Nutrient deficiency?

[scottymctony]

Hey guys, thanks for taking a minute to read my post. Situation is this; been dealing with spider mites in my crop. They first showed up half way through veg, at that time I used Doktor Doom to almost no avail. A grow buddy hooked me up with some avid, which I carefully used to almost perfect results.

Cut to a month later, mites reemerged. I've tried to be creative by using wind, cool temps, gentle vacuuming and co2 asphyxiation to stunt the little bastards. This has been working with variable success.

Other important info; this is my second grow. GG#4, it's about six weeks into flower. I cut nutes about a week ago to ensure proper flushing not realizing I'm at week 5 not 6. (Pulled a newb move and recorded date of light change not pistil appearance)

Now I'm dealing with a probable nutrient deficiency and moderate mite damage, but the buds are continuing to swell. Some fan leaves have been pulled because they're on their way out, there's odd red coloring. I'm sure SOMEONE whose had a grow go sideways must have seen this.

I need to decide if I can continue without feeding or feed a bit to reduce the deficiency and then finish them. No reasonable advice will be rejected.

 

[inDC4now]

Hello @scottymctony -- were you pH-ing your nute solution? Did you check your runoff pH ?? You are in soil? Wonder what the pH of your soil is???

 

[R Burns]

Got a whole plant pic?

 

[scottymctony]

Shoot, apologies for my lack of attention here. I watched closely for a couple days and figured I would need my answer elsewhere.

A friend of a friend feels like my issue is a "bad flush" but he's Dutch and there's a language barrier. All solutions fed to the plants have been targeted to 6.5 ph, I'll catch runoff next watering and measure ph + ppms.

I don't have any non led light pics of the group, I'll try to get those tonight also. The mites are really damaging things, my last ditch effort is to finish them and sterilize the grow area before the next round.

Thanks!

 

[Clumpyoyster]

Shoot, apologies for my lack of attention here. I watched closely for a couple days and figured I would need my answer elsewhere.

A friend of a friend feels like my issue is a "bad flush" but he's Dutch and there's a language barrier. All solutions fed to the plants have been targeted to 6.5 ph, I'll catch runoff next watering and measure ph + ppms.

I don't have any non led light pics of the group, I'll try to get those tonight also. The mites are really damaging things, my last ditch effort is to finish them and sterilize the grow area before the next round.

Thanks!

that sucks it looks like they have a long way to go, have you tried safers insecticidal soap?

 

[Clumpyoyster]

while were on the topic of ph runoff here, i have a nice ph runoff of 6.4 but was kinda shocked at the ppm reading in the run off...it was 2400ppm and plants were being fed maybe 600 ppm, can anyone explain that? This was the first time i tested ppm in run off

 

[Renfro]

while were on the topic of ph runoff here, i have a nice ph runoff of 6.4 but was kinda shocked at the ppm reading in the run off...it was 2400ppm and plants were being fed maybe 600 ppm, can anyone explain that? This was the first time i tested ppm in run off

Do you always water with at least 20% runoff? That should prevent salt buildups. If you normally don't get enough runoff the salts build up and runoff would be really high as you saw.

 

[raggyb]

Shoot, apologies for my lack of attention here. I watched closely for a couple days and figured I would need my answer elsewhere.

A friend of a friend feels like my issue is a "bad flush" but he's Dutch and there's a language barrier. All solutions fed to the plants have been targeted to 6.5 ph, I'll catch runoff next watering and measure ph + ppms.

I don't have any non led light pics of the group, I'll try to get those tonight also. The mites are really damaging things, my last ditch effort is to finish them and sterilize the grow area before the next round.

Thanks!

sucks to get the mites! I had modest success with the Dr Earths spray which is like 10 things like garlic, peppermint, pepper, etc. I was obsessed and tried to spray every leaf top and bottom. Took a long time. I'd do it, and redo in 4 to 7 days. Total do 3 times. It's a bitch but you don't want to smoke poison. Then water rinse with a little dawn in the spray bottle just as carefully once or twice. There's also a recipe on here for habanero spray that sounds amazing if you can buy jabaneros now. And yeah when all done bleach and fog the room. That's what I would do. Plus if it were me I would feed again half strength. That's just me I couldn't tell you for sure. Not sure whats your medium.

 

[Clumpyoyster]

Do you always water with at least 20% runoff? That should prevent salt buildups. If you normally don't get enough runoff the salts build up and runoff would be really high as you saw.

i tend to water until its at the very least dripping into the catch pan

 

[scottymctony]

sucks to get the mites! I had modest success with the Dr Earths spray which is like 10 things like garlic, peppermint, pepper, etc. I was obsessed and tried to spray every leaf top and bottom. Took a long time. I'd do it, and redo in 4 to 7 days. Total do 3 times. It's a bitch but you don't want to smoke poison. Then water rinse with a little dawn in the spray bottle just as carefully once or twice. There's also a recipe on here for habanero spray that sounds amazing if you can buy jabaneros now. And yeah when all done bleach and fog the room. That's what I would do. Plus if it were me I would feed again half strength. That's just me I couldn't tell you for sure. Not sure whats your medium.

