Help on too nutrient rich organic soil

Hey guys,

So I made a second batch of organic soil to grow in and I went way too heavy on nutrients (Mostly was trying to use up my blood and bone meal as I do not want to grow with these any longer, as well as some slight deficiencies in the last few weeks of my last grow). I transplanted some nice size/aged plants and all but 2 of them are basically dead. One of them is starting to die from the top up and turning crispy, the other basically lost all nodes except the top and an occasional offshoot, the flowers on this plant don't seem to be growing at all. I have one that actually managed to recover and has really bad looking buds but at least they are continuing to grow and has stopped showing signs of nitrogen burn.

My question is; Is there a benefit to letting these dying plants continue to grow to continue using up the nutrients? Or should I just cull the plants, till my soil back up and cut it down with additional peat moss and aeration? That way I can move on and stop wasting valuable space as these plants are both in 15g pots (They were doing amazing in veg before the transplant to new soil). I know I'm wasting a lot of time and energy continuing to grow these dying plants but they are actually slowly improving and I also have some concerns about my organic nutrients slowly breaking down and the soil becoming even hotter over time. I did allow it to cook for over a month and a half prior to using it though.

Also, due to being no till organic, I am not interested in flushing my soil. I also was unable to re-transplant the dying plants because all of my soil was in use and I only had this extremely hot blend available.

Sorry for my long post. I've been a long time lurker and decided to actually join in on posting finally. Ty for any help you can provide.

Dying plants aren't going to use much nutrients so I'd think that would be a waste of time. Blood meal is high N so you're frying them good.

You could repot the sick plants in to the same soil but dilute it with some soilless mix 50:50 then you'll have something weaker and twice as much of it too.

15gal pot? Growing some trees are you?

Good luck!

OldMedUser said:

Dying plants aren't going to use much nutrients so I'd think that would be a waste of time. Blood meal is high N so you're frying them good.

You could repot the sick plants in to the same soil but dilute it with some soilless mix 50:50 then you'll have something weaker and twice as much of it too.

15gal pot? Growing some trees are you?

Good luck!

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You know what, that's actually a great point about a dying plant not using many nutrients. I will go ahead and pull the trigger and cull these 2. I'm still in the phase where I hate to kill a plant I've been growing for several months, but its time. Such a bummer because these were both clones from some amazing stuff.

And I'm just getting into these 15 gal pots to see how it goes. I'm growing no-till( well that's the goal).

Done this too but was able to save them before the fan leaves got too crispy. Found a few of my clones recently transplanted were clawing from too much N just the other day; was FFOF soil right out the bag with just worm castings added so figured it would be ok. You can always add something inert like coco coir and/or perlite to lighten up a hot mix.

If the plants are still alive it's not a big deal to revive them and still get good yields.

I'd prepare pots with your amended soil then use a carving knife to remove about gallon sized rootball with each plant and move them over. They'll quickly establish new roots and will come back a lot faster than starting over.

Maybe restart in smaller pots to see how it goes. 4 or 5 gal would do nicely.

Hello All,
I am looking for some help with a flowering issue that I am having. I have been growing organic for 3 years now and am having a hard time wrapping my head around what my issue could be. I made a new batch of amended soil at the end of last summer and it seemed to cook well, but instead of using oyster shell flour for a buffer I used dolomite lime and used a bit less peat moss and put coco in the mix to make up the difference to try something different. My issue has been about four to 5 weeks into flower my plants are yellowing. At first I thought it was the gnats causing the issue so I treated the soil with neem seed meal and BTI, which has largely controlled the gnats. When I introduced a few new plants into the room they have had the same issue. I gave one of the plants some Recharge in hope's it would help, but 48hrs later it looks worse.Yesterday I had an epiphany that my dumb ass should check the ph of my R/O system and my ph was reading 8.1. Haven't changed the filters in 6 to 8 months nor have I ever changed the membranes. Today I went in the room and they are clawing a bit as well.Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

COLOCAL719 said:

Hello All,
I am looking for some help with a flowering issue that I am having. I have been growing organic for 3 years now and am having a hard time wrapping my head around what my issue could be. I made a new batch of amended soil at the end of last summer and it seemed to cook well, but instead of using oyster shell flour for a buffer I used dolomite lime and used a bit less peat moss and put coco in the mix to make up the difference to try something different. My issue has been about four to 5 weeks into flower my plants are yellowing. At first I thought it was the gnats causing the issue so I treated the soil with neem seed meal and BTI, which has largely controlled the gnats. When I introduced a few new plants into the room they have had the same issue. I gave one of the plants some Recharge in hope's it would help, but 48hrs later it looks worse.Yesterday I had an epiphany that my dumb ass should check the ph of my R/O system and my ph was reading 8.1. Haven't changed the filters in 6 to 8 months nor have I ever changed the membranes. Today I went in the room and they are clawing a bit as well.Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Click to expand...

What I would recommend is checking the PH of the run off of your plants. If your R/O water is already at an 8.1 and you added dolomite lime and less peat moss, it sounds like the lime is breaking down and ruining your PH further. This could be causing a nutrient lockout making your leaves yellow. To keep it organic I would recommend maybe adding some used coffee grounds and perhaps watering with used coffee grounds mixed with water as this will have a lower PH. Flushing isn't going to be a good idea because it will just break down the lime faster and you're organic. You definitely want to address the problem quickly as PH issues in my experience can kill plants pretty quick.

You also may want to try to remove some of the top soil and replace that with used coffee grounds/peat moss as this will buffer the PH more. Also maybe stop using your R/O until its corrected and use distilled water for a bit, as it has a low PH as well.

I think when growing organic, especially no till its important to rely mostly on worm castings and not go overboard on the nutrients. My first run of soil was running low on nutrients towards the end so when making a new batch to increase my plant count I almost doubled/tripled the nutrients. I'm still working on fixing all the problems that's caused. Technically worm castings and a tea every now and then is all you really need when you have a decent organic soil mix. I wish I had kept the same soil mix I did at first and just reamended with fish meal and used alf alfa/neem/SST's more each grow. And with the dolomite lime you really have to have it crushed up, and/or use it very sparingly, it takes a while to break down so if your plants are growing in it well when you first mixed it up, when it starts breaking down and adjusting the PH problems spring up.

Blood meal and bone meal are two of the “hottest” nute mixes next to guano, that’s most likely ur propblem , if u can’t flush it idk try adding some little plants to the soil to use up some nutes