Deficiency, Burn, or False Alarm?

[Kyote]

I watered a little yesterday and suddenly noticed a new splotch on another plant today. Starting to think you guys are right and I've just been splashing since I've been watering them with a solo cup. I try to be gentle, but no doubt it has happened. I ordered a sprayer that should be here end of week. Hopefully that will help.

I'll keep an eye on them, but so far none of the spots seem to be spreading. I think I just saw them and panicked that I was seeing the same issues I saw before.

Thanks!

A measuring cup with a spout on it works well for watering the little ones

 

[Waira]

hey bud!
...nothing sideways here that I can see, some spotting that's not definitive of anything IMO; little blips happen, so it's great that you notice, but nothing to grind over! I have doubts about "nute splash", considering the mildness of the feed conc. (likely no more than a typical foliar feed is at this stage), and the so called
"droplet burn/lensing" is a borderline myth in my experience for a variety of reasons... Trust me, I foliar extensively, sometimes even in Sunlight when I must, and never once a lensing burn spot.... for that to happen (and it can on shade loving plants) a powerful single point source of light needs to be present, not possible under mixed LED, fluoro', Q-boards, etc.,....

For RO water, don't bother pH'ing it, even the meters have trouble reading pH because of how the work, and the fact that RO is stripped of ions, and had NO buffering capacity. It's the carbonate in CaCO3 that does this, and there ain't none in there, so even tiny inputs will have strong effect on pH. It does not necessarily mean it's a strong acid/base if a pH is low/high, that's a whole different chemistry lesson there...
Between the soil and the nutes, plenty of Ca and Mg is present at this early stage; later you may add light hits of Ca-Mg, but I'd wait for definitive symptoms to show first... I use RO too with Rx Blend, no Ca issues ever showed....
Rx Blend tends to drive pH down, which is normal especially in RO water,...

 

[olegren]

Thank you once again for sharing your wisdom, Waira! I will let those spots be for the time being and just monitor to make sure it's not an escalating or widespread issue. They seem perfectly happy.

I'm really glad you mentioned this - about the water! Since I started using RO, I noticed the PH seemed to swing much more quickly. Even before, when I was treating my well water with Rx Blend, I had to adjust quite a lot; whereas the RO seemed to be around 8.0 straight out of the plastic jug - and then the seedling dose of Rx Blend (2.0 ml to 1 gal) was enough to bring down to 5.4. I was adjusting up (Like 0.5ml PH Up to 1 gal) to get into that 6.2-6.8 range, but the sensitivity compared to what I observed with my well water was making me wonder what the difference was.

This process gets a lot easier if I don't need to check PH with RO water. Does the same rationale apply to a coco grow and RO water; or do you need to check the PH of your input water due to the fact that there's no soil buffering?

Regardless: Thanks again to all of you for sharing your wisdom and experience with me!

For RO water, don't bother pH'ing it, even the meters have trouble reading pH because of how the work, and the fact that RO is stripped of ions, and had NO buffering capacity. It's the carbonate in CaCO3 that does this, and there ain't none in there, so even tiny inputs will have strong effect on pH. It does not necessarily mean it's a strong acid/base if a pH is low/high, that's a whole different chemistry lesson there...
Between the soil and the nutes, plenty of Ca and Mg is present at this early stage; later you may add light hits of Ca-Mg, but I'd wait for definitive symptoms to show first... I use RO too with Rx Blend, no Ca issues ever showed....
Rx Blend tends to drive pH down, which is normal especially in RO water,...

 

[derek420colorado]

hey bud!
...nothing sideways here that I can see, some spotting that's not definitive of anything IMO; little blips happen, so it's great that you notice, but nothing to grind over! I have doubts about "nute splash", considering the mildness of the feed conc. (likely no more than a typical foliar feed is at this stage), and the so called
"droplet burn/lensing" is a borderline myth in my experience for a variety of reasons... Trust me, I foliar extensively, sometimes even in Sunlight when I must, and never once a lensing burn spot.... for that to happen (and it can on shade loving plants) a powerful single point source of light needs to be present, not possible under mixed LED, fluoro', Q-boards, etc.,....

For RO water, don't bother pH'ing it, even the meters have trouble reading pH because of how the work, and the fact that RO is stripped of ions, and had NO buffering capacity. It's the carbonate in CaCO3 that does this, and there ain't none in there, so even tiny inputs will have strong effect on pH. It does not necessarily mean it's a strong acid/base if a pH is low/high, that's a whole different chemistry lesson there...
Between the soil and the nutes, plenty of Ca and Mg is present at this early stage; later you may add light hits of Ca-Mg, but I'd wait for definitive symptoms to show first... I use RO too with Rx Blend, no Ca issues ever showed....
Rx Blend tends to drive pH down, which is normal especially in RO water,...

