A couple weeks ago I posted pics of my 2 Gold leaf girls cause I needed help figuring out their deficiency. 3 members suggested it was magnesium so i followed their advice of supplementing epsom salt at a rate of .5 teaspoon per gallon. Ive watered them twice with it and fed them a compost tea with some in it too.
I’ve noticed on one good progress while the other a bit less but progress nonetheless.
Is the progress supposed to start looking like a potassium deficiency but instead of omly on older leaves everywhere?
Am I on the right track or am I making things worse?
It’s only my second grow and although I’ve researched a lot, I can’t say I know what I’m doing yet. Especially when I have a problem like this. I’m waiting for this to clear out before I flip to 12/12.
Here’s pertinent information and pics after epsom salt supplementation.
Gold Leaf [ilgm]
11 weeks old
happy frog/perlite/lava rock
one has Gaia Green 444 [per label]
other has Dr Earths home grown [per feed ch]
20% worm poop on both
5gallon fabric pots [ac infinity]
used ro water only until deficiencies
aerated tap water since
tap water comes out @8.2ph/190ppm
water fed @6.5-6.8 [GH ph down]
3x3 grow tent
spider farmer G3000
RH 48-53 temp 76F-78F
light cycle 18/6
Yeah that wasn’t Mg to start with
The Epson didn’t hurt but none of tje pictures look like Mg to me.
I’m wondering what ph and ppm is the run off coming out at compared to what you go in with🤔
I see you are running organics my bet is these plants are to big for only 5 gallon pots and i can guarantee that the plants are using more avaliable nutrients than the pot can keep up with as far as organic breakdown impo you arent going to get over this without transplanting to double the size pot or start feeding bottle nutes but that could mess thing up even more
I did a slurry test by mixing equal parts soil and distilled water, gave it a good stir and used my ph pen (apera) on the slurry. The ph read 6.3.
Took the soil from deep within the roots and waited till over night to check the ph.
Run off didn’t bother cause i have a ppm meter wich to my understanding, doesn’t work for organics and I don’t have an ec meter
A ph of 6.3 is somewhat low for soil, and you will be better at or slightly above 6.5. This chart would agree with others about the magnesium, but it suggests a lockout instead of availability.
When I was running soil with RO water, I found it a real pain to mix liquid cal/mag in the water. So switched to this dry supplement. Scratched it in the surface between every 2 - 3 watering. The powered lime in will give a little ph increase, and will give a good ph buffer. Plus it has calcium, magnesium, and iron.
With that said. Before adding anything else to the mix. You really should learn how to check the run off’s ph and TDS as @1HappyPappy suggested. EC, TDS, and PPM are all terms used to describe how much stuff is in the water. TDS, Total Dissolved Solids is what we are trying to determine. EC, Electrical Conductivity measuring this is used to tell how much TDS there is. Salt water will have a high conductivity, and RO water will be very low. PPM, Parts Per Million is the preferred measurement of TDS, and there are three different scales for converting EC to PPM.
It is important that you collect the run off like this are you will just end up reading the same as what goes in.
Start by pre moisturizing the soil with RO using about 1/4 of the total amount, and wait for about 10 minutes. Then slowly add more RO until the bag just starts to drip, then wait a hour or two then water until you start getting some run off. Use this for your ph and TDS test.
If using dry ammendments make a tea with it. Let sit overnight before applying. Will allow the nutes to break down a bit and get to the plant faster. I grow 5 and 7 gallon living soil and get some big plants. It is correct that living soil prefers larger pots though.
I gave them a tea 3 days ago. 1 cup dr earths flower girl, 1 cup Dr earths home grown, 1.5 cups castings, kelp extract, mollases, humic acid, 3 tbsp epsom salts and a partridge in a pear tree.
Ph after brew was 7.0 on the dot. Brewed for 24hrs
I just bought 2 8 gallon pots to transplant just in case it will help.
Should I go ahead and flush it out real good before transplant? I just top dressed one of them half and half gia green all purpose and flower with castings. The other is due on Monday for top dress.
This is frustrating to not know what to do for sure.
By all means its 100% doable but you really have to stay ontop of watering practices and feedings/teas once the plant is bigger than its root mass it makes it much more difficult to keep up with these things
It can. I prefer 10 gallon myself but my soil has been reused 5 or 6 times and is pure gold. Full of nutes now ready to go. I can actually get by with 7 now because of the good soil. By the time plants eat whats there the ammendments added at planting are broken down. I actually get hot.
Went this morning and got a couple 10 gallon pots. Mixed equal parts happy frog and promix hp, ammended with equal parts dr earths home grown and flower girl per feed chart and transplanted both Gold leafs.
Brewed a tea yesterday and gave them a gallon each.
When I got them out of the pots, they had WAY less roots to them than I thought they would. They had like 3 gal worth of roots each. Idk I thought that was odd.
I used Gaia green for almost two years and loved it and the results…
are you keeping the soil moisture up? Not allowing too much dry back? Organics shouldn’t dry out, just a nice balance of in between.
I would not add cal/mag, Gaia 284 is 16% calcium, you have plenty.
Gotta figure out why some nutrients are not being absorbed properly.
I don’t see a calcium or a magnesium deficiency, MAYBE early potassium?
Initially, I thought I had a potassium deficiency because leaves were loosing green around the edges and added langbienite at 5 tsp top dress on 2 occasions and didn’t fix it. Then I posted my issue and was told to give them magnesium so I did and didn’t fix it.
I honestly think RO water threw off my ph and I mistook for deficiency, resulting in me causing a severe imbalance of nutrients trying to add things without first reaching out for advice.
My tap water comes out at 175 ppm so I had no reason to use RO other than because I had it installed. From now on I’m sticking to 48hr airated tap water and see how my next grow goes.
I am without question, letting my soil dry too much and I’m more than likely not watering enough either. I’m so paranoid of overwatering, it’s probavly biting me in the butt.
Over watering is watering too often and not the amount given at one time. You could give your plant a couple gallons at one time and not over water it. As long as you let your soil dry out between days you cant over water it. This applys to a plant that has established a good root system not for seedlings. @MontePR
RO water should not effect the soils ph, RO water doesn’t really have a ph so it will adapt to whatever the substrate ph is. (Sometimes that’s good, sometimes bad)
I would keep your moisture content up a little bit more. Keeps the beneficial bacteria happy.
