Nute burn or deficiency?

This my second grow and my plants show problems( yellowing of leaves and rusty parts). Using biobizz products ( biobloom,biogrow,bioheaven and topmax) and use 3/4 of the nutes recommended by the company's chart. My plants are in 4th week into flower in light mix soil of biobizz under 250w hps.
The last two weeks some leaves have turned yellow with rusty spots. I got alg-a-mic nute since I read that it does good to the plants. I just fed them with the nutes recommended in 3/4 strength and measured the ph and ppm of runoff water: ph was 6,6 and ppm was 1320 ( I use tap water with a 230 ppm).

can anyone tell if my plants have a deficiency or nute burn?

your ph could be off gee causing nutrient lock up and your nutrients could have locked her up.. your ph is way high and your nutrient ppm are high too, you should just try to read a few post i know its fustrating but your best bet is buy a book that tells you all the defecencies and problems and you could get your answers alot faster... good luck flush the pots out start low ppm at half what your doing they will come back ph id be like in 5.8 to 6.0

thanks for the advice, mate. on my first grow I had some yellowing of leaves and i flushed my plant a few times. in the end, I ended up starving the plant and it really struggled giving me a very low yield. I read many posts and I got the cannabis grow bible. Apparently, its is harder to nuts burn your plants with organic fertilisers. Ph is supposed to be between 6.0 and 7.0. The Ph of my water with nutes was around 7.0 and the runoff was 6.7. so i guess my Ph should be alright. as for the ppms, if i exclude my water's ppm (230), then the runoff ppm is around 1100 and my plants are on the 4th week of flowering. is that a lot? I am afraid that if i flush them, they might starve again, like in my first grow. I forgot to say that the new growing leaves are ok.the biggest problem is on my older fan leaves. the buds seem to be doing ok also...
I don't know. it all seems a bit complicated. does anyone face these kind of problems at the beginning?

when I was growing DWC I ran into problems when my ppm's exceeded 850ppm so 1200 is high. and if you are using DWC your ph should remain constant around 5.5- 5-6 this allows uniform absorption of all nutrients. I would change your res if i were you.

sorry for the stupid question but what do you mean by "res"?

i think that i am going to flush my babies if the ppm is too high as you say. as for the Ph, i had bad experience on my last grow. i tried to lower it and I had lots of deficiencies.
on this grow i used light mix soil of Biobizz and for the first 6 weeks i didn't have any problems. my Ph was 6,5 and my plants didn't show any deficiencies. since I started feeding them according to the chart, I started having problems. i think it must be overfeeding or some deficiency.

Ι think that the best thing would be to flush them, lower the ppm and start feeding them with less nuts the next time and see how they do. so you think that the ideal ppm should be up to 850?

Do you have a fan with direct wind on that spot?

so your soil


flush your soil ..........does not need to be a complete 3 x the size of the pot flush just enough to rinse out anything that has built up over the time period (put that first gallon tho ...capture some of the run off look at the color/tinit/shade and flush water tho the soil untill that is 2 times lighter then the orginal color )

u have flush out the build up and by products of the unused stuff ............if u have microbos/ rooting stuff put some in the last gallon of the water u flush tho the system ......this helps it get all back on track

now do not water for 2 days or maybe even 3 ...then u start give it 75% str and move it to 100%


Nurt burn is at the tips of the leaves and comes down frying the leaf
start of nurt burn
see only the tips are fryed the rest is a deep green


your is lock up/build up from unused feedings and byproducts ...............so this is a Def your plant is not getting what it needs



res could be 2 things
residue......build up of crap
reservoir........this is a fresh water tank that feeds into a mixing cell for hydro system (odds they ment this)

Jaybray, yes, there is a fan very close to the plants but it works a few hours a day with a timer. Unfortunately I don't have enough space and so had to be that close.
justugh, thanks for the advice. Most of my leaves became pale yellow and so I increased the nutes at 3/4 strength, since this looked like a deficiency to me. After the increase in strength I got leaves that became brown, crispy and had rusty spots on them which made me think that it could be nute burn.

I am sceptical about the flushing because the cannabis grow bible book that I bought, mentions that flushing is a great shock for the plant and it should be done only if the plant is about to die( if you spill raw nutes accidentally for example). Do you thinks hat my plants will be alright if I give them a gentle flush as you say?

Den75 said:

thanks for the advice, mate. on my first grow I had some yellowing of leaves and i flushed my plant a few times. in the end, I ended up starving the plant and it really struggled giving me a very low yield. I read many posts and I got the cannabis grow bible. Apparently, its is harder to nuts burn your plants with organic fertilisers. Ph is supposed to be between 6.0 and 7.0. The Ph of my water with nutes was around 7.0 and the runoff was 6.7. so i guess my Ph should be alright. as for the ppms, if i exclude my water's ppm (230), then the runoff ppm is around 1100 and my plants are on the 4th week of flowering. is that a lot? I am afraid that if i flush them, they might starve again, like in my first grow. I forgot to say that the new growing leaves are ok.the biggest problem is on my older fan leaves. the buds seem to be doing ok also...
I don't know. it all seems a bit complicated. does anyone face these kind of problems at the beginning?

