I have read a lot, but I'm still confused - and my plants are in trouble!

I have read the great thread from nick17gar along with many others but frankly I am still not clear on the differences between nute burn and deficiency.


As you can see we have dark leaves on the bottom, but the new growth is yellowing and curling. Here are the details:

• On 10/29 we bought some clones that were rooted in 6” dirt pots.
• Fed them with miracle grow
• Transplanted them on 11/17 to 4 gallon pots with 75% perlite - 25% vermiculite in order to get them going on Hempy
• Note that a lot of dirt came along in the transplant process, so I consider this hybrid-Hempy
• Switched to General Hydroponics Flora system for feeding, and we drain to waste – no re-use.
• Feeding every other day
• On 11/26 we got concerned over the leaf color and flushed with clean water
• Fed them again on 11/29
• Been on clean water only since then
• We pulled one plant to check the roots and found that no roots have grown out into the perlite/vermiculite; they are staying in what is left of the dirt

So is this burn, or a deficiency, or something else? Any help appreciated!

It's hungry,dude...
Also,are you ph-ing your water?

We are not ph-ing as we just drain-to-waste, I thought there is no reason to worry about ph. We just use clean tap water that sits for 24 hours to get rid of the fluorine, etc. I guess I should buy a ph meter?

So you think they need more nutes? Just normal grow nutes or anything in specific? Thanks for the fast response!

My partner corrected me; we have been ph-ing with paper. It has been steady at 6.5.

You have to ph in hydro or you get nutrient lockout because certain nutrient up take requires a certain ph. For hempy, which it looks like you are doing, the ph should be between 5.5 and 6.1. You are probably supplying the plants with what it wants but it cannot take it up because the ph is not in range. Get your ph in the proper range and your problem will be solved.

Ph matters
Ph relates with nutrient uptake...when it gets out of certain ranges,it cants absorb certain elements
Take it down to 6 and see how they respond
Honestly,I think y'all made a mistake putting soil in the hempy bucket

yeah, sounds like ph issues. hydro should be at 5.8 or around that.

it seems hempy can also be problematic in that regard, though some do really well with it.

So we just measured again and it is 6.2. We will take it down to 6 or a little lower.

I agree about Hempy. After reading a lot of the very long Hempy thread I got the impression moving dirt into Hemp is not a problem, but we got more in than planned.

The problem might be too much dirt in the hempys..soil and hydro use different ph ranges and you're trying to combine the two

very possible. had that problem recently. soil/hyrdo ton

You need to PH for hempy! I have no idea why on earth people think that you don't have to or if your tap water runs at the right PH that you don't need to.

here's what you need to do: buy either some 5gallon buckets or a reverse osmosis filter (the former being cheaper). Get some buckets, fill them with water and let them sit for a few days and let any nasty stuff evaporate and let your PH stabilize. Once some stuff evaporates out, depending on what's in your tap water; your PH may rise significantly (mine has gone from 6 to 8.5 in a few days). This means that even if the PH from your tap will work for hempy that after you feed your plants the PH may continue to increase, causing nute lock up.

So first things first: Stabilize your water; get all the nastyness out of it through evaporation or reverse osmosis. Once you have that, you can use PH test strips but I found it worth it just go buy a digital PH meter. You want to shoot for a PH of 5.8 with hempy. If you think your PH may be increasing and causing lockup after you do this, then use your PH meter to check the PH of your runoff water.

Ok, that's part 1 and may fix everything.

However, I've had weird luck moving from soil to hempy. Last time I bought 4 clones (Blue Cheese and super lemon haze). 2 of which died off from the shock; the others suffered so much trauma that the bud development was pathetic. Veg growth on one of them was also terrible. It shot right up and grew more roots once I got it into flower; but initially the plant didn't grow at all for weeks. I thought the thing was going to die off, but it made a nice recovery.

If I could do it all again, I would probably just cut a bunch of clones from my soil plant and then move those right into hempy. If you are gentle with the roots and clean them well before moving to hempy then slowly turn up the nutes you can make it work. It's really hit or miss depending on strain, environment; etc.

Hope that helps, if you want my hempy grow formulas for GH shoot me a PM.

Edit: the dirt hempy hybrid is a no-no; you want to wash as much dirt off of your roots as possible without damaging them before you transplant. There's a reason why nobody does this.

Thanks for the detailed answer! We do let the water sit for 24 hours, but it makes sense we should PH afterward.

The big question in my mind now it what to do about my hybrid Hempy situation. Should I take them apart and try to wash off more of the dirt? Or should I just transplant into all dirt and do Hempy later on when I can start it off correctly with no dirt?

If you have the soil and soil nutes I'd say put them back in dirt. I just think it would be easier to do and less on the plant. Otherwise just be really careful when rinsing the dirt away from the roots and transplanting.

do not use vermiculite a study conducted my the us ag dept in 2004 discovered 98% of the vermiculite produced has high levels of aresnic

LT1RX7 Drifter said:

do not use vermiculite a study conducted my the us ag dept in 2004 discovered 98% of the vermiculite produced has high levels of aresnic

Click to expand...

I've heard this too, I like the vermiculite though because it keeps moisture in the bucket better. Does anyone have experience with using cocoa husks in hempy?

Well, I had to look at what I had.. and it's Coconut Coir Fiber. I wanted to go with the traditonal perlite/vermiculite hempys but I couldn't find any vermiculite locally, and I didn't need a huge bag of perlite. I use hydroton for my res and the coco on top. I'm in gallon sized containers and so far so good.

This is all great advice and I think we are on a good path. But I'd love some input on people's formulas using General Hydroponics with Hempy. We have been doing 10 - 5 - 5 - in our grow cycle - how does that sound?

Ugh.. Just go organic. I personally don't believe in nute deficiency. Why? Cuz I've been growing great bud for years and I haven't used nutes once. Just soil, water, and sunlight or CFLs. U can overdo it tho and cause burning. U shud flush ur soil and water with plain water for a week.

TheSmegHead said:

This is all great advice and I think we are on a good path. But I'd love some input on people's formulas using General Hydroponics with Hempy. We have been doing 10 - 5 - 5 - in our grow cycle - how does that sound?

Click to expand...

People usually do a 1:2 ratio as you are doing....