Yellowing, Browning, Crispy, Crumbling, Pics..

I have looked around at various people's posts on their plant problems. I have also read growfaq, etc. First off here is the set up.
2-4' T12 shop lights. Temps 65-77. Bagseed, 46 days old from seed, Fox Farm Ocean Forest. My water is R/O and also water softened by Solar Salt-around 6.0-6.2 PH. Nutes are BMO Super Plant Tonic, and Grow it Green. I use SPT now and then. Grow it Green once a week, and plain water the rest of the time.
I'm wondering, does my water softener kill my plants?! My problem fits into many different deficiencies.
The last 2 pics are of a plant in flower(1 week 2 days in), MG soil, BMO Flower Power nutes, temps 65/77. The discolored spots are a brown/rusty color and crispy.

Thank you for any help you all provide, I really appreciate it. I'd like to get these problems sorted out so I can purchase some actual seeds.

i would get the plants out of cups and put them in pots. do the cups have holes in them? then i would give them nothing but straight water for a week and see how they respond. how are you measuring ph? why ro water?

Yes those cups have holes in them, 5 in the bottom, and they do get drainage. The roots are at the bottom of the cups, would that mean I need to repot and that's my entire problem? I measure PH with a cheap fish tank test kit from wal*mart. R/O water because it's either tap water that goes through a softener, or R/O that goes through the softener. I just figured the R/O is better. I think the tap is like 7.8 PH, the R/O is like 6.0. Thank you for your reply capn!!!!

Also, when I use nutes, I have yet to go full strength. I range from 1/2 to 3/4 when I do feed.

Correction: My R/O water PH is about 6.4
Tap water PH is about 7.2

bump..anyone..?

Wow... someone who's plants look exactly like mine. Yeah, same thing is happening to my plants, and the problem looks exactly the same.

I really wish I knew what was wrong too... It's hard to get answers. Everyone just posts their "guess" on what the problem is, and usually its the wrong answer.

Today I tried adding diluted lemon juice to the soil in case the pH is too high. The growth of my plants are also stunted, is that happening with yours?

Oh and I am also using the exact same lighting as you... 2 4' T12s, and one 36 watt cfl.

Filipino - Sorry to hear your plants aren't doing so well either! And it sucks that the wrong answers are given. However my plants are still growing.

I am Not and expert. But my advice is this.
I had high PH to start off with, and that will lock out your nutrients and make it appear as you have nutrient deficiency. If you have access to dolomite lime, horticultural lime, or even a product called Ferti-lome Soil Acidifier, it's a bottle of liquid, that should help. There's also peat moss, elemental sulfur, and the lemon juice works if you do it more often!
High PH levels cause a reduction in phosphate and trace element availability.
Hope this helps. Good luck! PEACE!

The salt content of your water is probably pretty high. Looks like a few symptoms going on there. Deficiencies , and possible salt overkill. Start using DFistilled water to see what happens....

yeah, that is what was happening to me.

The best solution is to get a ppm pen. Test the water COMMING OUT of the BOTTOM of the pot. It will hold many clues as to what is going on. If the water going in is at 1000ppm and the water comming out is at 4000ppm, you have a problem. Same thing with the pH, if it is way off, you got to fix it, if you ppms are comming out pretty much the same and so is the pH, then at that point it may be a feeding problem and you may want to add more nutes.

You can't use water from a water softener. There is too much salt in there. Your plants have cal-mag deficiency; that's what causes exactly that kind of crispy browning starting from the tip or edge of older leaves.

Use bottled/RO water and add some cal-mag or epsom salt to resolve.

I am using FF ocean forest too. you don't need to feed them anything but water for the first 30 days. then the nutes run out of the soil and you can use what you want. My 30 days was up a few days ago, so I gave it a good flush to get whatever was left out. the next watering I'm doing the mollasses thing, then next some big bloom. then flush, then mollasses again then straight water till its done in about 5 weeks I cant wait. my buds look good, the leaves are still a little f-ed from earler.

Ah, I see you ARE using RO water. It probably goes through the water softener first then the RO filter, right? Then the salt is not a factor.

You still most definitely have cal-mag deficiency. It's easy to fix.

have a questionfor anyonewho can help a newbie. im growing about 20 ladies under 2 400 mh temp 75/78 humid/43/45/ ph is 6.9/7.0 all the ladies are doing good except one strain a hybrid skunk/haze a few of the leaves on the ladies seem to b curling inward and drying up. now i only feed them when needed can u help me with this problem. also can i switch ferts im growing in soil by the way pro mix with worm casting im on week 4 almost. i would like to know can i switch ferts and is it ok to use the 3 part flora series that is used for hydoro growers? thank you for help

Hey thank you all so much for your help. I've been waiting anxiously to figure this out as I want to grow some more potent stuff! Yes SHNKRMN, I believe it first runs through the softener, then the R/O. I was really hoping I wouldn't have to buy water since I've got the R/O system..GR. I guess I'll have to order some cal-mag stuff. How long do you assume this problem to take to fix itself?

jnuggs said:

Hey thank you all so much for your help. I've been waiting anxiously to figure this out as I want to grow some more potent stuff! Yes SHNKRMN, I believe it first runs through the softener, then the R/O. I was really hoping I wouldn't have to buy water since I've got the R/O system..GR. I guess I'll have to order some cal-mag stuff. How long do you assume this problem to take to fix itself?

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Yup, softener first is normal, but then the RO should remove most of the salt (it leaves some salt in). It also removes calcium and magnesium salts! Every RO grow will need this. Use cal-mag with every watering and the problem won't reoccur. The crispy leaves you have now won't recover, but you'll get plenty of new growth. You shouldn't see any new leaf damage within a couple days of using it.

I have had this problem a lot too. I have hopefully resolved it but you have to understand the water COMMING OUT of the pot. See what the ppm of it is compared to the water you are putting in, also check the pH. This will answer A LOT if not ALL your questions as it tells you exactily what is in your plants soil.

Hey guys, thank you for your responses. At the moment I don't have a PPM meter so I can't do that til I buy one. My PH level I believe is fine. It's FFOF soil so the PH should be fine also. I believe it's the cal-mag deal. I've watered a couple times with epsom and it seems to be alright I suppose. I still have yellowing leaves that are dying off (3rd week flower) so I also used a grow formula with bloom. Thanks again!