Help needed. Spotting, Mag issues?

[Waira]

Craig-- pardon the delay,.... So how do they look currently, still advancing? Get me fresh pics please, nice and close if you can please,....The symptoms are a little vague still, but it smacks of either Ca or P defc., more likely by some sort of pH issue, than lack-of,... Indeed you saw rightly, soils are dubious and spotty for quality IMO, it's the [HASHTAG]#1[/HASHTAG] problem soil I see in here,.... usually it's badly off pH, acidic, but your plant has been doing fine until recently, not that the pH can't be off now,...
-- no sign of tip burn, so whatever that mild feed did, it wasn't too much, though this soil is made to be rich; that said, it's hardly complete and balanced as is,...
-- your water, at 8.4 pH sounds hard as hell,... Blue mentioned this can become a problem as more and more mineral content get built up in there; CaCO3 is not that soluble in water, so while there's technically Ca in there, it's probably not in an available form (Ca++),... this may help if the soil is too acidic, but then we go back to the ionic load in the soil, messing with uptake of other nute ions potentially... This is why much hinges on an in-pot pH reading, since adding in more feeds to an off pH pot will make matters worse! ....you'll need the right tools for this: the Accurate 8 soil pH probe is a good unit--> hsoil: (long probe one), or a more $$ electrode bulb type... Run-off is not a reliable measure of pH, but done right, in a pinch, it can at least hint at if there's a general pH issue.. For example, if it comes out in the 5's pH, and you used only pure water (RO/Di, unadjusted) to do it, then it's a safe conclusion the soil is too acidic and needs correction.. That has to happen first, or certain nutes will stay locked out... Also, look into getting a basic TDS/EC meter, this will help give vital info about your water's chemistry,... handy for other things as well, like measuring your nute solution concentration,... run-off testing to see if there's a huge ionic load in there,... Adjusting the pH is fine and wise, but that in fact increases the waters' ppm's,... Do you live in the States? You can use those self-fill machines, or stores to get good low ppm water,....

While you're there grab some epsom salts and mix up a foliar spray ... you'll ideally need a surfacant to put with the spray to get the best benefit, but these will be from a grow shop - so in a pinch use the TINIEST drop of fairy liquid (I know people (waira) will hate me for advising such a low grade fix) with your epsom salts and water mix.

I think the ratio is 1 tablespoon per litre (but if someone wants to correct me, i honestly can't remember)

naughty! ... right on the surfactant/wetting agent, but the dosage is much to high mate, always go weaker than soil dosing for foliar,... 1tsp/L for foliar, but I don't think this is Mg related,... nor SO4,... ** about that Craig - some soils when they get dry, or develop a "crust" on top become harder to wet down evenly, so a wetting agent is the fix there... I like Coco-Wet,.. these products tale the surface tension out of the solution so it penetrates faster and better,...

>>> coco is a specialized soilless medium man, many do's and don't's using it... it's like hydro in some ways, and requires a lot of labor to deal with,... research well before you try it! I don't recommend coco for new growers because of all this,... coco has some great advantages, but only if it's run properly!

 

[Craigc1509]

Solid advise, less is more .... you can always add more but removing is tough .....

Suggest next couple waterings, no Liquid rather a light dash of liquid kelp in the water .... teaspoon in a gallon to get some color to water, not too much .... then follow Instructions by half and see if it doesn’t stop and you get some new nice green growth .....

You may also want to try a spray feed of kelp, quicker results, again less is more and make sure they are dry before putting back under lights ... spray undersides and lightly mist top sides of leaves - fan dry then back into tent ....

Spray feed weekly until into flower for best health, kelp has over 80 trace minerals not found elsewhere, it’s a wonderful supplemental fertilizer....

Best of luck and take my advise with a grain of salt, I am in no way an expert on issues like yours, my history is in gardening not growing marijuana but I just expanded my garden plot to include ....

Out in the vegetable garden we practice doing half of any recommended product and add as needed, depending on the results .... Less is More!

Best,
OB

Good Luck and welcome to AFN, again.

Thanks for the advice! They never stopped growing that I saw, and all the growth other than the original fan leaves looks excellent. She and my White Widow both got some training and they look great I'll post some pictures for you guys!

