Should I follow the feeding guide for the brand of soil I'm using?

[CarpeDiamonds]

I think you were on the right track but came to the wrong solution. A pH of 6 is only slightly low, and you indicated that it was rising on it's own (it's supposed to), which is why it's a good idea to "cook" peat based mediums before planting. This basically allows the lime the mfg added to start to counteract the acidic peat.

This pH post by aqua explains it better then I could, but by adding more lime, and your tap water sounds like it's fairly alkaline too you could be heading towards a problem with total alkalinity in the future.

Also the plants pictured didn't look too bad, I would have looked more at watering practices at that point in their lives, but IMO they were a bit young to be chasing pH or nutrient problems

Marijuana pH Levels for Growing Weed: A Basic Explanation

OK I'm going to do my best to explain PH since its something that is for the most part greatly misunderstood and can be confusing to new growers and even experienced growers alike. This will explain why we need both ppm and PH meters to give us informed information about PH This will be a...

www.thcfarmer.com

I'm fairly knowledgeable about what pH is since I'm actually a chemistry student but thank you for the link I'll definitely read through it. More knowledge never hurts.
I never stated I noticed a rise in pH actually just that it was at 6, but I have read about pH rising naturally so what your saying does make a lot of sense. The first way I tested pH wasn't the most accurate but I plan to test the pH by runoff when the soil dry's out a bit more.
With regards to watering, I'm a bit confused because I never actually watered enough to get runoff, I sprayed the soil with a spray bottle so how could I have over watered? I only soaked the water completely when transplanting and didn't water again till it completely dried out about 5-6 days later.

 

[Kampbe1l]

okay.

let's try not feeding them at all - if anything, just add that Rhizotonic, Cannazym, Cal-Mag whatever, but no nutrients. that's a start. adjust ph if necessary, though pH 6.0 is smack in the middle of my suggested zone.

secondly, get the watering right. i don't spray my plants, unless its for bugs. water so that the entire pot is soaked, and there is maybe up to 20% runoff. here, you want to have the appropriate pot size for the plant - start with smaller pots, then as they get root bounded, repot into larger pots. This watering with 20% run-off and the progression of repotting into larger pots, allows the roots to properly develop - its an easier way than having a small plant in a relatively large pot.

i reckon let's do whatever other adjustments if required, after these 2 steps have been established.

i'm going to a game of footy tonight - so, tomorrow, i'll post some photos showing you plants grown/growing in this soil mix - and i lightly feed, and no other amendments other than adding more perlite.

i reckon you're right when you mentioned 'hotness' of this soil mix, but all my plants outgrows it, and some even thrive. so, i blame myself the toolsman, rather than his tools.

GO, Q-U-E-E-N-S-L-A-N-D!!!! Stomp on the Cockroaches!!! sorry....off to the game.

 

[CarpeDiamonds]

okay.

let's try not feeding them at all - if anything, just add that Rhizotonic, Cannazym, Cal-Mag whatever, but no nutrients. that's a start. adjust ph if necessary, though pH 6.0 is smack in the middle of my suggested zone.

secondly, get the watering right. i don't spray my plants, unless its for bugs. water so that the entire pot is soaked, and there is maybe up to 20% runoff. here, you want to have the appropriate pot size for the plant - start with smaller pots, then as they get root bounded, repot into larger pots. This watering with 20% run-off and the progression of repotting into larger pots, allows the roots to properly develop - its an easier way than having a small plant in a relatively large pot.

i reckon let's do whatever other adjustments if required, after these 2 steps have been established.

i'm going to a game of footy tonight - so, tomorrow, i'll post some photos showing you plants grown/growing in this soil mix - and i lightly feed, and no other amendments other than adding more perlite.

i reckon you're right when you mentioned 'hotness' of this soil mix, but all my plants outgrows it, and some even thrive. so, i blame myself the toolsman, rather than his tools.

GO, Q-U-E-E-N-S-L-A-N-D!!!! Stomp on the Cockroaches!!! sorry....off to the game.

