What's wrong with my autos? Could it be ph lockout?

Gianphranko · Mar 11, 2022

Hi all,
I am new to the forum, this is my third growth
I am asking for help because I cannot understand what it is going on with my plants.
I will try to list all the necessary details.

5 gallon fabric pots in 50% biobizz light mix + 50% coco choirs + some Bat guano
keeping temperature around 24C (76F) with RH 65%
I have a heater and a 4.5 hot vapor humidifier.
LED Lights Migro Aray 4
4x2 growtent with exhaust fan running 24/7

both plants are autoflowers, week 6/7
(1) is an auto critical orange punch from Dutch's Passion.
(2) is a royal cheese from RQS

I am using BioBizz nutrients once every two watering and ph down to set water ph around 6.5
I measure ph using ph strips and ph liquid droplets.
I got a cheap digital ph meter that I never got to work as it was failing calibration.
I am going to buy a better one soon to measure more accurately my watering solution ph.
I am using Biogrow starter pack, with BioGrow, BioBloom, BioHeaven and Alg-a-Mic ( and top max that i haven't started using yet).

at first lower and older leaves started showing yellow spots, which I saw as a Calcium deficiency caused by too high ph.
so I tried to lower the ph a bit and last 2 watering I went more towards 6.0, but I am not completely confident in my ph measurements.
then I think I overwatered them a bit because the plant was looking droopy and leaves pointed downwards, with leaf surface parallel to the walls (vertical).

so I waited for next watering (that was 48 hours before the photos) and since I noticed yellow, slim and twisted new growth, could it look like nitrogen deficency?
Fan leaves stem turned purple on both plants and

Gianphranko · Mar 11, 2022

Fan leaves stem turned purple on both plants and new growth is thin with twisted leaves tips.
So at this point I cannot tell if this is nut burn, nut def or ph lockout, heck it could even be light stress!
for sure I am stressed, so I appreciate any help :)

Gianphranko · Mar 13, 2022

i think i am going to flush for the next week and see how plants will react.
If anyone could share their impressions about whats wrong it would be very welcomed

Billymgb · Mar 13, 2022

Until you can regulate the PH those plants will do some crazy stuff. Also you want to be knowing the EC or PPM. Good luck and remember keep it simple.

Gianphranko · Mar 13, 2022

Billymgb said:
Until you can regulate the PH those plants will do some crazy stuff. Also you want to be knowing the EC or PPM. Good luck and remember keep it simple.

thanks man, so as far as I understood i should keep water ph at 6.25 and my soil (50% soil and 50% coco) is going to be at the correct ph as well?

Moshmen · Mar 13, 2022

Soil and coco don’t mix well for best results pick one direction,soil or soiless .

I’d think about a transplant personally

Billymgb · Mar 16, 2022

Gianphranko said:
thanks man, so as far as I understood i should keep water ph at 6.25 and my soil (50% soil and 50% coco) is going to be at the correct ph as well?

I shoot for 5.9 ph but 6.25 is ok too. you have to check the runoff to see what the ph is. Like Moshmen said you should really pick one soil or soilless. I use coco myself and feed mine 2x a day to get at least 20% runoff. Good luck with your grow,

Gianphranko · Mar 16, 2022

Yeah guys thanks so much for your replies, for sure next round I will go with only soil as I always have done in my previous growth.

I don't think I am going to transplant at this point, since I am seeing some improvements from the plants using lower ph watering.

I did the exotic 50 Coco 50 soil because I saw in the time lapses in Dutch's Passion official website, so I thought it could be a good reference:

Gianphranko · Mar 17, 2022

reading more about coco I understand that the choice I made was dumb.
with coco much more frequent watering are required than what I was doing (every couple of day with no runoff just like soil)
after a flush and a full nutrient watering the plants looked better but after plenty water they are now getting worse.
I am considering transplanting into full soil.
I am just worried about the additional stress to the plants, since I always read that autoflowers shouldn't be repotted, but I they are looking bad so probably not too much to lose anyway.

I also have two other autos in the same stupid 50 coco 50 soil and they are showing no problems (yet?)
They are a couple of week younger, still haven't started flowering.

I am considering two things:
1) transplant into full soil all 4 plants and hope for the best
2) transplant only two and treat the healthy two (the ones on the left) as you would do with hydroponics coco? meaning with a more frequent (2x daily with runoff) and always nutrient-filled watering

TryingToGrow · Mar 17, 2022

Water over 6.0 pH kills my plants and I have a bit of coco in my soil, love it.

Gianphranko · Mar 25, 2022

Moshmen said:
Soil and coco don’t mix well for best results pick one direction,soil or soiless .

I’d think about a transplant personally

Hey Moshmen yesterday I transplanted all 4 plants.
It seems that they did not suffer much the transplant, I was able to shake off almost all of the old medium and I replaced it with only soil and some mychorriza.

