Overfed calcium 4th week flower. Flush or let it play out?

[Jaykay]

So its my first run with organic soil growing with amendments. I foolishly added too much calcium. I began feeding mollasses but it coincided with a top dressing and in addition to the dolomite already in the soil it has now overfed with calcium.
It started with noticable brown/rust spots aswell as a K deficiency. The rust spots have grown and claimed a few older fan leaves and has spread to some medium size leaves around bud sites the spread has slowed down but not stopped. Buds still seem to be packing on some weight.
It's been a week now since the first signs and the buds are still putting on weight but have noticed a decrease in water uptake.
Should I flush or let it ride?

 

[mysticepipedon]

Is your pH off, as well?

"pH Down" made with phosphoric acid (sorry, not organic) not only will lower pH, but the phosphate combines with calcium and makes it unavailable to plants (except very slowly). But if your pH isn't off, I wouldn't open a can of worms by adding pH down.

 

[Jaykay]

The PH is a little high at around 7.2 runoff. I PH my water with Organic apple cider vinegar to 6.5. I suspect the extra dolomite lime I added is the cause for the higher runoff.
I'm pretty sure it's from too much calcium though. Dolomite + mollasses + oyster shell/rock dust in dry amendments= too much calcium
Thoughts on flushing?

 

[Heynow]

Flushing never hurts. Flush it with Epsom salts 1 TBL/gsl

 

[Jaykay]

Flushing never hurts. Flush it with Epsom salts 1 TBL/gsl

My hesitation with flushing is its organic living soil and ideally I don't want to flush out the good stuff.
Flushing with Epsom isn't a great option either as I believe it is a calmag issue/ abundance. If I flush itll be with plain water.

 

[Heynow]

It looks chronic. You need to flush out whatever you've done to it. Just riding it out will probably do othing but harm. Its your plant do whatever you want

 

[growsince79]

So its my first run with organic soil growing with amendments. I foolishly added too much calcium. I began feeding mollasses but it coincided with a top dressing and in addition to the dolomite already in the soil it has now overfed with calcium.
It started with noticable brown/rust spots aswell as a K deficiency. The rust spots have grown and claimed a few older fan leaves and has spread to some medium size leaves around bud sites the spread has slowed down but not stopped. Buds still seem to be packing on some weight.
It's been a week now since the first signs and the buds are still putting on weight but have noticed a decrease in water uptake.
Should I flush or let it ride?

Why did you add calcium in the first place?

 

[Jaykay]

Why did you add calcium in the first place?

I always add a bit of med sized granules of dolomite lime as a slow release for cal/mag and to stabilize PH. I use mollasses as a carb/sugar to feed the soil/sweeten buds. And the gaia green dry amendment as a a slow release fert. The addition of mollasses during flower is what I believe disrupted the calmag levels.
To flush or not to flush?

 

[Jaykay]

It looks chronic. You need to flush out whatever you've done to it. Just riding it out will probably do othing but harm. Its your plant do whatever you want

I'm considering flushing tomorrow if things are worse. If no change I'll let it ride I'm thinking. I feel that flushing could have a negative effect by activating more nutrients that are still in the soil. If this were a soiless grow with bottled nutes I would have flushed it awhile ago.

 

[mysticepipedon]

As I said, If i were you, I'd flush it with water and pH down (pHed to 5.5 or 6), along with a touch of molasses or whatever sugar you normally feed your microbes. You can replenish with some microbes later.

I like to call the way I grow, organic-ish. I'm organic, but if I make a major fuck-up, like adding too much limestone/dolomite, I fix it by any means necessary. Your plants wont mind, but they will mind too much of that nice, "organically OK" dolomite, which has made them weak.

You're not growing microbes, your growing pot. Your pot is sick from too much dolomite in the soil. Don't worry about a bunch of one-celled motherfuckers who can easily be replaced in a day. Get your pH down. If you'd prefer to use vinegar, use vinegar, but don't forget the goal is weed.

 

[Homesteader]

I don't think it's too much calcium but that is symenatics. Looks like too much bi carbonates. Can you add some peat? Maybe five handfuls? That should neutralize it

 

[Jaykay]

As I said, If i were you, I'd flush it with water and pH down (pHed to 5.5 or 6), along with a touch of molasses or whatever sugar you normally feed your microbes. You can replenish with some microbes later.

I like to call the way I grow, organic-ish. I'm organic, but if I make a major fuck-up, like adding too much limestone/dolomite, I fix it by any means necessary. Your plants wont mind, but they will mind too much of that nice, "organically OK" dolomite, which has made them weak.

You're not growing microbes, your growing pot. Your pot is sick from too much dolomite in the soil. Don't worry about a bunch of one-celled motherfuckers who can easily be replaced in a day. Get your pH down. If you'd prefer to use vinegar, use vinegar, but don't forget the goal is weed.

It for sure is not from too much dolomite. Those granules have been in the soil since transplant before flowering and I didn't add much.
And I believe the timing of the addition of mollasses is what disrupted the balance on top of the most recent top dress. So flushing with mollasses doesn't seem like the best thing to do.
I'll check it today and if its worsened I think the plan is to flush with ph'd water.
Do you think top dressing after flushing would be a good idea? It seems like a good idea so nutrients will be more readily available the following watering after flush. Thoughts?

 

[Jaykay]

I don't think it's too much calcium but that is symenatics. Looks like too much bi carbonates. Can you add some peat? Maybe five handfuls? That should neutralize it

Could you elaborate on why you think it'd be too much bi carbonates? There is already peat in my mix.

 

[Homesteader]

I would top dress gypsum to get calcium to the plant at the same time as adding the peat to drop the pH. Yes you have peat but you have too much dolomite aka Calcium/magnesium bicarbonates. Peat is around 5 to 5.5 pH without any liming.

 

[Jaykay]

I would top dress gypsum to get calcium to the plant at the same time as adding the peat to drop the pH. Yes you have peat but you have too much dolomite aka Calcium/magnesium bicarbonates. Peat is around 5 to 5.5 pH without any liming.

Again.. it's not from too much dolomite! The granules have been in there for weeks now. The calcium in the mollasses is what I believe upset the balance with the timing of the top dressing of dry amendments.

 

[Homesteader]

Mollasses is a waste imo but you aren't getting too much calcium because of it. Maybe too much potassium though which will lock out calcium.
Either way I would add peat to get your pH down and stop using mollasses. My advice on gypsum still stands but the plant is hurting at this point and won't recover this run. Stop using bicarbonates if you want my advice. Gypsum is superior. Check your water too

 

[Jaykay]

Mollasses is a waste imo but you aren't getting too much calcium because of it. Maybe too much potassium though which will lock out calcium.
Either way I would add peat to get your pH down and stop using mollasses. My advice on gypsum still stands but the plant is hurting at this point and won't recover this run. Stop using bicarbonates if you want my advice. Gypsum is superior. Check your water too

There is actually already gypsum in my dry amendment. I've always used dolomite lime in small amounts with great success and as a necessity when I was using soiless medium.
I've always had great success with mollasses aswell. Oldschool growing trick that gets repackaged by many nutrient companies and sold as a carb booster product.
I'm honestly leaning towards letting it ride out until it needs water again. The spread seems to have stopped and it's still putting on bud mass.

 

[Homesteader]

Where is you water coming from? Do you know the carbonates in it?

 

[Jaykay]

Where is you water coming from? Do you know the carbonates in it?

It's municipal tap water from an aquafier sourced from a fresh water great lake. It's a bit on the alkaline side at 7.5-8 ph but isn't considered "hard". I am unsure of ppm but it hasn't given me issues in the past.