Haha nice seeing another Aussie on here.
Alright I'll start watering till run off then because I usually don't get runoff when I water. How do you know you actually have 20% runoff, do you just estimate or do you write down how much water goes in and out?
Might go pick up some Cannazym and the rest of the Canna terra range. I don't think I should be adding cal mag to my water though considering I already added the dolomite lime and that's just calcium and magnesium anyway. Someone correct me if I'm wrong though

 

[Kampbe1l]

yeah, let me get my act together, a bit of lack of sleep, so i hope i'm not too scattered here.

there is a rough formula about 10% of the pot size - for 1 gallon pot (3.8 L) is approximately 400 mls of water. when you water this 400 mls, you should get some run off, maybe up to that 20%. it's all estimates, rather than precise measurements.

you can water so that there is no run-off, and that's another watering technique - but i think its better/easier to evenly moisten/wet the soil, thus the little run-off.

i would only use Rhizotonic for root development - so on clones, seedlings, maybe DWC setups. I found Cannazym to be beneficial, though i use maybe at half its recommended full dosage as on its label. My Blackberry Kush is a particularly heavy magnesium feeder, so i need to apply this Cal-Mag.

i didn't add anything to the Canna Terra Professional, except more perlite. so, 4/5 gals of this Canna soil mix to 1 gal of perlite. do you reckon this Canna Terra Professional needs such adjustments?

i have not fed her at all, during her whole life. just water, cannazym, cal-mag - and i don't now adjust its pH if its in betw 5.8 to 6.2 range. again, what do your reckon of this Canna Terra Professional with a little more perlite?

i understand what you are going through - as i went through this myself a year ago. The Canna Terra Professional soil mix by itself is more than adequate for such grows - i add more perlite, coz i think it improves its drainage. the plants may find this Canna Terra Professional a little 'hot' at first, but the plants grows through and out of it.

i bought the 1 L bottles of Canna Terra Vega, and I have used maybe 20 mls of it in a year. I'm about to flower this baby, so i might use some Canna Terra Flores on it, but probably just cannazym, cal-mag and boost, with a splash of PK 13/14.

buy these types of products as you need 'em....

oh, btw, this is about a 10-gallon pot, and I water about 4 L - which gives that little runoff, maybe 20%. i like lifting the pots off the ground when i water 'em, so i can see its run-off, and so that the pots don't sit in their wet spots.

 

[CarpeDiamonds]

yeah, let me get my act together, a bit of lack of sleep, so i hope i'm not too scattered here.

there is a rough formula about 10% of the pot size - for 1 gallon pot (3.8 L) is approximately 400 mls of water. when you water this 400 mls, you should get some run off, maybe up to that 20%. it's all estimates, rather than precise measurements.

you can water so that there is no run-off, and that's another watering technique - but i think its better/easier to evenly moisten/wet the soil, thus the little run-off.

i would only use Rhizotonic for root development - so on clones, seedlings, maybe DWC setups. I found Cannazym to be beneficial, though i use maybe at half its recommended full dosage as on its label. My Blackberry Kush is a particularly heavy magnesium feeder, so i need to apply this Cal-Mag.

View attachment 1054687

i didn't add anything to the Canna Terra Professional, except more perlite. so, 4/5 gals of this Canna soil mix to 1 gal of perlite. do you reckon this Canna Terra Professional needs such adjustments?

View attachment 1054688

i have not fed her at all, during her whole life. just water, cannazym, cal-mag - and i don't now adjust its pH if its in betw 5.8 to 6.2 range. again, what do your reckon of this Canna Terra Professional with a little more perlite?

View attachment 1054689

i understand what you are going through - as i went through this myself a year ago. The Canna Terra Professional soil mix by itself is more than adequate for such grows - i add more perlite, coz i think it improves its drainage. the plants may find this Canna Terra Professional a little 'hot' at first, but the plants grows through and out of it.

i bought the 1 L bottles of Canna Terra Vega, and I have used maybe 20 mls of it in a year. I'm about to flower this baby, so i might use some Canna Terra Flores on it, but probably just cannazym, cal-mag and boost, with a splash of PK 13/14.

buy these types of products as you need 'em....

oh, btw, this is about a 10-gallon pot, and I water about 4 L - which gives that little runoff, maybe 20%. i like lifting the pots off the ground when i water 'em, so i can see its run-off, and so that the pots don't sit in their wet spots.

