MG deficiency, help with epsom salt

OK I tried adding dolomite lime that has extra cal mag, and I think the problem is getting worst.

so I'm trying to add Epsom salt to the one girl giving me issues just not sure how much or the best way to add, either foliar or top dress or watering it in!

I'm 100% organic and living soil, first pics is the day I noticed it (about a week or two ago) and started adding a very small amount of extra DL with waterings...




NOW these are the pics are from today, as u can see the problem is worsening, I'm really hoping to get things back on track with the Epsom salt!

Read the manufacturer's suggestions on the Epsom Salt package...if it can be watered in, it can be foliar fed...it's your choice. Via foliar and your plants will most likely respond a little quicker. I don't like spraying my girls with anything, so if it were me, I'd simply add the Epsom to my feed and water it in, however, you may have already added too much lime to your soil, so spraying the plant might be your better bet vs. adding something else to your soil. I understand that in an organic soil grow, most don't concern themselves with pH, with the idea that the soil buffers things out, but if it were me, I'd try to get a handle on my pH, just to be sure you're not getting things too far out of line. OR you could try and be patient and see if the Lime you added makes a difference in a few days. Good luck friend.

CannaCountry said:

Read the manufacturer's suggestions on the Epsom Salt package...if it can be watered in, it can be foliar fed...it's your choice. Via foliar and your plants will most likely respond a little quicker. I don't like spraying my girls with anything, so if it were me, I'd simply add the Epsom to my feed and water it in, however, you may have already added too much lime to your soil, so spraying the plant might be your better bet vs. adding something else to your soil. I understand that in an organic soil grow, most don't concern themselves with pH, with the idea that the soil buffers things out, but if it were me, I'd try to get a handle on my pH, just to be sure you're not getting things too far out of line. OR you could try and be patient and see if the Lime you added makes a difference in a few days. Good luck friend.

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thanks for the advise, and the luck!!!

also you are correct about the ph, to me theres no such thing! but I really have not added that much DL, a few tbs at max, but I'm running a probiotic sip, which already requires a lot of DL, I had just transplanted the girl into this sip, and I'm pretty sure my issue is that the roots haven't been able to reach the sweet spots where it can pick and choose what it needs! I just need to baby it until those water roots happen, after that it's all on cruise control! But thank you I think I might do a super light foliar, and maybe a 1/4 strength and water that in!

but just to be clear, ur saying the recommended doses on the bottle will be fine for my girls? this product is made for roses I believe, at least that's whats in the pic lol




also here is the dolomite I've been trying out, says extra cal, and mag, but I don't know for sure!

I just seems to me, with all these cal, and mag inputs, I'm trying to figure out how I have a MG deficiency??? could it possibly be a ph issue? I've never had these issues in the last 4-5 years of using this same soil! and I haven't had to check my ph since my first grow, when I decided to go full on living soil organics! I just don't see how that could all of sudden become a problem. anyway I'm all ears if anyone has something to say about this! thank you all in advance for your help and time!

Greenthumbs256 said:

I just seems to me, with all these cal, and mag inputs, I'm trying to figure out how I have a MG deficiency??? could it possibly be a ph issue? I've never had these issues in the last 4-5 years of using this same soil! and I haven't had to check my ph since my first grow, when I decided to go full on living soil organics! I just don't see how that could all of sudden become a problem. anyway I'm all ears if anyone has something to say about this! thank you all in advance for your help and time!

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How often do you water and do you have sufficient drainage in your soil? In my experience "deficiencies" tend to be lock out 90% of the time. The microbes will typically regulate your pH for you, but if your soil balance is out of whack you will experience lock out. Too much water/not enough aeration results in anaerobic microbes, which will make your soil significantly more acidic. I'm noticing a lot of purple on some of the petioles of the leaves, which is typically a phosphorus deficiency. Excess K/Ca will also lockout Mg and even P.

