Deficiencies? Overfeeding? WTF?!?

high all,

Hope all is well today.

I currnelty have a female BB going, and shit, you know, I'm having the hardest time decifering between deficiencies and overfeeding. My plant was about 1 week into flowering when it was starting to turn yellowish towards the bottom. I thought it was a P def. so I gave her some 10-15-10. The thing is, this fert, mixed with the water, in a 2L bottle, had been sitting around for about 3-4months, so the food, I think, completly dissolved (which I didn't figure out until after this all), so I used it, and it seemed to have little to no effect on the plant...so it continued to yellow. So then I thought it was overfeeding, so I flushed, then it got worse, so I knew it wasn't overfeeding, so last night, I gave it a nice big blast of 10-15-10 again, but a new mix this time, and now it has seemed to slow down some, but time will tell. About 4 or 5 fan leaves are now brownish, brown spots on the leaves, and will probably die off. I am soooo dissapointed in myself, what a bummer :(

So this is my question. How do I tell if it is a N def., or P def. and burning? Because if you haven't noticed, I'm having a very hard time telling them apart and my plant is slowly dying off :o . ANY help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! :cool:

Seems like photos might help if that's possible. Plus the history of the plant would help too. What ferts have been used? Watering scedule? Temps? Type of light? Soil or hydro?

But I hear ya chowder. There are so many things that some things could be that it's tough sometimes to figure out just exactly what you should be doing to resolve them, IF anything at all.

Good luck!

Pics bro...need pics.

In the future, always nute first with something completely natural and non chemical. Bat guano, sea bird guano etc......

These are safe to use on MJ plants and wont burn or cause lock up.

Thats the real danger of adding nutes to a soil grow...you start messing with delciate balances that you dont even know what they are in soil.

For right now, stop nuting, stop flushing. Stop everything cept watering.

Then let us see your babies....we can help :)

Thanks for the replies guys! :cool:

Sorry I didn't include pictures, here are a few shots.

I guess what I'm asking is, how do I recognize between a N def., P def., or overnuting? Just so I know for the future :) Thanks again!

chowder, If you weren't into flowering I might suggest a phosphorous deficiency with the red stems, but I've had some suggest that this is a natural process for some strains while in flowering. One of mine had the same thing and I asked around and that's the info I was given. But mine wasn't exhibiting the yellowing and necrotic spots as yours is. So I did some checking and found this and the pic to go along with it. Leaves look a lot like yours. Hope this helps

Nitrogen Deficiencies

Plants will exhibit lack of vigor, slow growth and will be weak and stunted. Quality and yield will be significantly reduced. Older leaves become yellow (chlorotic) from lack of chlorophyll. Deficient plants will exhibit uniform light green to yellow on older leaves, these leaves may die and drop. Leaf margins will not curled up noticeably. Chlorosis will eventually spread throughout the plant. Stems, petioles and lower leaf surfaces may turn purple.

If it were mine, having read the above, I'd give it some blood meal tea which is full of good nitrogen and goes to work quick and has less chance of burning because of overdoing it because it's organic. I make it with a tablespoon of blood meal into a gallon of good water and then let it sit for a few days which allows some of it to leach into the water. You can speed the process along by shaking the crap out of it after it's sat in the sunlight a day. Probably get it going even quicker by actually brewing it just like a hot tea. Of course cool it down to luke warm when you give the sick little sucker a drink. They say luke warm water is accepted by the plants root system quicker than cooler temp water.

Just my thoughts and I'm no doubt an expert but have read a lot.

Wow, thanks for that info Marc. Very helpful!

I am currently awaiting delivery of some oragnic nutes for next time around. I picked up some Fish Emulsion, 5-1-1, and I ordered some good flowering nutes of Bat Guano, so no more chemical bullshit after this grow.

But I have noticed it has slowed down some since last night, so hopefully it will stop before it ravages my whole plant. I think the first time I gave her the 10-15-10, it had been sitting in a 2L bottle, with water, and the nutes seemed to have dissolved and dissapeared somehow :confused: That's what I think anyways. Who knows, time will tell. I'll keep you all up to date on this, and hopefully it will stop because she is flowering very nicely right now and I'd hate to lose the plant. Thanks again Marc, you're a good man! :cool: Peace.

now now chowder, I like my chem's...hey, one thing to remember, unless it is a tea as Marc suggested, you shouldn't use nutes that have been mixed more than a week...I find that the ph changes drastically during that week and the effect of all the nutes and additives doing there thing over that period of time can make them useless..
This is advice that I got from my Advanced Nutrient Gurus in Cali...oirganic is safer I guess...good luck bro.

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Originally Posted by latewood

you shouldn't use nutes that have been mixed more than a week...I find that the ph changes drastically during that week and the effect of all the nutes and additives doing there thing over that period of time can make them useless..

