Sorry to Ghost on the thread. After posting and struggling to find out how my soil was hurting my plants, I finally caught sight of a tiny mite. After some research and hours of straining my eyes through my microscope, I determined that my issue was BROAD MITES. Ugh! the buggers are so small that, if you don't know what you are looking for, even with a microscope, you might never see them. The effects on the plant look like classic nutrient def or lock - clawing and contorted leaves, twisted growth yellowing etc. (see pictures above). The mites were also on the leaf tops, not the undersides like spider mites.
Once I figured out they where they were and how to see them, I discovered there were a lot of them. 4 plants i deemed beyond saving, went in the outdoor compost pile. I rigged up my hepa shop vac with a (woodworking) router speed control, and vacuumed off every branch actually sucking the branches and leaves into the vac hose, hoping to suck the mites off the plants. All the veg plants then got submerged in a tub of water with
neem oil,
spinosad, and dish soap, swished and dried with a fan. I repeated the vacuum and dip 3x then released some predatory mites I got from Arbico organics. It was kind of trippy to release these things into my grow. They came in a spice jar and I just shook them out onto each plant, into the canopy and on top of the soil.
Fortunately, my flower room did not seem to get the broad mites, so those plants only got the predators and obviously not the dip. I used the californicus species. I would have preferred andersoni, based on descriptions, but those are only available in huge quantities and my grow is small.
After letting the mites work it out amongst themselves for a couple of days, I brewed up a EWCAAT added aloe and coconut water ( I keep aloe plants in my grow, but uses trader joes coconut water) and gave the soil a good drench. I have seen the predators killing the broad mites under the microscope, and can see them spread out on the canopy with the naked eye.
In the mean time my logan lab test report came back and seemed to indicate that my soil was more or less on point except that my Potassium numbers were really (like 3x) high. I did add a few cups of pure potash to the original mix so maybe too much? I found a really good article on reading and interpreting the lab report at growarchaea.com, which was very helpful in determining what I might do to further amend my soil. Apparently gypsum will lower Potassium while giving calcium a boost. I added some to my mix.
After i am sure that I have this broad mite thing in check, I am going to put the bottom best of my soil in another 200 gal
smart pot in a new tent, add more worms, and grow a cover crop. I would like to continue to grow in a perpetual manner, harvesting a single plant every week or two. I don't know if anyone has experience with this, id love to hear if they do. Its all I can do to control the smell with only one plant maturing at a time, I can't imagine how my space and house would smell if I had a half dozen plants all terming out at the same time.
Anyhoo... Thats my update. Thank you all for your suggestions and interest. The mites were a setback and had me guessing for a few weeks. I hope this is a learning opportunity for me and that I will up the ante on my IPM game.