So if no nute splash or lens burning what do you think we can attribute the little blips too?

 

[olegren]

So far, I'm still not seeing anything similar on any of the other plants. This one continues to show some strange coloring/streaking though.

It's definitely worse in the newer growth. (See second photo - closeup of the worst cluster) Would this suggest burn? And, if so, should I flush it? I see a few odd yellow tips; but not curling or any other extremes that I was kind of watching out for before I noticed this today.

I've been sticking to the week 1-2 Rx Blend veg recommended doses; and only feeding every other watering. Stopped checking/adjusting PH on the water altogether since it's all RO.

Other stuff is pretty consistent with last week. Weekly average temps/RH are 78.5F/57.8%. Lights haven't changed a lot (+/- maybe 2K Lux as I've adjusted a little) Soil PH is still right at 7 per the Accurate 8.

Thanks for having a look!

 

[derek420colorado]

So far, I'm still not seeing anything similar on any of the other plants. This one continues to show some strange coloring/streaking though.

It's definitely worse in the newer growth. (See second photo - closeup of the worst cluster) Would this suggest burn? And, if so, should I flush it? I see a few odd yellow tips; but not curling or any other extremes that I was kind of watching out for before I noticed this today.

I've been sticking to the week 1-2 Rx Blend veg recommended doses; and only feeding every other watering. Stopped checking/adjusting PH on the water altogether since it's all RO.

Other stuff is pretty consistent with last week. Weekly average temps/RH are 78.5F/57.8%. Lights haven't changed a lot (+/- maybe 2K Lux as I've adjusted a little) Soil PH is still right at 7 per the Accurate 8.

View attachment 1228194
View attachment 1228195

Thanks for having a look!

That’s a touch of cal mag def imo. Add cal mag or up it with your next feeding

 

[derek420colorado]

There is a touch of tip burn on the first pic. But honestly that’s right about where I like mine. Maaaaaybe a little less but not much. Nothing too crazy to worry about here. Don’t go all crazy and flush or anything. I think maybe back off your N a touch and up the cal mag. Also try to lower your Ph just a touch on your next feed. See if you can bring that soil down a tick or two for max absorption of the nutes

 

[olegren]

Sounds good. I've been of the mindset you described in that I figured a hint of burn was OK so long as it didn't progress. She's due pure RO next feeding, so I will add a half dose of cal mag and see if that addresses it. The Rx nutes have some in it, but it only would've been some fraction of 2ml in the last gallon.

I have some peat moss. I should've mixed it into my soil a bit before I planted these. I bought it for this very reason. This soil seems to stay right at 7.0 no matter what.

Thanks for your help!

 

[olegren]

I think the cal mag helped that plant. All of them are showing some random spots, but it doesn't seem to be out of control. Wondering if, to your point @derek420colorado , that the higher soil PH isn't just creating some of these odd spots by way of slowing uptake of certain nutrients. (That and they've grown a lot relative to my ramping up their nutes) I am letting them dry out and then resuming a later stage nutrient regimen (veg week 3) halved to see if it addresses this minor blip across the board.

I did notice something completely different on one of my plants. No others are showing anything even remotely like it. This one is the bushiest of them all, and she has been relatively untouched in terms of training. So far, this is only happening on the newer growth -- and only the newer growth coming out beneath the large upper fan leaves.

A couple days ago, I noticed a few little bumps on these leaves. Kind of translucent and almost look wet; like boils or something weird. Never seen anything like it.

Today, it seems a little worse in that the affected leaves are severely curled down, yellowing, and even more wet looking. Only thing I can come up with is over watering, but just curious if this is anything else obvious? This doesn't seem to be happening to all new leaves (I only see two really showing the curling), but the ones it's affecting look pretty distinct both in the curling behavior and the yellow coloration.

No other major changes in terms of environment or conditions. They haven't had any nutes in about 5 days (Minus that half dose of cal mag with some water). When I did that, I gave this one 16 oz. extra (So she got 48; the others got 32) thinking those boils might've been the same deficiency (albeit an advanced state) observed in the others.

Soil on top was dry yesterday but felt pretty wet a couple inches down. Today I checked moisture with accurate 8, and it’s showing about 1-2 towards the bottom, so seems like it is dry now.