Possible phosphorus lockout and ph instability at the roots

I believe 99% of the problems I am having have to do with the roots and the root area.

I use 1 gallon pots to veg and have been transplanting to 2 gallon to flower. But then I saw a great post from Cletus clem about root growth and I knew I had to change things up. I was up-potting to the 2 gallon with hardly enough roots that filled up my 1 gallon. They were taking forever to drink and taking too long between feeds. So now I changed that and it seems to be working fine. I am not transplanting at all anymore and keeping them in the 1 gallon. There is plenty of room for the roots to fill in during flower.

The other problem I am having is the bottom leaves are drying up and dying. This starts from the bottom and moves up to the top. It usually starts to show 2 weeks in from clone or seed. The bottom leaves start to brown at the ends, then curl up and dry out. Then the whole leaf dries up and falls off. This process continues to move up the plant and leaves continuously die. I believe the problem is phosphorus lockout and root ph problems. The reason is most likely my own fault.

I found this pic on a site that most resembles my problem http://growweedeasy.com/sites/growweedeasy.com/files/phosphorus-deficiency-leaf-curling.jpg

I have always put enough water in the pot so that it fills up but doesn't run off out the bottom. I may be causing the lockout due to this. Am I right about this or am I missing something? Thanks for any help in this matter.

BTW, I flushed all the plants with RO water about 2 hours ago and what a difference!! I went and looked inside my tent after I made my first post and ALL the leaves are reaching up for the light. They are loving it! I must have done something right. Even the leaves that are half dead are standing up lol!

I guess I need to get the water to "run-off" every time I water. Unless I am missing something else.

So how do I make this easier to deal with the run-off? I have 16 one gallon pots in a 4 x 4 tent. Are there tubs with grates available to make life easier to catch the run-off? Or just get big trays and empty them into a bucket once the plant is done releasing the extra water?

use trays.

I went with big trays to catch the run-off and a small tray under the pot to raise it up off the bigger tray. This way it keeps it out of the run-off. The plants didn't look too happy today. I hope they come around.

Hotwired said:

BTW, I flushed all the plants with RO water about 2 hours ago and what a difference!! I went and looked inside my tent after I made my first post and ALL the leaves are reaching up for the light. They are loving it! I must have done something right. Even the leaves that are half dead are standing up lol!

I guess I need to get the water to "run-off" every time I water. Unless I am missing something else.

So how do I make this easier to deal with the run-off? I have 16 one gallon pots in a 4 x 4 tent. Are there tubs with grates available to make life easier to catch the run-off? Or just get big trays and empty them into a bucket once the plant is done releasing the extra water?

Click to expand...

You can use a 4x4 outside dimension hydro tray and lift up the back about an inch with something stable. Then use a wet vaac to suck it out. You can use a turkey baster and pot sized tray and remove individual plants for runoff testing.

There are also manual transfer pumps and electric ones made for fuel that are pretty useful.

I use pots trays and a turkey baster but my plants are all at different growth stages perpetually.