Worm castings and plants with nutrient burn

So my plants seem to be getting burned a little bit. My plants are in a local soil that came with "everything in it that my plants will need". The soils called "rabbit creek farm easy grow soil" (easygrowsoil.com) this is my second grow, my first grow i used this soil also. Half way through the soil ran out of the nutrients and I had to add amendments. I added gaia green 4-4-4 and 2-8-4 and it worked good.

This time I recently added the gaia green 4-4-4 , so that the nutrients dont run out like last time. Unfortunately I guess it was a bad move, even though I added a little less than half of the recommended amount, my plants are experiencing a little nutrient burn. I know the soil came with worm castings, but I'm wondering if I should buy, and top dress some now to help with the current soil situation?

I read online that earthworm castings help the roots in a few ways. One being that it helps the plants only uptake the nutrients that it needs. Would that help with preventing any further problems?

The plants seem to be getting lighter in color

240 watt LED light
3x3 ac infinity tent
RH% around 55%-60%
Temperature around 75-80 degrees during the day. And around 66-70 at night.

If I understand correctly
You tried to add nutrients in advance of needing nutrients
It would have been better to use an inert grow medium than trying to supercharge a medium with time release fertilizer
Lesson learned
Adding more anything at this time could increase the problems
It might be better to ride it out and let the plant get used to its overfed environment
At least that would be my approach unless you intend to up pot again

It's odd that the only time I get "nute burn" is in water-only grows, after weeks of zero "nute burn".

How does that make sense? This has been the outcome of every water-only soil I've attempted. Zero "nute burn" for multiple weeks, feeding RO water. Then all the sudden, burn,at any temp, any humidity, any light intensity it's always been the same. Wouldn't the nutes burn them earlier than week 3, before the soil was depleted of nutes?

There's only one conclusion. "Nute burn" is a deficiency. The only excess causing "nute burn" is excess calcium, locking out boron and potassium, and phosphorus, iron, sulfur, etc. You'd stay away from worm castings if you saw how poor these worms are being fed. A complete detriment to Cannabis, these wormtards are feeding calcitic rocks lime dusts cardboard boxes (calcium and magnesium) and newspapers (more calcium than anything).

Bigger plants need more nutes. Stronger light needs more nutes. Nute uptake and requirement profiles change at different points in the plants life. If you take all these factors into consideration while diagnosing cannabis plants, it's pretty obvious that most cannabis growers are underfeeding and calling it "nute burn",which leads them to believe backing off of nutrition is the answer, rather than adding what's been locked out.

All anyone has to do is compare sucrose levels in old burnt leaves to that of new leaves. But what if the new leaves are burnt? Light sensitivity, caused by the same deficiency that cause lower leaves to "burn". It seems like none of the nutrient experts in the Cannabis realm even know what nutrients do. They just run around calling everything nute burn and scaring growers away from high levels of balanced nutrition: the main key to success.

I call that lockout. Your plants aren’t terribly affected. Next time they’re dry give the a double watering so you get 1-1.5 gallons of runoff or until the runoff is around 1500ppms. You don’t want to strip the soil just take it down a bit. I had a similar experience with down to earth products.

Looking closer at the pics. Looks like your pots are 3 gal? 5? You probably need les than a gallon of runoff

Herb & Suds said:

If I understand correctly
You tried to add nutrients in advance of needing nutrients
It would have been better to use an inert grow medium than trying to supercharge a medium with time release fertilizer
Lesson learned
Adding more anything at this time could increase the problems
It might be better to ride it out and let the plant get used to its overfed environment
At least that would be my approach unless you intend to up pot again

Click to expand...

The nutrients i added was gaia green 4-4-4 and its a slow release. And at the time my plants had a deficiency so I was assuming that the nutrients in the soil I baught was lacking what the plants needed and or was running low ...if that makes sense?

93OG said:

Looking closer at the pics. Looks like your pots are 3 gal? 5? You probably need les than a gallon of runoff

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5 gal

93OG said:

I call that lockout. Your plants aren’t terribly affected. Next time they’re dry give the a double watering so you get 1-1.5 gallons of runoff or until the runoff is around 1500ppms. You don’t want to strip the soil just take it down a bit. I had a similar experience with down to earth products.

Click to expand...

So im using thies self watering cloth pot trays from ac infinity. Are you familiar with them? They work great, never over or under water. I put a link to a video so you can see what I mean, if you don't already

Usually nute burn will show itself as fried leaf tips and margins.. I'm not seeing any signs of nute burn.

If the manufacturer thought it could safely sell you additional nutrients they would have added them as they are in the business of selling more nutrients
as far as off feed cycle watering i bet you use more water then which releases more nutrients
My 2cents

I don't see any nute burn, unless my eyes are off, where are the burnt tips?

Burt tips 3rd pic top center, 4th pic middle right side

93OG said:

Burt tips 3rd pic top center, 4th pic middle right side

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Thanks, really have to look for them, I've seen worse.

Week4@inCharge said:

Thanks, really have to look for them, I've seen worse.

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So the girls are getting pretty tall I'm guessing I need to flip them soon. I'm worried that there still messed up though and I'm going to make it worse or something. I wish there was somone local who really knows there shit that could come overe and show me a few things.

