The cream carmel only has 3 total spots and most of the tips of the leaves are fine but the pineapple is starting to spread and it started with the bottom and is working its way up slowly. A little help here would be greatly appreciated to validate if I am right or wrong. I have been feeding them cal/mag at half strength since week 2 and they just got there last 2 days ago. I dont know whether I need to hit them with full strength or maybe its something else..
Your plant is suffering from necrosis. It could be the effect of an opportunistic pathogenic infection or a recessive florescence mutation. These are rare but they do happen. It's more likely to related to an undesirable change in the soil-chemistry. If this is the case, i'd advise revising your soil composition for your next grow..
One on the major contributory factors for leaf necrosis includes micro nutrient non-availability. Unfortunately however, the problem is often multi-variable and complicated. Regardless of soil's mineral content, the availability of the essential micro-nutrients can be inhibited by the activities of 'competitive' cation exchange at the root-zone, where the excess of one or more cations in the soil dominates the soil-solubility profile. This can cause salts to precipitate out of the soil solution as solids making them unavailable for plant utility. This can arise from undesirable changes to the acidity and salinity maxima (salt saturation) of the growing medium - in this case the accelerated degradation of organic materials can be the cause of increasing the soil pH, leading to the dissolution of mono and divalent phosphates and carbonates. The release of these salt species can place additional constraint upon the the root-zone EC salinity causing it to fluctuate. This can lead to 'nodule rounding' which damages the root-zone's capacity to regulate ion uptake and leads to spot-necrosis in the foliage.
In order to prevent the rapid degradation of organic materials in growing media, it's important to formulate the soil's composition skillfully, by selecting components according to the product of their specific C:N (carbon-nitrogen ratio) contributions. The C:N ratio of the organic material influences it's rate of decomposition which leads to either a release (mineralisation) or immobilization of soil nitrogen. If the decomposing organic material contains a higher fraction of nitrogen in proportion to carbon, then nitrogen is released into the soil in soluble forms - if the organic material has a less amount of nitrogen in relation to the carbon then the microorganisms will utilize the soil nitrogen for further decomposition and the soil nitrogen will be immobilized. Selecting the appropriate C:N product is key to obtaining a soil-chemistry that is consistent with your plant's nutritional requirements. As bound phosphates become more readily available and induce metabolic activity in soil flora, the decay process is accompanied by conversion of organic nitrogen to NH3 and NO3- by microorganisms that utilize a high percentage of this N for cellular processes - this has the effect of narrowing the soil's C:N ratio and decreases macro-nutrient availability.
If the C:N ratio is too high (excessive carbon content), decomposition rates have a tendency to decline - on the other hand, If the C:N ratio is too low (excess nitrogen) decomposition rates become elevated and degredation of organic materials occur rapidly. Growing mediums with excessive carbon content can create problems - in order to complete the nitrogen cycle and continue decomposition processes, the soil flora will subtract any available nitrogen in the proper proportion to make use of the available carbon. This is known as "robbing" the soil of nitrogen stores, which delays the availability of plant-nitrogen until late in the season when it is no longer required by the soil microorganisms.
Approximate values for the optimum C:N ratio of soil composites that have been tailored for food production purposes in agriculture have been extensively investigated in the modern academic literature - research has revealed that the most efficient method for producing well balanced, fertile composts is to maintain a C:N ratio somewhere around 25 to 30 parts Carbon to 1 part Nitrogen, or 25-30:1. A C:N ratio of 20:1 is the upper limit at which excessive uptake of nitrogen from the soil is minimised. If a considerable amount of carbon is in the form of lignin or other stable materials, the relative C:N ratio will be - in most cases, larger than 20.
The C:N ratio is a critical factor in producing a balanced mix with tailored decomposition activities - serving to prevent nitrogen loss and nonavailability but carbon-nitrogen ratios have not yet been fully explored for micro gardening. From my understanding of the various stages of auto development and the time constraints involved, i would try tailoring the medium for a C:N ratio of ~15-20:1, since this should provide a worthy nutrient surplus while inhibiting the degradation rate - leading to a sustained soil chemistry and timely release of nutrients within their plant-available forms.
One way to restore the micro-nutrient chemistry in existing toxic mediums is to reset the medium's cation-exchange capacity by flushing with several liters of distilled water greater than the volume of soil. After flushing, immediately provide an aqueous, full-spectrum micro-nutrient tonic to the soil. By partitioning ~10% of your additive stock, you can dilute to 0.01% and apply it as a foliar for immediate uptake - this helps to supply the plant with a readily accessible source of micro-nutrients at the leaf stomata, and will buy time required for the soil to be amended. Check the pH of the amended soil run-off, and if it's within an intolleratble range continue to irrigate with a pH'd water that will put the soil chemistry in the desirable direction. It's important however after rectification to reduce the frquency of your irrigation for a number of days to allow for the soil chemistry to stabilize.
If you plan to tailor your growing medium, here's a link to thread with some further discussion about the C:N ratio and a list of component ratios that can be added/subtracted by percentage contribution to give an overall product..https://www.autoflower.org/f2/nitrogen-nonexplosive-form-plant-food-5195.html#post97034
