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Stupid stupid stupid top dressing

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Stupid stupid stupid top dressing

Fishybass 9 Replies 1,779 Views
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Fishybass

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I think I made a big mistake. Rookie greenhouse grower. My plants are in week three of flowering. They were showing some signs of nitrogen deficiency, and slow flowering so I decided to raise my light output to 100% and top dress to spike my npk for now and with any luck get me through the end of flowering. I just played it by ear and gave 1/2 doses of fish emulsion, blood meal, worm casings, bone meal, seabird guano, and kelp blended in to the top 1” of soil. I figured the mix of quick and slow release would do well. Watered it in well. Also had the start of what I feared would be thrip issue and added nematodes and diamataceous earth. I understand runoff numbers might not be very useful for soil growing but had these numbers from a 24 hour slurry using my water this morning, just to try to get a sense of what might be happening (these numbers mean nothing to me - maybe there of value to you?)…
pH 6.5
TDS 409 ppm
Alkalinity 120 ppm
Hardness 300+ ppm
EC 858 us/cm
Now the past few days I have some plants with leaves curling up and some funny coloring on my tops. Samples below. Is it light burn? Ideas? Suggested fixes? Would it work to scoop out half my top 1” of soil and redistribute?
 

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So what now? Pull off half the top 1” in each, redistribute? Rinse well? Any other ideas?
Well, that's a challenge. Flushing is recommended for excess nutrients. Are the plants in pots?

Have you already watered in the top-dressed nutrients? If so, removing soil at the top might not help much.

Note: The plants need less N for flowering and more PK than they do for vegetation.
 
They are in fabric bags. Okay… here’s my plan… remove half the top dressing. Flush well. Will report back.
 
That's a lot of stuff you put into a top dressing.
bat guano would've helped you by itself.
this surely. Literally any one ingredient would have sufficed. It doesn’t look terrible. Tho that spot you have it in looks like it’s right under the sun. So it could be burning? This is also in line with the leaves attempting to close. Reducing the amount of light they can absorb.
 
What do you mean by "flush"? Whatever it is don't do it. If it's a top dress you are fine, just leave the plant alone. I feel like you mess with it a lot ✌️
 
So are the plants being grown inside ?? The pics look like outside pics…..but u said u increased light intensity….
They could be not liking the light levels. What type are u using?? And how close to the top of the plant?
I grow organically and top dress all the time…..I wouldn’t think they would show nutrient burn that quickly, if at all.
If you’re week 3 after the flip they may not be that far behind.. Some plants can take 10-14 days before they really start showing .I may be wrong but those slurry numbers are meaningless in an organic grow.
At first glance it looks more like light stress, as it’s only showing at the very tip top of the plant.
Lastly, I used to mix up all sorts of organic concoctions for top dressing, until I finally realized that keeping it simple was far more effective. U dont need 5 different sources of the same thing.
Now I amend my medium with a good all purpose (4-4-4) and top dress the same until 2-3 weeks into flowing and hit it with a 2-8-4. I may add in EWC and Myco, but that’s about it. I can’t remember the last time I had any major problems and generally pull 16-18 zips from a 2’x6’ space growing 2 or 3 plants.
Pic is my current run…..day 30 of actual flowing, day 38 since flipping. And they probably need 5 more weeks…..buds are just starting to fill in and bulk up
IMG 8315
 
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