Iron deficiency in flowering and in soil?

[Monique]

Strain: Chronic Widow and Purple Haze
Soil: Happy Frog
System Type: Indoor
Ph Of solution: 6.6 to 6.9
Run off pH for both plants: 5.5 to 5.7 It has been hard to bump pH up even by using dolomite lime.
What Is Strength Of Nutrient Mix? Around 2000 ppm per gallon. Only feeds one gallon.
Indoor Or Outdoor: Indoor
Light System, Size: HPS 400W
Temps; Day, Night: Day:= 25 to 27C, Night around 23C.
Humidity; Day, Night: Day around 55%, Night around 64% Just ordered a fe-humidifier with ajustable RH settings
Ventilation System; Yes, Fan speed 3 and sometimed extraction exhaust -from bathroom-
Ac, Humidifier, De-humidifier: AC and dehumidifier
Co2; No.

Background: I will attach a pic of the plants and the growing journal.
Purchased from ILGM seeds, only for personal use so I plant one at a time. From the begining CW germinated faster and stronger compared to PH. Purple Haze (PH) took longer to emerge and the root barely showed up. Babysitted it until cotyledons finally showed up. Overall, CW has been bushier, stronger and not problems at all. PH has had few leaves and lots of internodal space. At any case, both have been fine but run off pH for both has been slightly acidic, ranging from 5.4 to 5.7. It has been hard to bump it up. After they started in flowering, I noticed leaf chlorosis on PH mainly and then in CW (no that much) I flushed system with 7.0 pH water and then feed them with week 6 most of the nutrients in FF schedule. I introduced nutrients at 1/3 of proposed concentration and then, the last feeding was at full strenght for a period of 3 weeks. Also introduced some chelated iron to rule out iron deficiency since the chlorosis is present on top and newer grows. I have been using FF nuts since the begining. Now newer leaves and buds looks bleached and I have no idea how to fix this, if I can still rescue them. I would appreciate any thoughts. Thanks very much!!!

Thanks all!

[peachfuzz]

Can’t really see anything with hps light…

[Monique]

Just upload some pics with HPS lights off. Thanks for the suggestion.

[DoobieNoobie]

Sounds like you need to work out the out of balance ph and it’ll get you back on track. But let’s ask some people more knowledgeable than me. @raustin @blackthumbbetty

[garrigan62]

@Monique.

I agree with you and this is what I have for you. I hope it helps

Iron is an important component of the plants enzyme and is also important for the transportation of electrons while photosynthesis is happening…

Iron reacts with many of the components of nutrient solutions, which will cause a nutrient lockup to occur, If you add to much Iron without adding enough Phosphorus, you can contribute to a phosphorus deficiency , so watch out how much iron and phosphorus your nutrients have. The Leaves on the plant can turn a pale yellow along the growing shoots, while the veins remain dark green. When you have pH imbalance, it can make iron insoluble. The tissue between the veins becomes pale or white, kind of mimics the magnesium deficiency, but not yellow, iron has the white where the yellow would be on the magnesium deficiency. The deficiency starts with the lower and middle leaves, while the new leaves become completely lacking in chlorophyll, but with little or no necrotic spots. The chlorotic mottling on new leaves starts first near the bases of the leaflets, so the middle of the leaf appears to have a yellow mark. Iron is difficult for plants to absorb and moves really slowly in the plant.
Harder for outdoor plants to absorb when in hot weather. Parts affected by the Iron Deficiency are: Young leaves and Petioles.

To much Iron can cause a problem that looks like a PH imbalance, Brown spotting on the top leaves, mainly fan leaves. Can affect the whole plant. Iron Toxicity is rare for Ph below 5.5.

Problems with Iron being locked out by PH troubles
Over watering, pests nematodes, not enough drainage, like not enough perlite. High ph, Soils with low iron, High Phosphorus, Excess Zinc, manganese or copper.

Soil

Iron gets locked out of soil growing at ph levels of 2.0-3.5
Iron is absorbed best in soil at a ph level of 4.0-6.5 (Wouldn’t recommend having a soil ph of over 7.0 in soil) anything out of the ranges listed will contribute to an Iron Deficiency.

Hydro and Soil less Mediums

Iron gets locked out of Hydro and Soil less Mediums at ph levels of 2.0-3.5
Iron is absorbed best in Hydro and Soil less Mediums at ph levels of 4.0- 6.0 (Wouldn’t recommend having a ph over 6.5 in hydro and soil less mediums.) Best range for hydro and soil less mediums is 5.0 to 6.0. Anything out of the ranges listed will contribute to an iron deficiency.

Solution to fixing a Iron deficiency
Any Chemical/Organic nutrients that have potassium in them
will fix a Iron deficiency. (Only mixing at ½ strength when
using chemical nutrients, or it will cause nutrient burn!)
Foliar feed with chemical fertilizer containing Fe or rusty
water can work well. Other supplements that have Iron in
them are: Iron chelates, Ferric oxide, Ferrous oxide, Ferrous
sulfate, all of these are fast absorption. Greensand, Cottonseed
Meal is slow absorption, Garden Manure, which is medium absorption.
Manure is most common organic iron source to use.

Now if you added to much chemical nutrients and or organics,
( which is hard to burn your plants when using organics)
You need to Flush the soil with plain water. You need to use
2 times as much water as the size of the pot, for example:
If you have a 5 gallon pot and need to flush it, you need to
use 10 gallons of water to rinse out the soil good enough
to get rid of excessive nutrients.

[raustin]

You’ve got an iron deficiency from improper Ph. Get your Ph between 6.3 and 6.8 and you’ll be fine, but right now you’ve got nute lockout from too low Ph.

[Sixpackdad]

Hi -
Do you have a digital TDS/ppm meter to measure the run-off? In garrigans post, it notes that this can be because you do not have enough iron, which I think may be unlikely because you are adding nutrients, or that you have nutrient burn and our plant can’t take any in. My vote is nutrient burn, but the TDS meter can help prove that out, which would tell you you need to flush your plant with 6.5 pH water. Good luck!

[steve2]

check this site for pictures of plant issues - if this site doesn’t have a picture’s of - try Growweedeasy.com under plant diaganois

[Monique]

Hello ALL: Thanks for your input in this subject. I will flush my system and get it running for optimal pH. Do you think it might be possible for the plant to recover? If iron moves very slowly and I am waiting for the pots to feel dry, should I see improvements after 2 or 3 weeks? What would happens to those flowers affected by this deficiency?