Sweet gelato auto looking a bit nasty... any ideas?

[Autofire]

The way the leaves are yellowing a lot worse at the bottom of the plant makes it look like a deficiency. The soil you bought online might be lacking in nutrition.
I don't grow in soil but I think the best way to feed them is to top dress with a good balanced slow release fert.

 

[thequickanddirtyremix]

Hey, thanks.

Yes, over watering was something that we thought might have been a problem, so I had previously eased off and didn't water for a couple of days, and then resuming to about 50ml a day.

I trimmed some of the fan leaves that were really brown off, and found the pot to be really light (this is a couple of days after the photos above), so I have since given it another water of maybe around 400ml today, and I was planning on leaving it a couple of days before watering again. The pots are 4L.

Does that sound about right?

 

[thequickanddirtyremix]

Hey Autofire, yes, I thought about a deficiency as well, so I put a crushed up biotoab (I think it was 8-8-12) and a bit more soil in about 2 weeks ago.

It crossed my mind that this could have helped, but maybe the bigger fan leaves were already affected, although not going brown at the time, giving a kind of nasty delay effect. There's new growth being not too bad, but I guess I'm going to have to let that grow out to see if it goes brown and crispy as well.

 

[wadehump]

Autos don’t need a lot of nutrients if it good soil just water when needed

 

[thequickanddirtyremix]

Soooo... I think I might have worked out the problem: I'm a massive noob!

I started looking in to the soil, as this was the main thing I'd changed. In previous grows I'd used what we had lying around, which was some multi purpose potting compost, and Tomorite for nutrients. This problem grow, instead I used Plant Magic Soil Supreme with 3/4 of a crushed up biotab (I think it's NPK is 8-8-12).

Apparently the Plant Magic Soil Supreme doesn't hold water very well. Consider this and:
1) I reduced watering as I thought I might be over watering
2) We had a heatwave
3) First time using fabric pots
I think all this meant that things got a bit too dry and hot.

I noticed yesterday that although the soil looked damp, and felt a bit moist, the pot was very light. So I've watered it more.

Also, to add in to the mix above, the Plant Magic Soil Supreme blurb said:
"Plant Magic Soil Supreme is very lightly fertilised so your plants will need feeding sooner after potting"
and
"Plant Magic Plus Soil Supreme is lightly fertilised which makes it ideal for young rooted cuttings/seedlings and provides enough food for the first 2-3 weeks at least."

The problem first showed up at about 17 days. I biotabbed (as per the above) and things looked better for a bit, then back to looking suspect.

I think the soil is more of a soil like medium that has some good bits in it, but in my naivety I thought of it more like a complete, long term soil, so didn't supplement with any nutes other than 3/4 of a crushed biotab (4L pots).

So in summary, got hot, got dry, and probably not enough nutes.

I guess the question is, what do I do about all this. One thing I've thought is just starting again, but with different soil. I guess the alternative is to water more based on pot weight, and maybe tomorite and biotab more. I think I might work along these lines and see what happens, but if you think I'm wasting my time, you'd be doing me a favour by letting me know.

Cheers!
TQADR
XXX

 

[hope2grow]

M8 im not an expert by any means but it looks to me like that medium/soil is just way to hot and is frying your plants with whatever is in it.

 

[Autofire]

Soooo... I think I might have worked out the problem: I'm a massive noob!

I started looking in to the soil, as this was the main thing I'd changed. In previous grows I'd used what we had lying around, which was some multi purpose potting compost, and Tomorite for nutrients. This problem grow, instead I used Plant Magic Soil Supreme with 3/4 of a crushed up biotab (I think it's NPK is 8-8-12).

Apparently the Plant Magic Soil Supreme doesn't hold water very well. Consider this and:
1) I reduced watering as I thought I might be over watering
2) We had a heatwave
3) First time using fabric pots
I think all this meant that things got a bit too dry and hot.

I noticed yesterday that although the soil looked damp, and felt a bit moist, the pot was very light. So I've watered it more.

Also, to add in to the mix above, the Plant Magic Soil Supreme blurb said:
"Plant Magic Soil Supreme is very lightly fertilised so your plants will need feeding sooner after potting"
and
"Plant Magic Plus Soil Supreme is lightly fertilised which makes it ideal for young rooted cuttings/seedlings and provides enough food for the first 2-3 weeks at least."

The problem first showed up at about 17 days. I biotabbed (as per the above) and things looked better for a bit, then back to looking suspect.

I think the soil is more of a soil like medium that has some good bits in it, but in my naivety I thought of it more like a complete, long term soil, so didn't supplement with any nutes other than 3/4 of a crushed biotab (4L pots).

So in summary, got hot, got dry, and probably not enough nutes.

I guess the question is, what do I do about all this. One thing I've thought is just starting again, but with different soil. I guess the alternative is to water more based on pot weight, and maybe tomorite and biotab more. I think I might work along these lines and see what happens, but if you think I'm wasting my time, you'd be doing me a favour by letting me know.

Cheers!
TQADR
XXX

Good to hear mate. Hope your plants recover well and bring you a decent harvest.

Any reason that you grow in soil? Coco is heaps easier to grow in and you never have to worry about over watering. Just keep it wet and feed by your chosen nutrient chart. It's way easier for us beginners

 

[wadehump]

I’m using promix and water every 2 days or if fabric pot is light every day as needed and bat guano at 2/10/12

 

[wadehump]

Some others getting close

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

Well you have a potential for many problems. Letting the pot get dry is the start. 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.


Nutrients becomes a moving target when you start with a precharged soil. It literally is guesswork as to when and how much to start with? A lot of growers overcome this with practice as well. I don't like precharged soils. (except washed and calcium pre-charged coco and true Living Organic soil).

Use a surfactant and get your soil fully wet. then let go until 50% weight to start fertigating again.