Mornin' CC
If your water stayed at 145ppm...you would be good. Many places have water that changes seasonably. Mine does...higher ppm and ph in summer. All good reasons for using RO...so that when you mix stuff up...you know what you have. Consistency.
I wish you hadn't told me about your soil mix. The last extreme measure is to remove as much of the soil as possible and replace it with a good store bought mix. I've done it...but it was years ago. You need a big bin filled with water and gently wash away old soil...as much as washed away easily. Goal is to not traumatize roots. Then repack nw soil around old rootbal.
I am not saying to do that. But I think you put too much nutrient in your mix...which is what's causing problems.
Step back and ponder. Do you want to start flowering knowing you're probably going to have issues and may never even finish right. Or delay your grow another week and get some good soil in there. Even timed release nutrients are a problem in many store bought soil...so watch out for that. Something like FFOF from a hydro store is what you want.
And this is your decision...
JD
Oh boy...I have thought about this for about 8 of the 9 weeks since starting. I know I have never had beautiful lush green plants like other folks. I have NO flowering experience so I dont know what a plant can tolerate. What I know so far is no matter what I have done to them so far...started with RO water, then used plain tap water...then got a ph meter...then got ph up and down, bought some calmag...tried a tiny dose of big bloom...tried recharge...then raised temps...then went straight ph water...they keep on growing.
Higher temps and recharge imo have had the most benefits. Ive read every plant problem site and thread 5x over, I feel like a classroom expert who simply cant diagnose his own plants. Growweedeasy says over and over when you cant figure out your problem, it is likely a root issue because root problems can look like almost anything. That is what led me to say..ok, lets say i didnt water the pots enough each watering for a while...I put in half a gallon every 4 days instead of a gallon. Last watering i did a gallon on 3 days...but i also used the soil meter to check each one. I reduced water by a quart for 2 and by 2 quarts for the smaller plant based on how wet they were. I water better now, watering to the edges slowly and for the first few quarts before working towards the middle. IF i didnt water properly before maybe I had hot spots in the soil....also, i started with some fungus gnats which like to eat small root shoots from what i read. So what safe route can i take for root help without burning them further? Thats where Recharge came in and seemed to help. Higher temps also seemed to help. Gnat management is very under control imo and i think thats at a safe level...it was crazy at the beginning. Because i left the pots filled in the garage to cook and didnt manage the moisture right i guess.
Logic tells me that the organic thread must be ok in some regard because it has 736 pages and is still being updated today. IF I was half as smart as I pretend to be I would have joined that site and asked over there for some ideas. But i didnt and am sure you and others here know enough about soil that there isnt much anybody there would know that isnt here too.
Because the new growth always seems to look good before fading, I cant help but think mobile nutrient(s) are out of balance and or locked out. Like you say it isnt out of Mag, cause they would be dead without it, but why do the fastest growing plants always seem Mag deficient? Did adding calmag+ fix my problem? No. Could epsom salt, by only adding Mag and Sulfur without iron or calcium? I wish it would, but have no way of knowing where that might lead. 2 of the plants...the ones in the last 2 pics do look faded a bit like maybe they need some sulfur. And the others look like they need Mag.
It points me again at possibly epsom salts. So if I add epsom salts in the next few waterings, what other problems might I create? If the only real issue with sulfur abundance is slowed growth....witness my one slow growing plant...all green and pretty...and slow and stunted compared to the others. Hmmmm, maybe that isnt its issue, i dont know.
At this point they are switching to flower, I dont want to risk repotting them all. How much does your experience tell you NOT to try epsom salts for a few waterings? It seems so many growers feel it is necessary. Since calmag+didnt fix things, would leaving out the cacium and iron maybe avoid some issues?
.Smoke said he has similar water and calmag was the issue...switching to epsom fixed it....so lets talk downsides. Does flowering have any tolerance for testing this out?
So maybe next watering or 2 I pH to 6.5 with epsom salt added?
One good thing about flipping is I cant go check on them several times a day lol! Newbie staring. Temps lights out are within 3 or 4 degrees and humidity low to mid 50s. Fans all running same. So darn it,I got the environment dialed in! This pesky nutrition problem though is bothersome! It would be wonderful to just have lush green plants!