So what do you guys think?

Jimi O'Connor said:

So the girls are getting pretty tall I'm guessing I need to flip them soon. I'm worried that there still messed up though and I'm going to make it worse or something. I wish there was somone local who really knows there shit that could come overe and show me a few things.

So what do you guys think?

Click to expand...

Tough call, see a few things happening that you've mentioned already. Seems like a little Magnesium deficiency (lockout?) going on and dry amendments usually don't burn the ladies, especially at those safe NPK values, takes at least 2 weeks before they even start to break down to a usable molecule for the roots to use any of it. Are you using anything else besides the Gaia Green? Some add the earth worm castings and/or compost with the dry amendments to speed up the breakdown of the meals, myself included but that might not be needed, could be a bro science thing, not sure on that but seems to be a legit practice as compost has the beneficial fungi and bacteria, so maybe a good practice. It's tough to tell if your plants are on the recovery or on the beginnings of a lockout. If you want to wait it out trimming some of the lower branches will slow down the growth, topping will do that too. We don't know what ratios you used in your feeds, cup to a gallon? 1/2 cup to a pot? (hope you didn't do the cup to the gallon) And you don't need run off if your growing organic, are you? Seems like you are if your using the Gaia Green. @Herb & Suds suggests to ride it out which after all that is probably the best call. Need to know for sure if your plants are in a lockout or not. If they are then daily foliar sprays is your life jacket for now.

Jimi O'Connor said:

So the girls are getting pretty tall I'm guessing I need to flip them soon. I'm worried that there still messed up though and I'm going to make it worse or something. I wish there was somone local who really knows there shit that could come overe and show me a few things.

So what do you guys think?

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What's your water like? I might check for bugs to. Not that its related to the main issue but it looks like eggs or something on the 3rd pic.

to me it’s progressed a bit in 4 days so I would wanna get them straight b4 flower started but sometimes it is what it is. I know what I would do…up pot them…but I’m outdoor lol and the sky is literally the limit. indoor I am not sure but my bet is lockout of some kind. did u try the soil runoff test (ppm) @93OG was sayin in post #4???

ooof-da said:

to me it’s progressed a bit in 4 days so I would wanna get them straight b4 flower started but sometimes it is what it is. I know what I would do…up pot them…but I’m outdoor lol and the sky is literally the limit. indoor I am not sure but my bet is lockout of some kind. did u try the soil runoff test (ppm) @93OG was sayin in post #4???

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The runoff wouldn't say much, Organic vs Synthetic nutes are two different animals that reach a common end but get there at a different rate. Organic is a s l o w r e l e a s e fertilizer.... synthetic almost instant. Maybe, an EC of the soil? (yes on the up potting) He could add a mulch layer at the top (got straw?), as it decomposes it will suck up some of the nitrogen out of the soil.

Week4@inCharge said:

Tough call, see a few things happening that you've mentioned already. Seems like a little Magnesium deficiency (lockout?) going on and dry amendments usually don't burn the ladies, especially at those safe NPK values, takes at least 2 weeks before they even start to break down to a usable molecule for the roots to use any of it. Are you using anything else besides the Gaia Green? Some add the earth worm castings and/or compost with the dry amendments to speed up the breakdown of the meals, myself included but that might not be needed, could be a bro science thing, not sure on that but seems to be a legit practice as compost has the beneficial fungi and bacteria, so maybe a good practice. It's tough to tell if your plants are on the recovery or on the beginnings of a lockout. If you want to wait it out trimming some of the lower branches will slow down the growth, topping will do that too. We don't know what ratios you used in your feeds, cup to a gallon? 1/2 cup to a pot? (hope you didn't do the cup to the gallon) And you don't need run off if your growing organic, are you? Seems like you are if your using the Gaia Green. @Herb & Suds suggests to ride it out which after all that is probably the best call. Need to know for sure if your plants are in a lockout or not. If they are then daily foliar sprays is your life jacket for now.

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I used half the recommended amount so 1/2 tabsp per gallon, i have 5 gal cloth pots. The only thing i added besides the gaia green 4-4-4 is recharge once a week. This is so frustrating, i wish i had someone who knew what to do like a pro come over and show me the roaps so i never have to be guessing again


Do you think I should add wormcastings? And if its lockout what do i do about that ?

I PH my water to 6.4-6.5 so would that cause lockout

Foliar spray?

ooof-da said:

to me it’s progressed a bit in 4 days so I would wanna get them straight b4 flower started but sometimes it is what it is. I know what I would do…up pot them…but I’m outdoor lol and the sky is literally the limit. indoor I am not sure but my bet is lockout of some kind. did u try the soil runoff test (ppm) @93OG was sayin in post #4???

Click to expand...

No runoff test i dont have a ppm pen or whatever its called. And im growing organic just the rabbit creek farm easy grow soil, recharge and gaia green 4-4-4 so far.

Also idk if i mentioned this before but the 3 larger plants are the same strain (grandpas cookies #6 × zwag #23) the 4th plant is bacio gelato its the smaller looking one its really compact. The 4th plant hasnt had a single issue this far.... other than idk if its male or female yet. But no burn no yellowing no nothing just growing full and round and what not. I haven't done anything different between plants

Here's what they look like today