New To Organics Having Some Issues

As the title says I’m new to organic growing but not new to growing. I’m having issues with my plants and I don’t know if it’s a nutrient deficiency or if I’m getting nutrient lockout due to ph.

At first I thought I was having a phosphorus deficiency. So I added some seabird guano (0-12-0) and some Down to Earth kelp meal. I thought that it could be cal-mag too so I got an organic cal-mag product from Foxfarm and have been adding that to my water now once a week.

I tested my run off last night for the first time. I hadn’t been checking my ph because everything I have read says if you’re doing organic you don’t need to check ph. So I wasn’t. It tested at 7.0 ph and 1400 ppm. I’m thinking of trying to get my run off ph down between 6.0 and 6.5.

Any advice would be appreciated. I will post pictures if you guys would like.

Pictures would be helpful. Are you doing true living organic soil, or are you using bottled organic nutrients?

Hollatchaboy said:

Pictures would be helpful. Are you doing true living organic soil, or are you using bottled organic nutrients?

Click to expand...

living soil

King_Kush86 said:

living soil

Click to expand...

No need to pH then. Soil biology will put it where they want it.

Run off with living soil? Shouldn’t have much run off. Definitely shouldn’t be PH’ing the run off.

how old is your soil? What’s in your soil? What’s your water source?

Post pics plz. And also same questions as above^^^

I'm no expert, but a few things I've learned or noticed about living soil:

It's pretty forgiving as far as pH and specific nutrient ratios. If you start with a balanced fertilizer, and run into deficiencies, it's more likely that your soil biology needs a boost, to help break down the nutrients that are already in it. I would try adding something like compost/worm castings or a compost tea rather than amendments that are super concentrated in specific nutrients, like guano or cal-mag.

Not sure what size containers you're using, but the bigger the better. If you use small containers it's harder to maintain the soil biology and provide enough nutrients consistently. Bigger containers mean less work overall.

Here are the pictures. It seems to me that there is stunted new growth maybe I'm wrong but that's what it looks like to me.

pahpah-cee said:

Run off with living soil? Shouldn’t have much run off. Definitely shouldn’t be PH’ing the run off.

how old is your soil? What’s in your soil? What’s your water source?

Click to expand...

The soil is in it's first grow. It is Dr. Earth organic soil and I'll put a picture below of what was in the soil. I have been using the dry amendments below as well as what I have mentioned above. I use R/O water. I have been using boogie brew part A about once a week.

Just by the look of it, the leaves are very dark green and you've got a little clawing on the upper fan leaves, too much N. It may be interfering with the uptake of other nutes and calmag. Back off on the N a bit and see what happens.

If you have an oyster shell flour, I’d start with a top dress of that. I’ve had an issue that looked similar with the clawed leaves. It turned out to be either PH or calcium deficiency, and was remedied by a top dress before watering.

King_Kush86 said:

The soil is in it's first grow. It is Dr. Earth organic soil and I'll put a picture below of what was in the soil. I have been using the dry amendments below as well as what I have mentioned above. I use R/O water. I have been using boogie brew part A about once a week.View attachment 5307119View attachment 5307121

View attachment 5307112View attachment 5307117View attachment 5307118

Click to expand...

Your soil is too hot/strong with N. No top dressing or tea until new growth looks better!

What's happening is your high N levels are stimulating a greater need for Mg which shows as deficiency (when it’s not). High N might be locking out K as well. Everything will settle once the N levels drop.

Don't bother with pH or ppm. That won't help you here.

I might suggest a leaching, but that can cause compaction or overwatering problems if done haphazardly.

Yep, definitely to much N.
I did this, and screwed up 2....waiting it out, straight water only till the end, and fingers crossed. But I doubt mine will smoke well.
Gl

pahpah-cee said:

Run off with living soil? Shouldn’t have much run off. Definitely shouldn’t be PH’ing the run off.

how old is your soil? What’s in your soil? What’s your water source?

Click to expand...

