Help I included Pics . Hard water just or bad soil how to fix

MMAFanatic

Active Member
Ok I tested my soil and its at 7.2 roughly one is 7.o and it looks better but is doing the same thing.
My leaves have black spots and are light green vs dark green they usually are.
this my 4th time growing this strain so this is new to me.
I moved so new water
I also used new dirt.
I have flushed my plants three times in one month and the 1st time it worked now it hasnt
I have a 150 hps and four 27 watt 6500 k cfls
Temps are in the 70s humidity no clue
What can I do ?
 

MMAFanatic

Active Member
I used this left over rooting miracle grow root starter dirt and mixed it in with my water control
I have used the water control 3 other times without this issue
I just repotted last week and I see no improvement I went from a one gallon to one that is a little more than two gallons
I think its either the dirt or the water

I only used nutes when i saw the leaves turning light green cause I thought it Nitrogen deficiency
Then when i saw the black dots I realized it was burning so only water for the last month and it keeps getting worse
Help me guys this is my 1st major issue like this
 

MMAFanatic

Active Member
ok I got ph water tester and my water was off the chart over 7.5
So I used the water conditioner and ph down to 6.4
I flushed again .
Do I wait for it to dry out then add nutes or do I just give it water for a while ?
 

MMAFanatic

Active Member
Please help anyone out there
Ok the soil is about 6.3 or 6.4 now
My nutes were the african violet plus by Schultz
SHould I add Epsom salt or will that throw my calcium off ?
 

Jloi

Well-Known Member
If you flushed the soil 3 times in a month you diluted a lot of the nutes that you had. That's why your getting yellow leafs. The fan leafs that look dam near gone and brown I'd get rid of those. Also when you water them do you put water on the leafs? If so do you spray it on them and let the water sit? You shouldnt let water sit on the leafs for long periods of time. It will kill the leafs, get a nice organic soil next time that will also help
 

MMAFanatic

Active Member
Hmm the reason I flushed was because of the black spots
now the dirt has very little nutes right ?
So I should add nutes now that ph is lower right ?
 

FirsTime

Active Member
Dude. If you have the ph between 6.2 and 6.5 go ahead add nutes. You need to get a PPM tester because you could be giving them too much nutes, or too little. Looks like it could be a N defficiency. What type of soil did you use? I recommend a good organic soil like the last poster said (Though I grow hydro)
 

Tahmi.Guhnn

Active Member
i dont think its a N defic at all. looks more like a toxic salt lock up or ph lock up. probably due to the reusing of the soil which already had a buildup of nuits due to you already using it.

ps flushin it with plain water compounds the problem. it washes the nitrogen out first which stops the uptake of a few other nuits which are still built up in the soil. flush with a weak nutirent solution.
 

Tarkett

Member
If you keep the ph back down around 6.1-6.5 then you should be fine adding nuts just mix up a 1/2 regular strength solution, but be sure not to flood your plant, over watering can also lead to problems like stunted growth or root rot.
 

Jloi

Well-Known Member
Miracle grow of any kinda is a big no no in my book. I like to use Organic, I've never seen a "time release" organic soil before when shopping. Like miracle grow they have "time released" nutes in it. The problem when that is you could be on the money half or 99% of the time but when that stuff releases that's when you get the high PH and run into other problems. The Soil I use is "Fox farms happy frog"
it's about $22 a bag. For nutes I use "earth juice veg and bloom." Those nutes are user friendly and easy on the plants very rarely will you get any burn. They will cost you about $10 per bottle but will last you a LONG time if you only grow a few plants at a time. If I were you and you don't plan on flowering yet I'd trans plant them into some quality soil. Also you mention you use a water cooler as a flowering pot I'm guessing?
I don't want to sound like a dick by any means here just trying to help you but pinching pennies on key things will cost you in the end. A cooler has 1 hole to drain causing root rot unless you modified it and if you are running fans and lights it's harder to penetrate the lower half of the plant by doing this due to the high close walls. I'd get a nice 3 gallon flower pot. That's big enough to do Lst and so on and your plant will love you for it!

After looking over you 1st photo you posted. You can see the walls are way to high for the plant. Leaves can turn brown in color with tropical plants when you dont have enough humidity. Having little or too high humidity and no wear to dissipate, it will begin to rot the leafs due to over moister which can cause that nasty funk you got going on. If your growing it in the cooler because you no where else. Get two box computer fans, one blowing in on the bottom of the side and one on the top back side if you cant do anything else. U can pick up a cheap but decent pair for about 50 bucks for both and a outdoor thermometer will tell you the humidity and temps cost about $7 at wal mart or you hardware store.
 

MMAFanatic

Active Member
Thanks guys I think it was just the salt build up and Ph lock
My leaves never came back but i got new growth on both plants
The Dirt I used was not used or even old dirt just left over from other projects(less than a month old ) in its own bag
My ph in my water upstairs was literally off the scales
My dirt is 6.2 I am adding water at 6.4/6.g range 1/4 strength nutes
I have 2 gallon white square pots that I transplanted to from round one gallon ones
I only have two in this box with a 150 hps plus 4 cfls on two plants
Thanks for the replies I hadn't run into this in veg ever but you learn from your mistakes
I now have a ph tester, ph up and down, ph meter for soil , water stabilizer and a thermostat that tells humidity
I am going to invest in some Earth juice
I dont know what you guys mean by checking you ppms ?
I dont what kind of test you mean, but I will look it up
 

Jloi

Well-Known Member
A good organic nute I use is Earth juice. These nutes dont' raise you ph to where you'll need "ph down" and VERY little burning to none if done right. It cost about 10 a bottle and it's good for many grows it you only do a plant or two!
 

MMAFanatic

Active Member
A good organic nute I use is Earth juice. These nutes dont' raise you ph to where you'll need "ph down" and VERY little burning to none if done right. It cost about 10 a bottle and it's good for many grows it you only do a plant or two!
HTG here i come tommorow
 

Cali.Grown>408

Well-Known Member
Hmm the reason I flushed was because of the black spots
now the dirt has very little nutes right ?
So I should add nutes now that ph is lower right ?
those brown or black spots could of simply been a N deficiency or a ph problem..u probably made it worse by flushing..try to give it some fish emulsion
 

MMAFanatic

Active Member
They are good I will post pics in the Morning , but they are easily 4 inches taller now that i fixed the PH and I switch to Flower
I top and LST so my plants are super short
pot to top under thirty inches
THis is some kind of Indica she barely grows in flower
She is a Clone of a Clone of CLone
It had to be my PH being in Dirt because of my Water guys
 
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