Just a few edge burned leaves, probably nutrient burn?

XtraGood

Well-Known Member
On my first grow, I want to check to make sure this is what I think it is, and that it's not too sever. I've got this OG Kush ScroG that I feed thru blumats in only coco 10-15 gal fabric (recently switched from ~950ppm total to ~600-700ppm total jacks 321 (#'s include 150ppm (inaccessible?) cal&mag in the tap water) after the runoff showed 3000ppm when I checked it after seeing a bit of browning. Day 27 after going to 12/12. 73-78F 50-57RH

I think these leave have a bit of nutrient burn and that issue probably got exacerbated a bit because that spot was getting a bit too much air movement drying it out a bit.

P1170579.JPG
P1170578.JPG

Flowers forming up:
P1170580.JPG
 

XtraGood

Well-Known Member
recently switched from ~950ppm total to ~600-700ppm total jacks 321 (#'s include ~150ppm (inaccessible?) cal&mag in the tap water)
 

CannaCountry

Well-Known Member
They look short on K.

How are you managing salt build up on the blumats and are they keeping your coco completely moist, all the time? I'm assuming you have a reservoir for the blumats? How are you managing the reservoir, how long does the solution remain in the reservoir until it's used and have you studied what your pH is doing in terms of the feed in your reservoir over time? I run coco, I feed Jacks and I manage a reservoir, although I run a drip system instead of blumats. My pH will slowly gain over time in terms of my reservoir, which if I'm not mindful of, will begin to cause issues. Good luck.
 

Mason Jar 92705

Well-Known Member
Yeah, they have some 'hot feet' but it's not too bad. Don't worry about it. Just give 'em plain water for 1 or 2 weeks.
Those blumats....throw them out in the back yard and pick up your plants to feel how heavy or light they are, to see if they need watered. :blsmoke:
 

XtraGood

Well-Known Member
I have a few more pictures of this grow up over HERE with this tread where I was asking for advice on the plants generally from the indoor growing forum.

@CannaCountry
Managing salt buildup: I keep the blumats free of salt buildup by opening them up three arrow turns then closing them back down, this seems to flush any salt buildup in the lines, every once and again I have to clear a dripper line that is not fully flowing when I do the line flush; I do this flush every two or three days with daily spot checks while I'm checking/cleaning the surface of the coco. Coco stays moist top to bottom with the blumats, which took a while figure out how to tune in but seem to manage to keep the coco in the correct moisture range. The maxi sensors do a better job than the short ones but they all pretty much work. I have switched from feeding 900-1000 total ppm to 600-700total ppm nutrient feed. 1/2 the plants I flushed with 1/4 strength nutrients until their runoff went down to 1200ppm, the other half I left as they were. I am not seeing much difference between the flushed and not flushed plants at the moment, the ones that got flushed were the worst of the bunch as far a leaf edge browning.

Reservoir(s): Two 17 gallon commander totes each feeding 2 plants. I check the res about every other day for ph, it tends to climb back up. I tend to put in at 5.9-6.2pH and the res tends to creep back up to 6.3-6.6 over a few days when plants aren't drinking much otherwise top ups bring ph down, if it gets too high I pH down the res. Circulation pumps in res totes. Plants tend to drink close to 20 gallons a day at this point, so the res volume gets pushed in about two days, refllls happen daily when they are a bit over half empty.

@Mason Jar 92705 "Hot feet" that makes since, I'll have to search that term, it does look like the salt mostly collects at the bottom few inches of the fabric planters.

My spinal alignment is already questioning my ergonomics choices relative to this hobby, if I go back to lifting these hefty ladies while I sit on the floor it is going to quit on me. I'll give some details below, TLDR is that with the Scrog on they're not moving anywhere vertically easily.

Before the scrog went on, I could lift the plants if I sat on the floor next to the planter, bear hugged the plant and lifted but that didn't seem to be worth it though: by the time I bear hug it I already know how wet it is, the fabric planter will either fell wet, damp, or dry when I put my hands on it and squeeze. I spent a few weeks doing lifts to test them and they always felt like I expected based on squeezing and putting my hand under the planter bottom. The 10 and especially 15 gallon planters are too large to grip and lift easily and with 4x4' plus plants I cant get over the top of them to lift normally, also they are in a scrog attached to a wire shelf so they're not levitating off to anywhere without some work.

I am looking into switching to those dripper plates people use on top of coco or at least trying them in the next run. The blumats haven't been much of a problem though as far as I can tell, no runaways at least and the plants seem ok with the moisture unless that browning is the start of a precipitous decline. They have only been needing minor adjustments to run regularly. It has been way easier to administer than when I was pouring or electric pumping water on plants by hand, so I am not looking to go back to that.

I do stick my hand in-between the bottom of the fabric pot and the plant elevator like I said above, if I'm running a bit higher flow rate that's where I check to see if I am making the root zone too wet. When a blumat sensor is feeding too little and it is too dry, the top of the coco pretty much shows it after a day and the side walls of the planter will feel a bit moist but closer to dry. With three sensors and six drippers per plant even when one sensor is running too little feed the other two keep the planter moist.

I was thinking about lowering my current feed from 1/2 strength to 1/4 strength or just running pHed tap water and either try to finish like that or bring it back up to 600-700 in week 6 of flower but I didn't want to be increasing nutrients in feed too late in flower. Today is day 27-28 since 12/12 switch, thinking they'll finish in week 7 or 8 but no real idea when they'll be ready, OG Kush.
 
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XtraGood

Well-Known Member
@coreywebster I'll do some more flushing today and check the runoff from each plant as I do it. I'm targeting about 1200pmm in the collected runoff before I stop flushing? I was thinking blumats might be too much trouble to flush thru too and have been flushing by hand... but I guess I might get away with just opening them all up and running 1/4 strength or ph water thru the res until runoff comes down in PPM.

