag and STOPPED Ph'ing my water altogether (unless a nutrient solution made a significant difference in Ph). I'm going to find an old pic of one of the babys that looked similar to yours.

The old leaves never recovered but I'm almost certain that's boron def.

I don't have the pic of mine anymore but here's what a boron deficiency looks like and it looks extremely similar to yours. This was exactly what mine looked like except mine also had calcium and magnesium problems. Again, my problem was solved by stopping Ph'ing of my water with an unreliable meter and one dose of CalMag.



Your plant's new growth looks fine so it seems she's recovering on track

Thank you for the input. At this point they continue to have healthy new growth. I appreciate the first hand knowledge, and based on how you were describing the texture of the trouble area, I lean towards your diagnoses. Just was very unusual in regards to any type of deficiency I had seen before. Just thankful that they all appear to be doing much better now.

Yea they're pretty rare from what I've read , glad everything looks good now

I am as well. Just something to keep an eye on through out the grow. Seems weird that the only diff I made was giving them a little CalMag treatment, but if it works I ain't going to complain. Wondering if it isn't related to the grow medium I have them in. Oh well, just glad its taken care of for now.

Just a thought I had, figured I'd ask for some opinions on this. The soil mix the plants are currently in (which is listed above) is the a new mix I had been recommended. My first set of plants that I started were in a Roots Organic and Perlite blend with nothing else added. When I transplant these into their final pots do you think it would be worth transferring into a more tested soil such as a Roots, Fox Farm, etc?

Not sure that this would make a difference, being as based on further research I'm about 99.9% certain it was a boron issue. Just throwing the thought out there to get some feedback!

Thanks in advance for your opinions and recommendations!

IMO, if the organic mix has a good ratio of macro and micro nutrients, it'll be fine. I used two different organic soils in my mixes and I just transplanted some clones into the second mix so I get to see how well each does.