At my wits end with nutrient lockout problems..help!

jssyjames

jssyjames

Active Member
For a few years now i have had trouble keeping plants alive much more than a month , they are getting nutrient lock out by the looks of it ... never had this trouble much until few years ago ... i have 3 different ph meters and calibrate them regularly ...i target 6.4ph in soil with either sunshine 4 or pro-gro ..the leaves just dont thrive , never reach a nice green color...they fade , shrivily looking , spotted in places , and continue to get worse until thy turn yellow and burn up to dry dead leaves ...dont think its my water , i live on a mountain and have good clean water (110ppm) and when i started growing with the same water years ago everthing thrived . Also i try'd the same water awile ago in a flo n gro homemade system (ebb n flo buckets) ..and they thrived at ph 5.7 ..not a spot on them anywhere ... but in soil it seems i'm doomed..can not figure it out ...so frustrating because i used to be so good at it ... any suggestions on what to try ?
 
RM3

RM3

Well-Known Member
Sunshine #4 is what I use, it is soil less (not soil) what else are you doing ?

nutes lights etc
 
Cpappa27

Cpappa27

Well-Known Member
jssyjames said:
For a few years now i have had trouble keeping plants alive much more than a month , they are getting nutrient lock out by the looks of it ... never had this trouble much until few years ago ... i have 3 different ph meters and calibrate them regularly ...i target 6.4ph in soil with either sunshine 4 or pro-gro ..the leaves just dont thrive , never reach a nice green color...they fade , shrivily looking , spotted in places , and continue to get worse until thy turn yellow and burn up to dry dead leaves ...dont think its my water , i live on a mountain and have good clean water (110ppm) and when i started growing with the same water years ago everthing thrived . Also i try'd the same water awile ago in a flo n gro homemade system (ebb n flo buckets) ..and they thrived at ph 5.7 ..not a spot on them anywhere ... but in soil it seems i'm doomed..can not figure it out ...so frustrating because i used to be so good at it ... any suggestions on what to try ?
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Recheck your setup and the quality of your seeds and strains. Use a well amended soil and all your headaches will be gone.
 
Alienwidow

Alienwidow

Well-Known Member
its probably how much food your feeding them. ppms are much more important in soil than ph. how often at what ppm are you feeding in soil?
 
jssyjames

jssyjames

Active Member
grow bags with holes...220ppm ...next 140ppm..next time 340 ppm ...keeping in mind my water is @ 110 ppm without any additives .... i never had this problem for years though ...it just appeared ..
 
Alienwidow

Alienwidow

Well-Known Member
jssyjames said:
grow bags with holes...220ppm ...next 140ppm..next time 340 ppm ...keeping in mind my water is @ 110 ppm without any additives .... i never had this problem for years though ...it just appeared ..
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where does the run off go? you do have run off right? is it caught in a plant tray and then reabsorbed into the plant?
 
J

JointOperation

Well-Known Member
220ppms .. what nutes are u using.. I feed atleast 800.. and notice nice greennnnnnnnnnn leaves.. and no issues keeping plants around. I got 2 4 foot round GG4 moms right now green as can be .
 
thenotsoesoteric

thenotsoesoteric

Well-Known Member
How often are you watering. My guess would be soggy soil drowning roots. Pots should be light before each watering.

When I messed with soil things always stunk in the cold winter. If the room is cold your plant's soil will not dry out well enough, I had plants go almost a week in 3 gl pots and still heavy w/ water, so I had to put a space heater in the room.
 
pineappleman420

pineappleman420

Well-Known Member
if your feeding it every time it gets water your giving it to much nutes. water until you get good run off. don't let it sit in the run off either. water, nutes, water, nutes. like that kind of schedule. the soil should be almost dry but still moist before your next round. what is the npk of your nutes?
 
jssyjames

jssyjames

Active Member
I have been using GH flora nova gro 7-4-10 ...sometimes cal mag and superthrive in very light amounts .... always used DNF formula years ago when i had no troubles ..have tried advanced nutrients also with same bad results..run off just dissipates onto cement floor (drain) ...i always let soil get nice and dry before watering ..accually lift the container to judge weight ...was always good at it ...enviroment is good , lots of air movenent ...only thing lacking is humidity...stays around 25% ...i try to mist twice a day ... I do have some type of fungus knat ...but its not realy bad ...just see the odd one once in awhile ... you would have to have a bad infestation for their larva to kill off a crop of plants that quick ... i see bad results this last time in few days ..leaves changing for the worst... and there are always those 2 or 3 plants that stay right green and nice for most of the grow ... i have accually seen bad plants start to rejuvenate ..i figured i must have hit the right ph or something ..but its a battle to keep them healthy for longer than a month . Some of the plants are really pale now and leaves cupped downward ..stunted small top growth.... it just doesnt make sense ... i couldn't do anything wrong in soil for the longest time , have alot of experience at it , ive tried everything i can think of except moving to different location ...plants are turning bad before roots even have a chance to hit the bottom of grow bag ..with mild nute's ..
 
