Hey all!
We’re somewhere around 10 grows into our growing journey, all with photoperiod plants and primarily in organic living soil indoors.
Our last grow, we had 2-4 plants all from the same seeds start to just die out and shrivel up, getting brown spots and looking fried. Something akin to if they had been doused with a heavy foliar spray or something, which we do not do. After pulling these plants, we discovered a bug infestation of some kind, and figured that must have been the cause of the original damage. We successfully cleared about half of our plants of whatever was infesting our plants, and they’re most of the way through flower now looking great.
Now we have the next round of plants in veg, and the same thing is happening, but in a completely different tent, with an intense cleaning in between, with only 2-4 plants, but this time of different seeds. We haven’t pulled them yet, trying to treat it like a bug infestation. However, now it seems as if the conditions are spreading to previously healthy plants, and it doesn’t really seem like a bug issue. We’ve noticed some fine hairy strands right at the new growth, but not like a severe spider mite infestation, at least not enough to be outright killing the plants. I’ll try to include all the best pictures I can of the plants and the fuzz.
For background, they all have the same living soil mix, they’re all photoperiods, and they’re all indoor plants.
Let us know what other info you might have or insights!! Thank you!
This seems like a promising possibility, as I do often allow fallen leaves to chill in our soil bins, where it stays cool and wet for the most part… I should be getting the dirt dried out more often!
Something I noticed though is it says this fungus only really appears in flowering stage, and all these plants are in veg!
Indoor, 3x3 tent under viper spectra KS3000, Humboldt Seed Co. Seeds (although some of these seeds may be from former pollinated/hermed plants), PH’d water in organic living soil, these guys are only in 3 gallons at the moment. Other plants in the tent all have the same soil and conditions. Well ventilated and all that jazz. No CO2. Soil is soil mixed with worm castings, Gaia Green, clam/oyster meal, with compost tea once a week, and molasses in flower.
Unfortunately it can happen at any stage of the plants maturity… it’ll really take off in flowering time because the plants tend to uptake more. And if it’s in the soil your plants are up taking it.
You could also buy a max-see on amazon I believe they’re only $40. I highly recommend it. It will connect right to your phone and you can zoom all the way in to see if there is possible eggs or anything. I have one and it does wonders.
We’ve done soil tests but only the at-home ones that are arguably unreliable at best. They’ve always tested in line with what we’re aiming for, but we should really bring a sample to our local soil department. I haven’t heard of slurry testing before, some googling is showing it’s for PH testing, and PPM testing? That’s excellent insight!
Our soil is going on 10-12 months old, going through a few grow cycles. Started as Ocean Forest way back when, now every time we reammend it is with Gaia Green, worm castings, clam/oyster shell meal, perlite and we feed compost teas once a week. Usually we start seedlings in Happy Frog and mix the extra soil in as well!
Agree with OG, some slurry tests would be helpful. Those pics look like your soil is getting pretty dry. Of course you don’t want your soil water logged all the time but living soil has to stay a little moist for the micro heard to thrive. Do you top dress at all or just use the compost tea? What’s your tea recipe and water source? Have you added anything for micro nutes?
Yeah, these pics are right pre-watering, but it is a top dress made up to almost form a type of water-retaining layer underneath. I know a straw mulch would be better for that kind of thing though. The top dress is Gaia Green and worm castings, done about 4 times throughout a grow! Besides what I’ve listed we haven’t been adding anything else. What kind of micro nutes are we likely missing out on? As far as a slurry test, what should we be testing for? pH and PPM? I can find a few good resources online, but do you have any recs?
A slurry test is pretty simple. You take a soil sample add enough distilled water to make the mixture liquid. Let it sit for 15 min or so then test the solution. Fresh distilled water is absolutely necessary to get accurate results. Try to get your sample from around the feeder roots up top. You could take both PH and EC/PPM. Keep in mind that EC/PPM of organic soil is up to interpretation because an EC meter measures total conductivity. It can’t tell the difference between insoluble and soluble nutrients or measure the balance of nutrients.
Which blend of Gaia green? Most of them have some micros in them. I’m just trying to get the whole picture of your grow so we can find the root cause of your problems. Often times when you see a deficiency develop there are plenty of nutes in the soil, but some other factor is preventing the plant from utilizing those nutes.
Test for both. When the PH is out of range in the medium nutrient uptake will suffer. PPMs Too high and the plant will suffer. For the slurry test take equal parts of the medium and distilled water, make sure the soil came from around the root zone (lower middle of the bag/pot) mix the 2 thoroughly and let it rest for about 30 minutes. Strain this through a coffee filter and test the PPMs and PH in the liquid
I don’t think you have an insect/ pest problem. Insects will infest sick plants but they don’t produce symptoms like your plant is showing. Most insect pests don’t come indoors when there are plenty of plants outdoors that are easier to get to.
There looks like a couple of issues.
The brown patches on the leaves could be a lack of nutrients or too much nutrients.
The leaves turning brown and grey-green color look like root rot from poor drainage.
The purple patch on the new leaves could be coloration or fungus.
Do you have any perlite in the potting mix?
How well does the potting mix drain?
Are you growing in plastic or material pots?
If you don’t have perlite in the mix, maybe add some (about 20-30% by volume, not weight) and see if it helps. NB Make sure the perlite is wet before you use it because it has a fine dust in it that can damage your lungs.
Only water when the top inch of potting mix is dry. Stick your finger in the potting mix a couple of inches and if it’s damp, don’t water them.
Good potting mix will allow water to drain through within a few seconds of being watered. If water is sitting on the top for a minute or so, then it’s not draining well.
How long is the potting mix made up for before you use it?
If you are buying new bags and using it straight away, it might be releasing too many nutrients and burning them. Maybe buy a few bags and let it sit in the bags for 6 months and try again.
