Looking for some suggestions

Hello Everyone,

I have a DJ Short blueberry plant in a 5 gallon smart pot that is 7 days into 12/12.

The plant is been only watered with bubbled filtered water( I add a pinch of molasses to neutralize chlorine/chloramine). I gave it some EWC tea about a week before flip.

Medium:mix of equal parts roots organic, light warrior and fox farm potting soilEWC/bat guano). I added about 20 lbs of EWC to the mix along with some neem meal, kelp meal, crab meal, dolomite lime and some biochar. Also added perlite, roughly 30% of mix.

The plant has been just kind of sad looking lately, droopy leaves, slight clawing of leaf tips, canoeing etc. More recently the middle of the leaf blades have started to yellow out a bit( see pic). The lower leaves and older big fan leaves are darker green then the new growth but aren’t as droopy and with no signs of yellowing to speak of really.

Let me know if you have any other questions that would help!’

Thanks a ton in advance

Forgot some important stuff I realize
Lights:2 4 x 50 watt Cree Cob light frames from timber(400 watt total). 4 plants in a roughly 6’x 3’ x 5’ closet, 4” carbon filter running exhausted out the closet. Temps are between 78-85 during day, 68-72 at night. Humidity right around 30-40% during lights on

Here are the pictures again, not sure if my first attempt to post them worked

Are you over watering?

The plant doesn't look to bad...Let the soil dry quite abit and see if she perks up.. Afterwards on your next watering give it some Epsom salt and see if that greens It up some.. Maybe get some distilled water instead of using you chlorinated water..

Farmer,

I have been foliar feeding it with epsoms couple times a week and it does appear to perk up a bit with the spray. This picture was right after a watering, which is usually when she droops, hard to get a read on this plant with watering. It will perk up for a day after a water then start to droop quick. I water it and sometimes it will perk up other times it will stay droopy. I’ll let her dry out and keep up with the foliar.

Thanks for the help !

Any other organic, living soil growers have any ideas ? All ears

projectinfo said:

Are you over watering?

Click to expand...

I was thinking this may be an issue but I’ve tried over the past few weeks to go a day or two without watering and the plant doesn’t seem to react to well to that either? If it was chronic overwatering could it need a good dry out to get the roots breathing properly again?

This is my first go trying the organic/loving soil route. Just dipping my toe In but from the research I did prior to the start, it seemed watering less but more frequently was the way to go in order to keep soil herd thriving. This compared to using chemical nutes(what I have done in the past) where you water heavy followed by a dry out period. I have definitely had a harder time gauging proper watering this go around where as with the chemical fert route it was pretty straight forward.

Your watering every day?

Soil likes dry /wet cycles

Pickup you plant, it should be light befor you water it again

And don't expect drastic changes overnight.

Soil is slow give it a chance

I have been watering every other day, around half gallon per plant.

I’ll go ahead and dry them out for a couple days and see how they react. Crucial part of the run so looking to get it back on track.

Thanks again for the help projectinfo! I appreciate it

When was the last time you fertilized?

It has happened a few times where this happens regardless of amount of water.

My plants always droop when I don’t feed them enough.

Silent,

I haven’t really fertilized this run, I made a pretty hot mix, and the gave them an EWC tea right before I flipped the lights(8 days ago now)x Other than watering with a tiny bit of molasses I’ve just let the soil do it’s thing. With the lower leaves being so dark I don’t really believe it is a nutrient defiency per se. Not nitrogen at least, I am a total rookie when it comes to this style of growing but it really interests me and I’m hoping to figure out a good system eventually.

I’m running two tangielopes from Crockett farms and both of those are beautiful, same program as the two blueberries but the blueberries have been super finicky since day one! They seem to have been a bit shocked by the rich soil for the first couple weeks after I up potted them. Then they thrived for two weeks and now we’re here, back to looking sad.

Keep it coming guys!

They hungry. Feed them please.

Blake,

I hadn’t really thought she could be hungry, I took the clawed leaf tips and darker lower leads to mean if anything she might be over fed? I was planning on brewing a more flower oriented tea next week anyhow. Maybe I should do that now instead ?

Anyone else think she looks hungry ?

How often do you spray your plants? That yellow down the middle of the leaves looks more like you're washing minerals out of the leaves causing localized deficiencies. Certainly not low Mg. I only ever spray my plants to battle bugs.

Plant doesn't look bad. I would suggest you water less often and more water with waterings to properly saturate the medium. You cant overwater in one instance, you can only overwater by watering too often. Water completely with a bit of runoff, and wait until the 'pot' is light enough to water again. If you water a bit here and a bit there..the soil never gets wet enough or dries out properly and the conditions can become anaerobic. As for foliar feeding with Epsom salts, im not too sure how effective that is..perhaps if you use a wetting agent, it can help the leaves absorb some of the mag-sulfur, but it's not a quick process. Im also not sure that you have a magnesium deficiency, you do however seem to have a bit too much nitrogen.
You say they perk up after watering but then soon after droop again..im guessing because the entire root system doesn't get water, so they droop sooner than normal.

Little update Guys,

We lost power for two days due to this east coast mega storm. During this time I let the plants dry and out ride out the darkness. I had no other choice really. After 4 days with no water and almost 2 with no lights the plants practically looked better then they did prior to losing power! This leads me to think that overwatering may have been the culprit. Leaves are back to praying and overall appearance looks much more robust.

I’m going to lay off the water a bit. I’ll probably too dress with some 0-12-0 guano and let them finish up, hopefully they turn out ok.

Lots to learn going forward on the living soil soil/full organic route but I hope to get it dialed in.

Thanks again for all the help guys.

Looks better I was going to ask what your humidty was like .

VPD

Cold, humidity is kind of all over the place unfortunately. My space is not the best, but making due. Typically It runs from 35-50% during lights on. Higher during lights off

Might help

projectinfo said:

Your watering every day?

Soil likes dry /wet cycles

Pickup you plant, it should be light befor you water it again

And don't expect drastic changes overnight.

Soil is slow give it a chance

Click to expand...

Reminder...