Concerning - potassium deficiency?

Growin4fun77

Active Member
I meant do you adjust the water? And you're thinking about a slurry test. I wouldn't worry about soil pH right now though.
A tiny bit of Cl isn't horrible. How bad is your tap water? Do you drink it?
We prefer not to drink it. Based on my wife’s direction, we do not drink it. I guess I figured if we won’t drink it the plants shouldn’t.
I was thinking out loud as to if I could do a slurry test to see if the EC/TDS is way too high.

And yes I adjust the water to an appropriate PH range. I shoot for 6.0, 6.5, or 7.0 respectively to keep it in a 6.3-6.8 ish range.
 

Budzbuddha

Well-Known Member
Take this as my 2¢ only -

If it was my plant i would run it on water only from here on out. I would let plant try to regroup in the mix and work thru it as best it can. Its the nitro elements that are going to be the dominate issue. Plant will use some of it ( still rooting / leaf photosynthesis / etc. ).

Think being in a hot bath - overtime you acclimate.
So stopping the constant nute dumps on it will allow ( hopefully ) plant to continue.

However, when too much nitrogen is present, what tends to result is an explosion of foliar growth, but at the expense of flower formation, fruit set, and root growth. That is the concern - the forming flowers.

GL
 

Kushash

Well-Known Member
Budz. I typed this before reading yours. Hope they are similar. I'm out, it's 5 O'clock somewhere.
As for your feedback @Budzbuddha @Kushash … are there any immediate steps one could take to cool the soil down if it’s too hot? Or is it best to let this run its course?
I was just reading up some on guano just now, definitely going to do some more reading about release rate and its relationship to nute burn. At 1st glance there seems to be different opinions.
My guess is the damage shown in the 4th picture was from the Mid January feeding. It looks like the worst burnt leaves are older growth, not the newest growth. Now "if" they were overfed in the latest feeding 5 days ago. That damage has not likely started yet and will begin to show up once the dry fertilizers begins to break down in a week to 10 days.
What to do? I might try removing the food if it was on the surface and easy to remove but if I didn't feel comfortable that I could do that I would go water only and hope for the best.
You mentioned 1 -2 TBL of guano but didn't mention it was 2 types both the N and the P version.
Did you do 1-2 TBL of each type?
Also When top dressing with a guano I would be careful to spread it well in the top soil, I would think there would be problems if it was left in a large clump and possibly burning some roots.
Happy Growing!
 

Growin4fun77

Active Member
Take this as my 2¢ only -

If it was my plant i would run it on water only from here on out. I would let plant try to regroup in the mix and work thru it as best it can. Its the nitro elements that are going to be the dominate issue. Plant will use some of it ( still rooting / leaf photosynthesis / etc. ).

Think being in a hot bath - overtime you acclimate.
So stopping the constant nute dumps on it will allow ( hopefully ) plant to continue.

However, when too much nitrogen is present, what tends to result is an explosion of foliar growth, but at the expense of flower formation, fruit set, and root growth. That is the concern - the forming flowers.

GL
Thanks man. Learning with every grow.
 

PadawanWarrior

Well-Known Member
We prefer not to drink it. Based on my wife’s direction, we do not drink it. I guess I figured if we won’t drink it the plants shouldn’t.
I was thinking out loud as to if I could do a slurry test to see if the EC/TDS is way too high.

And yes I adjust the water to an appropriate PH range. I shoot for 6.0, 6.5, or 7.0 respectively to keep it in a 6.3-6.8 ish range.
Like Budz said water only. But stop adjusting the pH. Don't worry about a slurry test we already know it's overfed. He made a good point about too much N in flower too.
 

Growin4fun77

Active Member
Budz. I typed this before reading yours. Hope they are similar. I'm out, it's 5 O'clock somewhere.

I was just reading up some on guano just now, definitely going to do some more reading about release rate and its relationship to nute burn. At 1st glance there seems to be different opinions.
My guess is the damage shown in the 4th picture was from the Mid January feeding. It looks like the worst burnt leaves are older growth, not the newest growth. Now "if" they were overfed in the latest feeding 5 days ago. That damage has not likely started yet and will begin to show up once the dry fertilizers begins to break down in a week to 10 days.
What to do? I might try removing the food if it was on the surface and easy to remove but if I didn't feel comfortable that I could do that I would go water only and hope for the best.
You mentioned 1 -2 TBL of guano but didn't mention it was 2 types both the N and the P version.
Did you do 1-2 TBL of each type?
Also When top dressing with a guano I would be careful to spread it well in the top soil, I would think there would be problems if it was left in a large clump and possibly burning some roots.
Happy Growing!
Hey, I did a TBSP of each, seabird and bat guano. The bat guano being 7-3-1. The top dress was scraped into the top 1 inch of the soil. Removing it would require putting down a layer of FF ocean forest.
 