Thanks for the reply! What I have been doing, to varying degrees of success, is using co2 to deprive them of air. I work at a brewery, and was able to borrow a regulator and hose, as well as use the gas from small tanks. In my 5x5 the gas worked marginally. Even when I set a candle on my lights and filled the tent until the candle went out and held for 45 minutes, death would be spotty.

Smaller tent, less extreme but similar results, so m death, they were slowed but because of the immense egg buildup more are always right behind. (I have been spraying the bottoms with h2o in the shower to physically remove eggs where possible)

Best results came from bagging and removing o2 before adding co2. Mite death could be 90 percent or higher depending on seal etc. It's just too costly and time consuming to continue every 48-72 hours. (Due to a supply issue I was not able to continue borrowing the gas)

I'm 7.5 weeks into an 8 week flower, I'm just going to vacuum any visible mites/eggs/webs. (they seem to be soley on the top colas, which sucks, but also gives hope for the rest)

I'll update for others dealing with similar issues with soil readings, and review of taste and perceived quality of bud.

 

[scottymctony]

Hello @scottymctony -- were you pH-ing your nute solution? Did you check your runoff pH ?? You are in soil? Wonder what the pH of your soil is???

Hi! I'm sorry for the noobish lack of info. I did indeed adjust ph to 6.5. I am growing in soil, using fabric pots and bottom feeding. I haven't ph'd the soil yet but I will do a test tonight. Since I started flushing I have been adding the ph balanced water to the top of the pots. I'll check runoff ph and ppm tonight.

 

[scottymctony]

that sucks it looks like they have a long way to go, have you tried safers insecticidal soap?

Negative. Just the methods described; Dr doom, avid and co2 + physical removal. The picture is a little older, I'm thinking they're within 3-7 days off harvest now. Pistils mostly dark, trichs starting to be about 30-50 percent milky. Most fan leaves are totally effed or gone. I'll update pics of a couple of them outside of the lights tonight.

 

[scottymctony]

while were on the topic of ph runoff here, i have a nice ph runoff of 6.4 but was kinda shocked at the ppm reading in the run off...it was 2400ppm and plants were being fed maybe 600 ppm, can anyone explain that? This was the first time i tested ppm in run off

That's what I'm wondering, mostly I have been bottom feeding my plants so I wonder how that affects salt distribution etc. Is the top soil in my pot ok but the bottom parts salty af? I'll have to harvest and really test out the soil. I'll update here when that's finished.

 

[scottymctony]

Do you always water with at least 20% runoff? That should prevent salt buildups. If you normally don't get enough runoff the salts build up and runoff would be really high as you saw.

What about bottom feeding? No runoff so alternate some balanced ro in the mix ?

 

[Renfro]

What about bottom feeding? No runoff so alternate some balanced ro in the mix ?

Bottom feeding is a terrible way to grow with mediums that can collect salts. If you must then an occasional top feed to flush would be good.

 

[Renfro]

i tend to water until its at the very least dripping into the catch pan

you want more than drips, you want significant runoff to rinse salts. 20% runoff is a good place to be generally. Measure the PPM of the runoff, you might be surprised whats built up. You can see if you are doing a good job by monitoring the runoff PPM, I don't bother as I know I am getting good runoff. I have my waste plumbed to floor drains so there is no exposed water sitting around and the plants aren't sitting in it.

 

[Clumpyoyster]

Thats nice to have the drain set up i bet. Ok Renfro i will make sure to get a good run off from now on. Im assuming as i do this the ppm will drop? What should the ppm reading be if im feeding 600 ppm?

 

[hybridway2]

while were on the topic of ph runoff here, i have a nice ph runoff of 6.4 but was kinda shocked at the ppm reading in the run off...it was 2400ppm and plants were being fed maybe 600 ppm, can anyone explain that? This was the first time i tested ppm in run off

If in soil or even Peet, some nutrients require feed, water, water, feed. Coco was feed,water,feed for that specific nute.
This is one way to not always have to have run-off. As Renfro said though, Run-off will flush out the old & leave the new but that depends on your grow style & media.
Id say if your plant is dry every 2 days then having 20% run-off would be your best bet after a warm water flush followed by a feed w/ run off. Just to get back to square one.
Unless your feed specifically says to water between feeds.

 

[Clumpyoyster]

If in soil or even Peet, some nutrients require feed, water, water, feed. Coco was feed,water,feed for that specific nute.
This is one way to not always have to have run-off. As Renfro said though, Run-off will flush out the old & leave the new but that depends on your grow style & media.
Id say if your plant is dry every 2 days then having 20% run-off would be your best bet after a warm water flush followed by a feed w/ run off. Just to get back to square one.
Unless your feed specifically says to water between feeds.

i normally alternate nute feeding with just ph balanced water feeding so they are only receiving nutes every second feeding

 

[scottymctony]

Bottom feeding is a terrible way to grow with mediums that can collect salts. If you must then an occasional top feed to flush would be good.

I was turned into this method at my local grow shop. It was certainly easier and faster per feeding but as I'm reading and observing it's in fact seeming less than ideal. Thanks!