That looks awesome awesome dude. It's nice to see good results with the same soil i'm using. Have you ever gotten yellowing of the bottom leaves like in mine at any point? Your pics look consistently green except for a few yellows at the top. I feel like genetics might be playing a role with my plants a bit cause I didn't get the seeds from a good source.
Tomorrow I'm going to pick up canazym, maybe the rest of the nutrient line and a ppm meter cause I think it'll come in handy. Then I'll water till 20% runoff like you said and get a reading of the ppm or pH. Let me know if you get a pH reading for your plants I'd be interested to know what its at.

 

[CarpeDiamonds]

Alright so here's an update, got a ppm meter today and asked the guys at the store whether I should be feeding yet. The said definitely and that I should have been feeding from the first week on. Decided to do some testing. Two of my plants needed watering today, the largest of the cohort. To one of them, the most effected plant, I fed nutrients at the concentration recommended by feeding guide. Had to give it a bout a liter of solution before I started getting runoff ( about 75ml). The ppm and pH going in was 364 and 7.3 and runoff came out at 833 and 5.5. To the second plant, which still showed symptoms but was a bit healthier I watered with about 900ml of my tap water till I got roughly 60ml of runoff. The ppm and pH going in was 100 and 7.3 and runoff came out at 520 and pH 6.3.
What I gather from this is that regardless of what the guys at the store said, or the manufacturers feeding schedule, There seems to be sufficient nutrients in the soil since the runoff ppm is higher than what I put in. I'm also thinking though, the high runoff could be a result of the dolomite I added and that If didn't add the dolomite I maybe would have seen lower ppm. Any thoughts guys?
@Aqua Man

 

[Kampbe1l]

i take whatever the salesperson and manufacturer states with grain of salt. i always dilute and am typically nowhere near what's written on the labels.

from my experience, with the mango k and blackberrry k grows, they don't like much nutrients especially during its vegetative grow phase - classic curled leaves and dark green colour after even a light feed. as they reacted this way when i applied a weak nutrient solution, i hardly feed these plants during their vegetative grow phase. my philosophy is if they look hungry then i should apply nutrients, otherwise leave them as they are in their soil mix if they don't show any hunger. i have never seen my plants been underfed in this soil mix (as it is with minor adjustment, addition of perlite) - all my issues have been other environmental and growing matters.

the yellowing of the leaves on my large 'seedling' is due to the lights, and me snapping branches when i move the heavy bugger. one sign i can tell she is healthy, her aroma.

got a pH and PPM pen, i mainly use for my DWC, even the pH pen on my fish tank - hardly use the PPM and pH pen with my soil mix grow - only when i start to encounter issues, where i want to rule out pH imbalances. i think our reference point is different, because of your amendments to the basic soil mix.

i stay away from soil recipes - i'm sure these recipes are suitable. Sourcing the various ingredients can be difficult (for me), and i think there is a 1000 ways of skinning this cat, so there are so many suggestions which would work. Many suggestions are similar, many variants of the same suggestions. But i couldn't be bothered making such amendment, i'd rather fork out for an expensive bag of super soil mix. Or stick with such no-frill Canna Terra Professional, to keep things simple, stable and standard.

yeah, the Canna Terra Professional is fine by itself as the 'base' soil mix. i chose Canna Terra Professional because i can get this product easily (we can't get Forest Frog), and i wanted to get a baseline (like you) where others use so i can also get a gauge of what this soil mix is like to grow in. I have found little information online, and gained all my knowledge through practical experience over last year.

it's not as complicated as it seems, but you'll need to hit that light/point/mark of realisation. slow down, keep it simple, patience, persistence, hang in.

 

[Kampbe1l]

i got all these bottles - Canna Terra Flores, Canna Terra Flores, Cal-Mag, Boost, PK 13/14, pH up & down solutions, pH buffers, clonex gel, Canna Aqua Terra.... And most of these bottles are full. I only replace regularly the Cannazym and the pH buffer solutions.

if i followed the manufacturer's label, i would have had to replace all this in the box, regularly.

though i don't use much of these bottles, its good to have handy just in case. but you gotta keep these solutions well, as they have a shelf-life themselves.

i suppose the other reason why i chose Canna Terra Professional, was to keep the product line with one manufacturer - again for simplicity, rather than being a loyal fan of Canna. i sense that's the same reason you went this way, too.

anyway, i just clipped some off my plant which is flowering in early outdoor season. i see plenty of deficiencies in my grow, but the Canna Terra Professional soil mix is not my main concern there.