Growin4fun77

Active Member
No worries- just remember that its just a plant.
No need to run lots of things on it.
You’ve told me before…. Maybe next time I will listen.
You say water from here on…. Would you attempt to remove the recent top dress and replace with a little FFOF? Or am I being extra again?
 

Budzbuddha

Well-Known Member
You’ve told me before…. Maybe next time I will listen.
You say water from here on…. Would you attempt to remove the recent top dress and replace with a little FFOF? Or am I being extra again?
OCD not necessary- lol.

Water only when needed - let it come around on its own. You may still get some leaf issues as it tried to find its way through the heavy nutes.
 

Growin4fun77

Active Member
What do you mean? The soil doesn't want to absorb the water?
I’m referring to adjusting the PH of the soil. It has just seemed to not want to move towards the lower end even if I water it with 6.0 PH’d water for several waters. It tends to want to float closer to 6.9ish.
 

PadawanWarrior

Well-Known Member
I’m referring to adjusting the PH of the soil. It has just seemed to not want to move towards the lower end even if I water it with 6.0 PH’d water for several waters. It tends to want to float closer to 6.9ish.
I was talking about the water. You're checking soil pH? How? And why?

Also if you're aiming for 6.0 that's too low for soil.
 

Growin4fun77

Active Member
I was talking about the water. You're checking soil pH? How? And why?

Also if you're aiming for 6.0 that's too low for soil.
Using a soil ph meter. have checked run off intermittently. I thought I needed to do it. Lol.
Do I not need to?

Not really going for 6.0; but it’s been fluctuating between 6.7-6.9 and not wanted to go much lower even if watered with a lower ph’d water.
 

PadawanWarrior

Well-Known Member
Using a soil ph meter. have checked run off intermittently. I thought I needed to do it. Lol.
Do I not need to?

Not really going for 6.0; but it’s been fluctuating between 6.7-6.9 and not wanted to go much lower even if watered with a lower ph’d water.
Please tell me it's not one of those 3 in 1 meters, :lol:. And stop checking runoff too. It can be misleading. Just give them plain water for awhile.
 

Reap911

Well-Known Member
Firstly, I would ease up on the amounts that you are using. When you are buying these craft soils they are generally aimed at having the target nutritional levels required for a complete run. Unless you are building your soil yourself, the frequency of top dressing you are following is a bit too much in my experience.

I do not think that is the issue though. I don't think that its a toxicity issue. If you were feeding it nutrients directly or something soluble then I would understand but adding too much organic material that is high in N is going to result in toxicity. If you look at the soil food web, root exudates are the base for all of what gets broken down and they are controlling the biology in the soil. If the plant does not need N, it will change the exudates it releases to feed the biology it needs to break down whatever nutrients it wants.

Secondly, cannot be a deficiency in K based on my first line here. These soils are loaded, not a deficiency.

Its nutrient burn. The outer yellowing and the brown tips look like nutrient burn to me. I think that there is something that you are doing here that is causing an issue that is not in the information given. Are you doing water only? I know that compost teas can cause these types of problem but I am really not sure how you are getting the problems suddenly other than there being something that you are doing that is triggering an imbalance. I feel like its got something to do with the first top dress and the tea you gave the plants that started something in the soil that lead to the problems you noticed on the 5th.

I would not throw any more nutrients in the mix. If you think its potassium deficiency just get you hands on some potassium silicate and do it as a foliar spray. That will give the plant access to potassium immediately vs it having to be broken down in the soil. That will be my next step if I think its a Potassium deficiency, which I don't think it is but yeah do not add anything more into the soil.

Lastly, you do not have to ph your soil when you grow in a Living Soil system. The soil will do that for you. The reason for doing it in a salt based system was to ensure that the ph was in the right range for the nutrients to be taken up. Water carried the nutes to the plant for you in synthetic systems but in soil systems it serves a different purpose.

A bit of advice here, take 2 steps back rather than one step forward when you are growing in these systems. Its not like synthetic systems, you cannot just flush out an issue. Rather come here and ask a question vs diving into adding things to solve a problem. It is going to save you so much time and energy. Trust me on this. If you really want to get really good at this technique realize that is extremely complex and takes time to understand. No point crying over spilt milk so take the mistakes in its stride.
 

Reap911

Well-Known Member
If you are really worried about the soil being overloaded the best thing you can do is to maybe bring in some type of a cover crop. If you go with the other advice given here and think there is too much Nitrogen in the soil, look at throwing in a crop that will help with that. I cannot give you the name of one off the top of my head but Google will point you in the right direction. Something small that grows extremely quickly is your best bet.
 
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