Please help, cant diagnose my plants

[LordHumungus187]

Please help me diagnose my plants. Nothing is more frustrating than trying to figure out what I’m doing wrong and I seem to run into yellowing issues with every grow. Here is my set up 4 x 4 AC Infinity tent, AC Infinity Evo 6 ion frame light, AC Infinity AI controller set to target VPD. 3 strains are all autoflower from fast buds, northern lights, train wreck and Apple strudel. I’m following the review that nebula haze did on natures living soil (growweedeasy.com) using rain science fabric pots bottom third of pot is a mix of Coco Loco and natures living soil auto flower concentrate top 2/3 of each pot is straight coco loco per her review. I’m using spring water to get them started because my well water is close to eight pH, once they get a little bit bigger I plan to use earth juice pH down crystals with my water to limit how much citric acid I build up in the soil overtime. Seedlings sprouted on April 4th so they are about 22 days old. This is my first time using Coco Loco. I’ve always been a happy frog guy, but I can’t imagine that the yellowing I’m seeing is already a nutrient deficiency after only 22 days. I know it could possibly be overwatering, but I’m not sure I always check the soil before watering and make sure that it thoroughly dries out. I also don’t think it’s light burn related because they are yellowing from top to bottom not just the leaves closest to the light. Please cannabis veterans tell me what you think.

 

[LordHumungus187]

In case you are wondering, here is my environment

 

[JIMKSI64]

Ok some coco guys will be along shortly but let's get some info for them.
What is your PH and EC/ppm on your nutrition.
How often are you fertigating the plants.
What is your exit runoff of 10% of your nutrition add for pH and EC/ppm

Also you need some more heat in the tent but not until you fix the nutrition or pH issue. More heat will make it worse.
I run soil so will not give you any recommendations but the coco folks will need this information.

 

[LordHumungus187]

So actually, Coco Loco is a mix of coco and potting soil. It’s funny. I never checked the PPM of the springwater I’m using which is Deer Park. It doesn’t even register on my truncheon! But the pH is around 6.7 which I thought was perfect until I switched to using my own well water which has a PPM of 250 and a pH of around 8.2. I am not adding any nutrients as using natures living soil in the bottom should provide all nutrients necessary for the grow at least until I get into flower and start seeing deficiencies. Also, I don’t have any exit runoff because you’re not supposed to wash away the super soil nutrients by over watering but I’m currently giving about 2 to 3 cups worth of water every three days.

 

[LordHumungus187]

I’m starting to think I should ditch the springwater and just start pH adjusting my own well water. I only started using the springwater as that’s what she suggested in her review.

 

[JIMKSI64]

Ok. If you are treating this like an organic grow a straight mixture of fox farms soil will last 20-30 days on its own.
What is being added to recharge the nutrient base? As any coco is inert and needs water to transfer oxygen I guess the coco is used like perlite? If so not sure how the living part keeps living.
Lemme look at our diaries section..
You can search for stuff here. Hit the 3 horizontal bars and look for forums and then scroll around and find grow diaries. Once in the subject search coco loco and it will list all the diaries that mention coco loco.

 

[LordHumungus187]

Here is the grow I have been following exactly. https://www.growweedeasy.com/review-of-natures-living-soil-for-growing-cannabis

Also here is the coco loco information, I know straight coco coir is inert, but I feel like there is enough stuff in here to feed the super soil.

 

[JIMKSI64]

Ok there are some things on coco here on the train but it is not well represented.
Do not treat this like coco. It is a soil using coco and needs a dryback and it does not list pH buffers like ocean forest does. If you are not using RO water it could not hurt to PH it.

One gem I did find is the difference in how these things handle drybacks that go to far.
Soil crashes structurally but stays balanced chemically.
Coco crashes chemically.
This could lead to a damaged biome for the organic conversion.
My guess is you are going to have to follow the write up for this style to the end of the road as there does not appears to be a setup like yours here.
Gluck

 

[LordHumungus187]

Ok there are some things on coco here on the train but it is not well represented.
Do not treat this like coco. It is a soil using coco and needs a dryback and it does not list pH buffers like ocean forest does. If you are not using RO water it could not hurt to PH it.