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That is a very helpful tidbit there latewood, thanks! :cool: I'll keep that in mind for the time being.

Unfortunatly, the situation is just worsening. It's almost climbed all the way to the top fan leaves, and is slowly dying. I am confused as to what to do. At first, there were just some brown spots, but overnight, the leaf is now half dead. I don't know, we'll see I guess what happens within the next few days, but if this continues, she'll be dead in a week.

I was no means mocking chemical ferts :) I've used them, had my fun, time to move onto something a little different. Thanks again, peace :)

My take on the situation you have. If I had a plant in that situation, and felt I needed to do something quick to save it, I'd chose one plan of attack and go for it. Could either save it or kill it and it sounds as if it's on it's way out anyway so what do you have to lose? Actually have something to gain possibly if what you try works. And if it doesn't possibly learn also that what you did didn't help so if it happens again (lets hope not) you can possibly rule it out as something to do.

Here's another thought. Transplant it into a 5 gallon bucket. The container it's in right now looks sort of small. Heck maybe it's root bound to the max! Might be why it's not getting any N. And if you thought it might be N deficient I'd spray down the new soil with some blood meal tea so it has some N readily available as soon as possible.

Just some thoughts. Good luck!

im a new grower/member [check out my post in the multimedia/pics forum if u like] and have been browsing the forums, trying to gather wisdom.

What is/are nutes?? what do u use them for? are they essential? wtf?

Cheers.

I'm happy to report that the yellowing has virtually stopped now. the 10-15-10, I think, just wasn't enough for the plant as it was about 3.5weeks into flowering, so I lightly sprayed the top soil with some 15-30-15, and I looked this morning, and it has slowed down a ton. Mistake #17, lesson learned :) Thanks for all of the help people, much appreciated :cool:

misty116: Nutes=nutrients or fertilizer. You use them to feed your plant so it can survive, grow strong, and produce monstor, potent buds. Yes, they are essential. If you don't use them, just look at my pics up top. That's what will happen, they need food to grow and survive, much like humans. Peace.

Awesome chowder! How old is this plant?

Also, it might have been the 10-15-10 that finally kicked in as lightly spraying the top soil with something stronger I wouldn't think is going to get it down into the bottom roots which it seems like it'd have to do to do any good. Just my thoughts.

You could've also foliar fed them and possibly had some success. Gets to everything way quicker that way. Problem though that they say about foliar feeding when a plant is flowering is that it increases the humidity in the flowers and sometimes promotes mold. I saw some pics of moldy buds and they looked bad. The guy had to cut a lot of the bud away and toss it as inhaling mold isn't a real good thing to do if you're a human.

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Originally Posted by Marc Benson

Awesome chowder! How old is this plant?

Also, it might have been the 10-15-10 that finally kicked in as lightly spraying the top soil with something stronger I wouldn't think is going to get it down into the bottom roots which it seems like it'd have to do to do any good. Just my thoughts.

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Ya, I think spraying the 15-30-15 had little to no effect on it. Last try for desperation I guess. This plant is...let me see, I vegged for about 3 weeks, and it is now on its 4th week of 12/12, so about 7 weeks old, from seed.

She is still thriving though, slowed down some during this week, but is still producing. Took a toll on her fan leaves though :( But, as long as she is still flowering I'll keep her.

Thanks again for the help Marc, Latewood and everyone else. Much appreciated! :cool:

Yikes chowder! I havent herd from you in ages or seen your flowering thread for those BB's or the SC but that was quite a scare for me reading down this seeing your plant develope such deffiencys. Althought it should be fine now that marc and latewood gave ya some help, if you dont mind on posting a direct link to your flowering thread.

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Originally Posted by Joel

Yikes chowder! I havent herd from you in ages or seen your flowering thread for those BB's or the SC but that was quite a scare for me reading down this seeing your plant develope such deffiencys. Althought it should be fine now that marc and latewood gave ya some help, if you dont mind on posting a direct link to your flowering thread.

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I know, this past week both of my plants have taken a beating. First, the SC is outside still. Turns out, not enough direct sunlight so she stretched a bit. I moved her in a lot more sun now, and had to tie it to a stick, so she could support herself. We have had some flooding here this year and has been extremely wet, so there hasn't been as much sun. I'm not expecting a whole lot from her.

The BB is doing much better now. The fan leaves, only about 4-5 of them are actually still good, the other will probably die off, which will reduce yeild. Oh well, what can ya do :)

The problem I was having most was decifering between each def.. I had a bitch of a time doing that. So I didn't know if I should give it this or that or what :confused: But, I got her fixed and I've learned from this. No more chemicals for me.

She'll pull through though. May not be the prettiest plant in the world, but she is still producing. Here is a link to my current flowering thread. I haven't updated pics recently until I got this problem fixed, so I'll probably post some new pics tomorrow. Here:

http://boards.cannabis.com/showthread.php?t=29470

Peace :cool: