Help please: old growth turning brown..

[Justin Sidious]

These girls are Dutch passion auto blueberry and a nirvana blue mystic. Grown in pearlite using Dutch master gold one range. The ph is maintained between 5.2 and 6. They are fed daily at ec ppm 800. Flushed weekly. Please help fix my girls.290482290483

[Mal420xl]

it looks a little like a ph related lock out or nute burn.

[Justin Sidious]

Why do you say that? Could you give me more detail please? What would you suggest the ppm range should be?

[Justin Sidious]

I know it's not lock out at I change the nutes daily and from what I can tell 800 ec is low.

[Mal420xl]

wait 800 ec? thats not low if its electrical conductivity thats a measure of salt and metals. 800ppm is reasonable for nutes.

look at the leaf burn pattern it looks just like this one and it was caused by low ph

290484

[Mal420xl]

if your ec is really at 800 thats a huge problem. if its your ppm thats ok. your ph sounds normal for your type of grow i guess. have you changed anything? added anything etc? while we're at it fill this out and see if we can get a few more opinions.
http://boards.cannabis.com/plant-problems/173775-cancom-copy-n-paste-troubleshooting-forms.html

[Justin Sidious]

Troubleshooting Form - Hydro Grows - NFT, Aeroponic, Hempy Bucket, Flood-n-Drain...Coco...

Copy and Paste this form to your own post.


This form is to help us understand your grow enviornment and equipment, what was happening and what's happening now.
Keep in mind that it's in your best interests to answer as many of the questions as possible, to get the most accurate and timely diagnosis.
It's understood that not all growers will be able to answer every question, but try to be thorough.
After all...they're your meds.
I'd like to take this opportunity to thank those that contributed (directly or indirectly) to the construction of this form.
Y'all's help is greatly appreciated...
stinkyattic, headshake, Italiano715, Phatesh101 and PsychoForBud.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What is your experience level? (experienced but haven't grown in 10 years)

What type of hydro set-up are you running?

Home made self watering pots.

Your Equipment:
A) Type and wattage of lights.
All Cfl 1x 130w 27000k (yes box says 27000) 1x23w (=1x100w) 2700k, 1x23w 4100k, 1x18w 4100k, 1x23w 4100k, 1x26w reptiglow UVB-10.

B) Distance from tops?
Inches

C) Reflector type? (cool tube set-up, bat wing, enclosed reflector, bare bulb...)
None

D) What are the bulb wattages, kelvin ratings, and schedule?
As above

E) Is there a consistent fresh air supply?
Yes

F) Do you have an exhaust fan and a circulation fan?
Yes
G) Size of reservoir?
5 litre
H) What medium if applicable.
Pearlite

Your nutrients and water:
I) If using rockwoll for clones or seedlings, did you rinse the cubes well, with properly ph'd water?
Used soil
J) Source of water. (tap or filtered) What's it's ph?
Tap ph 7.0

K) Specific brand and N-P-K ratio for each bottle. List dosages (quantity per gallon) and current feeding schedule.

L) What is the ec/ppm of your unadjusted tap (or filtered) water?
M) What is the ec/ppm of your nutrient solution?
N) What is the temperature of your nutrient solution? (reservoir high and low temps)
O) Does your ec/ppm show a rise or fall when you do your daily PPM check?
P) Does the ph fluctuate?
Q) Do you foliar feed? If so, with what, how often, and at what time do you
spray? (Just after lights come on, just before they go out...)
R) How often do you replace reservoir water/nutes? What does it look like before changes? (clear, foamy, green, brown...)

Your growroom:
S) What size of closet, room or hut?
T) What are the temps and humidity levels while lights are on? ...With lights off?
U) Have you seen signs of insects in the growroom?
V) Are the roots long and white, or brown and slimy?

Your strain:
W) What strain are you growing? (Indica dominate or Sativa dom?)
X) From seeds or clones?
Y) Is this an autoflower strain?

[Justin Sidious]

What is your experience level? (experienced but haven't grown in 10 years)

What type of hydro set-up are you running?

Home made self watering pots.

Your Equipment:
A) Type and wattage of lights.
All Cfl 1x 130w 27000k (yes box says 27000) 1x23w (=1x100w) 2700k, 1x23w 4100k, 1x18w 4100k, 1x23w 4100k, 1x26w reptiglow UVB-10.

B) Distance from tops?
Inches

C) Reflector type? (cool tube set-up, bat wing, enclosed reflector, bare bulb...)
None

D) What are the bulb wattages, kelvin ratings, and schedule?
As above, 20 on 4 off

E) Is there a consistent fresh air supply?
Yes

F) Do you have an exhaust fan and a circulation fan?
Yes

G) Size of reservoir?
5 litre

H) What medium if applicable.
Pearlite

Your nutrients and water:
I) If using rockwoll for clones or seedlings, did you rinse the cubes well, with properly ph'd water?
Used soil for sprouts

J) Source of water. (tap or filtered) What's it's ph?
Tap ph 7.0

K) Specific brand and N-P-K ratio for each bottle. List dosages (quantity per gallon) and current feeding schedule.
Dutch master gold range 1 flower, 2-1-3

L) What is the ec/ppm of your unadjusted tap (or filtered) water?
0.5/250

M) What is the ec/ppm of your nutrient solution?
1.6/800

N) What is the temperature of your nutrient solution? (reservoir high and low temps)
24.1c

O) Does your ec/ppm show a rise or fall when you do your daily PPM check?
Fall

P) Does the ph fluctuate?
Yes from 5.2 to 6

Q) Do you foliar feed? If so, with what, how often, and at what time do you
spray? (Just after lights come on, just before they go out...)
No

R) How often do you replace reservoir water/nutes? What does it look like before changes? (clear, foamy, green, brown...)
Daily, feed 6 hours. Let dry the rest. Only feed during light.