Constantly adding CalMag is making things worse for you, the CalMag is likely creating excess Ca which is locking out your Mg and P. Stop using CalMag immediately, the Ca not being taken up by your plants is resulting in salt build up. Those Ca salts are throwing things out of whack. Flush the soil, top dress with the highest quality compost/EWC you can find, and lay off the watering for a bit. Unless your pots are 100% rootbound, you should not be watering every single day.

Fortunately, you're in veg it looks like and the symptoms don't look so bad but they are definitely there. Get rid of the Ca salts that have built up in your soil and take it easy on the watering and you'll be fine.

Even if you do absolutely nothing, you'll still get some good smoke. The yields are the only things that will suffer here.

kratos015 said:

How often do you water and do you have sufficient drainage in your soil? In my experience "deficiencies" tend to be lock out 90% of the time. The microbes will typically regulate your pH for you, but if your soil balance is out of whack you will experience lock out. Too much water/not enough aeration results in anaerobic microbes, which will make your soil significantly more acidic. I'm noticing a lot of purple on some of the petioles of the leaves, which is typically a phosphorus deficiency. Excess K/Ca will also lockout Mg and even P.

Constantly adding CalMag is making things worse for you, the CalMag is likely creating excess Ca which is locking out your Mg and P. Stop using CalMag immediately, the Ca not being taken up by your plants is resulting in salt build up. Those Ca salts are throwing things out of whack. Flush the soil, top dress with the highest quality compost/EWC you can find, and lay off the watering for a bit. Unless your pots are 100% rootbound, you should not be watering every single day.

Fortunately, you're in veg it looks like and the symptoms don't look so bad but they are definitely there. Get rid of the Ca salts that have built up in your soil and take it easy on the watering and you'll be fine.

Even if you do absolutely nothing, you'll still get some good smoke. The yields are the only things that will suffer here.

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OK well first I really appreciate the info thank you for your time! also honestly I have been feeling that I was locking things out, which is why I've been cutting down on my recipie( I'll post a pic at bottom). I have slowly eliminated some inputs and cut down on more!

the plant I'm having issues with is in a sub irrigated planter and using probiotics! (here is a link if you have no IDEA what I'm talking about... https://www.rollitup.org/t/greens-gorilla-glue-4.979073/ ) so when it comes to watering, I literally have perfect watering practices, so that can't be the issue!

here's my recipie been working on it for a very long time! the black numbers is what I added last "cook" and the red numbers is what I just mixed about a week or so ago, as you can see I've cut out 2 inputs and lowered the rest!

if you check out that link I posted it's my journal, and experiment kinda thing, there is tons of info about what I do and how, if you don't mind maybe you could help me work on it, I'd really appreciate it! if not then thank you anyway for the info and post!

kratos015 said:

How often do you water and do you have sufficient drainage in your soil? In my experience "deficiencies" tend to be lock out 90% of the time. The microbes will typically regulate your pH for you, but if your soil balance is out of whack you will experience lock out. Too much water/not enough aeration results in anaerobic microbes, which will make your soil significantly more acidic. I'm noticing a lot of purple on some of the petioles of the leaves, which is typically a phosphorus deficiency. Excess K/Ca will also lockout Mg and even P.

Constantly adding CalMag is making things worse for you, the CalMag is likely creating excess Ca which is locking out your Mg and P. Stop using CalMag immediately, the Ca not being taken up by your plants is resulting in salt build up. Those Ca salts are throwing things out of whack. Flush the soil, top dress with the highest quality compost/EWC you can find, and lay off the watering for a bit. Unless your pots are 100% rootbound, you should not be watering every single day.

Fortunately, you're in veg it looks like and the symptoms don't look so bad but they are definitely there. Get rid of the Ca salts that have built up in your soil and take it easy on the watering and you'll be fine.

Even if you do absolutely nothing, you'll still get some good smoke. The yields are the only things that will suffer here.

Click to expand...

also I do have plenty of aeration every cycle I add either pumice, perlite, or rice hauls, I like to switch it up!

so since it's literally almost impossible for me to flush, do you have any other recommendations, other than don't add any more calmag, or D.L.?

and last, I have a good 2in layer of bu's compost on top of this pot and a nice thick mycelium growth as well! I think you would enjoy checking out my experiment real fast, but majority of what you have said I either am already doing, or I can't do it at all bc of my pot, but for sure I won't let any more cal touch my soil for a while and we will see what happens!!!

