Not sure if this is a deficiency or not...?

I think overall they look pretty good looks like they could use a little thinning out ,could be that that particular strain is a bit more finicky with that soil profile I wouldn’t get to crazy by adding everything to it , maybe top dress with some EWC and scratch it in and water.

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The lower leaves don’t bother me as much as the tips of the upper leaves on the last picture do ?
Possibly low n for the lower leaves , but I think maybe PH or heat on the tips

Edit looking at the first pic the color is off so I’m going to lean towards mineral deficiency or zinc spray with epson salts ( I spray that shit on everything lol)

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All good suggestions, but I would start with PH. If the PH is off, no amount of added goodies will help because the incorrect PH wont let the plant absorb it. You can add a crap ton of Mg or N for example, but the plant wont be able to use it if the PH is off. If you add too much of some things, you can damage the roots, but the plant still wont take it up if the PH is off too far either way.

Here is one PH chart for soil. There are others with slightly different values, but they all tend to be very similar. Things are different if you are running hydro.

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@anon32470837 so I checked my soil PH this morning and looked like it may be reading a little higher than. 7.0… almost 7.5? I will drop my water to 6.0 tomorrow morning when I feed. Should I just water as normal?

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I would not trust those meters too much, the one I had was practically useless, and totally off.

Do you PH your water with it?

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@Shadey I was pretty disappointed with this meater… I have a nice digital meater to PH water so I’m good with that… any recommendations for a digital soil PH meter?

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I agree with @Shadey. Those meters suck. You will need a relatively pricey digital - with a special probe - to accurately read soil PH directly.

Id suggest you over water at least a little bit next time - until there is a good bit of runoff. Collect some of the first bit of runoff and measure its PH. Then collect some of the last runoff and check it. The later runoff should be closer to your waters new PH.

Be sure to let them dry out adequately afterwards and be sure the pots are not sitting in any water. They need to be raised up so the bottoms drain completely and get air circulation just like the sides. Over watering is as bad as anything else - especially if your soil doesnt have good aeration = enough perlite/vermiculite etc.

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@anon32470837 so I watered ths morning and tested the LATE runoff… what I got was actually opposite of what I thought I would have.

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The earlier runoff was about 5.5… the late runoff 5.7 so it was .03 lower than what I PHed to.

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I told you those other meters are useless :slight_smile:

looks like you’re shutting out Calcium, Magnesium, Molybdenum, and P with that PH.

You may need to add a bit of lime to it to bring the PH up.

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Maybe you could do a soil slurry test of the ph and ppms, ph especially, it always seems to be my bugaboo in serl

I am always hesitant to give advice, as I have so much to learn , and regularly mess up to boot.

But there are some things that are known quantities that I can repeat here.

If your soil is 6.0 water at 6.8-7.0 — and if soil is 7.0ish water at 6.0-6.2ish, as you want your soil to sit as close to 6.5 as possible. Stuff probably already said earlier.

If the soil is stubborn and always low, who cares, just water with high ph and ride the swing, in some cases plants love it , cuz they hit all the ph zones from 6.0-7.0 in the same day and get a smorgasboard of nutes to suck up thru the swing :wink:

I am just repeating what others have spent years honing, but it has worked for me in the past, and you may find it works for you.

Teas tend to lower ph too in many cases, so tea and enzyme it, if your serl ph is hi, if your soil ph is low, maybe top dress with some worm castings, as the ph of the poop for me hovers near 7.0. slurry the worm castings if u wanna get anal aboudit, i do

My soil ph is always high, much like it’s creator :slight_smile: - so I am always watering at 6-0-6.3 in veg and early flower and 6-4-6.6 in mid to late flower. I also use alot of nectar bone meal to keep the engine running and the roots happy. Plants seem to love it.

Sounds like you are dealing with very low soil ph, so, if it were me, I would water heavily with nectar bone meal at 7.0, to get that soil ph up. then i would do a lite nutes at 7.0, then another bone meal over the course of a week or so, maybe a tea,all with 6.8-7.0 then slurry again.

just spitballing, things looks good, and I wish you the best with your grow.