 

[CarpeDiamonds]

i take whatever the salesperson and manufacturer states with grain of salt. i always dilute and am typically nowhere near what's written on the labels.

from my experience, with the mango k and blackberrry k grows, they don't like much nutrients especially during its vegetative grow phase - classic curled leaves and dark green colour after even a light feed. as they reacted this way when i applied a weak nutrient solution, i hardly feed these plants during their vegetative grow phase. my philosophy is if they look hungry then i should apply nutrients, otherwise leave them as they are in their soil mix if they don't show any hunger. i have never seen my plants been underfed in this soil mix (as it is with minor adjustment, addition of perlite) - all my issues have been other environmental and growing matters.

the yellowing of the leaves on my large 'seedling' is due to the lights, and me snapping branches when i move the heavy bugger. one sign i can tell she is healthy, her aroma.

got a pH and PPM pen, i mainly use for my DWC, even the pH pen on my fish tank - hardly use the PPM and pH pen with my soil mix grow - only when i start to encounter issues, where i want to rule out pH imbalances. i think our reference point is different, because of your amendments to the basic soil mix.

i stay away from soil recipes - i'm sure these recipes are suitable. Sourcing the various ingredients can be difficult (for me), and i think there is a 1000 ways of skinning this cat, so there are so many suggestions which would work. Many suggestions are similar, many variants of the same suggestions. But i couldn't be bothered making such amendment, i'd rather fork out for an expensive bag of super soil mix. Or stick with such no-frill Canna Terra Professional, to keep things simple, stable and standard.

yeah, the Canna Terra Professional is fine by itself as the 'base' soil mix. i chose Canna Terra Professional because i can get this product easily (we can't get Forest Frog), and i wanted to get a baseline (like you) where others use so i can also get a gauge of what this soil mix is like to grow in. I have found little information online, and gained all my knowledge through practical experience over last year.

it's not as complicated as it seems, but you'll need to hit that light/point/mark of realisation. slow down, keep it simple, patience, persistence, hang in.

Sorry should have been more clear that I halved the concentration recommended by the manufacturer. Been reading through some of your older posts, very insightful. I'm fearing the worst for my plants though. I think whatever's effecting them its just going to get worse. As for the amendments. You said you use cal mag for your grows. The dolomite I applied is basically just cal mag in powder form. It's 14% calcium carbonate 8% magnesium carbonate. You say you use buffers? Does that mean your adjusting your water pH with up and down? Maybe I should be doing that. But Aqua mans post about pH says that the pH going in dosen't really matter due to the buffering nature of the soil. Like you said I went with canna terra because I wanted to stay consistent with a brand and also the options available to me weren't that expansive. Also canna terra claims its soil is great for beginners.

 

[Kampbe1l]

got any recent photos of your plants? let's have a closer look.

the salesperson is giving you the standard spiel, general information - i don't disagree with the salesperson, especially about the soil being a buffer - that's another reason to pick soil grow, soil is more forgiving than other grow mediums.

my tap water (left at least 24 hours to dechlorinate) last year was around 8.0 pH, now its towards 5.8 pH level. lately (last 6 months) i haven't needed to adjust as the pH. i measure the pH level, but i don't make any adjustments. again, i don't fuss if the pH is within 5.8 to 6.3 (even a little higher to 6.5) range.

i use the pH and TDS pens mainly for my single DWC setup - and there i found when i added Cannazym + Go-Green + Canna Aqua Vega [A+B], it drops the pH of the solution, thus i use a little pH up to get it closer to target 5.8 pH level.

as it is, with the issues you're encountering, after making whatever adjustments/corrections, you want the fresh new growth to be green & healthy, then you know you're heading in the right direction. often, i find that the plant seems to be not doing much (maybe its developing its roots) for awhile, then it explodes into healthy grow - that's what i mean by plants growing through and out of the 'hot' soil mix.

make one adjustment, in increments, otherwise you don't know what-did-what.