Fortunately I've already got about 5 or 6 clones from this girl! So if worst come to worst and I do lose her, all I've really lost is time, and money! the genetics, are safe, I'm very grateful for that!!!

Thank you for posting your recipe, it is very insightful. If your SIP has been set up properly then you are in fact correct, watering should be 100% optimal and can be ruled out as the problem. Before I type anything else though, just know that you will definitely not lose your plant because of this. You are definitely going to get some good quality smoke, but your yields are likely to suffer unfortunately.

That being said, you have a lot more amendments in your soil than you need and it is pointing to excess K/Ca levels which appear to be locking out your Mg and P to a lesser extent. A handful of the ingredients in that soil mix are quite redundant unfortunately.

Your Crab Meal, OSF, and gypsum are all quite heavy in Calcium and that is likely causing your Mg lock out. On top of that, 1 1/3c Langbeinite is definitely overkill. Furthermore, the Dolomite Lime is pure Cal/Mg in a soil mix that already appears to be saturated with both. On top of that, you actually don't need Dolomite Lime if you use OSF because OSF has similar buffering power to Dolomite Lime. DL isn't bad by itself, but combine it with the Crab Meal, OSF, and gypsum and you'll lock out Mg for sure.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but at this point there really isn't much you can do but wait until you put new clones in. The term "cooking" soil is interesting to me, because it really is like cooking. When cooking, less is more. You can always add more salt to a meal, but you can not take salt out if you use too much. The same holds true for organic soil.

My advice for the short run if I were in your shoes, I'd simply stop feeding Cal/Mg+Lime and also make sure you don't add any more K to the mix either. I do, however recommend foliar feeding with Epsom Salts 100% at this point. I personally use between 1-2 tbsp per gallon of water if I find myself in this bind, and foliar feed is the most optimal way for the plants to absorb the epsom salts. Top dressing/watering it in is ineffective, as in this case the leaves actually absorb the epsom much more efficiently. Don't get too freaked out when you start seeing whitish spots/blotches on your leaves after a day or so, just what happens when the foliar dries up and is just residue from the salts.

As for my advice for the long term, look into Clackamas Coots soil mix. I've used it with great success, 1:1:1 ratio of peat/compost/aeration and only 1/2c Crab/Kelp/Neem meal per 1 cuft soil. Minerals would be 4c mineral mixture per 1 cuft soil, the 4c mineral mix should consist of 2.5c Basalt, .5c gypsum, and 1c OSF. Those handful of ingredients give your plant all they need. A note on P though, which will explain why you should remove Fish Meal from your mix. Too much P actually hinders the growth of microbes and will cause more harm than good. If for some reason you find yourself in need of more P, grab yourself a bottle of Fish Hydrolysate instead.

Simplicity works best here my friend. Always remember, less is more. You can always top dress more often, but you're SOL if you use too much and just have to let things ride. The issues you are having are quite minor in the grand scheme of things and are easily fixable. Research what I've just said on your own and draw your own conclusions, fact check me as I'm just some random guy on the internet

Hope this helped, and wish you all the best. Don't fret too much, your yields just aren't going to be what they should be but they'll still be more than decent and the smoke will be wonderful.

kratos015 said:

How often do you water and do you have sufficient drainage in your soil? In my experience "deficiencies" tend to be lock out 90% of the time. The microbes will typically regulate your pH for you, but if your soil balance is out of whack you will experience lock out. Too much water/not enough aeration results in anaerobic microbes, which will make your soil significantly more acidic. I'm noticing a lot of purple on some of the petioles of the leaves, which is typically a phosphorus deficiency. Excess K/Ca will also lockout Mg and even P.

