Zinc Deficiency? HELP!!

OK so one of my plants is starting to worry me. I am in the 3rd week of veg. The space between nodes is minimal and the leaves are TINY. I read that it could be a zinc deficiency or ph lockout causing zinc definciency so on. The soil is 4 weeks old and is a premium potting mix. I have only used a tiny amount of Alaskan Fish Fertilizer (tryin to stay organic) on 2 of the waterings. I am watering every other day for the most part with Brita filtered tap water left out for a couple of days. PH tests right at 7. I have not ph tested the soil runoff yet but I guess I will. The fertilizer I am using lowers the PH when I test it so maybe I need to use a bit more. Otherwise the plants seems to be growing healthy. the new vegetation is lookin and smelling fresh. I have lost a couple of the lower sunleaves but they are still attached just yellowing. A few of the new leaves have a bit of banding on them and the tip burn in the pic is me not moving the light fast enough.

I am using 6 26 watt 6500k spirals with a homemade reflector. 2 13 watt 4200k and 4500k flourescent strips close to base of plant. I have intake and exhaust fans with air blowing on the plants. Temp seems to stay within 60-75 degrees.

I did tie the top node down 3 days ago to begin LST on the plant and expected a little stress but not this.

Any help would be much appreciated.

The plant is just bagseed. but it must have been a good bag because I bothered to keep it.

Pic 1 is the plant on the 7th day after sprouting.
2nd pic is the plant now. 18th light cycle.
I have experience in gardening outdoors but never the Herb.

looks like a nitrogen problem not enough!! need to feed her!!

Thats not zinc def.....zinc def is when the outter edges of the fan leafs turn very light and the center is nice and green. Kinda cool looking actually.

You might have a nitrogen deficiency. I found an alaskan fish ferts that had 0 "N"

Check this out http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=11688

Boneman said:

Thats not zinc def.....zinc def is when the outter edges of the fan leafs turn very light and the center is nice and green. Kinda cool looking actually.

You might have a nitrogen deficiency. I found an alaskan fish ferts that had 0 "N"

Check this out http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=11688

Click to expand...

Thanks for the quick response. The Fish Fert is 5-1-1. Should I go higher? I have been using 2 tsp per quart of water. I will water tonight and post pics in a few days and see how she (hopefully) recovers.

When you water, water thoroughly, not a little bit every day, or every other day, unless it's actually dry. Terrible practice, IMO.
Yeah, it does look like it could simply be hungry for N?

Make sure its in a big enough container filled with soil. Use no more that 1/2 the recommended dosage mixed with ph'd water.
Try this:
Water with 1/2 dosage.....several days later (when dry) repeat.........several days later water with plain ph'd water

Soil grows take time to show deficiencies and recoveries. Most ppl make mistakes because they dont give the plant enough time to show their reactions to our actions and end up overreacting and screwing it all up.

Would you recommend that I do the transplant to a larger pot that I had planned for next week now? that way I start caring for all the stress at once? I have 1 gallon pots ready to go with the additional soil ph'ed to 6.5.


-The soil gets dry every other day hence why I water pretty much every other day. I do the finger method to test for soil dryness. stick it in the dirt to 2nd knuckle etc etc... I water until it starts draining out the bottom steadily.
Right now they are in 2l's with the tops cut off.
I think there may be too much drainage too so that may be helping the drying out fast problem.

Thanks again everbody!

Get the transplant over with now and I would go with at least 2 gal pots.

Water them good then wait till the leaves start to get droopy (4 days +/-). Pick up the pot and feel how light it is. Now you will know when to water

Boneman said:

Get the transplant over with now and I would go with at least 2 gal pots.

Water them good then wait till the leaves start to get droopy (4 days +/-). Pick up the pot and feel how light it is. Now you will know when to water

Click to expand...

I am glad I did the transplant right away. It was RADICAL growth of the roots that were the issue. A couple more days and some of the root tips would have begun rotting. They are in 1.5 Gallon containers now filled to the absolute brim (next grow I am building my own squares as I have plenty of horizontal room but only a set amount vertical (about 10 inches) 9.5 if you count the piece of styrofoam the pots are sitting on.


18/6 versus 20/4 is a world of difference in plants puttin down roots. I am now a true believer in 18/6 and will not use anything else. Bigger roots means more nutritious salad!!!!!

I will post pics after full recovery.

So,
I transplanted several days ago and am starting to see a small amount of vegetative growth again. Woohoo. They stall during the transplant and our recent cold snap (thankfully not too cold) I also got the light on the outside dark on the inner leaf but I think that is weather related as well, I did slightly damage a piece of the roots during transplant but I buried it to first set of leaves to try and compensate. She (hopefully) is recovering and I will be switching to flower when the plant shows two new nodes after this transplant. (will post pics in a few days.

I have another pot with 2 plants branched from the same seed that I am going to post a separate post about but it is the coolest thing ever. One is big and the other is tiny but they came from one seed.
Anyone else ever had that?

So after many trials and tribulations I have gotten the plants to a publicly presentable state. This has been a crazy learning experience.

Many pH inconsistencies later here is the current state of things