Your growroom:
S) What size of closet, room or hut?
Fridge, door open.
T) What are the temps and humidity levels while lights are on? ...With lights off?
22c to 28c

U) Have you seen signs of insects in the growroom?
No

V) Are the roots long and white, or brown and slimy?
Can't see them

Your strain:
W) What strain are you growing? (Indica dominate or Sativa dom?)
Dutch passion auto blueberry, indica dom

X) From seeds or clones?
Seeds

Y) Is this an autoflower strain?
Yes

[Mal420xl]

looks like algae forming in there, not sure if that has anything to do with it but im not sure its a good thing. maybe it affects the perlite ph. try grabbing a hand full see if you can check its ph. everything seems mostly normal but those pics look like ph issues of some kind. need weezard or low_rdr or one of those guys. theyll have a better idea.

[Justin Sidious]

Thanks.

When the problem started a few weeks ago I was just leaving them in the solution way too long like all day. I've reduced the feeding time to 6 hours a day. I also increased one plants nutes and reduced the others but they both only got worse. About 2 weeks ago I reduced the nutes. It's only getting worse. Could it be build up? The ph rises so much that I start at 5.2 then at the end of feeding its up to about 6.0. How fast should recovery be?

[LOC NAR on probation]

Looks like nute burn to me BUT What kind of tap water and what is it's PPM before you add anything ?
Chlorine, chloramine burn from tap water Looks like lock out or nute burn. Flush with R/O or distilled water for a few days and stay away from tap water unless it's from a well and you know what's in it. It's better to start with nothing in the water and add only what you want.
Your ec would only be 1.2 to 1.6 and depending on the meter to covert to ppm's would be 800.

[Esteban1]

Tend to agree with Mal420 & LocNar.... Def ph related. Remember, "it's a weed". Possible there is way too much "over thinking this"?

Sic Semper Tyrannus

:wtf:

[low_rdr]

First time I've ever been messaged to check out a thread before!

Okay - I see your using perlite as a medium, but there are some issues. First is the lack of a constant water supply. I understand your feeding schedule, but your medium does not hold much water, so when your done feeding, that perlite drys out quickly. Second, for pure hydro flowering, you should be looking for a steady PH of 5.5 or 5.6, not between 5.2 and 6. Too much variation, remember, when troubleshooting problems, KISS (keep it simple stupid) - The less variation, the easier to pinpoint.

Third, your light spectrum is all screwed up for flowering, you need more 2700's in there, 4100's are close to a neutral light (5k is neutral) so they aren't doing you much good (please note, I did not say they aren't doing you any good, just not much, more or less wasting power on those) If you want a proper spectrum, keep the 2700's and toss in some 6500's, and use the 4100's in your bathroom.

Forth, why are you starting seeds in soil, and then putting them in hydro? (they're faster in hydro) (this isn't troubleshooting, just a tip)

Okay, now that we got that out of the way, lets see what we can do.

judging from your troubleshooting post your only using dutchmaster gold for flowering. I think your a little short on your phosphate. This ISN'T ONLY a PH issue. Also, stop cutting your leaves, your not stopping it, only stressing the plant more.... stolen analogy: How would you feel if you had a fever and someone chopped your arm off? Anyway, in flower the plant needs more phosphate and potassium than your currently giving it. 800 PPM is also a touch low for flowering, I'd slowly increase to 1200, looks like your a few weeks in, so maybe skip that part for now, 800 is great for veg, but in the future you do want to raise that a bit when flowering, as they eat more. Test the PPM and PH of your runoff, and give those both to me as well (PPM and PH in, PPM and PH out, give me both sets of numbers after you correct everything else)

On to other possible problems, your plants are super small for the amount of light they're getting, and I have to defer away from a PH lockout and go with dry roots to solve this one. increase your water time from 6 hours to 12 after slightly adjusting your PH and adding in a better balance of nutrients. I won't suggest you pull them from the perlite to check the roots, wait until after the grow is done.

If you don't have air in your water, and your just submerging your plants, add in a touch of hydro peroxide (its just oxygenated water more or less) 2 tsp per gallon will be plenty. If your still having problems in 3 days (the browning continues) let me know, and make sure you add picture updates in a few days as well.

[polishpollack]

Overfert, and use potting soil next time. Don't feed so much. Maybe raise the lights some to get it to grow taller. 5.2 is a little too low, even for what appears to largely be a hydro grow. Just potting soil and you won't have to worry about pH anymore. If you want to stick with perlite, pH around 5.7 should be fine, but it will fluctuate. Look more at your ppm and determine if pH is rising because ppm is dropping. If so, probably need more fert and keep an eye on that. Soil is an easier thing to do.