One gem I did find is the difference in how these things handle drybacks that go to far.
Soil crashes structurally but stays balanced chemically.
Coco crashes chemically.
This could lead to a damaged biome for the organic conversion.
My guess is you are going to have to follow the write up for this style to the end of the road as there does not appears to be a setup like yours here.
Gluck

I really appreciate you responding so quickly and thoroughly to my post. I’m not sure I 100% understand but I think what you’re trying to say is that if I let the soil become too dry that it’ll actually kill the microbes that are in the super soil?

 

[JIMKSI64]

I really appreciate you responding so quickly and thoroughly to my post. I’m not sure I 100% understand but I think what you’re trying to say is that if I let the soil become too dry that it’ll actually kill the microbes that are in the super soil?

Yes you do not want a deep soil pulling away from the pot drooping leaves dryback that some growers sometimes get into.

 

[Grownsince95]

They are probably just barely down to that bottom 3rd layer with all the yummy stuff. They looked starved for Mg and and your 0 ppm water and no additional food probably isn't helping. I would try to pH the well water and increase the volume.
For that size pot just a few cups is insufficient imo.

Kicking up the VPD to 1 would also be my next move and like it was said above, do that by adding some heat.

 

[LordHumungus187]

They are probably just barely down to that bottom 3rd layer with all the yummy stuff. They looked starved for Mg and and your 0 ppm water and no additional food probably isn't helping. I would try to pH the well water and increase the volume.
For that size pot just a few cups is insufficient imo.

Kicking up the VPD to 1 would also be my next move and like it was said above, do that by adding some heat.

Thanks so much, I am shocked that the spring water is essentially empty of minerals, never even thought to check it. I wish I hadn’t just watered yesterday. I do have them sitting on self watering basins I don’t have any wicks in and I have no water in them, but I wonder if I should just start adding pH’d well water to the basis so that it starts influencing roots to head towards the bottom. I was trying to run these plants without the basins because I’m not sure how bottom watering would affect a super soil grow in other words would it start leeching all of the good nutrients out of the soil down into the basin?

 

[Hossgrows]

I’m starting to think I should ditch the springwater and just start pH adjusting my own well water. I only started using the springwater as that’s what she suggested in her review.

I used bottled spring water for a short period during seedling stage last year, until I checked pH of a opened bottle a day old.

It was totally off the chart. My well water goes thru no filtration or softener. Hard...chew before swallowing, but pH stays perfect.

Other than seedlings, ( potted in ProMix & dry organic nutes) my grows are all outdoors, in ground in my garden. My understanding of Coco is it can be challenging for some to use. Me being one of them.
Hope u best of luck on a quick recovery.

 

[carlosescobar]

Yes you do not want a deep soil pulling away from the pot drooping leaves dryback that some growers sometimes get into.

say that again, do you mean if you dryback too much the soil shrinks? and causes leaves to droop , i usually see horizontal leaves or praying , but this one they have been droopy.. i definately have not been overwatering.

 

[ChairmanFester]

A little epsom salt in the water, tsp/gallon maybe start off half. I never quite use 1 per gallon of water. See what that changes.
However if you say "I don't over water!" 75 times, I'm bound to suspect something is going on with the amount of water somehow.
I'm guessing hybrid coco is *pretty much* like soil but especially prone to dryback- personally I work in soil.

 

[LordHumungus187]

I used bottled spring water for a short period during seedling stage last year, until I checked pH of a opened bottle a day old.

It was totally off the chart. My well water goes thru no filtration or softener. Hard...chew before swallowing, but pH stays perfect.

Other than seedlings, ( potted in ProMix & dry organic nutes) my grows are all outdoors, in ground in my garden. My understanding of Coco is it can be challenging for some to use. Me being one of them.
Hope u best of luck on a quick recovery.

So what if anything do you do with your well water? Do you bring ph down to 7 or just let it ride? I know there is debate over whether you need to buffer water with super or living soil

 

[ChairmanFester]

So what if anything do you do with your well water? Do you bring ph down to 7 or just let it ride? I know there is debate over whether you need to buffer water with super or living soil

The soil has it's own buffers to, I replace them with volcanic or basalt rock dust.