Cal deficiency?? Led organic soil with top dress/teas

  • Thread starter Jonnyparko
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Jonnyparko

Jonnyparko

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seems to be a cal deficiency? I am all organic in ocean forest from fox farms, top dress with roots organic, compost teas as well. 3 gal fabric containers. Top dress/tea once a week. I have only added about tbsp of cal mag from roots organic, following their schedule. Other than that I water once a day, with RO water with a ph of about 6.3. Runoff is about 6.2. Using led lights... should I be adding more cal mag? Or should I be mixing something with my ro water when watering? I also add Epsom salts about once a month... other than that I use fish shit and recharge.
 
Cal deficiency led organic soil with top dressteas
Cal deficiency led organic soil with top dressteas 2
Cal deficiency led organic soil with top dressteas 3
Jonnyparko

Jonnyparko

15
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2 month veg and now in week 2 of flower. Have another that’s in 2 month 2 week of veg and it’s even worse.

Really wondering if I should just amend all of my ro water with calmag. Maybe to a certain ppm? This would give more stable ph... I’ve heard others just add ~20% tap but would like to avoid that because I’m afraid of the chlorine/cloramine. Although I do have access to a well also, so I could go down that route, or even some of my rain collection.

Or I’m barking up the wrong tree but I’m pretty certain... in past grows it gets really bad around week 5 of flower with a 2 month veg... so it seems like 3 months in and I am starting to have a cal def...
 
Jonnyparko

Jonnyparko

15
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Also on most waters I just water until it starts to run off. So one plant gets 1/2 gal everyday. On tea days I water until I get about 10% runoff.
 
HarryHood

HarryHood

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gonna keep an eye on this thread as i'm pretty much in the same setup as you regarding soil and nutes. i'm in a 75% FFOF- 25% HF mix, and i'm brewing the tea's instead of top dressing. i've only done 2 tea's so far as i'm running auto's. i've brewed a tea with their microbe charge and grow, and added in molasses and a tbsp of liquid seaweed. so far so good. fingers crossed.
 
Heynow

Heynow

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It looks like a few things are going on. Ca, mg and N deficiencies. Probably really lock up from long term slightly high ph. Flush them with Epsom, and then go back on a 50% strength feed schedule with a lower ph.

Kinda looks like mites too...they will feed on weaker, distressed plants first
 
Jonnyparko

Jonnyparko

15
3
Sorry for not updating sooner... from what I have seen this seems to be a general lack of nutrients.

I used 3 gallon containers and vegged for two months and started amending dry nutrients in around week 2. I think that was the biggest mistake. Needed to start amending soil earlier, first week of veg... I am trying that with a different plant, amending the first week.

I have also a few other plants in 5 gallon containers to see if it helps even more so.

i will keep updating if anyone is interested in seeing results.
 
Jonnyparko

Jonnyparko

15
3
you figure this out? why water to run off daily?could this be a contributor to your issue? good luck!
Thanks man. Yeah water runoff didn’t help for sure. Why wash away valuable nutrients and microbes. Now I water before I get any runoff, as that is more of a living soil approach.
 
Jonnyparko

Jonnyparko

15
3
ffof soil got me through about 4-5ish weeks of veg with autos. i top dressed at that point for flower

that’s exactly what I did but for photoperiod. I started amending around week 2 with top dress. 5 weeks into flower and boom nute deficiency in everything. These are some large plants though after a 2 month veg... probably close to 3.5-4 feet high.
 
Aqua Man

Aqua Man

26,480
638
I'm not an organic grower but imo most really lack calcium... I know a few guys who do organics and they all add cal mag. Using RO I would absolutely be adding half the recommended dose to every feed.
Like I say I'm not an organic grower but I'm pretty certain it will solve your issue in about a week.
 
farmerdan22

farmerdan22

5
3
I had the same problem, i pinned it to cal deficiency and incorrect ph. I'm using organic nute's and they lower the ph (which i didnt know). So everytime i was adjusting the ph to 5.8/6.2 then adding my nutes the ph was was dropping to around 5 give or take.

I snipped off all affected leaves and then mixed 2 table spoons of guano which the stuff im using contains calcium and phosphorous, ph around 6.0 and watered. Now after 4/5 days they are looking alot healthier and no more leaves have showed any more signs of the problem.

This worked for me, other may have a different opinion on it. Hope you get it fixed..
 
Cal def
Flexnerb

Flexnerb

1,288
163
I had the same problem, i pinned it to cal deficiency and incorrect ph. I'm using organic nute's and they lower the ph (which i didnt know). So everytime i was adjusting the ph to 5.8/6.2 then adding my nutes the ph was was dropping to around 5 give or take.

I snipped off all affected leaves and then mixed 2 table spoons of guano which the stuff im using contains calcium and phosphorous, ph around 6.0 and watered. Now after 4/5 days they are looking alot healthier and no more leaves have showed any more signs of the problem.

This worked for me, other may have a different opinion on it. Hope you get it fixed..
Lol....if you had an incorrect ph why put more food in the pot?
 
farmerdan22

farmerdan22

5
3
Lol....if you had an incorrect ph why put more food in the pot?
because i didnt realise it ws incorrect ph at the time. I only found out after a while that the organics lowered the ph and thats when i corrected my problem.......
 
Huntingterps

Huntingterps

38
18
I had similar problems when I switched to organic. I Stopped using ro water and got a de-chlorination and sediment filter. My plants could not be happier.
 
Huntingterps

Huntingterps

38
18
I also noticed you are using ph up which will build up in your soil and drive you crazy. In my experience liquid kelp is good only in moderation as it really lowers ph. All my problems were created by me trying to chemically fix problems. The solution stop killing your microbes with chemicals like ph up. In fact throw the ph pen away. In organics it really is as simple as top dress and water with decent filtered tap water. Once or twice a week water with 1/2 tsp per gal of water liquid kelp and same with Molasses.
 
Flexnerb

Flexnerb

1,288
163
because i didnt realise it ws incorrect ph at the time. I only found out after a while that the organics lowered the ph and thats when i corrected my problem.......
Okie!

What organics were you using? What type of N is in it? What is all in it and the %'s please...thanks
 
Aqua Man

Aqua Man

26,480
638
When PH in soil is a problem in pots 4 things come to mind...

1. The quality of the soil used, most quality mix is already ph buffered and nutrients won't need ph adjusting unless adding something like potassium silicate to prevent precipitation. The soil will adjust the ph of the water added.

2. Nutrients being used are out of balance or sources are not balanced properly eg nitrate vs ammonium. Accumulation can also cause issues.

3. The source water used. Some may be very high in carbonate or bicarbonate and that can affect soil ph over time.

4. Microbes... over inflating the microbe population can affect soil ph due to respiration and the boom bust of the population.
 
Flexnerb

Flexnerb

1,288
163
I also noticed you are using ph up which will build up in your soil and drive you crazy. In my experience liquid kelp is good only in moderation as it really lowers ph. All my problems were created by me trying to chemically fix problems. The solution stop killing your microbes with chemicals like ph up. In fact throw the ph pen away. In organics it really is as simple as top dress and water with decent filtered tap water. Once or twice a week water with 1/2 tsp per gal of water liquid kelp and same with Molasses.
Nitrifying bacteria will work pretty good too. They'll eat up the alkalinity too. 7.14mg of Alkalinity is removed when 1mg of ammonium ions are consumed.......
 

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