Constantly adding CalMag is making things worse for you, the CalMag is likely creating excess Ca which is locking out your Mg and P. Stop using CalMag immediately, the Ca not being taken up by your plants is resulting in salt build up. Those Ca salts are throwing things out of whack. Flush the soil, top dress with the highest quality compost/EWC you can find, and lay off the watering for a bit. Unless your pots are 100% rootbound, you should not be watering every single day.

Fortunately, you're in veg it looks like and the symptoms don't look so bad but they are definitely there. Get rid of the Ca salts that have built up in your soil and take it easy on the watering and you'll be fine.

Even if you do absolutely nothing, you'll still get some good smoke. The yields are the only things that will suffer here.

Click to expand...

PH was the first thing I thought of and totally agree with the above post.
Overwatering can cause low PH in organic soil, which locks out both Ca & Mg.

Chunky Stool said:

PH was the first thing I thought of and totally agree with the above post.
Overwatering can cause low PH in organic soil, which locks out both Ca & Mg.
View attachment 4238296

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After what I've experienced in my time, watering practices are pretty much always the first thing I check. But OP is using SIP, so unless the SIP wasn't built properly the watering should be perfect. If you take a look at the soil mix he posted above though, you can see there's excess calcium and potassium in his soil. Cannabis loves Calcium, and it takes quite a bit to over do it. That being said, lime+OSF+Gypsum+Crab Meal is overkill. On top of that, Langbeinite is only good in small doses. 0-0-22 is a fuck ton of K, especially when combined with everything else in his soil mix.

This is why I always stress that less is more. In my experience, 90% of any plant related problems can be traced to mediocre watering practices or being over zealous with the nutes. Consider the forests, little to no human intervention yet some of the most healthy plants/trees/etc you'll ever come across.

"mediocre watering practices" @kratos015 can you please explain me what do you mean??
Coz i have currently shit load of issues with my girls..And I'm Using PH perfect AN nutes,.

Same here @CikaBika, i m using ph perfect AN n I'm having several problems. I already had a root bound, that i never had before AN nutes, several problems in the leaves, plus they just dont want flower (55days since i planted this AUTOS!).
@kratos015 was speaking about the problem of too much cal-mag maybe can explain one of my problems, I was giving them cal-mag until last week since they stretched until last week.
So yesterday i flushed them because for sure I was having a nute lockout or something else that wasn't allowing it to flower.. I will leave some pics n the last one is from 1 day after flushing, they r fading and I m not sure if should do something before the pots will dry to give nutes ..If anyone can help me I would be very much appreciated

CikaBika said:

"mediocre watering practices" @kratos015 can you please explain me what do you mean??
Coz i have currently shit load of issues with my girls..And I'm Using PH perfect AN nutes,.

Click to expand...

I'd be happy to! What I mean by that is that people with pH issues/deficiencies are almost always over-watering. Over-watering a plant is significantly worse than under-watering. The worst thing that happens when you under-water is the plants will droop a bit, but if you react in time they will almost always come back. The only exception to this is if you have a finicky strain, like certain cuts of OG or Blueberry. Pretty much strains that look for any excuse to hermi on you, but even then under-watering is not the worst thing in the world.

Over-watering will cause a ridiculous amount of issues though. The first issue is that over-watering will leave stagnant water in your pots, which will likely give you root rot in some way, shape or form. It's not a matter of if, but how severe it will be. This excess stagnant water also depletes your soil of oxygen, creating the perfect environment for anaerobic microbes to live in. Anaerobic microbes are bad for two reasons; the first is that it makes your soil incredibly acidic (as in 3-5 pH acidic), secondly anaerobic microbes LOVE nitrogen. Anaerobic microbes eat the nitrogen in your soil and then turn it into ammonium gas, so instead of the plants getting the nitrogen the nitrogen becomes ammonium gas and essentially evaporates out of your soil. The result is that your plants start to show nitrogen deficiency because it's being converted into a gas that plants cannot uptake. You'll know this is an issue in your own grow because your plants will show premature yellowing, signifying lost nitrogen. You'll also start to see other deficiencies because of the extremely acidic soil conditions. If you refer to the chart that Chunky Stool posted above, you'll see the issue with acidic soil. The 3-5 pH soil caused by over-watering practically locks everything out, all of your macro-nutrients and a majority of your micro-nutrients. As if the root rot, loss of nitrogen, and nutrient lockout wasn't bad enough it gets worse. Know what else loves these excessively wet and anaerobic conditions? Fungus gnats, mold, mildew, etc.