 

[Craigc1509]

Craig-- pardon the delay,.... So how do they look currently, still advancing? Get me fresh pics please, nice and close if you can please,....The symptoms are a little vague still, but it smacks of either Ca or P defc., more likely by some sort of pH issue, than lack-of,... Indeed you saw rightly, soils are dubious and spotty for quality IMO, it's the [HASHTAG]#1[/HASHTAG] problem soil I see in here,.... usually it's badly off pH, acidic, but your plant has been doing fine until recently, not that the pH can't be off now,...
-- no sign of tip burn, so whatever that mild feed did, it wasn't too much, though this soil is made to be rich; that said, it's hardly complete and balanced as is,...
-- your water, at 8.4 pH sounds hard as hell,... Blue mentioned this can become a problem as more and more mineral content get built up in there; CaCO3 is not that soluble in water, so while there's technically Ca in there, it's probably not in an available form (Ca++),... this may help if the soil is too acidic, but then we go back to the ionic load in the soil, messing with uptake of other nute ions potentially... This is why much hinges on an in-pot pH reading, since adding in more feeds to an off pH pot will make matters worse! ....you'll need the right tools for this: the Accurate 8 soil pH probe is a good unit--> hsoil: (long probe one), or a more $$ electrode bulb type... Run-off is not a reliable measure of pH, but done right, in a pinch, it can at least hint at if there's a general pH issue.. For example, if it comes out in the 5's pH, and you used only pure water (RO/Di, unadjusted) to do it, then it's a safe conclusion the soil is too acidic and needs correction.. That has to happen first, or certain nutes will stay locked out... Also, look into getting a basic TDS/EC meter, this will help give vital info about your water's chemistry,... handy for other things as well, like measuring your nute solution concentration,... run-off testing to see if there's a huge ionic load in there,... Adjusting the pH is fine and wise, but that in fact increases the waters' ppm's,... Do you live in the States? You can use those self-fill machines, or stores to get good low ppm water,....


naughty! ... right on the surfactant/wetting agent, but the dosage is much to high mate, always go weaker than soil dosing for foliar,... 1tsp/L for foliar, but I don't think this is Mg related,... nor SO4,... ** about that Craig - some soils when they get dry, or develop a "crust" on top become harder to wet down evenly, so a wetting agent is the fix there... I like Coco-Wet,.. these products tale the surface tension out of the solution so it penetrates faster and better,...

>>> coco is a specialized soilless medium man, many do's and don't's using it... it's like hydro in some ways, and requires a lot of labor to deal with,... research well before you try it! I don't recommend coco for new growers because of all this,... coco has some great advantages, but only if it's run properly!

I love that I thought I was done learning here and I come back to more knowledge, Thank you Waira. I have a cheap soil probe and it honestly belongs in the trash. New pictures are coming! I had to renovate my room to accommodate a tent and now I have a separate space for the autoflowers.
I do have a decent TDS/EC meter and I make sure that I keep an eye on PPMs. My issue here was definitely PH related and I'm almost positive it happened to lockout the Dark Devil and my Widow was just resilient enough to show minor signs before it was corrected.

 

[Craigc1509]

Here you go guys and gals!

This is the Dark Devil, the one in question.

Here is the White Widow!

 

[Waira]

well you tuned that hiccup right up! it was minor to begin with, and seems to have stopped altogether, yes?
I gotta say, good water can help head off more than a few problems. It's doesn't have to be RO/Di, and many folks blend this with tap (dechlorinated) to get various levels of hardness... What works best depends in part on the medium you use; soilless stuff like Pro-Mix and Sunshine (peat based) have some lime in them, but nothing else... coco is usually not limed, but some blends are,.. Point is, if there lime in there it had some pH buffering capacity... coco wants to run lower pH, and lime would mess with that, so with these products lower ppm water seems to work better with the nutes and the longer term pH stability... True soil has a much more dynamic pH buffering thing going on between the lime, other components, soil life... I think it can handle harder water better...
yeah, I've tested those skinny-ass probes against the A8, and they are garbage.... I've tested the A8 against slurry tests too, and reading were all within 0.2 of each other, good as the A8 can get (+/-0.2pH)... Between managing your input ppm and pH, and the in-pot pH, you can keep things under better control with less fussing, spot off pH sooner and correct right away... I test my soil 1-2x/week...
Do you have a reading on your water's TDS? ..high pH is typically indicative of hard water, but sometimes it's not that bad,.... the catch: RO/Di water with no buffering minerals in them are prone to wild pH swings from even small/weak inputs because of this... it's in part why it's pointless to take a pH reading of such super pure water, because of the way pH meters works,...even CO2 dissolving back in from the air will react, forming carbonic acid which makes the pH drop,....

 

[Craigc1509]

Here is another update!