I am pretty sure you are seeing the beginnings of a cal deficiency. This stems from using such small containers.
I would make a Kelp / Alfalfa tea. 1/8 cup kelp, 1/4 cup alfalfa per gallon. Bubble for 24-36 hours. At the end of this brew time add 1 Tbsp oyster shell flour per gallon and stir like a mad man. If you have Bio Ag ful power, use it.
You are going to need to be prepared to top dress often and supplement them with teas often as well like I said before. There is no way you can make it through a whole cycle in those containers without doing so.
I would also be innoculating those containers weekly with something like recharge or rootwise.
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That’s what I was thinking about the Cal… did you see what I did with the top dressing some posts ago?
I have kelp, alfalfa, oyster and possibly something like that BioAG so I could do that altho I don’t have a bumbler setup exactly (altho I could part together a sort of Venturi setup with a fountain pump (tho I don’t know if those pumps kill microbes or not)?
I was also thinking of doing a water soluble calcium mix using the oyster shell flour with brown rice vinegar like they do in KNF.
I was also think
No I am not seeing your top dress post.
Keep in mind also that topdressing or making a tea with malted barley or doing an SST every week or two is also going to be extremely beneficial.
The enzymes you will get from it will accelerate the breakdown of your available nutrients from their organic form.
You need as much available now as you can get in those containers.
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Purple stems will happen from nutrients, cold temps, or most often genetics. I wouldn’t worry about that at all.
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I get your gist and I’m on board, am just wondering if I should do more than what I recently did two days ago (post 333). I think the Organic’s Alive FPF is fermented grains, so maybe it would be like that barley tea?
@ChemicalDependant good to know, that makes me feel like it’s nutrients even more cause it doesn’t ever really get below 68 or maybe at most 66F and I don’t think it’s genetics cause they’re all three different strains and I don’t believe they are supposed to be purple strains I don’t think?
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I would never worry about purple stems either, because as you said, environment and genetics can play a huge role in that. Unless they are accompanied by the spots he has on those leaves.
Calcium for 800 please Alex.
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Thursday continued:
Well I got the water soluble Calcium KNF style “cooking”, didn’t realize it’s going to take prob a minimum 5 days but that’s ok. Gonna stick the mason jar near my intake during the day for the CO2 it gives off 
Took some cuttings which was kind of fun, 3 to 4 from each plant of different sizes, shapes, cuts/procedures to sort of see what works. After cutting them, put them in a solution after scraping the bottom and snipping some combo of partial leaves/branches. The 1000ml solution was 1ml OHN (KNF), 1/4 tsp concentrated aloe, and if I remember correctly 1 tsp of kelp meal:
*thought I took a pic of all the plants with the slight lollipop but I guess not, tmr or the next day… in this week of waiting before flip, I’ll be doing a lil worm bin and making the flower box.
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Day 32 Veg - Monday
Ok, losing a lil bit track of some things that have happened and when but here goes.
So upon looking into some slightly droopy leaves that are tacoing, seemed the consensus was too high of a ph. I also somewhat confirmed this was ph probe that doesn’t function too well.
Anyway, to me this makes some sense with all the minerals I put in the A layer and the recent addition of calcium carbonate (the dolomite should have maybe leveled it out a bit but I think that takes a lil bit of time to dissolve?).
Anyway, as it seemed the case, decided to give some more humic, slightly more concentrated, and also gave lil N foliar.
Then, another flood 
, not exactly sure how it happened, I may have adjusted the valve, it might take time to show it’s too much (when I’m away or over night) because I have a less than ideal tray setup that isn’t flat, so I put lexan on top for a flat surface for the cap mat, thus unfortunate pockets underneath that collect water.
I also sort have know that it was a bit off on its level, so took this time to get that better which I’m hoping helps out a bit.
During this contained (maybe 3/8”) flood, I started getting some notifications about the VPD falling out of range a bit, I wrote it off as maybe the soil drying out but not something that needed immediate attention, won’t do that again!
Anyway, I’m looking forward to the water soluble calcium in which I’m hoping helps with the calcium while hopefully also helping the PH more cause of the vinegar.
Besides that, think I might do some LST, and/or maybe some defoliation, to help hold them off for a bit where I can hopefully see some better signs of health, but at some point I might just have to flip no matter what.