If your plants are experiencing multiple symptoms/issues, look into your watering practices first and foremost.

To recap;

Under-watering

- Droopy plants
- Dry spots in peat based soils,

Over-watering

- Extremely acidic pH
- Loss of nitrogen
- Nutrient lockout.
- Minor to major root rot
- Pests

As you can see, this is why people recommend you err on the side of caution when it comes to watering. The problems from under-watering are easily remedied, but over-watering can really fuck you. If you're in veg, it is possible to fix things but it will take weeks to a month. If you're in flower though, you're kind of just fucked.

People use coco for these exact reasons, dry spots can be fixed quite easily in coco and it is damn near impossible to over-water coco. Coco is unbelievably forgiving, but has close to half of the CEC (Cation Exchange Capacity) as Peat Moss. The CEC of Peat Moss is why it's favored over everything else, but the problem is that so many of us don't water properly. Without proper watering, you will not see the benefits of peat moss.

I'm hoping that you're only in veg now. You're going to have to delay flipping to 12/12 for 2-4 weeks until you correct the over-watering, then waiting for the issues to fix themselves. If you attempt to flower over-watered plants I can guarantee the quality will suffer, your yields will go down by at least 50%, and they will likely hermi on you.

Unless your plant is 100% root-bound you should not be watering every single day, and even then it's iffy.

Hope this helped, feel free to ask more if you need to.

Leandrobcool said:

Same here @CikaBika, i m using ph perfect AN n I'm having several problems. I already had a root bound, that i never had before AN nutes, several problems in the leaves, plus they just dont want flower (55days since i planted this AUTOS!).
@kratos015 was speaking about the problem of too much cal-mag maybe can explain one of my problems, I was giving them cal-mag until last week since they stretched until last week.
So yesterday i flushed them because for sure I was having a nute lockout or something else that wasn't allowing it to flower.. I will leave some pics n the last one is from 1 day after flushing, they r fading and I m not sure if should do something before the pots will dry to give nutes ..If anyone can help me I would be very much appreciatedView attachment 4238452 View attachment 4238454 View attachment 4238455 View attachment 4238456 View attachment 4238457 View attachment 4238458

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Unfortunately I have no experience with Autoflowers, but I'll try to help how I can. I'm seeing a wide variety of "deficiencies" in those photos you provided though. I say "deficiencies" because you definitely have lockout that is the result of over-watering, and the flushing is only going to exacerbate the issue. You only want to flush your soil when you have excess, but this isn't the case here.

How often are you watering? Stop watering immediately, I'd give it at least 2 if not 3 days before watering again. Let things dry out for a bit and take it easy on the nutrients for a bit.

If I were in your shoes, I'd stop watering for a couple of days at least. Use the lift test. Lift your pots and feel how heavy they are, that's how they feel when fully watered. Until the pots are significantly lighter to lift, you shouldn't be watering. Once the pots are light to lift, you can go ahead and water but take it very easy. I definitely wouldn't be using nutrients for a little while either, at least a week.

I'm 99% sure you're over-watering though. The biggest sign of over-watering is lack of nitrogen for the reasons I outlined above. You're running out of nitrogen because the over-watering is turning your soil anaerobic, allowing anaerobic microbes to thrive in your soil. They are eating up all the nitrogen in your soil and are converting it into ammonium nitrate gas. The result of this is not only a N deficiency, but the resulting gas from the microbes is also causing extremely acidic soil conditions. This is why you're experiencing lock out. Once the soil starts to dry out and return to normal the anaerobic microbes will die off and you can start to recover.

