Help. Over water, PH, Toxic Salt Buildup?

[down2earth]

Hello fellow farmers,

I'm having some major problems with my plants and would like to know if anyone of ya can give me some advice. Anything please.

Right now I am in 20 gallons smartpots and the plant is 3 weeks old. I start in 20s. I am using promix hp with ph starting at 6.3. Am I PH'ing too high? I've heard it should be around 5.8 ph start?

I feed 3 gallons of water every feeding; feed, water, water, feed. Sometimes I feed while the plants are still wet I am currently in Veg cycle and running Pura Vida Grow, 5 mils of cal-mag, and RO water that is 20ppm. Thank you all for lending your time and help.

Thank you all for lending your time and help.

 

[Lucky4Lyf]

First thing is... your feeding/watering WAYYY too much. Wait for the pot to almost dry all the way out before you water/feed again. Pick it up... if it is light... feed. Also... you should have about 15-20% runoff out the bottom of your pot when you feed. If you dont have that you could very well be locking your plants out. See how the leaves are curled under like they are... classic OVER WATERING. Also... try and pH aroun 6.0... the pH will rise a little as the soil drys out. I always buffer tho and go between 6.0 and 6.3... just in case so I have that little buffer zone I can work with... some plants are more finiky than others. If I was you I would do a HEAVY flush with just the cal mag. Let the soil dry out, (not all the way)... ur in veg now so the most important part is building your root system, if you let them dry all the way out the little "feeder" roots will die off and you DONT want that... then start you normal feeding schedule again. Maybe start at half strength and work your way up to full strength again.

Another thought.... you sure you dont have bugs or any kind either? Like Thrips?

 

[thunderfudge]

The fish hooking of your leaves is calcium.what is the temp under your light at canopy level?

 

[catdaddy]

just went through the same thing, plant problems looked exactly like your photos. i am 1000% sure if you were to check your ph it's in the lower 5 or under and your ppms are very high. flush.

 

[Capulator]

looks like pH problems to me too. and way too much water. I dont even water my 50/50 coco perlite that much..

 

[down2earth]

First thing is... your feeding/watering WAYYY too much. Wait for the pot to almost dry all the way out before you water/feed again. Pick it up... if it is light... feed. Also... you should have about 15-20% runoff out the bottom of your pot when you feed. If you dont have that you could very well be locking your plants out. See how the leaves are curled under like they are... classic OVER WATERING. Also... try and pH aroun 6.0... the pH will rise a little as the soil drys out. I always buffer tho and go between 6.0 and 6.3... just in case so I have that little buffer zone I can work with... some plants are more finiky than others. If I was you I would do a HEAVY flush with just the cal mag. Let the soil dry out, (not all the way)... ur in veg now so the most important part is building your root system, if you let them dry all the way out the little "feeder" roots will die off and you DONT want that... then start you normal feeding schedule again. Maybe start at half strength and work your way up to full strength again.

Another thought.... you sure you dont have bugs or any kind either? Like Thrips?

Thx Luck. It's been a total nightmare for me. I've lost the last 2 rounds to this bullshit. My pots are on the ground and in saucers, is it OK for me to water with plain water and cal-mag without runoff?

 

[down2earth]

The fish hooking of your leaves is calcium.what is the temp under your light at canopy level?

Temp under light at canopy level is approx 80-90F.

 

[down2earth]

just went through the same thing, plant problems looked exactly like your photos. i am 1000% sure if you were to check your ph it's in the lower 5 or under and your ppms are very high. flush.

Hi Catdaddy, thank you for posting. Could you explain in detail how you overcame this plant problem? What would you call this plant problem, is it over watering or PH and ppm? How many gallons should I flush?

 

[down2earth]

Should I wait for the pot to dry before I flush or can I safely flush now although pot is sorta wet.

 

[catdaddy]

Hi Catdaddy, thank you for posting. Could you explain in detail how you overcame this plant problem? What would you call this plant problem, is it over watering or PH and ppm? How many gallons should I flush?

honestly if the problem is getting worse i would start to flush, but if you can wait until it's dry, wait. the pots along with the extra perlite i use causes my soil to go completely dry every 2-3 days, and if i turn my fan up all the way 1-2 days. knowing what i know about my environment i just started to flush as soon as i seen the issues.

i am also still going through it, don't get me wrong they're looking much better but they still need some time to completely heal.
i use 3gal pots and i first flushed with 6 or 6.5 gals of 6.5 ph'd water. phase 2 (which im currently in) flushed with another 3 gals of low fert nutrient solution @ ph 6.5(been told 300ppms) until i get in down to 300ppms.
some say water twice the pots size and some say 3x size, but if you check your runoff every gal of water you should be able to determine how much, at least that's how it's been for me. the reason i say this is because some wasn't as bad as others so the one's that required more watering instead of giving it flushed water back to back i gave it a low based fert solution as recommended.

also your problems stems from ph being out of whack which caused lock outs of other nutrients which then caused salt build up. funny thing about it is i got pics that you would swear was identical to the one's in your post

 

[Lucky4Lyf]

Thx Luck. It's been a total nightmare for me. I've lost the last 2 rounds to this bullshit. My pots are on the ground and in saucers, is it OK for me to water with plain water and cal-mag without runoff?

you are going to want to flush your plants until the pH in your runnoff is the same as the water your giving them. your going to want to/have to flush with runoff. the first flush should take ya 2-3x the amount of the pot your in. once your pH is running the same on your runoff as the water going in... ur ready to start you regular feeding schedule. I would start at about 1/2 strength or around 200-300 PPM. If you arent using a product like Sea Green or Drip Clean you REALLY need at least 10-15% runoff when you feed... its the only way to not get nute lockout from built up salts. when you water with runoff it creates kind of a "suction" action that brings O2 to your plants root system (a good thing).

Another issue is your temps at canopy level... 80 degrees at canopy level is WHOLE BUNCH different than 90 degrees at canopy level. How are you getting fresh air into your room? Are you exhausting the old stale air? Do you have circulation fans in ur room?

 

[catdaddy]

another thing, even though you get your ph back in range, from doing some research, you might want to get some dolomite or hydrated lime. from my understanding and little experience you are still going to need something besides ph'd water to bring the soil ph up.

 

[Lucky4Lyf]

catdaddy is right. if your runnin ss#4 or promix ur gonna want to add some dolomite lime to it. they say its in there but it is NEVER enuf. about 1/2 cup to 7gal of soil. You can do more... it wont hurt... it just helps keep your pH in line in your soil.

 

[LexLuthor]

So whats going on, did the plants recover???