This plant is entirely too sensitive. Need assistance.

[LiveandLearn502]

Respectfully disagree, I always have to add Dolomite to my ffof soil which often becomes depleted of pH buffers during bloom; and my tap water is 8.9 so goes without saying it's always pH'ed, so to say don't pH your water is a very broad and general statement in my opinion

OKay so help me out a little. I actually forgot to mention that i added about 5 tbsp of lime in veg and had to flush the plant by week two after the lime. So when am i suppose to use lime and lime is solely used to keep the ph balanced right? just advise me on what to do and when to do it and itll be much appreciated as i already am.

 

[Beachwalker]

OKay so help me out a little. I actually forgot to mention that i added about 5 tbsp of lime in veg and had to flush the plant by week two after the lime. So when am i suppose to use lime and lime is solely used to keep the ph balanced right? just advise me on what to do and when to do it and itll be much appreciated as i already am.

I had a nightmare of a grow not long ago when I added lime to some Pro mix, it's tough to flush out! the whole grow was a disaster

I'll go back and re-read what you got going on after I get a few things done and see if I can make a recommendation, in the meantime a current plant pic would help

 

[GNick55]

OKay so help me out a little. I actually forgot to mention that i added about 5 tbsp of lime in veg and had to flush the plant by week two after the lime. So when am i suppose to use lime and lime is solely used to keep the ph balanced right? just advise me on what to do and when to do it and itll be much appreciated as i already am.

i think your initial problem was over watering, than it has just snowballed from there, with nutrient lockout, ph.,

 

[Jimster]

OKay so help me out a little. I actually forgot to mention that i added about 5 tbsp of lime in veg and had to flush the plant by week two after the lime. So when am i suppose to use lime and lime is solely used to keep the ph balanced right? just advise me on what to do and when to do it and itll be much appreciated as i already am.

Lime can be used to increase Ph. There are a few forms of lime, which is a somewhat general catchall for calcium carbonate and similar compounds. Quicklime, which is sometimes used, is very powerful and can burn the sh!t out of your plants. It activates much quicker than bone meal, egg shells, oyster shells, etc. The main problem with using lime is that the Ph usually keeps rising as the lime breaks down, and trying to adjust Ph in a container full of growing medium that has gone astray.
It is MUCH better to have everything right in the first place if at all possible. If you make a mistake, the few dollars it will cost to replace the soil with something good will quickly be offset by increased and better yields. Growing is like laying bricks... you start with one piece and build from there. Pretty soon it will be 2nd nature and so easy you wonder how you struggled!

 

[MIGrampaUSA]

Lime can be used to increase Ph. There are a few forms of lime, which is a somewhat general catchall for calcium carbonate and similar compounds. Quicklime, which is sometimes used, is very powerful and can burn the sh!t out of your plants. It activates much quicker than bone meal, egg shells, oyster shells, etc. The main problem with using lime is that the Ph usually keeps rising as the lime breaks down, and trying to adjust Ph in a container full of growing medium that has gone astray.
It is MUCH better to have everything right in the first place if at all possible. If you make a mistake, the few dollars it will cost to replace the soil with something good will quickly be offset by increased and better yields. Growing is like laying bricks... you start with one piece and build from there. Pretty soon it will be 2nd nature and so easy you wonder how you struggled!

I use dolomite lime. It breaks down a lot slower than garden lime. With dolomite, even as it breaks down, you won't rise above 7.0 (at least that is what they claim).

Regardless, Jimster is right ... the soil is the foundation. Get it right at the start and things grow much better. I prefer to use as little of "chemicals" as possible.

 

[Beachwalker]

So in the future: What I would do next grow is first I would start adding 1/3 by volume #3 perlite to my ffof, also mix in 1 level tbs. Dolomite per gallon of soil

I recommend you pH everything you pour in whether it's plain water or nutrient water to 6.5 every time.

I also recommend you check run off pH & ppm often, it doesn't have to be every time you water but it should be frequently, record these readings so you can see trends, like if your pH is dropping or salts (ppm) are rising

As far as the plant in the picture there's really nothing you can do to change its course; you can decide to finish it or pull it, but you can't do much to correct it at this point in my opinion. Hope this helps, good luck

 

[Edinburgh]

See now your way over thinking, all autoflowers are notoriously eaysy to nute burn all of them, your plant is not to sensative you are overfeeding, u need to prune off those dead burnt leaves, make shure your ph is not way off, let it recover then go much easier on bloom nutrients, the main problem with autoflowers is people do not understand how sensative they really are and how much less nutrients they really need. All pics are different strains of autoflowers i have run lately, you need to understand that yes they are sensative all of them but as u can see once you understand them u can pump them out.