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Bugeye

Bugeye

Well-Known Member
Maybe post some pics. I find it curious that you are feeding before roots have even reached the bottom of your bag. Should be no reason to feed them if your dirt is not a seedling mix. So maybe a nute sensitive strain that can't handle the nute load? Or your dirt is lacking nutes and a strain that is nute hungry?

I would check your water supply again too. Well water? Quality will vary some based on amount and frequency of rain.
 
jssyjames

jssyjames

Active Member
Its the way i have always done it ...first watering is just ph balanced no nute's ..its a drilled well, 80 ft down , but like i said the same water works perfect in ebb n flo buckets ..i have prolly molled through 15 different strains over the past 2 years all with same results ..not good. Even bought RO system and dedicated it to a select group of young plants for a month..same bad results . ..can't even keep a momma plant alive ..used to be able to for a long long time ...this is driving me insane ..
 
calicocalyx

calicocalyx

Well-Known Member
Have you always lived and grown at this house? I recently went through wide range of treatments before discovering that my spring water changes during the seasons and I get magnesium issues and a higher water ph starting in the fall when the rains come back. It took 10 solid days of using cal-mag at maximum dose to see the plants turn around. Now I might be having issues with too much calcium, so gonna back off the cal-mag a little, or try just epsom salts for the magnesium. I went looking for pests, also thinking about too much iron or phosphorous in the water (still on my mind), and there are so many other factors to consider. It is my understanding that sunshine #4 is soil -less like RM3 pointed out, which means your ph should be 5.8 I think.
 
jssyjames

jssyjames

Active Member
maybe thats my trouble then because i used to use a different brand years ago ...i just dosed 1/3 of them with ph 6.8 water hoping to correct issues , maybe i went the wrong way with it ...i have a couple males showing under 24 hour cycle maybe i will dose them with 5.8 for a week see what happens ...plants are a foot high now and not completely messed up ...could be corrected if i knew what to do with them .. but they really should not be that touchy ...unless strains are changing from what they were ...
 
jssyjames

jssyjames

Active Member
im starting to think im not wetting soil enough when they r young ..salt build up ... and i am accually using pro gro this time ...sunshine last time i guess ..i have 2 silver fields x boudica that are lush green ..must not be as picky .... my blue hammer and chucky's bride are very pale ..
 
panhead

panhead

Well-Known Member
pineappleman420 said:
if your feeding it every time it gets water your giving it to much nutes
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I agree , even if thats not the direct cause of his problem it isnt helping , feeding with every watering can cause salts to build up on the root mass & burn the shit out of them , i did soil for decades & only fed every 4th or 5th watering .

My soil plants respond better to higher ppm waterings about 3 weeks apart with zero nutes in between .
 
jssyjames

jssyjames

Active Member
well hydro comes with troubles to ... everything looks perfecto ..amazing looking product but always lacks quality with same genes compared to soil ..potency i mean ... i think its because my rez water was getting to warm ...keeping it 65 dr area this time with cannazym added ... plus i think i way over fertalized last time with hydro (up to 1600 ppm) ..they will suck it all up ...but to much and it doesnt burn good ..black ashe ..have only tried the water culture twice now ...its more expensive to run also i find....long story short ..soil seems to produce better smoke in the buzz department .

Acually the cost of maintaining both would be close if you want to figure how much soil costs these days ..crazy ..i get much better yields with water culture !
 
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jssyjames

jssyjames

Active Member
Just wanted to update y'all ...so i decided to use ph7 water for couple rounds, to compensate for what i figured was low ph soil ....and twice as much water...more run off ...and it is working ..they are responding very well ,nice green growth coming in fast !!!!! the issue needed both at the same time..more water plus i was hitting the ph to low ...i started using liquid drops GH ph test kit along with my meters to determine which meter was most accurate because they were off by 0.5 , i have tried ph adjustments before to fix this but wasn't using enough water for run off i would say ....so relieved ..finally 2 years later problem solved .....thanks to everyone for help and advice !!
 
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