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yes of course big dog all of us have been were you are at you just got to tweek it a lil figure out what is going wrong dont ph so high im serious thats high.. i dont care who's bible unless it the cristian bible i aint listenting to all what they gota say i gona have to make the THUMP BIBLE soon.. look at the chart..View attachment 3033550 dont flush them all week just enough to ph the water to a 5.8 or 6.0 also your ppm should be at 600 your base is the most importand 15%to 30% additavies if your complex like me using diffrent nutrient lines all together using the best cilicus the best root enhancers the best pk blasters cal mag and using thing that dont clog up my lines like heavy metals in my nutes the magnets trap them and static electicity in my pvc lines but what i do is harder but i once started in dirt i think i still got pics of them.. yours is alot easer of course not right now but look just flush them and check ph run off thats how you know what the ph is in your soil and what the ppm's r in their two trap the run off water from under your pot and take your reading thier some times your soil is to hot to much nutes from the get go that means form the begining also if you dont get enough run off your salts build up you gota drop water in first and then 20 min later hit her with nutrients once a week and pure water when she dries out.. that means the soil is almost dry.. when you get familair with the process you will get the hang of it but dont stop with the bible get a few books to read get your self a few rounds under your belt and try it diffrent nutrient lines see what works for you and you will be a champ soon enough but dont give up.. you gota hang in thier and try and try and as you go along you will become stronger in your knowledge.. and one day you will know it wasnt so hard after all.. just read and practice..

also when you flush the with ph water let her dry up and then start with half doses of nutrients you might have root rot.. to check this out pull you plant upside down let the ball of dirt gently come out with out harming your plant when you see the roots if thier not white and they look brown they got root problems and thats why their might be yellowing up.. voodoo juice or perana from advance or regenaroot stops pythem and your on your way out you got get one with no hicups and you will get a great yield... sorry but its happend to me on many ocasion when i first started.. i got a good one a okay one one with no smell, mights, pythem, white flys, thrips, powdery mildew, heat, aphids in the roots, bors, scales,..... pritty much you gota get it all to concer it all.. then you can say i know how to trouble shoot this thing thats how you become good at it seriously..

Den75 said:

Jaybray, yes, there is a fan very close to the plants but it works a few hours a day with a timer. Unfortunately I don't have enough space and so had to be that close.
justugh, thanks for the advice. Most of my leaves became pale yellow and so I increased the nutes at 3/4 strength, since this looked like a deficiency to me. After the increase in strength I got leaves that became brown, crispy and had rusty spots on them which made me think that it could be nute burn.

I am sceptical about the flushing because the cannabis grow bible book that I bought, mentions that flushing is a great shock for the plant and it should be done only if the plant is about to die( if you spill raw nutes accidentally for example). Do you thinks hat my plants will be alright if I give them a gentle flush as you say?

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I am not sure I said anything about flushing. I don't flush till final 2 wks. Give me a sec. I was thinking wind burnt leaves. Is it only where fan blows or whole plant?

They look like they are lacking nitrogen or possibly mag. def. are the stocks purple?

justugh said:

so your soil


flush your soil ..........does not need to be a complete 3 x the size of the pot flush just enough to rinse out anything that has built up over the time period (put that first gallon tho ...capture some of the run off look at the color/tinit/shade and flush water tho the soil untill that is 2 times lighter then the orginal color )

u have flush out the build up and by products of the unused stuff ............if u have microbos/ rooting stuff put some in the last gallon of the water u flush tho the system ......this helps it get all back on track

now do not water for 2 days or maybe even 3 ...then u start give it 75% str and move it to 100%


Nurt burn is at the tips of the leaves and comes down frying the leaf
start of nurt burn
View attachment 3033496View attachment 3033497 see only the tips are fryed the rest is a deep green


your is lock up/build up from unused feedings and byproducts ...............so this is a Def your plant is not getting what it needs



res could be 2 things
residue......build up of crap
reservoir........this is a fresh water tank that feeds into a mixing cell for hydro system (odds they ment this)

Click to expand...

This guy is crazy listen to him if you want to... Im not trying to be rude.

jaybray said:

They look like they are lacking nitrogen or possibly mag. def. are the stocks purple?

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dude they are, thump easy had it right imo. the plant is locked out from nute toxicity. PPMs are high ph is off leaves are defficient and necrotic. prolly root rot. maybe water less and feed lightly? maybe try to flush to reset the ph and flush accumulated nute salts.
did u have burned leaf edges a week ago?