Canna Terra Professional is more than adequate/suitable for grows.

 

[CarpeDiamonds]

I need like 15 minutes for my phone to charge and I'll post some more photos. Does look like its progressing upwards though

 

[CarpeDiamonds]

i got all these bottles - Canna Terra Flores, Canna Terra Flores, Cal-Mag, Boost, PK 13/14, pH up & down solutions, pH buffers, clonex gel, Canna Aqua Terra.... And most of these bottles are full. I only replace regularly the Cannazym and the pH buffer solutions.

View attachment 1055300

if i followed the manufacturer's label, i would have had to replace all this in the box, regularly.

though i don't use much of these bottles, its good to have handy just in case. but you gotta keep these solutions well, as they have a shelf-life themselves.

i suppose the other reason why i chose Canna Terra Professional, was to keep the product line with one manufacturer - again for simplicity, rather than being a loyal fan of Canna. i sense that's the same reason you went this way, too.

View attachment 1055299

anyway, i just clipped some off my plant which is flowering in early outdoor season. i see plenty of deficiencies in my grow, but the Canna Terra Professional soil mix is not my main concern there.

Yo how do you post photos with captions underneath like this?

 

[Kampbe1l]

here, some encouragement, i hope.

these babies were struggling just a fortnight ago. my drastic action was to clean out the tent, make sure everything is working, and everything is on its proper settings. 2 weeks later, the plants are responding well, back into strong vegetative growth. whatever it was, as i'm not in that much of a hurry, it set me back a little, in time. my overall objective is to improve overall efficiency, to grow in the shortest time for the largest yield/result.

maybe here, i'm banging on about being patient, keep control of your eagerness & anxieties, that helps the plants grow well, too.

one plant does look worse for wear, but she should recover back towards full health. another plant is revegetating, after this clone/cutting first insisted on budding out. the plant at the back is just taking off, but it might be the flagship of my current crop in the tent. they all are kinda deformed, but its a process of elimination until i have 4 nice plants remaining in the tent, to bud out.

okay, pickies taken under LED, but you can see these plants are in various phases and various health conditions, all in Canna Terra Professional soil mix, and I'm confident they will all recover fully, now that i addressed whatever the issue was. whatever the issue, it wasn't the soil mix itself - i even suspect it might have been my watering routine/technique. I just tightened up all my routines/maintenance, as a process of elimination to figure out what was wrong - which i didn't figure out, but somehow it's all seems better, now.

 

[Kampbe1l]

Yo how do you post photos with captions underneath like this?

IDK, i just click [upload photos]....?!?!

 

[CarpeDiamonds]

Aright here's some pics I just took.
First let me show you how all symptoms begin. It always starts with these tiny brown spots on the leaves.

This plant below I've labelled J1. This is the plant I recently fed nutrients. Its bottom leaves went through necrosis and the yellowing has spread to the above leaf tips.

The next one I've labelled J2. This is the one I've recently watered with straight tap water. Symptoms are not as bad as J1 and growth is a bit better.

This one I labelled No.2. Recently transplanted, soil still moist. Bottom leaves went through necrosis. And has those tiny brown spots on the leaves one node higher up.

This one is K1 and is also recently transplanted. Probably the best health of them all. Although, can still see some tiny brown spots.

And this one is K2. Kept it around just for the heck of it after it suffered heavy dehydration but it bounced back.

 

[Kampbe1l]

hey, they're not in bad shape, better shape than some of my strugglers. second look, they're doing okay.

honestly, i reckon let it grow out of it. keep your watering routine/technique tight, let the pots dry out completely. here, i think a good advise is to weigh the pots, to determine its watering schedule - it's a simple & effective method. overwatering is not only how frequent the grower waters, but also to do with the moisture holding capacity of the grow medium. getting this watering routine, as the plant grows and its watering/feeding pattern changes, is most of the trick, i reckon.

as long as the 'damage' doesn't affect the new fresh grow. it looks like the damage is on some of the lower leaves. leave 'em alone, see what they do over the next week or so. cross the bridge again in that week. keep eye on the new growth, see if damage is spreading there.

