Leaves turning brown, drying and dying.

[Slevinkal]

What is your experience level? (first timer, novice, experienced...)
Smart N00B

Your Equipment:
.1) Type and wattage of lights. (MH, HPS, CFL's, tube fluorescents, LED's)
T8 Fluoro 4x32w, 4x60w CFL - All @ 2700K

.2) Distance from tops?
3 inches/scrog

.3) Reflector type? (cool tube set-up, bat wing, enclosed reflector, bare bulb...)
2 double bulb 4' fixtures mounted in a hood I built. The fixtures themselves have a brushed chrome finish and the hood hangs down another 2" and is painted flat white.

.4) Is there a consistent fresh air supply?
Yes

.5) Do you have an exhaust fan and a circulation fan?
2x exhaust and yes

.6) What are the bulb wattages, kelvin ratings, and schedule?
32 and 60 watt, 2700k, 12/12

Your medium:
.7) Specific brand and type of soil, (coco, peat based soilless...) and anything you've added to it. (vermiculite, perlite, worm castings...)
FoxFarms Ocean Forest

.8) Size of container.
3 gallon

.9) Did you use peat pucks (or similar) to root clones or germinate seedlings?
Yes

Your nutrients and water:
10) Source of water? (tap, bottled or filtered) What's it's ph before adjusting?
Gassed out tap when water/molasses, bottled when water/nute. Pre and Post pH debatable, more on this in a bit.

11) Method of checking water ph. (ph pen, test strips, aquarium test kit...)
El-cheapo 3way tester from HD and now a Milwaukee pH600.

12) Method of adjusting water ph. (phosphoric acid, white vinegar, hydrated lime, PH Up...)
Started adjusting with vinegar, used maybe three times, been adjusting for a while now with pH down.

13) Specific brand and N-P-K ratio for each bottle. List dosages (quantity per gallon) and current feeding schedule.
FoxFarms Big Bloom at 3/4 strength @ every other watering.

14) How often are you watering between feedings, and how much per watering?
water/feed/water/feed and so on. 3 quarts per water/feed, there is usually 1-2 pints run-off.

15) Any additives or tea's? (Superthrive, CalMag, molasses, Mother's Earth...)
Molasses

16) Are your ph levels stable, or do they fluctuate?
Not really sure now, more about this in a bit.

17) What is your ingoing water's ph? ...your runoff ph?
Not really sure now, more about this in a bit.

18) Do you foliar feed? If so, with what, how often, and at what time do you spray?
No.

Your growroom:
19) Indoors or outdoors?
In

20) What size of closet, room or hut?
Cabinet style box 16"d 52"w 50"h.

21) What are the temps and humidity levels while lights are on? ...With lights off?
Weather unit style gauge shows min-max over 24 hours, 72-86F 42-55 humidity, this stays pretty constant, no more that a 1-3 point change from day to day.

22) Have you seen signs of insects in the growroom?
Never

Your strain:
23) What strain are you growing? (Indica dominate or Sativa dom?)
I dont know, believed to be Indica

24) From seeds or clones?
Seed

25) Is this an autoflower strain?
Not that I'm aware of.


Yes, I'm having a pH problem but exactly how much of a problem is not clear yet. I had a cheap 3 way tester (pH/moisture/lumens) and tested all ingoing and outgoing water after the first few weeks or so. I always had a suspicion that the tester was kinda wacky but now I'm sure. I bought a Milwaukee pH600 and it reads way diff than the el-cheapo. The M reads 7.1-7.2 on tap but the cheapo reads 8+. I always was under the idea that my pH was way high and I was trying to bring it down but when I watered today my ingoing water w/ nutes was 6.0 and my runoff was 5.7. I figure that puts me in an ideal range but I also only used 1/2tsp of pH Down per 3 quarts when usually it takes a full tsp to get it right.

I really dont know what my pH has been doing but I know its pretty damn close to right today.

