upgraded my light to a Mars Hydro TSL 2000 a few weeks ago. It’s been a challenge keeping the temp and humidity right with the new light.
I also (stupidly) decided to feed nuts to both plants on 1/29/2021. Both plants have been downhill ever since. I flushed the Goldleaf plant 3 times with pHed tap/distilled water. The ppd numbers in the runoff didn’t make any sense to me (130^10 ppd; 472^10 ppd
; 229^10 ppd). That’s pretty dang high!
What strain, Seed bank, or bag seed: ILGM
Method: Soil w/salt, Organic soil, Hydroponics, Aquaponics, KNF: Soil (Supersoil from apotforpot [WW] and Indicanja for Goldleaf)
Vessels: Pots, Grow beds, Buckets, Troths: 3 gal pot (WW) and 5 gal pot (GL)
PH of Water, Solution, runoff (if Applicable): ** 5.8-6.3. I’m not very good at this and I have the strips, the ph up/down kit AND a pH/TDS meter. I just can’t get a hang of how much up/down I need to get to the target. Always add too much! **
PPM/TDS or EC of nutrient solution if applicable
Indoor or Outdoor: Indoor
Light system: Mars Hydro TSL2000
Temps; Day, Night: Day 77F/ Night 81F
Humidity; Day, Night: 31%/44%
Ventilation system; Yes, No, Size: Yes, I have a 4"inline for active exhaust that I run for an hour 1-2x day. I keep the bottom vents open on the tent and I have 2 mini-fans blowing whenever the lights are on.
AC, Humidifier, De-humidifier, Humidifier
Co2; Yes, No: No
upgraded my light to a Mars Hydro TSL 2000 a few weeks ago. It’s been a challenge keeping the temp and humidity right with the new light.
I also (stupidly) decided to feed nuts to both plants on 1/29/2021. Both plants have been downhill ever since. I flushed the Goldleaf plant 3 times with pHed tap/distilled water. The ppd numbers in the runoff didn’t make any sense to me (130^10 ppd; 472^10 ppd
; 229^10 ppd). That’s pretty dang high!
I use a moisture meter and the “knuckle” method for checking if both are ready for a watering. I water every 4-5 days?
I’ve been told everything from nut burn, calcium deficiency, overwatering, or heat stress. I have no idea what’s going on. More images found here: Ahsik Nope | Flickr
Is this heat stress? Do I need to flush again? WW is in flower mode, correct?
WW is 6wks 2ds
Goldleaf is 5wks 3ds
What strain, Seed bank, or bag seed: **ILGM**
Method: Soil w/salt, Organic soil, Hydroponics, Aquaponics, KNF: **Soil (Supersoil from apotforpot [WW] and Indicanja for Goldleaf)**
Vessels: Pots, Grow beds, Buckets, Troths: **3 gal pot (WW) and 5 gal pot (GL)**
PH of Water, Solution, runoff (if Applicable): ** 5.8-6.3. I'm not very good at this and I have the strips, the ph up/down kit AND a pH/TDS meter. I just can't get a hang of how much up/down I need to get to the target. Always add too much! **
PPM/TDS or EC of nutrient solution if applicable
Indoor or Outdoor: **Indoor**
Light system: **Mars Hydro TSL2000**
Temps; Day, Night: **Day 77F/ Night 81F**
Humidity; Day, Night: **31%/44%**
Ventilation system; Yes, No, Size: **Yes, I have a 4"inline for active exhaust that I run for an hour 1-2x day. I keep the bottom vents open on the tent and I have 2 mini-fans blowing whenever the lights are on.**
AC, Humidifier, De-humidifier, **Humidifier**
Co2; Yes, No: **No**
I don’t know what to do, but I don’t think you’re supposed to flush “living soils”. I run my auto in Fox Farm Ocean Forest. I’ve added dr earth organic dry stuff as she got around 3 weeks old. I’ve seen PPM runoffs as high as 6.7k. Watered straight R.O. to get my runoff numbers down and less than 10 days of flower all the nutes were gone and my plant was showing signs of phosphorus deficiency.
Long story short (sorry too late) I made assumptions and did too much stuff to my plant without giving it enough time to react to what I had done 3-5-7 days ago. These plants are pretty resilient. As a new grower, I think most of the time when you do extra things to the plant to help, you just end up making it worse.
I think leaves yellowing thoughout the plant is supposed to indicate nitrogen deficiency, but the brown spots make me lean towards magnesium def. I add a half teaspoon of epsom salt to my girl every time I water her.
Sorry I couldn’t be of more immediate help. Someone on here will be able to help more.
I don’t understand what those numbers mean which is why I didn’t attempt to help. What are you using to measure your ppm and pH? Can you change the ppm readout to be EC? That is a number that remains constant among measuring devices, ppm’s can be in different scales.
Hey I’m no pro but I’m in a similar grow (ww, soil,ilgm) im just saying I’m familiar with the strain. First thing I thought was cal tox / over water.
If you flushed them give them a day or two no water they come around and they will be hungry… maybe…lol
I am using a TDS and a pH meter. The ppm numbers in the runoff didn’t make any sense to me (130^10 ppm; 472^10 ppm; 229^10 ppm). When I looked at the ppm meter screen it would read “472” with a ‘10’ in the top right corner. I assumed it means 472 raised to the 10th power (i.e. 472^10). That’s pretty dang high! Or I have no idea how to read the meter?
I flushed the GL but I did not flush the WW plant because I was confused about ppm readings. Should I flush WW and leave her alone for a few days? I currently water her every 3ish days until the bottom of the pot feels wet.
Let’s get the meter figured out before flushing anything else. Take some of the water you use to water your plants. Tap water is ok but if you use RO (reverse osmosis) water or distilled water all the better. Measure the ppm of the water and see what happens. RO or distilled should have a very low reading and tap water may be between 30-500 depending on how hard your water is. What appears on your ppm meter, does the ^10 show up on the screen?
Is there any “mode” buttons on your ppm meter to change what is displayed? Can you display EC? If so, add something to a little water (nutrients like cal mag would work) until the EC reads 1.0. Switch the display to read ppms. If your meter reads 500 it uses the 500 scale, and if it reads 700 it uses a 700 scale. Both are common and you need to know what scale your meter reads. If you have a manual it might say in there.
Once we figure out what the meter is reading we can get a handle on what is going on. I can’t begin to stress enough how important being able to accurately measure and adjust your nutrients using pH and ppm. Growing in soil you can get partly through the grow without feeding and worrying about ppms and pH, the bigger the pot and the more soil the further you can get, but at some point you will need to learn the correct way to feed your plants if you want nice big harvests.
Ok, I’m back! I chatted with the TDS meter manufacturer, and they confirmed that if the reading says, for example, 130^10, this measures 1300ppm. There are no mode options or EC reading with my current TDS meter.
Following your instructions, I retested using filtered tap water with a pH of 7.7 and 0ppm. The nute solution I use is at 1/4 tsp per gallon using distilled water to mix. The ppm is 232 with a pH of 7.7. I also tested a soil slurry and measured pH 7.66.
I am open to purchasing a better TDS or pH meter if one is suggested.
Great to hear that it isn’t that far out of wack. Why they think 130^10 would require fewer digits then 1300 beats me, but I’m glad the readings are reasonable.
I’m only familiar with Fox Farm soils, but if you were to do a slurry test on a new bag of soil the ppms would be between 2000-4000 and even higher, some on this site have claimed over 6000 in cases, so your initial readings of 2290 would certainly be acceptable. The 4720 is a little high, but it might be on purpose. If it doesn’t burn your young plants the nutrients will get used up as the plant grows and you can go longer before the need to feed.
A reading of 1300 is not normal for a bag of fresh potting soil, but if the reading is accurate, it means you will have to feed that plant sooner. When the ppms drop to 900 that is an clear indication that feeding is now necessary.
Getting good meters certainly makes it easier. ppm meters are inexpensive and a good one can be had for $10-$20. pH meters are more expensive and there are many small differences. Good ones cost closer to $50 and up, plus they need reference solution and “pH up” and “pH down”. I’m not up on the latest and greatest, mine is probably 12 years old but still works great. The probe gets stored in 7.0 reference solution so if I turn it on and it reads anything other 7.0 it either need solution changed, or meter needs recalibration which is done at the push of a button. Mine is an “Eco tester pH2” but it seems a common brand thrown around is Apera. There are others but I forget what they are. A quick search on this forum asking for suggestions for pH meters will get more current input.
I hope I’ve given you enough information to get back on track and clear up some confusion you might have. If there are any other questions that I can help with just tag me.
@CMichGrower thanks so much for your patience and knowledge!