Im not sure what you're problem is, but I doubt it's a PH issue. You're in soil so ignore all the people telling you that this is caused by low PH. I have never once checked my ph in my soil grows. Seems like people just shout PH if they're not really sure what the actual problem is.

Can you give a little more detail about the nutrients you are using? What is the guaranteed analysis and what combination of those products did you use on your last few waterings? How often do you water? Do you feed with every watering?

general consensus is nutrient lock out from nutrient toxicity. ph being high is probably a by product of that. the leaves are pale and yellow because your plant cant take up any food. thr leaves are dying because the plant is feeding off its foliage.

Cheers everyone, you give me some hope!!!

jaybray, the stolks are purple and I ve compared photos from other posts and it seems I might have a magnesium deficiency. I got some dolomite cal- mag yesterday but I don't know if that would be the most suitable. I might need to get some Epsom salts.
stanlyspedowski, I agree with you. From all the reading I have done, it seems that the optimal ph for soil is 6.5-7.0. If you are growing organic then the soil balances itself.when I water my water is around 7 and the runoff is around 6.7. It seems alright.
I think the problem is that I haven't found the right balance on my nutes. I am using biobizz products. Because I was afraid from the nute problems I had on my first grow, I tried to use 1/4 of the strength recommended by the company. I used 1ml/l of biogrow, biobloom, bioheaven and topmax and icreased slightly as my plants progressed into flowering. But my leaves started to become pale green and after a while they turned bright yellow and died. I realised that they had a deficiency and increased the nutes I was giving them. Last week I fed them with 3/4 strength. I had to go away for work for 5 days and my roommate watered after 5 days. When I came back they showed rusty spots like nute burn and I thought that I might have over fed them, but they still had pale green leaves which could be a sign of deficiency.

And this is what confuses me and this is what caused lots of problems on my last grow: do they show deficiency problems and need extra feeding or they are nute burn and have to reduce feeding? On my last grow, I reduced feeding and ended up with starving them and a low yield. I had to harvest earlier because my plant was dying!!!!

I am growing 2 shiva skunk and a white ice strain. The white ice seems to be affected more than the shiva skunk. On my last grow,I a had lots of problems with the ice strain,which means that it is more sensitive.


i just flushed the ice strain plant and left the other two to see how they do. The first two pictures are from the ice strain and the other two from one of the shiva skunk strains Iam growing.

So I guess that most people believe that I have a Ph issue. I have a Ph down solution that I could use in order to lower my Ph. is there anything organic I could use? when I used the chemical solutions on my last grow, i had lots of problems (my ph went really down and I had to bring it up again and my plant got fu....!)

Thanks everyone for your help. I really appreciate it. sorry for the long text and sorry for my english. I live in Europe and English is not my native language!!!!

THe skunk strain look fine. Theres some slight yellowing, but its the older leaves. They wont recover from that. You should check the new growth which looks fine in those pics.

The ice strain is definitely a deficiency. Flushing was probably counterproductive. You didn't mention what your NPK values are, but I would up the N and maybe some cal/mag like you said. Have a feeling if you're following the biobizz schedule that your PK values are higher than N.

Try switching to some nutes like Jack's where you dont have to do a lot of mixing and ridiculous schedules to follow. The citrus feed they make works really well.

so, you don't think I should worry about the Ph. as I said before, I've read everywhere that the optimal Ph for cannabis is around 7,0, a neutral soil. if my runoff is 6,7 I don't think why I should worry.

According to the biobizz chart, you increase the biobloom, which has higher values of PK than N, during the flowering stage. According to their feeding schedule, I had to use alg-a-mic which is seaweed compost and which I didn't. I got some yesterday and I ve already used some. I will also add some cal/mag and see how it goes.
thanks for your help

Den75 said:

so, you don't think I should worry about the Ph. as I said before, I've read everywhere that the optimal Ph for cannabis is around 7,0, a neutral soil. if my runoff is 6,7 I don't think why I should worry.

According to the biobizz chart, you increase the biobloom, which has higher values of PK than N, during the flowering stage. According to their feeding schedule, I had to use alg-a-mic which is seaweed compost and which I didn't. I got some yesterday and I ve already used some. I will also add some cal/mag and see how it goes.
thanks for your help

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No, dont worry about your ph. You dont need to measure anything with soil, unless its a really crappy soil. Any decent soil you buy, you should not have to worry about ph. Not saying you cant have ph issues in soil, but I'm 100% sure its not your issue.

The schedule you're following doesn't take in to account the strain you're growing, youre environment and many other factors. you cant come up with a schedule that works for everyone in every situation. Stop following it. Give your plant some more Nitrogen and when you stop seeing yellowing you can go back to the bloom food. Read this thread.

https://www.rollitup.org/marijuana-plant-problems/158144-never-ending-abuse-phosphorous-bloom.html