Over-watering/poor drainage. Maintain a dry/moist cycle. MJ never likes constantly being moist AT ALL. :-)

Calcium def.

chemistry said:

Calcium def.

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LoganatorDude said:

Hey guys I’m hoping you can help me figure out if this is a toxicity or deficiency. I can’t tell if it is on the younger leaves or older leaves as it is a mix all around the plant. It appears like splotchy chlorotic lesions, even necrotic spots. It is not appearing in a uniform nature, some leaves only half of the fingers are affected while the other half of the fingers appear normal with healthy green. Even some leaves have small brown freckles, while other leaves have larger distinct necrotic spots following the carotic spots as well. Kind a hard to describe so I’ll just post some pictures. One plant has an even distribution of these leaves and symptoms, while some branches appear perfectly fine. Another plant has the symptoms only on one side, and slightly towards the bottom of the plant. The rest of the plant looks healthy with lots of vigor. However the first plant I have mentioned with the same symptoms all around the plant and not just on one side, this plant has growth that appears limited and more spindly, less branch and leaf development however still a very tall plant. Maybe a manganese deficiency, or boron deficiency?

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Are you fertilizing?

Hedonisticpsycho said:

Are you fertilizing?

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Well yes, heavy on the soil amendments, almost super soil but not two much, plus they get fed a worm casting tea and other stuff. I don’t think it is calcium that is lacking in the soil, however in the plant, this could be true.

I know the nutrients themselves are not the problem as well with watering consistency, as the soil is well maintained via closely monitored drip. Never soggy, well draining fabric pots. The top soil will begin to dry out a little just before their next watering.

I know nutrients levels and watering times are both not the issue even though those are highly potential. I know this because I have a LOT of plants and all are huge vibrant healthy vigorous plants. Only 3 out of a “lot” have shown symptoms.

My conclusion is that the guy who helped me did a poor job of thoroughly mixing the nutrients into the base soil for those pots with the sickly plants. The symptoms didn’t show for the first month and a half at least. My theory is once the roots expanded far enough to reach concentrated pockets of a particular amendment, the high salt with over abundance or toxicity of said mineral/element triggered symptoms with either antagonism or synergism in the uptake capabilities of another nutrient. Showing deficiencies in something that is present in the soil like calcium, or worse, some increased uptake of something already in high amounts. I’ll post the mulder’s chart here to give you an idea what I’m talking about. This would explain why it’s made diagnosing difficult.

Also, what’s really interesting is that because these toxicities are in small localized areas of the root zone, it reflects in small localized areas on the plant! So some parts of the plant will appear amazing! While other parts sickly.

Those are my thoughts at least, I’d still love to here other opinions.

I would look into ph to start with. It's affecting the very large older growth. This tells me it mobile nutrients. So not calcium but looks like more than one. Have you had alot of rain lately?

What is the source water you are using? Could be part of the issue. To me new growth looks good. With soil amendments it's not as easy to cause a lockout from salinity.

And for what it's worth I do see some variegated leaves. And does kinda look like overwatering may be the issue but not sure on that.

I appreciate the feedback, the ph is good and even though I have had some rain lately, these issues appeared while we were still in a long dry spell. I think the important thing to note is all the plants have been done the same way (presumably at least). Having only 3 that have this issue out of about 60.... On one of the three, the issue is only on one side, where you’d completely miss anything wrong from the opposite side as all the healthy vegetation would be in the way. I’ve not really seen this kinda thing before, usually it would be distributed within the whole plant in regards to mobile and immobile. I’ll look more thoroughly into water and soil ph in particular again, now that you mention that.