Pic with flood:
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Day 34 Veg - Wed
So yeah, def didn’t plan on going this long into Veg but it is what it is. Hope to start on the box today.
So Monday night I defoliated and some LST two of them, and the rest last night, here they are today:
Still might be having some cal issues as I have not yet applied the water soluble, also may just be a too alkaline situation, I’m keeping an eye on the new new growth right now, but here is some smaller fans still showing signs that are maybe new to mid age?:
Maybe they could use some a bit more N now(?) as well before I flip which I’m hoping is soon. They still are giving some nice smells tho 
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I’d ph test the soil then if it’s ok add some calcium. They’re looking kind of crazed on the new growth.
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How do you typically ph test it?
I got a new probe, but didn’t realize it calls for removal of soil and then mixed with some water to test it 
I’ve tried making it work just in the pot and it’s a bit of a struggle… I have an older probe as well that is like a 3 in 1 probe (ph, moisture, light) with two rods and it doesn’t feel that reliable either, but if it is, it says over 7.
The few times I have gotten some readings with the newer digital probe, it would also show over 7 most of the time briefly, then go back to 7 flat as if it was not reading anymore. I think I did also see it under 7 at certain points as well but once again only briefly. This may have been due to the layers of my soil and the different depths I was sticking the probe in. 
Also, is it me or do these girls look like they could use some N?
Said screw it fed a healthy dose of aminos and 90% pure humic to hopefully help a bit more than the O.A. stuff I have been using.
Feel like I should be looking for a bit more green than they are and hopefully the extra punch of humic helps solve any ph issue I might have goin on before I give some of that calcium.
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there are a couple of ways. I’ve used the three in ones you need to polish the rod and get the soil damp for good contact with the rod. The other meters you can measure runoff or make a puddle in the pot with distilled water or take the sample of dirt out and mix with distilled water to test.
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Do you think different parts of the soil could have different PHs? Especially if layered like I did? Would they balance out? I’m think that if not, maybe that would be an explanation for some leaves appearing worse than others?
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I would give them a good dose of compost tea personally. I would also scrape any soil off the top layer that doesn’t have roots and give them a nice top dress of new soil with malted barley (before the tea).
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Scrape off that somewhat recent top dress I did?
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My bad, I missed that part. Carry on sir.
I would do the tea though for sure.
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I would think it’s possible- but unimportant? The point of living soil is that it does it’s own thing. I would be worried about the soil ph rather than pockets.
I use test strips, same method should apply to a meter though. Take 1:1 soil and water, mix the shit out of it. Let sit for 20-30minutes and check ph of the solution. Should give you an assessment of the whole container.
At this size, if it were me, I’d leave the soil alone. Feed them with teas… except you may over water with the cap mat and teas. Tough one. What I’ve found with living soil is it really likes to be moist. Not more, defiantly not less. So I like you cap mats.
Hope your ladies pull through, I enjoy seeing you test the small scale so I don’t have to!
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Yes, I think you nailed it, it may be tough to feed while not over watering in a combination of cap mats and small pots.
However, this is where I’m a lil lost, cap mats are apparently supposed to be for smaller pots, so I’m wondering if either they’re better for transitional pots to other setups, OR, if people fertigate through the cap mats. I personally wanted to stay away from fertigation through them because I figured it would maybe collect or required cleaning way more often?
One thing I’m realizing though, is maybe LITFA might be a lil tough in smaller pots?
Some things I’m considering next/soon but not 100% sure or the order yet:
-chicken manure tea
-iron foliar spray
-water soluble calcium soil drench and/or foliar spray
-some IPM, either more zymes or LABs (found one spider mite possibly?; red lil guy crawling on the white plastic floor)
-O.A. Dry soluble T.R. Which is a flip transitional supplement I believe 4-5-5 or something
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Yeah I would avoid feeding them through the cap mat. Most people don’t feed plants in that small of pots, lol, that’s why you’re finding that.
LITFA is defiantly easy in big pots. Still a valid principle, you just have to react faster. Basically you’re growing the same as in a bigger pot, it’s just a lot harder because it doesn’t have the buffer of the extra soil. You may be so small you can’t react fast enough because the plants are utilizing every speck of soil in there. At that point it’s like hydro! You HAVE to feed. So yeah man, maybe try teas instead of top dressing.
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