The leaf prob is ongoing. It was very slight for a while now, maybe 1-2 leaves a week if any but now its 4-6 leaves in four days. I'm sure my pH has been up and down like hell but its good right now and prob has been since at least the last water four days ago, or not, IDK.

Most pics of pH fluctuation I've seen dont look very much like my leaves. My leaves look more like their showing sign of a deficiency IMO. I wouldnt begin to know which deficiency it would be either.

The growth of the plants has slowed a bit in the past week though.

Does anybody have any thoughts as to what is going on?

pH fluctuation or deficiency or both?
IDK.....

Slevinkal Reviewed by Slevinkal on 11-22-2010. Leaves turning brown, drying and dying. What is your experience level? (first timer, novice, experienced...) Smart N00B :D Your Equipment: .1) Type and wattage of lights. (MH, HPS, CFL's, tube fluorescents, LED's) T8 Fluoro 4x32w, 4x60w CFL - All @ 2700K .2) Distance from tops? 3 inches/scrog Rating: 5

[Slevinkal]

Bump

Plus, the prob has spread more since I started this thread, it's moving quick!

[ZZTops]

Looks like your short on "P" or having some lock out...

Check this thread, 1st post & 4th photo...

http://boards.cannabis.com/basic-gro...-pictures.html

[Slevinkal]

Thanks ZZ

P was my first though cause of THIS pic in another pic-style trouble shooter.

Lockout wouldnt supprise me either.

The odd part that I didnt think about until now is that the two clones I have vegging have been in soil for 17 days and they get watered at the same time as the girls in flower with the same exact water but they look great. That could just be due to the diff in veg and flower needs though, IDK. I'm still pretty green at this.

[Slevinkal]

Even though I watered/feed yesterday I flushed the girls...

I used 1 gallon of water per plant and got maybe 4-6oz less than 1 gallon of run off. The water was 5.3 going in and 5.2 coming out.

While flushing I used a 8-14-9 Schultz nute @ 1/3 strength.

Guess I'll see what happens in the next few days to a week. From what I've read it'll prob take 1-3 weeks to remedy this prob

[ZZTops]

Couple of Thoughts...

On your PH... 5.3 is way to low for soil IMHO, 6.3 is more in line...

That Schlutz Nute is off the chart in "P" so your low PH is probably locking it out...

On Flush... Might try something like Botanicare Clearex, works wonders...

Clearex | Botanicare

[Slevinkal]

Couple of Thoughts...

On your PH... 5.3 is way to low for soil IMHO, 6.3 is more in line...

That Schlutz Nute is off the chart in "P" so your low PH is probably locking it out...

On Flush... Might try something like Botanicare Clearex, works wonders...

Clearex | Botanicare

Ya, I know. I've been trying to keep it 5.5-6.5 but apparently I've been forcing it a bit low due to the cruddy reading from the cruddy pH tester and I'm gonna hafta ease it back up now.

This is the first time I used the Schultz and I only got it cause of the high P and it was used at a weak dose.

I don't really see the point in additives when flushing, why add more if you want less in the end? Seems almost counter productive to me and just cause you cant taste something funky in the plant doesnt mean that nothing was left behind, its prob just a bunch of chems designed to mask or hide taste/flavor as far as I know.

[OldHead09]

What is your experience level? (first timer, novice, experienced...)
Smart N00B

Your Equipment:
.1) Type and wattage of lights. (MH, HPS, CFL's, tube fluorescents, LED's)
T8 Fluoro 4x32w, 4x60w CFL - All @ 2700K

.2) Distance from tops?
3 inches/scrog

.3) Reflector type? (cool tube set-up, bat wing, enclosed reflector, bare bulb...)
2 double bulb 4' fixtures mounted in a hood I built. The fixtures themselves have a brushed chrome finish and the hood hangs down another 2" and is painted flat white.

