Zinc deficiency

Hi gang, I believe I have a zinc deficiency. My set-up; soil grow-five gallon containers. Perlite peat mix and some wood ash. Lighting-single 600w hps.cool tube with magnetic ballast. Approx. 15" above ladies. Grow tent-4x2x6. 6" inline fan pulling thru tube and 6" inline pulling exhausted air from tent.. occilating fan on low. Ladies are approx. 5 weeks old switched to 12/12 @ 21 days into veg. They were veged under MH lamp. At 14 days they were fed 1/3 strength mg nutes. I know I know, mg products are not supposed to be used but they have worked really well in past grows. Right as I prepared for the 12/12 switch I noticed a deficiency with the ladies. I have a ch9 vantage and two ch9 heri jacks. First noticed the def. On the vantage. Im using tap water with a ph of 7. My soil ph read out at around 6. Nitrogen showed a ph of 6. Phos. Showed a ph of 6.2 and K showed a very high level of 7.4 no doubt due to the stove/wood ash. I believe my deficiency is a zinc def. With a couple other defs. Caused by the lockout of the zinc. I have a few grows under my belt but still consider myself a newb. I did a flush using 10 gal for each of straight tap water without any nutes. I have noticed new growth spurt but stiff have the signs of the deficiency present. Not as bad on the jacks as the vantage. Since they are now in flower Im not sure when to reintroduce nutes or even which fert would be best. I will not be using mg any longer. The plant in the middle of first pic is the worst one and is the ch9 vantage. The second pic is vantage. The third and fourth are the jacks. Please have a look and provide some feedback as I am not sure if I am on the correct track or not. Please let me know what additional info you may need. Thanx. Daytime temps are 79-83 F and night temps are 65-70 F. I read that low temps may cause ph probs as well. Plants have been LST trained. R/H 30-50 lights on and 20-35 lights off. The only variable different this time was the use of aluminum wire used for lst. Approx 8 pins per plant. (Aluminum toxicity) ?? The pins have been removed from the mediums.

N def.
Feed.

Bump..

zinc and sulfur deficiencies can look alike until they progress into later stages. you would flush for zinc toxicity, if they're lacking then you can give zinc sulfate or bury galvanized nails in the soil weird as that may be. lack of sulfur is fixed watering with epsom salt.

Dr. Who said:

N def.
Feed.

Click to expand...

Maybe but mainly a zinc def. I need to find out what is locking it out.

greenvalley907 said:

zinc and sulfur deficiencies can look alike until they progress into later stages. you would flush for zinc toxicity, if they're lacking then you can give zinc sulfate or bury galvanized nails in the soil weird as that may be. lack of sulfur is fixed watering with epsom salt.

Click to expand...

Thankyou

I don't care what you feed it.
Your in soil, so how did you get a zinc def? Micro nute problems are RARE at best. So what EXACTLY makes up that soil mix? If it were nothing more then perlite, peat and wood ash. You would be having more problems then you have!
Your going to say pH aren't you?
Nope pilgrim, that's not it.
The pH you list for the soil is fine. It swings when you water it and returns as it dries. So you can get differing readings depending on when you take them. I sure don't understand the multiple readings for N , P , K...

I might look more at several other things as N is most likely not the whole issue.
Mag, Iron and sulfur may be at play here too.

So then, when I see a variety of problems like that.
I say feed them a nice BALANCED for MM food.

Try Foliage pro from Dyna-Gro and add a bit of epsom too, or maybe CALiMAGic from GH for the Mg as it has some added iron that you need too.

Ok, so now I got more detailed in my answer. My bad for not doing it the first time!

Trust me here. Zinc is not the problem.

Dr. Who said:

I don't care what you feed it.
Your in soil, so how did you get a zinc def? Micro nute problems are RARE at best. So what EXACTLY makes up that soil mix? If it were nothing more then perlite, peat and wood ash. You would be having more problems then you have!
Your going to say pH aren't you?
Nope pilgrim, that's not it.
The pH you list for the soil is fine. It swings when you water it and returns as it dries. So you can get differing readings depending on when you take them. I sure don't understand the multiple readings for N , P , K...

I might look more at several other things as N is most likely not the whole issue.
Mag, Iron and sulfur may be at play here too.

So then, when I see a variety of problems like that.
I say feed them a nice BALANCED for MM food.

Try Foliage pro from Dyna-Gro and add a bit of epsom too, or maybe CALiMAGic from GH for the Mg as it has some added iron that you need too.

Ok, so now I got more detailed in my answer. My bad for not doing it the first time!

Trust me here. Zinc is not the problem.

Click to expand...

I believe the high K can cause a micro def with zinc. Only parts that look like zinc def is the new growth. Looks exactly like this. I did feed this morning. Thankyou for your help.

I ended up switching to growing using the recycled organic living soil method because I was so sick of chasing deficiencies. It takes time to let the batch of soil set while the microbes eat and pass the nutes but plants sure love being put into that stuff, cuts down on cost too in the long run since you're reusing the soil for your next run.

Dr. Who said:

I don't care what you feed it.
Your in soil, so how did you get a zinc def? Micro nute problems are RARE at best. So what EXACTLY makes up that soil mix? If it were nothing more then perlite, peat and wood ash. You would be having more problems then you have!
Your going to say pH aren't you?
Nope pilgrim, that's not it.
The pH you list for the soil is fine. It swings when you water it and returns as it dries. So you can get differing readings depending on when you take them. I sure don't understand the multiple readings for N , P , K...

I might look more at several other things as N is most likely not the whole issue.
Mag, Iron and sulfur may be at play here too.

So then, when I see a variety of problems like that.
I say feed them a nice BALANCED for MM food.

Try Foliage pro from Dyna-Gro and add a bit of epsom too, or maybe CALiMAGic from GH for the Mg as it has some added iron that you need too.

Ok, so now I got more detailed in my answer. My bad for not doing it the first time!

Trust me here. Zinc is not the problem.

Click to expand...

Good to see that there's some folks out there who actually do know what they're talking about. Listen to this guy.

Good call Dr. Who. I forgot that I had added some time release soil, just a bit I had left over. Ordered a couple products you had mentioned. Thanxs again for everyones help. Will update results in a couple weeks.

@ dr who: I still have that yellow look to em. plants seem to have responded well to the flush, returning to vigorious growth with the mentioned dyna gro and calimagic I added. But the one strain still has this light green sorta chrorotic look. Im about ready to chalk it up as a strain trait. as they are now in their third week of flower. It does not seem to be causing any problems as far as bud development. I worry that she may finish lack luster and thats ok, to me its a learning thing. Rarely do I have the same problems again once a problem is recognized and taken care of. I will post some campare pics when lights come back on. one final note: medium temps seem to hover pretty low at about 66 F lights out. Is there any truth about low temps like this causing nute uptake problems?

P to a point.....remember that in nature the night temps drop from many strains home range.
Not going to be a problem at that point and 66f is not a real concerning drop.