damage can spread from the bottom leaves, then moves up the plant - while other issues start at the tip, or can affect the whole plant. see what the 'damage' does, where and how it spreads, if it does. how the damage spreads is an indication of what the problem may be.

however, i can't see much further damage other than those lower leaves.... The remaining leaves looks healthy, dark green, it's not bloated, overall, on third look, they look fine, even. re-evaluation in a fortnight, i reckon they'll be fine. no nutrients, not required - i thought one of the photos was showing a little crawling on her leaves.

i reckon, if anything, its more watering issue, than soil mix composition.

finally, i would be content (if not happy) with your results thus far, you're doing good. sometimes, its better not to fuss too much, let it be and see what you need to do.

 

[CarpeDiamonds]

hey, they're not in bad shape, better shape than some of my strugglers. second look, they're doing okay.

honestly, i reckon let it grow out of it. keep your watering routine/technique tight, let the pots dry out completely. here, i think a good advise is to weigh the pots, to determine its watering schedule - it's a simple & effective method. overwatering is not only how frequent the grower waters, but also to do with the moisture holding capacity of the grow medium. getting this watering routine, as the plant grows and its watering/feeding pattern changes, is most of the trick, i reckon.

as long as the 'damage' doesn't affect the new fresh grow. it looks like the damage is on some of the lower leaves. leave 'em alone, see what they do over the next week or so. cross the bridge again in that week. keep eye on the new growth, see if damage is spreading there.

damage can spread from the bottom leaves, then moves up the plant - while other issues start at the tip, or can affect the whole plant. see what the 'damage' does, where and how it spreads, if it does. how the damage spreads is an indication of what the problem may be.

however, i can't see much further damage other than those lower leaves.... The remaining leaves looks healthy, dark green, it's not bloated, overall, on third look, they look fine, even. re-evaluation in a fortnight, i reckon they'll be fine. no nutrients, not required - i thought one of the photos was showing a little crawling on her leaves.

i reckon, if anything, its more watering issue, than soil mix composition.

finally, i would be content (if not happy) with your results thus far, you're doing good. sometimes, its better not to fuss too much, let it be and see what you need to do.

Thanks man I'm Just happy that they're growing apart from the necrosis. I've began weighing them as well these last couple watering's as well so I'll try stay consistent. It definitely is slowly moving up the plant though. It started from the very bottom leaves and now its about three leaves from the bottom and you can definitely see little brown spots where I assume its going to spread to next.

 

[MIMedGrower]

@CarpeDiamonds the damage looks like water stress from too much or maybe inconsistent with dry pockets.

dont know how to advise if you have added stuff and i never used that kind of soil.

You said a page ago you saturated the pots at transplant then sprayed the top of the soil. With plants that size it can take a week or more to properly dry so i still think they started off watered too often which drowns then damages roots.

The solution is always let dry out real good and light first.

 

[CarpeDiamonds]

@CarpeDiamonds the damage looks like water stress from too much or maybe inconsistent with dry pockets.

dont know how to advise if you have added stuff and i never used that kind of soil.

You said a page ago you saturated the pots at transplant then sprayed the top of the soil. With plants that size it can take a week or more to properly dry so i still think they started off watered too often which drowns then damages roots.

The solution is always let dry out real good and light first.

Thanks for replying. I waited about 5-6 days after transplanting before I watered again. I guess I'll wait longer next time. I tested to see if they were sufficiently dry by puncturing the soil with a wooden kebab skewer and checking to see if it came out dry. What kind of trend should I be seeing with ppm that confirms the plants are getting enough nutrients?

 

[MIMedGrower]

Thanks for replying. I waited about 5-6 days after transplanting before I watered again. I guess I'll wait longer next time. I tested to see if they were sufficiently dry by puncturing the soil with a wooden kebab skewer and checking to see if it came out dry. What kind of trend should I be seeing with ppm that confirms the plants are getting enough nutrients?

well you have to start at the beginning and you should see the soil ppm come down over time. But it goes up too as elements become available.

i wasnt following from the beginning so i dont really know what happened. And again i dont know about that soil you got.

good luck. We all go through this learning curve.