I’m having an issue that’s been going on for over a week, maybe even longer? I thought it was CalMag deficiency and have been giving 1 tsp per gallon of GH CalMagic. Then bumped it up to 2tsp per gallon two days ago when I last fed. The problem is not getting better, it’s actually getting worse. I understand that the affected leaves will not get better they will stay damaged. But they are also getting worse and it looks like my new grow is also being affected. I’m thinking my issue may not be calmag deficiency? Unless it takes a while to get the problem fixed. I started off having some nute burn 2 weeks ago and I flushed with Fox Farms sledge hammer. After the flush is when I started to notice the the light yellowish and brown spots on my leaves. Which I thought was Calmag deficiency. Which it may be? I’m worried that it could be something else but I’m not sure what that could be? I had a calmag issue when I was in the vege stage and caught it early and it cleared up fairly quick. I use Fox Farm Coco Loco and I did not buffer the medium with calmag when I started my 5 gallon pots off. I did not think I had to. But no ware on the bag or on Fox Fams website does it say anything about needing to buffer with calmag before planting seeds. Now I’m assuming since it’s not mentioned then they probably did not buffer it. The only thing that the bag says is that it’s triple washed for salts. I also should include that I’m growing two plants and only one of them is having this issue to this degree. The other plant is showing very little deficiency but it is showing some. I included plant info and pictures below. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
-47 days old from sprout, 19 days into flower.
-autoflower, double Grape from Mephisto Genetics.
-Coco Loco from Fox Farms is my medium
-water and feed with RO and Lotus nutrients.
-Temp average is 78
-RH average is 60%
-I use a humidifier that’s on the floor beside the plants.
Nitrogen toxicity. Borderline extreme. Dark, waxy, clawing leaving is your indicator. Do you know you pH/ppm’s going in and coming out?
My runoff from my feed before the last one I fed was 700ppm runoff
My most recent feed was 1380ppm going in. 400ppm of that was the CalMagic. So around 980 ppm of nutes. Total was 1380ppm going in. Oh at 6.5
Runoff was 1800ppm
ph was 6.5.
I may not be calculating my going in ppm and runoff ppm correctly. Do I base my feeding on the last runoff numbers from the last time I fed or watered? Then subtract the last runoff ppm from the current runoff ppm to see how much the plant actually fed?
Try backing off on the calmag, it has nitrogen. I only used it once a week in soil. I mean, i know coco loco is a mix, but I’m sure it holds water longer than just plain coco, which I now use.
Edit edit edit…
I just reread and saw the 1800, runoff. Definitely back off on the calmag, and try a plain water feed or two so your ppms drop to 900-1000.
Would you be able to tell me the correct way to monitor your ppm in and runoff from one watering/feeding to the next. Thank you for your advice and help.
And to answer your runoff question…
When you mix your nutes, before pouring/feeding, measure your numbers (pH/ppm). Then feed the plant(s) and measure what runs out.
Say, you go in with your nutes at 1,000ppm exactly. If the runoff of that feeding is much higher then your plant is working on lockout. That means your roots aren’t taking up what they should, and can lead to bad problems.
If you feed at the same 1,000, and your runoff is really low, then your plant is eating a lot, and you can probably feed at a little higher number.
If your runoff number is within 100ppm, you’re fine. Under/over that, I start adjusting and paying a little more attention to what the plant is telling me.
So if my ppm is 1,000 going in then the plant should take some of that 1000 ppm on that same feed? I thought that the runoff of that feeding would be close to a 1000 or even a little higher regardless . Because the water/ feed is going through the medium quickly. I was trying to gage it from the previous runoff ppm to my current runoff ppm. Thank you for clearing that up for me. I’m new to growing and have a lot to learn. Thanks again.
I forgot to mention that I also have purple stems that used to be green.
Purple stems could just be the phenos. I have/had plants with purple stems. @Borderryan22 has you covered. Im organic so coco is a rabbithole i havent jumped into yet…
I should flush today then. Would you agree?
You may be able to just run a couple gallons of pH’ed water and bring the ppm’s in the soil down, instead of a legit flush. When you check you runoff, are you just testing all that is collected? Or letting some run out first. The first bit of runoff is going to be higher than the rest since it is, in a way, flushing out extra nutes in the soil.
It’s just more mixing and feeding. I’m scared to hop on the organic train, but reeeeeally wanna use the Earth Dust I still have.
I test it out of the saucer. I water 1 1/2 gallons each plant and then test the water in the saucer when I t fills it up.
Try catching some midstream, like a drug test. That’ll give you a fairly more accurate reading.
Going to do that as well. Thank you
What’s in coco loco? Straight coco should be ph’d to like 5.8.
It’s a mix that Fox Farms makes that has coco coir in it. But it’s more of a soil than coco when it comes to PH and watering.