brown/yellow spots on lower leaves

unfortunately, i can't use the tap water here, it's well water from a well that was never drilled deep enough in the first place and has a horrible rotten egg smell... i guess wal mart water will have to do for now.... would distilled water be any better by chance? also, should i empty the runoff tray as soon as i water? i'm trying to keep my hopes high, but it does kinda look like this problem may be moving to the next set of leaves up.... the edges of the leaves look like they're just starting to curl a little bit and have a tiny bit of yellow in them.. i guess if worst comes to worst i'll just have to suck it up and transplant into a little better soil mix.

Ahh. Sulfur in your well water. That's not great.
I would trust distilled or RO water over any bottled 'drinking water' and you will have to use CalMag Plus.
Set your runoff tray at a slant so it all drains to one corner and you can let it drain into a bucket. Standing water means fungus gnats... eww.

so where can i find some calmag plus? what is RO water? also, i thought i should add that some of the new top leaves are looking twisted, like corkscrewed, not sure if this is part of the same problem or something else entirely, hell, might be normal for all i know (first grow)

bump

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Originally Posted by str8jacket secure

so where can i find some calmag plus? what is RO water?

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You can probably pick up some Calmag Plus at your local hydro store. I know mine carries it, but I've never had to use it. RO water is water that has been purified through a process known as 'reverse osmosis', and a lot of people like using it and distilled water because there are no, or few, impurities.

I can't get all technical about it as many of our other forumites can, so I'll let Wikipedia break it down for ya: Reverse osmosis. Looks kinda like your plant may be getting too much nitrogen, but without knowing what you've fed it since you first posted, it's not easy to tell. Have you tested the pH of your soil runoff? I've seen pH lead to plants getting that characteristic claw shape.

well, there are no hydro shops around here, i've heard that molasses is a source of calcium, is this true? and if so can i use the stuff from wal mart or does it have to be special molasses just for plants?

Molasses has iron and potassium if I'm not mistaken. As long as the bottle reads 'unsulfured', you're fine. Don't overdo it- a tablespoon or 2 per gallon is PLENTY!
For an alternate source of calcium if you can't find CalMag, you can try making a tea using bone meal (Calcium phosphate). I've never done this personally, but in theory you'd want to do it in a bucket with an airstone, and set the pH of the liquid at around 6 initially to aid in dissolving the solids. It should theoretically rise over time, but check before use and set pH back to 6.8 for a soil grow. Again, I've never done this, and it doesn't supply Magnesium and other micros the way calmag does. Try ordering the stuff off the internet.

word :thumbsup:

ok, just went out and bought a bottle of grandma's old fashioned unsulphured molasses, 4% calcium, it has iron and potassium too. bought some ph up too so no more mixing waters to find the right ph. added some ph up to a gallon of distilled water, about 10 drops, which was way too much unfortunately, brought the ph up to dark blue on the liquid meter, the highest it goes to is 7.8 i think. added some molasses to it and it turned it all yellow. tried testing ph again and it just stayed yellow, i'm hoping the molasses lowers the ph some, but not that much ya know. should i add ferts to the same water? or use a different jug and just use half of each or something when i water?

bump. i'm not sure how to tell the PH if the molasses turns the water so yellow