Cant diagnose this issue | Chaos Kush Grow

So I have been noticing that some of my leaves have been showing some strange signs. I had other posts about my slow growth problems but it seems as if it may be a deficiency. My chaos kush is about 3 weeks old and its been showing very slow growth, the leaves are not so much a dark green as they are a light papery lime green color. The leaves are showing small brown blotches around the edges and some of them seem to be turning and deforming. I've looked at some deficiency charts and descriptions and it seems as if there might be a manganese or molybdenum deficiency but i don't want to the jump the gun and buy some stuff I don't need. Iv'e ruled out heat stress b/c I'm using low temp CFL's with a 6in clamp-on fan; keeping the temp at around 75 - 81 and r/h at 45 - 55%. I made some compost of organic soil, containing kelp meal, alfalfa meal, azomite, and dolomite lime. If I can have some experienced eyes and opinions than that would be great. I'll try and get some pictures in asap.

Here's some pix

Have they been fed anything? Did you mix up that stuff and use the soil right away or let it sit for a while?

Feed it.
Despite the compost you mention, it looks hungry, and as far as the light green leafs, I can't tell if that's from a 2700k bulb or the actual leaf color.
I run about 250w of mixed 5000k and 2700k CFL's in a 2x2 area and do fine.
Sometimes I even let my temp get up close to 90 up top above the lights, but around 80 at canopy evel.

Southerner said:

Have they been fed anything? Did you mix up that stuff and use the soil right away or let it sit for a while?

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I let the soil sit for about a month before I used it and before that I used store bought organic topsoil. And what exactly do you mean by feed it? I've done three kelp/alfalfa/water feeds and it seems to love that. If by water feed I feed it maybe every three days.

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Your soil sounds like it has plenty of food for such a small young plant so a nutrient deficiency seems unlikely to me, but you could always run a cheap $5 soil test to get a better idea. It may be that you have a lockout issue, which would make your ph levels worth checking (especially runoff ph). This isn't that common in soil grows but worth checking when you have a problem. I would also check my source water ppm to see if it is maybe high. I would probably put down a 1/2" layer of worm casings to help out the organics, as well as a myco fungi dusting of roots at next transplant.

A pic of the whole plant would be helpful as well as any of the info above that you may have. It may not be much of an issue at all if just the first set of leaves.

I just got back home after being away for about 5 hours and have noticed the symptoms worsened within the time. The tips are starting to curl with that black/brown blotchiness but its only on the oldest leaves. I've noticed little black beetle looking bugs climbing on top of the soil and identified them as what seems to be small premature black gnats as they haven't developed wings yet. They're little jumpy bastards but cannot fly. I'm thinking there little bastards might be part of the problem but I'm taking off tomorrow for a new years trip and i want to take care of this asap before more damage is dome. Any suggestions?

Bugeye said:

Your soil sounds like it has plenty of food for such a small young plant so a nutrient deficiency seems unlikely to me, but you could always run a cheap $5 soil test to get a better idea. It may be that you have a lockout issue, which would make your ph levels worth checking (especially runoff ph). This isn't that common in soil grows but worth checking when you have a problem. I would also check my source water ppm to see if it is maybe high. I would probably put down a 1/2" layer of worm casings to help out the organics, as well as a myco fungi dusting of roots at next transplant.

A pic of the whole plant would be helpful as well as any of the info above that you may have. It may not be much of an issue at all if just the first set of leaves.

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the water i use switches between arrowhead water and crystal gyser which from what i understand is about 7pH. And I'll work on a full pic for you now. Gimme a sec

Here's pics from just a minute ago. All the fraying on the ends just happened today

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Does all of your soil have that high wood chip content or is that just top mulch? If your soil is loaded with that it could be low ph which will lockout phosphorous, calcium and magnesium pretty good. Checking the ph of your soil run off would be a good idea because you definitely have a nutrient issue.

I have a mulch that's that woody material but the rest is soft black compost mixed with organic topsoil. Any remedy ideas?

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soil drench and sticky traps. and if your soil is always wet they thrive.

I layered about a 1 inch of worm casting on top of the mulch and added about 4 tbsp of azomite mixed in to remedy any macronutrients it may be missing because i added only about 2tbsp to the whole compost pile when i whipped it up. Now I play the waiting game and watch closely. I'm definitely buying some neem oil tomorrow to foliage spray her to avoid future pests as well. Wish me luck!