 

[MIGrampaUSA]

See now your way over thinking, all autoflowers are notoriously eaysy to nute burn all of them, your plant is not to sensative you are overfeeding, u need to prune off those dead burnt leaves, make shure your ph is not way off, let it recover then go much easier on bloom nutrients, the main problem with autoflowers is people do not understand how sensative they really are and how much less nutrients they really need. All pics are different strains of autoflowers i have run lately, you need to understand that yes they are sensative all of them but as u can see once you understand them u can pump them out.

Great post!

Using the pictures posted above, lets look at those plants for the purpose of a few observations. See the very slight tip burn? He's using the tips of the plants to help him determine the strength of his nutes. This is what I do, Although I haven't grown autos yet, the approach still applies. I try to have my soil mix full enough of nutrients to pretty much make it through the whole grow. Obviously at some point, most plants need at least a little feeding. I always use minimal salts based ferts if I think they need feeding. If I see the tip burn after my feeding, I know that my soil is still good. My goal when I feed is to give the plant what she needs. Too many people have this idea that more food means faster growth when its rarely that simple.

Growing plants is a lot like raising children. You try to provide an environment in which they will thrive. However, at the end of the day, no matter what you do their 18th birthday will not come sooner. The plants are pre-programmed geneticaly to finish when they do. While you can slow their development down with improper care, you cannot speed up the genetic footprint no matter how perfect you care for the plant.

1: Let the plant tell you what she needs. Don't try to force her to grow faster. When it comes to fertilizers and feeding, this is a common misconception .... more does not necessarily means faster growth where the best answer is give her enough food to promote healthy growth.

2: Look to keep her happy by watching the new growth. It's the new growth that tells you how you are doing reading the plant's needs.

 

[Hidd3nGr0w]

Okay im hearing different opinions on dolomite lime and epson salt. people say to use or to dont use them. i really dont know what to do but i had 5tbsp of dolomite lime in the sour D pot and had to flush it bc it got really bad. Appreciate your input!

You are talking about apples and oranges. The lime is for ph, which you do not need in soil, your soil came with lime in it and is already buffered. You have been adding Cal/Mag which you should only be giving once every 3-4 weeks in a small dose if any at all. The excess of Calcium has locked out everything else which looks like Cal/Mad deficiency.

The Epsom salts is for the Mag deficiency you DO have causing the stems to go purple/red most likely due to lockout and will break through the lockout. If I was you I would just water my plant with 1tbs per gallon of Epsom salts (normal amount you would water) till that gallon is gone then switch to straight water (tap water not RO ) for a week after that and let your plant recover. Your soil is full of the nutrients you have been over feeding your plant and it has been locked out of using, so stop feeding it and just give it water so it can digest whats already there.

 

[MIGrampaUSA]

You are talking about apples and oranges. The lime is for ph, which you do not need in soil, your soil came with lime in it and is already buffered. You have been adding Cal/Mag which you should only be giving once every 3-4 weeks in a small dose if any at all. The excess of Calcium has locked out everything else which looks like Cal/Mad deficiency.

The Epsom salts is for the Mag deficiency you DO have causing the stems to go purple/red most likely due to lockout and will break through the lockout. If I was you I would just water my plant with 1tbs per gallon of Epsom salts (normal amount you would water) till that gallon is gone then switch to straight water (tap water not RO ) for a week after that and let your plant recover. Your soil is full of the nutrients you have been over feeding your plant and it has been locked out of using, so stop feeding it and just give it water so it can digest whats already there.

The only thing I would add to that is plants don't like chlorine. Let it sit if you have a chlorinated water source. After a few days, only residual chlorine will be left and your tap water should be fine to use.

 

[visajoe1]

ive never really understood the chlorine thing. for one, chloramine is becoming more prevalent and it takes weeks to dissipate. two, chlorine at tap water levels isnt necessarily harmful to plants. pool water or other higher concentrations would be harmful, yes. but not tap water.

only way to remove chlorine/chloramine is to use a RO filter

 

[MIGrampaUSA]

ive never really understood the chlorine thing. for one, chloramine is becoming more prevalent and it takes weeks to dissipate. two, chlorine at tap water levels isnt necessarily harmful to plants. pool water or other higher concentrations would be harmful, yes. but not tap water.

only way to remove chlorine/chloramine is to use a RO filter

I seem to be doing just fine allowing the gas to dissipate. Also if you read on activated charcoal filters, they claim to remove CHLORINE. So RO is only ONE way to remove it, not the only way. I also don't entirely agree that chlorine is harmless to plants at drinking water levels. It usually doesn't kill them, it kills beneficial microbes.

I will continue standing by my methods.