For clarity’s sake, would this be nutrient burn? Moving forward should I continue to use pH’ed water (pH-6-7 (goal 6.2-6.8)) as needed (and only feeding if ppm is >900)? Is there anything else I need to add (i.e. Cal-Mag)?
There is nothing that you can do to fix discolored leaves, only watch the new growth for signs of improvement. Unfortunately, what ever corrective steps you take, you won’t be able to measure if you were successful for a week or ten days when the new growth shows what’s going on.
I went back up and reread your second post. The photos showed a lot of wilting and I hope that has corrected itself by now. The upgrade to Mars hydro 2000 is good move and probably a lot brighter then what you had before.
Watering thoroughly and allowing the pots to nearly dry out before watering again is good practice when growing in soil. You should have a feel by now how often you need to water. Most of my plants get watered every 3 days, 4 days they might wilt. Wilting when the plants are in veg is no problem, the plants will recover quickly, but if you allow them to wilt from lack of water in late flower the leaves will not recover and will just die off.
The discoloration of the leaves of the white widow is a common problem in mid to late flower and if it shows up mostly on the top, near the bright light, then it is most likely a cal-mag deficiency created by the increased demands put on the plant because of lights bright enough to push the plants to its limits. You should raise the light a little, or move the plant to the side so it’s not directly under the light, and give it some cal-mag with every watering/feeding.
Your gold leaf is starting to show signs of cal-mag deficiencies as well. My guess is you introduced the plants to the bright lights a little too aggressively. When changing lights it’s always best to introduce the new light slowly increasing light over a week or so.
Feeding when the runoff ppm is 900 or below is critical to keep them alive, but you can push their growth by giving them more then the minimum nutrients to survive on. I feed my plants as long as I don’t see signs of excess, but that’s me, others will not agree. Soil only lasts so long before nutrients are depleted and by the size of the buds on the white widow I have to think you are 3-4 weeks into flower. Most plants can benefit by increased potassium and phosphorus in late flower and I would certainly feed the plant to increase the bud development.
What brand of nutrients do you have? I’ll look up the feeding schedule and give you some suggestions on feeding if you are interested.
That could partially be the problem, but I’ve never had the fan blowing directly on the plant. One is in the top left, mostly blowing on the lamp itself, and the other fan is bottom right blowing towards the back wall or just under the canopy of the closest plant. I’m really just winging the positions because the tent gets hot, so I’m willing to move either.
Today is the day I get my plants together! They are both definitely due for a watering/feed.
Lights - I probably did crank to “11” way too soon because I followed the manufacturer’s directions during the veg state. I currently have WW and GL 16" and 18" away from the lamp at ~70%. I may have room to raise it another couple inches, but the real estate is tight (lesson learned for the next grow).
Food and Water
GL was last flushed and fed 2/4. WW was last fed 1/29 and pure water since.
I used Real Growers Recharge (about 1/4 tsp per gallon) the first time I fed both. I then flushed GL and fed her half strength of 1/4 tsp Recharge nute mix I made. https://www.realgrowers.com/product/recharge-single-stick-pack-blast/
I also have the granddaddy ILGM set that I’ve never used. And Cal-Mag (also never used).
Good day to break them out. I looked for a feeding schedule on ILGM’s site but non exists so you will have to read what it says. If each of those products are stand alone products that get used during each phase of growth that would make it easier, but you need to be careful with the overall strength of the mixture since you are adding cal-mag.
Start with your water, add the cal-mag in the suggested strength. The cal mag I use with my RO water registers a ppm of around 500 in proper dose if you want a target to shoot for. Add the stand alone nutrient slowly and check your ppm on a regular basis until you reach your target ppm. What is your target ppm? Wish I could answer that for sure because that is the kind of information you get from a manufacturers feeding schedule.
I use three different brands of fertilizers because I like experimenting. Each one has a different target ppm. Fox Farms schedule is at the high side. It suggests that at week 4 of flower ppm (700 scale) should be 2100-2300, decreasing every week until harvest at 1000-1200.
Another brand I use suggests ppm of 1000-1400 weeks 4-7 of flower, 1000-1300 late flower.
The third brand says I don’t have to use cal-mag with their product, mix their stuff using the feeding schedule, don’t worry about pH because it’s fine, and trust us on the ppm. I tend to adjust to the more conservative ppms listed above.
I think I am either week 2 or 3 of flower so it looks like I’ll be using the Flowertime fert and cal-mag for this feeding. I don’t think I want to bother with the root protector or mold control supplements in the kit until another day.
