Is this a bad case of nute burn/over watering?

[CookiesLikeWhoa]

So, these ladies have run into a few problems that I cannot for the life of me figure out what's going on. Here's the break down:

Strains:
5gal - Mephisto Skywalker
1gal - Mephisto freebie (skywalker x CDLC)
Age: 33 Days
2x4 Tent
Temp: 72-78 F
RH: 55-65%
Light: HLG 300L R @50%
Light Height: 26'
Soil: FFOF /w 20% worm castings and 20% perlite + 10tbs of dolomite lime mixed in
Soil PH: 6.5

For the first 14 days they were just top watered /w PowerSI .6ml/gal and MrFulvic 1ml/gal PH'ed to 6-7. This was just to keep the top soil moist. After 14 days I hit them with the same silica/mr. fulvic but also added in .5tbs/gal of recharge, and they seemed to really like that. Decided that I would water once a week with just recharge/silica/mr. Fulvic. At about 21 days I noticed the 1gal was starting to get pretty dry so she started getting about 500ml of water every other day. About 4 days ago (day 28) I noticed these two showed wilting leaves. Pots were pretty light so I watered them both with silica/mr. fulvic water. Next day they looked even more wilted and new growth was getting pretty light colored. I figured since the FFOF soil only has about 4 weeks worth of food built and I had just come up on that. The 1 gal looked, what I thought, was a little hungry with lower growth starting to get light colored. I mixed a batch of 'the recipe' @950PPM and watered the topsoil of all the plants (about 1.5 liters for all 4 plants). Needless to say, it appears that made it even worse.

The skywalker is showing browning around the edges and one of the budsites appears to be dying off. Leaves are extremely wilted and very light in color. My best guess is at this point, they're over fed and over watered, but honestly I'm lost. Hoping a more experienced grower can help guide me here.

Thank you in advance.

 

[CookiesLikeWhoa]

Well I think I found the issue. I had not calibrated my PH pen in a while and well, it was not even close. Weird that it didn't affect the other two plants that got the same feeding, but either way they're slowly recovering. One definitely got it way worse than the other but live and learn.

 

[phxazcraig]

Well I think I found the issue. I had not calibrated my PH pen in a while and well, it was not even close. Weird that it didn't affect the other two plants that got the same feeding, but either way they're slowly recovering. One definitely got it way worse than the other but live and learn.

Thanks for that feedback. Helps people like me learn from your mistakes. Any idea what pH you might have been running? Do you still have the bad pH meter? I have a similar story, except I'm not sure how bad my pH got. My first two grows were done with a cheap $10 pH pen. I was measuring RO water (and distilled) at pH 8.3, which should have been a clue my pen was way off. Fortunately, reducing pH there was needed, and if anything I just didn't get it low enough. I discovered a major difference when I bought a $400 Bluelab pH controller for a drain-to-waste reservoir. I even tried to recalibrate the pen, but it would no longer calibrate. Lesson learned, I bought a $100 Bluelab pen to use when mixing nutes, partly so it would be more likely to match the controller after calibration.

I've learned that you can't trust pH pens that cost less than around $75, and certainly not the ones under $20. Not to mention calibration and storage issues.

 

[CookiesLikeWhoa]

Thanks for that feedback. Helps people like me learn from your mistakes. Any idea what pH you might have been running? Do you still have the bad pH meter? I have a similar story, except I'm not sure how bad my pH got. My first two grows were done with a cheap $10 pH pen. I was measuring RO water (and distilled) at pH 8.3, which should have been a clue my pen was way off. Fortunately, reducing pH there was needed, and if anything I just didn't get it low enough. I discovered a major difference when I bought a $400 Bluelab pH controller for a drain-to-waste reservoir. I even tried to recalibrate the pen, but it would no longer calibrate. Lesson learned, I bought a $100 Bluelab pen to use when mixing nutes, partly so it would be more likely to match the controller after calibration.

I've learned that you can't trust pH pens that cost less than around $75, and certainly not the ones under $20. Not to mention calibration and storage issues.

It's a HM-200 PPM/pH tester.

What made me think was the next batch of water I was making for another grow was showing my RO water at 6.2pH which I was like 'no that's not right, it should be 7'. I then calibrated it and it started showing the RO water at 7pH again.

I should have noticed. When I make 2 gallon batches of feed water it usually takes about 4ml of pH up to get it 6.2, and I noticed I needed like 6ml to get it to where I wanted. I saved the water because I felt something wasn't right with it. I tested the PH again after I calibrated the HM-200 and it came out to 9.3pH. I have no idea what caused it to fall out of calibration and so fast. Want to say it went from watering to the next because the previous batches of water was pH'ed correctly.