Is this a nutrient deficiency?

[Trich99]

Hey guys this is my first grow, my plant is 3 weeks old. I just started to notice some slight discoloration in the new leaves and they look thin and like they are wanting to twist. I’m growing in coco using the Lucas formula and some silica. Ph is 6.1 to 6.2, temps and humidity are good. Light is 300w at 50% about 30” away. Been watering till I get 10 - 20% runoff. Been feeding around 1 ec and my runoff has been good. Maybe a .5 higher than what I put in. Any suggestions?

 

[Grownsince95]

My suggestion is don't change a thing. The plants look great. A little leaf wonkyness is completely normal when they're young and figuring shit out. Just something to keep an eye on.

One thing about the Lucas method...

GH trio is formulated as just that. 3 parts. It it designed to provide the majority of K through the grow and bloom, the micro has very little. Remove the grow from the equation and you are left getting all your N from the micro and all your K from the bloom while adding extra P the plant doesn't need.

When done correctly it can work really well just keep an eye out for K/Ca/Mg issues. These 3 are all closely related in their interactions and do best in specific ratios.

Looks like you're bottom feeding too so keep the EC on the lower end to avoid excess P buildup and toxicity.

Good luck and keep us posted!

 

[Trich99]

My suggestion is don't change a thing. The plants look great. A little leaf wonkyness is completely normal when they're young and figuring shit out. Just something to keep an eye on.

One thing about the Lucas method...

GH trio is formulated as just that. 3 parts. It it designed to provide the majority of K through the grow and bloom, the micro has very little. Remove the grow from the equation and you are left getting all your N from the micro and all your K from the bloom while adding extra P the plant doesn't need.

When done correctly it can work really well just keep an eye out for K/Ca/Mg issues. These 3 are all closely related in their interactions and do best in specific ratios.

Looks like you're bottom feeding too so keep the EC on the lower end to avoid excess P buildup and toxicity.

Good luck and keep us posted!

My suggestion is don't change a thing. The plants look great. A little leaf wonkyness is completely normal when they're young and figuring shit out. Just something to keep an eye on.

One thing about the Lucas method...

GH trio is formulated as just that. 3 parts. It it designed to provide the majority of K through the grow and bloom, the micro has very little. Remove the grow from the equation and you are left getting all your N from the micro and all your K from the bloom while adding extra P the plant doesn't need.

When done correctly it can work really well just keep an eye out for K/Ca/Mg issues. These 3 are all closely related in their interactions and do best in specific ratios.

Looks like you're bottom feeding too so keep the EC on the lower end to avoid excess P buildup and toxicity.

Good luck and keep us posted!

Thanks for the advice. Still hand watering for now cause I wasn’t sure how to hand feed when transplanting from solo cup to 5 gallon. I was afraid to over water by watering till runoff but also didn’t want to start having salt buildup by not having any. Is there any way around this for my next run? Also, with pre buffered coco. Do I need to charge it with calmag if I’m using tap water? I been gradually increasing ec by .2 each week. What’s a good ec you would recommend stopping at? My bad for all the questions.

 

[Grownsince95]

Ok hopefully I can hit the points you asked about and explain it in a way that makes sense lol.

Ok first off I usually buffer my own coco because I'm cheap and buy it in bulk, but I guess when in doubt, a second buffering by you will not hurt at all, might even help. It's just annoying work.

The most important thing is your tap water. Are you familiar with every detail about it? This will guide your decisions on a lot of issues.

That brings me back to the salt buildup question, and the repotting. If you're like me and only ever want to do it once, the larger pot will have a lot of coco with no roots yet. Unfortunately you still have to treat this pot more like a DWC bucket than a pot of dirt because your thinking about the salt buildup is spot on. If you have the correct amount of perlite and you didn't pack down the coco when you planted there's always enough air in the pot (like DWC) to avoid suffocating them.

It seems so wasteful and annoying to water that way and it is. Many new growers try to get around it (including myself) but it's a dead end street.

As far as feeding goes I start the babies in the 400s and move up to about the 800s in peak flower depending on how they respond. I've never hit 1000.

 

[Trich99]

Ok hopefully I can hit the points you asked about and explain it in a way that makes sense lol.

Ok first off I usually buffer my own coco because I'm cheap and buy it in bulk, but I guess when in doubt, a second buffering by you will not hurt at all, might even help. It's just annoying work.

The most important thing is your tap water. Are you familiar with every detail about it? This will guide your decisions on a lot of issues.

That brings me back to the salt buildup question, and the repotting. If you're like me and only ever want to do it once, the larger pot will have a lot of coco with no roots yet. Unfortunately you still have to treat this pot more like a DWC bucket than a pot of dirt because your thinking about the salt buildup is spot on. If you have the correct amount of perlite and you didn't pack down the coco when you planted there's always enough air in the pot (like DWC) to avoid suffocating them.

It seems so wasteful and annoying to water that way and it is. Many new growers try to get around it (including myself) but it's a dead end street.

As far as feeding goes I start the babies in the 400s and move up to about the 800s in peak flower depending on how they respond. I've never hit 1000.

Thanks for breaking that all down man. I’m not 100% about the tap water to be honest. I thought I could get away with adding some calmag if I noticed a deficiency but maybe that’s not the way to approach it. I’ll send a sample off to get tested when I got some time. Just for clarification on the repotting though, you’re saying keep the whole pot saturated and water to runoff as usual?

 

[Grownsince95]

Thanks for breaking that all down man. I’m not 100% about the tap water to be honest. I thought I could get away with adding some calmag if I noticed a deficiency but maybe that’s not the way to approach it. I’ll send a sample off to get tested when I got some time. Just for clarification on the repotting though, you’re saying keep the whole pot saturated and water to runoff as usual?

Water based on the health and size of the root zone when you up pot. You kind of have to coax the roots out from the center just remember any coco you water without roots, if you let that evaporate it gets salty fast. I water to runoff every day from seedling to harvest, usually automated on hydro halos. The key for me is I never go larger than a 3 gal container. My best plant was over 10oz in a 1 gallon container. You should check out some of the solo cup challenge threads on here too.

 

[Trich99]

Gotcha. And yeah I plan on doing 3 gal or smaller next run. Didn’t realize how big the 5 gals are lol. I eventually want to get an Autopot system or the hydro halos you’re using. 10 oz in a 1 gal is insane btw.. Appreciate the knowledge brotha. Google put a bunch of contradictory shit in my head. I’ll be sure to post some pics and any more questions I got in the future. Thanks again