HTH.

kratos015 said:

I'd be happy to! What I mean by that is that people with pH issues/deficiencies are almost always over-watering. Over-watering a plant is significantly worse than under-watering. The worst thing that happens when you under-water is the plants will droop a bit, but if you react in time they will almost always come back. The only exception to this is if you have a finicky strain, like certain cuts of OG or Blueberry. Pretty much strains that look for any excuse to hermi on you, but even then under-watering is not the worst thing in the world.

Over-watering will cause a ridiculous amount of issues though. The first issue is that over-watering will leave stagnant water in your pots, which will likely give you root rot in some way, shape or form. It's not a matter of if, but how severe it will be. This excess stagnant water also depletes your soil of oxygen, creating the perfect environment for anaerobic microbes to live in. Anaerobic microbes are bad for two reasons; the first is that it makes your soil incredibly acidic (as in 3-5 pH acidic), secondly anaerobic microbes LOVE nitrogen. Anaerobic microbes eat the nitrogen in your soil and then turn it into ammonium gas, so instead of the plants getting the nitrogen the nitrogen becomes ammonium gas and essentially evaporates out of your soil. The result is that your plants start to show nitrogen deficiency because it's being converted into a gas that plants cannot uptake. You'll know this is an issue in your own grow because your plants will show premature yellowing, signifying lost nitrogen. You'll also start to see other deficiencies because of the extremely acidic soil conditions. If you refer to the chart that Chunky Stool posted above, you'll see the issue with acidic soil. The 3-5 pH soil caused by over-watering practically locks everything out, all of your macro-nutrients and a majority of your micro-nutrients. As if the root rot, loss of nitrogen, and nutrient lockout wasn't bad enough it gets worse. Know what else loves these excessively wet and anaerobic conditions? Fungus gnats, mold, mildew, etc.

If your plants are experiencing multiple symptoms/issues, look into your watering practices first and foremost.

To recap;

Under-watering

- Droopy plants
- Dry spots in peat based soils,

Over-watering

- Extremely acidic pH
- Loss of nitrogen
- Nutrient lockout.
- Minor to major root rot
- Pests

As you can see, this is why people recommend you err on the side of caution when it comes to watering. The problems from under-watering are easily remedied, but over-watering can really fuck you. If you're in veg, it is possible to fix things but it will take weeks to a month. If you're in flower though, you're kind of just fucked.

People use coco for these exact reasons, dry spots can be fixed quite easily in coco and it is damn near impossible to over-water coco. Coco is unbelievably forgiving, but has close to half of the CEC (Cation Exchange Capacity) as Peat Moss. The CEC of Peat Moss is why it's favored over everything else, but the problem is that so many of us don't water properly. Without proper watering, you will not see the benefits of peat moss.

I'm hoping that you're only in veg now. You're going to have to delay flipping to 12/12 for 2-4 weeks until you correct the over-watering, then waiting for the issues to fix themselves. If you attempt to flower over-watered plants I can guarantee the quality will suffer, your yields will go down by at least 50%, and they will likely hermi on you.

Unless your plant is 100% root-bound you should not be watering every single day, and even then it's iffy.

Hope this helped, feel free to ask more if you need to.

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Excellent post!
It should be required reading for all new growers.

Don’t love your plants to death...

Add teaspoon of Epsom per gallon of water and water in.

I'm not sure that you have a mag problem.

What is your soil amended with?

I suspect a pH problem.

The thing is that I 'm not sure if it really is an auto, I heard about other people having the same problem as me not flowering til 7/8 weeks, but they would flower by changing the light schedule for 12-12..towards the over watering you r wrong, if something I m letting them dry till the max i can, sometimes i even push too much...of course I check the weight of the pot before watering, n something I really careful about is to stop watering when it starts going out the I don't let water accumulate...nevertheless, it could be what you said but is not n another detail I checked the ph of the soil when i flushed it was 6.2...but towards the N deficiency you might be right because I started giving flowering nutes to stimulate the plant for flower, so it's being a while since t didn't receive nitrogen..so what would be your advice for that?

kratos015 said:

Unfortunately I have no experience with Autoflowers, but I'll try to help how I can. I'm seeing a wide variety of "deficiencies" in those photos you provided though. I say "deficiencies" because you definitely have lockout that is the result of over-watering, and the flushing is only going to exacerbate the issue. You only want to flush your soil when you have excess, but this isn't the case here.

