Nitrogen deficiency?

[LearningMore]

Day 45 today of ILGM Gorilla Glue and Mephisto 3BOG (front two plants). In HF soil in 5 gal fabric pots. Using trio nutes at 1/4 strength. Got 1/8tsp/gal Beastie blooms powder as well. Watering half gallon every other day; nutes every other watering. Everything is pH 6.5 going in (apera pen; calibration checked weekly). Temps 78-80; RH 50s. 20/4 lights. DLI had crept up to 45 in parts with growth (I dropped it back to 26-30 across canopy this morning). I also may have had my fans a bit too high as the foliage has gotten closer to them (I do rotate my pots a half-turn once a day).

Based on pots being pretty dry yesterday and leaves starting to look yellow, I went ahead and moved to every-day watering, so they got watered again today. Took the whole half gallon with no run off again today, so they definitely need daily. I did do the 1/4 strength nutes again today, thinking nitrogen deficiency (I gave 1/4tsp/gal Wholly Mackerel yesterday for a little extra N, too).

I attached photos of yesterday (D44) and today (D45) as well as an up close one of the leaves, taken today.

Questions:
Does this look like N deficiency?

Should I continue the low-dose nutes everyday, or go to half-strength but every other feed? (Water ppm baseline is 170; with half-strength it is 480).

I will plan to water every day, but watch for signs of droop (and continue to monitor pot heft). Is this reasonable?

Am I completely off base and missing something else? I appreciate the help as I feel like I have had one problem after another across my multiple grow attempts so far, despite copious reading and research. I’m feeling pretty frustrated and desperate.

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

If anything turn the lights back up to 45 DLI+. Fertilize at 50% strength about 500 PPM (not counting your water) of balanced bloom nutrients every 3rd watering. It is kinda late to do a foliar application but they could benefit from some Kelp, Humic Acid and B-vitamins added to the pot.

What you need to learn about watering will come with practice. Here are the basic rules: Never let the soil dry out. Soil and or coco can become hydrophobic if allowed to dry. This means it repels water. This in turn will create dry pockets in the soil and roots there will die. If your soil - coco have accidentally dried out use a surfactant to help re-wet it. I like yucca powder. Don't let soil remain soggy by watering too much too often. Root rot, damping off, molds, fungus gnats and other problems start in soggy soil. When you do water water the entire pot. How to learn when to water starts before you plant the seed. Fill your container with fresh soil/coco and weigh it (heft it) this is the lightest weight and consider it a dry pot. Now slowly water until the soil/coco will no longer absorb the water and run-off begins; weigh the pot (heft it) this is the maximum water, the wettest the pot can get. The difference between wettest and driest is the maximum water weight, for ease of explanation lets just say the water weighs 20 pounds. When the pot loses 10 pounds (half of the water weight) it is time to water again. There is an art to watering.

 

[LearningMore]

If anything turn the lights back up to 45 DLI+. Fertilize at 50% strength about 500 PPM (not counting your water) of balanced bloom nutrients every 3rd watering. It is kinda late to do a foliar application but they could benefit from some Kelp, Humic Acid and B-vitamins added to the pot.

What you need to learn about watering will come with practice. Here are the basic rules: Never let the soil dry out. Soil and or coco can become hydrophobic if allowed to dry. This means it repels water. This in turn will create dry pockets in the soil and roots there will die. If your soil - coco have accidentally dried out use a surfactant to help re-wet it. I like yucca powder. Don't let soil remain soggy by watering too much too often. Root rot, damping off, molds, fungus gnats and other problems start in soggy soil. When you do water water the entire pot. How to learn when to water starts before you plant the seed. Fill your container with fresh soil/coco and weigh it (heft it) this is the lightest weight and consider it a dry pot. Now slowly water until the soil/coco will no longer absorb the water and run-off begins; weigh the pot (heft it) this is the maximum water, the wettest the pot can get. The difference between wettest and driest is the maximum water weight, for ease of explanation lets just say the water weighs 20 pounds. When the pot loses 10 pounds (half of the water weight) it is time to water again. There is an art to watering.

Thank you for all your help. I have Kelp and I have Recharge (has humic acid in it, I believe). I’ll up the trio nutes to that level and do every third watering as you advise.
Is it reasonable to do the kelp/recharge on the “non nute” waterings, about once a week?

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

Thank you for all your help. I have Kelp and I have Recharge (has humic acid in it, I believe). I’ll up the trio nutes to that level and do every third watering as you advise.
Is it reasonable to do the kelp/recharge on the “non nute” waterings, about once a week?

Use Recharge sparingly and on a water only day. It can really pump up nutrient availability.

 

[LearningMore]

Use Recharge sparingly and on a water only day. It can really pump up nutrient availability.

Is there a straight humic acid you’d recommend?

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

Is there a straight humic acid you’d recommend?

I use Bio-ag liquid but NPK Industries has both Humic Acid for soil and Fulvic Acid for foliar.

 

[LearningMore]

I use Bio-ag liquid but NPK Industries has both Humic Acid for soil and Fulvic Acid for foliar.

View attachment 1311498View attachment 1311499View attachment 1311500

I ordered the raw yucca and humic acids and will have tomorrow. Is their package dosing reasonable (noted below) or should I cut it down as per usual with auto nutes?
yucca: 1/16-1/8 tsp per 5 gallons
humic acid: 1/8-1/4 tsp per 1 gallon

Thank you very much.

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

I ordered the raw yucca and humic acids and will have tomorrow. Is their package dosing reasonable (noted below) or should I cut it down as per usual with auto nutes?
yucca: 1/16-1/8 tsp per 5 gallons
humic acid: 1/8-1/4 tsp per 1 gallon

Thank you very much.

Yes, these are very concentrated. The package dose is good.

 

[tronN00dles]

I too grow with GH flora series, and I’ll say this: be careful with “1/4, 1/2” strength here. GH has three feedcharts for this line up: light, medium and aggressive. Prior to last year, they had two charts: recirculating (now called aggressive) and drain-to-waste (now called light). They recommend drain-to-waste/light feed for soil/peat/coco and I can tell you from experience that quartering or halving the strength of those feeding guidelines will starve your plants. I feed my autos at full strength of the drain-to-waste/light feeding chart, which works out to around 500-550 ppm during bloom.

-tronNoodles

 

[LearningMore]

I too grow with GH flora series, and I’ll say this: be careful with “1/4, 1/2” strength here. GH has three feedcharts for this line up: light, medium and aggressive. Prior to last year, they had two charts: recirculating (now called aggressive) and drain-to-waste (now called light). They recommend drain-to-waste/light feed for soil/peat/coco and I can tell you from experience that quartering or halving the strength of those feeding guidelines will starve your plants. I feed my autos at full strength of the drain-to-waste/light feeding chart, which works out to around 500-550 ppm during bloom.

-tronNoodles

I definitely think I’ve been starving them. The yellowing isn’t progressing since they had 2 back-to-back feeds. They were still wet today so no input, but I’m hopeful I’m on the right path now, shooting for 500ppm of just feed nutes.

I’m actually using Fox Farms trio, but they have a bunch of schedules, too, so your point is well-taken. From my extensive reading, I knew I’d have to learn how to “read” my plants - clearly I didn’t pick up on their message til they were screaming at me! The difference between “reading” and actually “doing”.