So, I just got back from my trip and came back to find that the two bottom eaves have completely browned and have curled up. New growth seems to be generally un-affected but I can't imagine it will be too long before they start showing symptoms too. The stem has gone from being a dark purple color to a semi purple/ clear green color as if it's not uptaking nutrients properly. I'm thinking a water flush might do some good work. Still not absolutely sure what the deficiency is though.

Hmm, you don't say at what ratio you mixed your soil.

I suspect an imbalance of nutrition with a general lack of micro's availability.

Look here to a good beginning organic soil build. This should be a basic bible for ratio's and what's used and why or why not. I like worm castings + humus.

Easy Organic Soil Mix for Beginners - Organic Growing

Check out Rev's True Living Organics book to take the step to water only growing.....I like his style a bit better the Sub's, but that's opinion...

good luck

Dr. Who said:

Hmm, you don't say at what ratio you mixed your soil.

I suspect an imbalance of nutrition with a general lack of micro's availability.

Look here to a good beginning organic soil build. This should be a basic bible for ratio's and what's used and why or why not. I like worm castings + humus.

Easy Organic Soil Mix for Beginners - Organic Growing

Check out Rev's True Living Organics book to take the step to water only growing.....I like his style a bit better the Sub's, but that's opinion...

good luck

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I mixed my 5 gallon buckets with about 1/7th perlite at the bottom, 4/7th compost(2cft organic soil, 1/2cft organic store bought worm casting, 2 cups kelp meal, 1 1/2 cup alfalfa meal, 1/2 cup dolomite, 2 tbsp azomite dust), 2/7th store bought organic topsoil with a 2 inch layer of mulch that is high in that barky material. I just recently added about 1/2in - 1in the same store bought worm castings. I just added a very light sprinkling of some fusion sea-bat guano as a dry top feed. And that is all

DabberDan said:

I mixed my 5 gallon buckets with about 1/7th perlite at the bottom, 4/7th compost(2cft organic soil, 1/2cft organic store bought worm casting, 2 cups kelp meal, 1 1/2 cup alfalfa meal, 1/2 cup dolomite, 2 tbsp azomite dust), 2/7th store bought organic topsoil with a 2 inch layer of mulch that is high in that barky material. I just recently added about 1/2in - 1in the same store bought worm castings. I just added a very light sprinkling of some fusion sea-bat guano as a dry top feed. And that is all

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Just my opinion bro, since I just use potting soil (lotta guys will want to shoot me for this, LOL, but it's usually MG Moisture Control), with about 35-40% MG Perlite, but I feel it would have been better to mix all your ingredients together instead of layering stuff.
Example being, the perlite all being at the bottom is still going to let your water be retained in the soil above it.
Also, remember that store bought worm castings, and bat guano are organic, and not as potent a fert as some might think.
You also might want to check your PH of the runoff, as with all that bark in there, you might have a PH imbalance starting to go on too.

Update on Blueberry & Chaos Kush Organic
So today I flushed the soil after still experiencing extremely slow growth for the past 2 weeks. Right off the bat, the runoff was incredibly cloudy and looked like muddy water; by the time I finished running all 6 gallons, the water was almost clear with just a bit of pollutant in it. I don't have a ppm meter but just by the looks of it I'm thinking I probably went from about 1700ppm to 300 ~ 500ppm. I used 6 gallons of Great Value distilled water(pH 7.2) through the soil(pH 6.8 totaling about 5 gallons drained and 1 gallon retained. The soil now sits at a 7.0 ~ 7.2 pH which will be lowered with the next feeding of Crystal Geyser water (6.8 pH). Now I will begin to closely monitor the growth of the plant over the next few weeks.

DabberDan said:

Update on Blueberry & Chaos Kush Organic
So today I flushed the soil after still experiencing extremely slow growth for the past 2 weeks. Right off the bat, the runoff was incredibly cloudy and looked like muddy water; by the time I finished running all 6 gallons, the water was almost clear with just a bit of pollutant in it. I don't have a ppm meter but just by the looks of it I'm thinking I probably went from about 1700ppm to 300 ~ 500ppm. I used 6 gallons of Great Value distilled water(pH 7.2) through the soil(pH 6.8 totaling about 5 gallons drained and 1 gallon retained. The soil now sits at a 7.0 ~ 7.2 pH which will be lowered with the next feeding of Crystal Geyser water (6.8 pH). Now I will begin to closely monitor the growth of the plant over the next few weeks.

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Keep us posted.

SAY NO TO MULCH OR BARK IN YOUR SOIL.

AND to necro posting.