The soil is in it's first grow. It is Dr. Earth organic soil and I'll put a picture below of what was in the soil. I have been using the dry amendments below as well as what I have mentioned above. I use R/O water. I have been using boogie brew part A about once a week.View attachment 5307119View attachment 5307121

View attachment 5307112View attachment 5307117View attachment 5307118

GenericEnigma said:

Your soil is too hot/strong with N. No top dressing or tea until new growth looks better!

What's happening is your high N levels are stimulating a greater need for Mg which shows as deficiency (when it’s not). High N might be locking out K as well. Everything will settle once the N levels drop.

Don't bother with pH or ppm. That won't help you here.

I might suggest a leaching, but that can cause compaction or overwatering problems if done haphazardly.

Click to expand...

Okay thanks for the help. Since I’m in flowering already these plants are already in flower is this going to fix itself quickly (I’m assuming it won’t)? Thus crippling my harvest?

How do I avoid this in the future? I really want to transition away from DWC and go 100% organic.

My last DWC grow I got almost two lbs from 5 plants. I get soil will probably yield less than DWC but if I can be in the ballpark with organic I’ll never go back to DWC.

King_Kush86 said:

The soil is in it's first grow. It is Dr. Earth organic soil and I'll put a picture below of what was in the soil. I have been using the dry amendments below as well as what I have mentioned above. I use R/O water. I have been using boogie brew part A about once a week.View attachment 5307119View attachment 5307121

View attachment 5307112View attachment 5307117View attachment 5307118


Okay thanks for the help. Since I’m in flowering already these plants are already in flower is this going to fix itself quickly (I’m assuming it won’t)? Thus crippling my harvest?

Click to expand...

Ultimately, genetics will determine the extent of recovery. But I believe yield will be affected, yes. I don't know your situation, but if it were me I'd still finish it. It's not really that bad.

King_Kush86 said:

How do I avoid this in the future? I really want to transition away from DWC and go 100% organic.

My last DWC grow I got almost two lbs from 5 plants. I get soil will probably yield less than DWC but if I can be in the ballpark with organic I’ll never go back to DWC.

Click to expand...

How much of those Dr Earth fertilizers have you been using? And how big of pots are they in? You might have just overdid it with the fertilizers

Everything happens kinda slow with organics, good and bad. I think you'll still get a decent harvest. I would go with the above suggestion to just add water and nothing else for a bit. And unless your tap water is really really bad there is no need for RO

I'm in the other boat. Those N-tox leaves will start dropping very fast once flower is well underway.
I would chuck it, save some electricity and start over.

Just a tip for the future. Get the plant healthy and then flip. Never flip an unhealthy plant and try to fix issues during flowering.

7CardBud said:

I'm in the other boat. Those N-tox leaves will start dropping very fast once flower is well underway.
I would chuck it, save some electricity and start over.

Just a tip for the future. Get the plant healthy and then flip. Never flip an unhealthy plant and try to fix issues during flowering.

Click to expand...

They are autoflowers. If they were photo period I’m with 100% I would not have flipped them.

King_Kush86 said:

The soil is in it's first grow. It is Dr. Earth organic soil and I'll put a picture below of what was in the soil. I have been using the dry amendments below as well as what I have mentioned above. I use R/O water. I have been using boogie brew part A about once a week.View attachment 5307119View attachment 5307121

View attachment 5307112View attachment 5307117View attachment 5307118


Okay thanks for the help. Since I’m in flowering already these plants are already in flower is this going to fix itself quickly (I’m assuming it won’t)? Thus crippling my harvest?

Click to expand...

Yes. It's gonna mess up your harvest a bit. Use this as experience though.

King_Kush86 said:

How do I avoid this in the future? I really want to transition away from DWC and go 100% organic.

My last DWC grow I got almost two lbs from 5 plants. I get soil will probably yield less than DWC but if I can be in the ballpark with organic I’ll never go back to DWC.

Click to expand...

I used gaia green, I topdressed my last with 1tbs per gal 3 of each of the 444 and bloom, should if just used the bloom.
I actually just put it in the shower and am gonna soak the shit out of it. Will probably screw it up more. But this guys turned into my effup experiment.
The other one for some reason did not N tox as bad so I'ma leave that and see if I can get a joint out of it at least.
If I do, I'll be happy.