How often are you watering? Stop watering immediately, I'd give it at least 2 if not 3 days before watering again. Let things dry out for a bit and take it easy on the nutrients for a bit.

If I were in your shoes, I'd stop watering for a couple of days at least. Use the lift test. Lift your pots and feel how heavy they are, that's how they feel when fully watered. Until the pots are significantly lighter to lift, you shouldn't be watering. Once the pots are light to lift, you can go ahead and water but take it very easy. I definitely wouldn't be using nutrients for a little while either, at least a week.

I'm 99% sure you're over-watering though. The biggest sign of over-watering is lack of nitrogen for the reasons I outlined above. You're running out of nitrogen because the over-watering is turning your soil anaerobic, allowing anaerobic microbes to thrive in your soil. They are eating up all the nitrogen in your soil and are converting it into ammonium nitrate gas. The result of this is not only a N deficiency, but the resulting gas from the microbes is also causing extremely acidic soil conditions. This is why you're experiencing lock out. Once the soil starts to dry out and return to normal the anaerobic microbes will die off and you can start to recover.

HTH.

Click to expand...

I agree with CS,these are a couple of really great and informative posts.overwatering has been my biggest headache since moving indoors from outdoor(never had overwatering issues outdoors) the problem seems to sneak up on me from out of nowhere too.I'll be watering the same amount,things will be looking great, then overnight problems show up.the only way I've personally been able to correct this is by up-potting.shit goes downhill fast once overwatered.

I agree

kratos015 said:

Unfortunately I have no experience with Autoflowers, but I'll try to help how I can. I'm seeing a wide variety of "deficiencies" in those photos you provided though. I say "deficiencies" because you definitely have lockout that is the result of over-watering, and the flushing is only going to exacerbate the issue. You only want to flush your soil when you have excess, but this isn't the case here.

How often are you watering? Stop watering immediately, I'd give it at least 2 if not 3 days before watering again. Let things dry out for a bit and take it easy on the nutrients for a bit.

If I were in your shoes, I'd stop watering for a couple of days at least. Use the lift test. Lift your pots and feel how heavy they are, that's how they feel when fully watered. Until the pots are significantly lighter to lift, you shouldn't be watering. Once the pots are light to lift, you can go ahead and water but take it very easy. I definitely wouldn't be using nutrients for a little while either, at least a week.

I'm 99% sure you're over-watering though. The biggest sign of over-watering is lack of nitrogen for the reasons I outlined above. You're running out of nitrogen because the over-watering is turning your soil anaerobic, allowing anaerobic microbes to thrive in your soil. They are eating up all the nitrogen in your soil and are converting it into ammonium nitrate gas. The result of this is not only a N deficiency, but the resulting gas from the microbes is also causing extremely acidic soil conditions. This is why you're experiencing lock out. Once the soil starts to dry out and return to normal the anaerobic microbes will die off and you can start to recover.

HTH.

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I agree for the most part. pH issue, most likely due to watering habits. Over water.

Under watering can create problems as well. Peat is the worst for it. The soil dries and becomes hydrophobic. It won't absorb water. I've had it happen on an outdoor plant. Center of the root ball dried and would not take water.

A drop of dish soap will help break water tesnion if it does become hydrophobic.

A good draining soil can be watered frequently and not cause harm.

natureboygrower said:

I agree with CS,these are a couple of really great and informative posts.overwatering has been my biggest headache since moving indoors from outdoor(never had overwatering issues outdoors) the problem seems to sneak up on me from out of nowhere too.I'll be watering the same amount,things will be looking great, then overnight problems show up.the only way I've personally been able to correct this is by up-potting.shit goes downhill fast once overwatered.

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Yeah I’ve got some plants now that were overwatered and I should go ahead and up pot them now, even though I’m sure the roots haven’t grown much.
It’s easy to overwater when growing multiple strains with different requirements. I’ve got 3 strains going now and it’s been interesting...