 

[MIGrampaUSA]

I seem to be doing just fine allowing the gas to dissipate. Also if you read on activated charcoal filters, they claim to remove CHLORINE. So RO is only ONE way to remove it, not the only way. I also don't entirely agree that chlorine is harmless to plants at drinking water levels. It usually doesn't kill them, it kills beneficial microbes.

I will continue standing by my methods.

Did some checking ....

Chloramine doesn't dissipate at the rate that chlorine does. However, so much less is needed and I might not need to do this with chloramine.

My municipality uses chloramine. When I draw the water from the tap, it's pH is about 8.5. However, when I let it sit a few days, it's pH reads 7.0-7.5 depending on the number of days. What is causing this if it's not something dissipating from the water? (I have no issue using water in soil with a pH of 7.0-7.5) I am using air stones in the water as it sits.

I started this practice in the 80's when municipalities were more likely to be using chlorine. It's a habit. It's been working so I won't change this either.

I do know that you don't want to kill soil microbes because that will cause issues with nutrient uptake.

Educate me ... there's always new things to learn.

 

[Cube]

Did some checking ....

Chloramine doesn't dissipate at the rate that chlorine does. However, so much less is needed and I might not need to do this with chloramine.

My municipality uses chloramine. When I draw the water from the tap, it's pH is about 8.5. However, when I let it sit a few days, it's pH reads 7.0-7.5 depending on the number of days. What is causing this if it's not something dissipating from the water? (I have no issue using water in soil with a pH of 7.0-7.5) I am using air stones in the water as it sits.

I started this practice in the 80's when municipalities were more likely to be using chlorine. It's a habit. It's been working so I won't change this either.

I do know that you don't want to kill soil microbes because that will cause issues with nutrient uptake.

Educate me ... there's always new things to learn.

Check out this video. He does a lab study on microbes after watering with tap water. It's pretty interesting.

I also have a question, you say not to use RO water by itself, why is that? I've not heard this before.

thanks!

 

[MIGrampaUSA]

Check out this video. He does a lab study on microbes after watering with tap water. It's pretty interesting.

I also have a question, you say not to use RO water by itself, why is that? I've not heard this before.

thanks!

If you're referring to me, I don't think I've ever said that. I don't believe it's necessary for most soil growers though. I do have an RO unit. but I bought it for hydroponics and I still don't have it installed. I haven't made the transition from soil to hydro yet.

I have nothing against RO water. However, I don't believe it's necessary in soil unless you have some seriously bad water quality (meaning there are circumstances that doesn't follow this rule).

 

[Cube]

You are talking about apples and oranges. The lime is for ph, which you do not need in soil, your soil came with lime in it and is already buffered. You have been adding Cal/Mag which you should only be giving once every 3-4 weeks in a small dose if any at all. The excess of Calcium has locked out everything else which looks like Cal/Mad deficiency.

The Epsom salts is for the Mag deficiency you DO have causing the stems to go purple/red most likely due to lockout and will break through the lockout. If I was you I would just water my plant with 1tbs per gallon of Epsom salts (normal amount you would water) till that gallon is gone then switch to straight water (tap water not RO ) for a week after that and let your plant recover. Your soil is full of the nutrients you have been over feeding your plant and it has been locked out of using, so stop feeding it and just give it water so it can digest whats already there.

Actually it was this message that mentions using tap water not RO for a week. I'm just curious as to why.

Thanks

 

[MIGrampaUSA]

Actually it was this message that mentions using tap water not RO for a week. I'm just curious as to why.

Thanks

What's the link to the video? There's no captions. I don't hear well and I need to read it to get it's message.

Edit: I know that sounds so cliche' but it's the truth. Grampa doesn't hear well anymore.

 

[Cube]

What's the link to the video? There's no captions. I don't hear well and I need to read it to get it's message.

Edit: I know that sounds so cliche' but it's the truth. Grampa doesn't hear well anymore.

No worries I'm getting up there myself but it's my eyes that are going first. lol.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgvlE8YM1xI

Try this.

 

[Cube]

What's the link to the video? There's no captions. I don't hear well and I need to read it to get it's message.

Edit: I know that sounds so cliche' but it's the truth. Grampa doesn't hear well anymore.

I posted a link in another message but it says it needs moderator approval first.

The video is on Youtube. I just searched for "soil microbes tap water" and it was the first video.

 

[Hidd3nGr0w]

Actually it was this message that mentions using tap water not RO for a week. I'm just curious as to why.

Thanks

I suggested tap water because RO water has no minerals in it and you have to add Cal/Mag to it. For someone having calcium excess issues the last thing one needs is to be mixing up is a fresh batch of calcium to add to the issues he has already.