Logan Burke

Well-Known Member
Hello RIU! So, a sulfur deficiency (or so I suspect, bright yellow and even reddish pinkish colored new growth starting from the base of the leaf fingers and progressing outwards) has reared it's ugly head during my current grow. I am currently using the maximum dose of CaliMagic, 5mL/Gal, and was curious if it was safe to also add some epsom salt as well for some added sulfur? My base nute has sulfur in it, Floranova Bloom, but my plants are still showing signs of a deficiency. I just do not want to OD my plants on magnesium by also adding Epsom Salts. Should I reduce, or even totally eliminate, the calmag and replace it with Epsom? Or is there another source of Sulfur out there I could use? I am in DWC, so it would need to be a water soluble product for me to use it. Any help is much appreciated, thanks for reading!
 

Logan Burke

Well-Known Member
Sorry guys I wasn't thinking to provide pics, lights come on in 2 hours and I will get you all some pics! I'm using Floranova Bloom and CaliMagic, using the Floranova Bloom at betwen 5-8mL/Gal and CaliMagic at max strength because of a severe magnesium and calcium deficiency in early veg. Altogether, my ppm's are right around 1250-1400 on a .5 scale. I can get the EC reading on my meter when lights come on, I completely forgot the conversion numbers for .5 scale to EC. I had heard that Sulfur was a quite rare deficiency to have, so it did strike me as odd. I just don't know what else would trigger this pinkish color on the very newest growth, the leaves that are still not developed yet. The rest of the upper leaves are bright, bright damn near yellow highlighter yellow. Could this be a result of heat stress? Over the past few days temps have gotten close to 80F, even though I do keep multiple oscilating and clip fans running 24/7. As for PH, my PH is monitored once a day as is always between 5.8 and 6.2. At the max, I'll see .1 or .2 drift a day, usually less.
Appreciate the replies guys, much thanks.
*EDIT* Forgot to say, just to be on the safe side I did foliar feed a VERY weak solution of .25tsp of epsoms per gallon. I definitely don't want too much Mg to antagonize another nutrient and compound my problems!
 

JohnDee

Well-Known Member
Logan,
Not even sure what your medium is. Sure you can use Epsom salts along with calmag. I do it. I give enough calmag to deal with Ca++ needs and then Epsom salts if I need more Mg. I like the sulfur especially in bloom.

Your nutes sound high to me...and i would exp;lore the lockout issue.
JD
 

Logan Burke

Well-Known Member
Well, my calcium deficiency symptoms went away after applying the calmag...also using RO water...so maybe I don't need it, but the Calmag made the symptoms stop, so I keep using it. My current profile pic is of the plants about 1 week ago, I am about to go snap new pics right now to post though. Thus far I'm still barely under what the bottle's label recommends, though I know that bottle recommendations are usually way to high.
JohnDee - I'm in DWC using RO water. These are actually the same plants I'd made the thread asking for advice about a month or so ago. This is only the second photoperiod grow I've done in the past 5 years, have always grown auto's in the past. So, I'm still adjusting to the nutrient differences. I never would've believed a plant, even in full blown flower, could handle the high PPM's. But everytime I try to back off the ppm's, I begin getting brown and rusty spots on all of my mid and upper growth. I must not be too horribly off point as the plants are fairly healthy, there is just that bright yellowness on the very newest growth that I'm having a difficult time pinning down. While pot plants should be pot plants, the switch to photoperiod strains has proven to be a little more different than I had expected.
Appreciate the replies everyone!
 

Logan Burke

Well-Known Member
Sounds like lockout due to a ph issue or feeding to heavily
Use the epsom salts as a foliar feed and see if it helps
Yesterday before lights off, I gave a slight bump of about 50-100ppms of their base nutrient and did a very weak .25tsp/gallon foliar of epsoms and I must admit, the plants are looking only about half as yellow as they were the day before. It could be the increase in base nutrients, it could be the epsoms, I'm really not sure.
 

Logan Burke

Well-Known Member
These are the plants as of today. Their new growth has darkened up quite a bit since yesterday, though I'm not sure if it was the foliar of epsoms or the slight increase in base nutrients. Please ignore the browned and damaged leaves, that was from a very severe deficiency I encountered in the first weeks of this grow. That problem has now been solved though, and the browning hasn't spread in weeks. It's just this very newest growth that is concerning me. I've reduced canopy temps the past 3 days from the low 80F's to 75-78F as it looked like there was some heat stress going on, not sure how much that was contributing too it though.
 

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JohnDee

Well-Known Member
JohnDee - I'm in DWC using RO water. These are actually the same plants I'd made the thread asking for advice about a month or so ago.
Ya...now I remember. You are dealing with a bunch of potheads here. lol Both Ca and Mg are needed at varying degrees so for your plant (and pheno)...it sounds like you hit the right formula.

When I started growing at this location last winter...I had some Ca def issues (brown spots) despite the Maxi-gro I was giving...and like you...added calmag did the trick. But I have to add I run much lower ppms. I believe I peaked out at 800ppm on my last run. Just ramblin'...somebody stop me please.
JD
 
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Logan Burke

Well-Known Member
Hahahaha hey man no complaints here, I learn from you all rambling! Yes the high ppm's I'm running does concern me, I mean if the plants are healthy then I guess it shouldn't bother me, which other than the yellow tops they do seem to be growing quickly and rather vigorously. I'm having so much fun learning how to ScROG, it was a bit challenging to understand at first, but once I realized exactly what I needed to do it has been great. In fact, my biggest problem at the moment is that I have too many bud sites popping up to have room for in my screen!
 
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