.4) Is there a consistent fresh air supply?
Yes

.5) Do you have an exhaust fan and a circulation fan?
2x exhaust and yes

.6) What are the bulb wattages, kelvin ratings, and schedule?
32 and 60 watt, 2700k, 12/12

Your medium:
.7) Specific brand and type of soil, (coco, peat based soilless...) and anything you've added to it. (vermiculite, perlite, worm castings...)
FoxFarms Ocean Forest

.8) Size of container.
3 gallon

.9) Did you use peat pucks (or similar) to root clones or germinate seedlings?
Yes

Your nutrients and water:
10) Source of water? (tap, bottled or filtered) What's it's ph before adjusting?
Gassed out tap when water/molasses, bottled when water/nute. Pre and Post pH debatable, more on this in a bit.

11) Method of checking water ph. (ph pen, test strips, aquarium test kit...)
El-cheapo 3way tester from HD and now a Milwaukee pH600.

12) Method of adjusting water ph. (phosphoric acid, white vinegar, hydrated lime, PH Up...)
Started adjusting with vinegar, used maybe three times, been adjusting for a while now with pH down.

13) Specific brand and N-P-K ratio for each bottle. List dosages (quantity per gallon) and current feeding schedule.
FoxFarms Big Bloom at 3/4 strength @ every other watering.

14) How often are you watering between feedings, and how much per watering?
water/feed/water/feed and so on. 3 quarts per water/feed, there is usually 1-2 pints run-off.

15) Any additives or tea's? (Superthrive, CalMag, molasses, Mother's Earth...)
Molasses

16) Are your ph levels stable, or do they fluctuate?
Not really sure now, more about this in a bit.

17) What is your ingoing water's ph? ...your runoff ph?
Not really sure now, more about this in a bit.

18) Do you foliar feed? If so, with what, how often, and at what time do you spray?
No.

Your growroom:
19) Indoors or outdoors?
In

20) What size of closet, room or hut?
Cabinet style box 16"d 52"w 50"h.

21) What are the temps and humidity levels while lights are on? ...With lights off?
Weather unit style gauge shows min-max over 24 hours, 72-86F 42-55 humidity, this stays pretty constant, no more that a 1-3 point change from day to day.

22) Have you seen signs of insects in the growroom?
Never

Your strain:
23) What strain are you growing? (Indica dominate or Sativa dom?)
I dont know, believed to be Indica

24) From seeds or clones?
Seed

25) Is this an autoflower strain?
Not that I'm aware of.


Yes, I'm having a pH problem but exactly how much of a problem is not clear yet. I had a cheap 3 way tester (pH/moisture/lumens) and tested all ingoing and outgoing water after the first few weeks or so. I always had a suspicion that the tester was kinda wacky but now I'm sure. I bought a Milwaukee pH600 and it reads way diff than the el-cheapo. The M reads 7.1-7.2 on tap but the cheapo reads 8+. I always was under the idea that my pH was way high and I was trying to bring it down but when I watered today my ingoing water w/ nutes was 6.0 and my runoff was 5.7. I figure that puts me in an ideal range but I also only used 1/2tsp of pH Down per 3 quarts when usually it takes a full tsp to get it right.

I really dont know what my pH has been doing but I know its pretty damn close to right today.

The leaf prob is ongoing. It was very slight for a while now, maybe 1-2 leaves a week if any but now its 4-6 leaves in four days. I'm sure my pH has been up and down like hell but its good right now and prob has been since at least the last water four days ago, or not, IDK.

Most pics of pH fluctuation I've seen dont look very much like my leaves. My leaves look more like their showing sign of a deficiency IMO. I wouldnt begin to know which deficiency it would be either.

The growth of the plants has slowed a bit in the past week though.

Does anybody have any thoughts as to what is going on?

pH fluctuation or deficiency or both?
IDK.....

I don't think you are alone on this one, another person whom I feel is very knowledgable has suggested it may be FF soil itself....

[Slevinkal]

I don't think you are alone on this one, another person whom I feel is very knowledgable has suggested it may be FF soil itself....

Any evidence to back that up?

I'm not saying its incorrect, it's just that I've never heard that before.

Anything is possible though.

[canniwhatsis]

Hows your girl? Any signs of improvement since flushing?