Thanks everybody for the precious replies, I will never ever mix soil and coco again, promised :D

Dugplug · May 5, 2022

Gianphranko said:
Hi all,
I am new to the forum, this is my third growth
I am asking for help because I cannot understand what it is going on with my plants.
I will try to list all the necessary details.

5 gallon fabric pots in 50% biobizz light mix + 50% coco choirs + some Bat guano
keeping temperature around 24C (76F) with RH 65%
I have a heater and a 4.5 hot vapor humidifier.
LED Lights Migro Aray 4
4x2 growtent with exhaust fan running 24/7

both plants are autoflowers, week 6/7
(1) is an auto critical orange punch from Dutch's Passion.
(2) is a royal cheese from RQS

I am using BioBizz nutrients once every two watering and ph down to set water ph around 6.5
I measure ph using ph strips and ph liquid droplets.
I got a cheap digital ph meter that I never got to work as it was failing calibration.
I am going to buy a better one soon to measure more accurately my watering solution ph.
I am using Biogrow starter pack, with BioGrow, BioBloom, BioHeaven and Alg-a-Mic ( and top max that i haven't started using yet).

at first lower and older leaves started showing yellow spots, which I saw as a Calcium deficiency caused by too high ph.
so I tried to lower the ph a bit and last 2 watering I went more towards 6.0, but I am not completely confident in my ph measurements.
then I think I overwatered them a bit because the plant was looking droopy and leaves pointed downwards, with leaf surface parallel to the walls (vertical).

so I waited for next watering (that was 48 hours before the photos) and since I noticed yellow, slim and twisted new growth, could it look like nitrogen deficency?
Fan leaves stem turned purple on both plants and

A little overwTered a little too much nutes

Moshmen · May 5, 2022

What they look like now ? Better?

Gianphranko · May 6, 2022

After putting the plants in 100% soil they managed to recover very well. It was definitely the coco - soil mix causing the problems. I now harvested two plants out of 4 with more than a decent yield.
If I find some time during the weekend I will post some pictures.
I really appreciated the suggestions in the thread, I could not have understood the root cause of the problem without you guys

Coltybolt45 · May 8, 2022

Gianphranko said:
Fan leaves stem turned purple on both plants and new growth is thin with twisted leaves tips.
So at this point I cannot tell if this is nut burn, nut def or ph lockout, heck it could even be light stress!
for sure I am stressed, so I appreciate any help :)

I'm sorry to come in so late but the cooler spots look like what I dealt with. Possible cal mag fix and or possibly p deficiency. Or maybe even leaf minors which neem oil works for.

Topsrite · May 15, 2022

Gianphranko said:
Hi all,
I am new to the forum, this is my third growth
I am asking for help because I cannot understand what it is going on with my plants.
I will try to list all the necessary details.

5 gallon fabric pots in 50% biobizz light mix + 50% coco choirs + some Bat guano
keeping temperature around 24C (76F) with RH 65%
I have a heater and a 4.5 hot vapor humidifier.
LED Lights Migro Aray 4
4x2 growtent with exhaust fan running 24/7

both plants are autoflowers, week 6/7
(1) is an auto critical orange punch from Dutch's Passion.
(2) is a royal cheese from RQS

I am using BioBizz nutrients once every two watering and ph down to set water ph around 6.5
I measure ph using ph strips and ph liquid droplets.
I got a cheap digital ph meter that I never got to work as it was failing calibration.
I am going to buy a better one soon to measure more accurately my watering solution ph.
I am using Biogrow starter pack, with BioGrow, BioBloom, BioHeaven and Alg-a-Mic ( and top max that i haven't started using yet).

at first lower and older leaves started showing yellow spots, which I saw as a Calcium deficiency caused by too high ph.
so I tried to lower the ph a bit and last 2 watering I went more towards 6.0, but I am not completely confident in my ph measurements.
then I think I overwatered them a bit because the plant was looking droopy and leaves pointed downwards, with leaf surface parallel to the walls (vertical).

so I waited for next watering (that was 48 hours before the photos) and since I noticed yellow, slim and twisted new growth, could it look like nitrogen deficency?
Fan leaves stem turned purple on both plants and

Dunno for sure, but looks like one of three things. Something added or deleted from nutrient feeds, nutes that don’t make the grade for certain stages of growth or ph swings and overwatering. I’d stick with GH series they do the job regardless of stage of growth or plant genetics , I’ve tried a lot but nothing really outperforms them.

Edinburgh · May 15, 2022

I'm at same place, my autos won't take bloom nutes, checked pH all but 1 was over 5.0, so got pH down to 6.2 to 6.4 flush lightly and check, since no bloom nutes cut light cycle to 12/12 and got pH straight I'm at day 63 from sprout 4 assed monkey by Meth and cream carmel by Sweet. Pic 1 cream carmel

What's wrong with my autos? Could it be ph lockout?

What's wrong with my autos? Could it be ph lockout?

Gianphranko

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What's wrong with my autos? Could it be ph lockout?

What's wrong with my autos? Could it be ph lockout?

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