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@Cartwright @anon32470837 @Shadey

I think I’m finally figuring this out now…

I truly feel like the only way for me to learn is to mess something up… lol

Thanks guys!

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Nothing to be ashamed about, you want to see ashamed, look at a couple of my plants :0

Plants can be finicky, don’t get discouraged, once you get the soil thing you got it.

One other thing i shud mention if no one else has already. The wet dry cycle, yes very dry can be good, and is necessary for airation and pest control. But don’t neglect the super duper wet cycle every once and a while. Some people call it a flush, but in soil, you really never flush, you just drench every so often. heard that on a forum a while back, and i like it.

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The smartest people are the ones that made the most mistakes, providing they learned from the mistakes, growing well comes from experience of knowing, its all theory until applied to a situation, and everyone’s grow is different. Using different strains together can be a pain when they dislike the same nutrient levels and environment.

Do another test in a few days when the soil has had time to dry out properly and see what happens if you PH your water at 6.5 before using it this time, and see how much it drops again. I don’t like relying on just one measurement so I usually check things twice before making a decision, you always have more time than you think, and rushing a decision can make things a lot worse. Sometimes when you are waiting it sorts itself out, the plant will start taking its own action to correct the problem, its only autos that have a time constraint, photos can sit for as long as you want them too.

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That is not the result I was expecting to see - which proves that you get advice thats worth what you paid for it :smiley:

I know next to nothing about “Teas” but if they lower PH that much then thats your problem - or - something you are adding is certainly lowering the PH. Either way, your PH is badly off - just not the direction I thought it was off!

I am also no expert on soil amendments, so I will let the others advise you on that.

By the way - these types of issues are one reason I switched over to hydro. Plus, and far more important to me - soil is boring :wink:

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Ok so here are the issues I have figured out…

When I water and feed tees to my plant I take tap water let it sit for 24-48 hours. I then PH my water to 7. Add all my amendments and feed my plants. After more research I found out that I should have been PHing my water after everything had been added. This is what most likely is locking out nutrients. At this stage of my autoflowers I would like to be around 6.7 PH so I’m low 1.0.

My question is this…

To raise my soil PH do I flush the soil? This would get rid of all my preamended nutrients that I built my soil with that are now crucial for flowering…? Or can I add something that is organic that will help raise the soil PH???

@Shadey ? @anon32470837 ?

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I have no clue what you could use in soil that is also organic. I dont do organic anything in my hydro grows any more. It screws up my PH like crazy, so I go out of my way to be 100% sure nothing in my rez has any organic component of any kind.

My use of the word “organic” is a little different than the typical use. I am not talking about growing organically or growing organic weed. I mean anything plant derived or from once living organisims of any type. This includes beneficial bacteria and even things like vinegar etc. No “teas” for sure.

Yeah, PH is usually the last thing you check and adjust in hydro as well. - after any additions to the water. PH has to be correct or nothing else works right.

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Yes there are natural things that will raise and lower PH in your soil.

First off teas are really about boosting bacteria not really feeding the plant. With organics you are feeding your soil. You don’t really PH a tea, as that can kill off the bacteria you’re trying to produce.

So during flower the bacteria die off because the P and K input increases and raises the soil PH, so you are battling with keeping the PH of your soil right and bacteria levels high as it switches from using mostly N to P and K.

After the stretch the plant switches over to a fungal bacteria as they prefer a higher soil PH.

By adding certain nutrients in your tea you are promoting the bacteria that use those nutrients for food to repopulate your soil as they die off

Elemental sulfur will lower soil PH dolomitic lime will increase it.

Safers do a sulfur, I use it for killing PM, spider mites and boosting the sulfur in the soil. Epsom is magnesium and sulfur or as it’s called in its salt state, magnesium sulphate.

I use Epsom salts in every other watering. Plants will use a lot of sulfur magnesium and calcium in flower as well as P and K.

Gypsum is high in sulfer, magnesium and calcium, and is also balanced so it doesn’t change the soil PH. I use this a lot.

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@Shadey

So basically the whole time since i started my seeds I have been PHing my water to 7.0. What you are saying is that I should never PH my water? Just give my plants 24 hour tap water with whatever PH it’s at?

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