First time grower and I'm still getting a grip on things, Thanks for the help!
 

coreywebster

Well-Known Member
@coreywebster I'll do some more flushing today and check the runoff from each plant as I do it. I'm targeting about 1200pmm in the collected runoff before I stop flushing? I was thinking blumats might be too much trouble to flush thru too and have been flushing by hand... but I guess I might get away with just opening them all up and running 1/4 strength or ph water thru the res until runoff comes down in PPM.

First time grower and I'm still getting a grip on things, Thanks for the help!
I would run a very light nutrient solution until the run of is the same as what goes in.
Yeah, its a pain in the ass to do!!

I never asked if the coco you bought was pre buffered and bagged or block?
 

XtraGood

Well-Known Member
Coco blocks, I rehydrate the block in a 40 gallon trash can then rinse/strain until water flows easily thru the coco and runoff has a reasonable appearance. The rinsed coco gets two cal mag soak and drains with at least 8 hour per soak. First feeding after using coco in a planter is with lots of runoff when I manage to remember to do it that way.

Mother earth coco blocks, mostly blocks with the older style packaging. The newer packaging blocks seem to have less powdery dust and when I charge them the runoff is way more orange than with the earlier blocks making me think they have started doing more to cal mag charge this brand of coco recently.
 

coreywebster

Well-Known Member
Coco blocks, I rehydrate the block in a 40 gallon trash can then rinse/strain until water flows easily thru the coco and runoff has a reasonable appearance. The rinsed coco gets two cal mag soak and drains with at least 8 hour per soak. First feeding after using coco in a planter is with lots of runoff when I manage to remember to do it that way.

Mother earth coco blocks, mostly blocks with the older style packaging. The newer packaging blocks seem to have less powdery dust and when I charge them the runoff is way more orange than with the earlier blocks making me think they have started doing more to cal mag charge this brand of coco recently.
Fair enough, sounds like you know what your doing with the block.

Just wanting to know if the high ppm runoff was due to salt build up or lack of washing and pre buffering.
Either way the solution is the same.

I would go by ppm rather than appearance though when you first hydrate and wash it before buffering.
 

xtsho

Well-Known Member
Yeah, they have some 'hot feet' but it's not too bad. Don't worry about it. Just give 'em plain water for 1 or 2 weeks.
Those blumats....throw them out in the back yard and pick up your plants to feel how heavy or light they are, to see if they need watered. :blsmoke:
Why get rid of the blumats? They work great. I'd rather fill a reservoir up once a week than hand water everyday. I've been using blumats for awhile and I've had no problems. I have better things to do than hand water my plants all the time. With blumats just set them and forget them. I go days without even having to look at my plants thanks to blumats and automatic watering.
 

xtsho

Well-Known Member
On my first grow, I want to check to make sure this is what I think it is, and that it's not too sever. I've got this OG Kush ScroG that I feed thru blumats in only coco 10-15 gal fabric (recently switched from ~950ppm total to ~600-700ppm total jacks 321 (#'s include 150ppm (inaccessible?) cal&mag in the tap water) after the runoff showed 3000ppm when I checked it after seeing a bit of browning. Day 27 after going to 12/12. 73-78F 50-57RH

I think these leave have a bit of nutrient burn and that issue probably got exacerbated a bit because that spot was getting a bit too much air movement drying it out a bit.

View attachment 4542120
View attachment 4542119

Flowers forming up:
View attachment 4542121

950 was too hot. You should feed less when using blumats. I never go over around 800 ppm max. I grow in 100% coco using blumats.
 

XtraGood

Well-Known Member
950 was too hot. You should feed less when using blumats. I never go over around 800 ppm max. I grow in 100% coco using blumats.
I think I got that wrong early on. I'd been reading about using full strength jack's during the entirety of grows and somehow got to where I thought that applied to blumats too.
 

XtraGood

Well-Known Member
I have been using blumats for awhile and I've had no problems. I have better things to do than hand water my plants all the time. With blumats just set them and forget them. I go days without even having to look at my plants thanks to blumats and automatic watering.
After getting them dripping at a reasonable rate (basically following the label instructions except I open up another half to whole arrow to start out), I basically open up my blumats' valves to the point where they leave a small puddle in the drain pan after a day of running then I dial them back so that the puddle doesn't appear. If when I stick my hand under a pot the fabric is wet not just moist I dial them back more. This tends to leave the whole contents of the fabric pot slightly moist but not wet as far as I can tell. I'm not sure exactly what I'm getting out of this method, I'm hoping I'm not to moist. Got any tips for me when tuning in blumats or just for blumats generally?

I bought one of those ECOWITT internet climate recorder things and a couple of the WH0291 Soil Moisture Testers that go with it on amazon a few days ago. Hoping that gives me a better way to track what the blumats are doing.
 
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bladecutter

Member
After getting them dripping at a reasonable rate (basically following the label instructions except I open up another half to whole arrow to start out), I basically open up my blumats' valves to the point where they leave a small puddle in the drain pan after a day of running then I dial them back so that the puddle doesn't appear. If when I stick my hand under a pot the fabric is wet not just moist I dial them back more. This tends to leave the whole contents of the fabric pot slightly moist but not wet as far as I can tell. I'm not sure exactly what I'm getting out of this method, I'm hoping I'm not to moist. Got any tips for me when tuning in blumats or just for blumats generally?

I bought one of those ECOWITT internet climate recorder things and a couple of the WH0291 Soil Moisture Testers that go with it on amazon a few days ago. Hoping that gives me a better way to track what the blumats are doing.
Have you considered a Blumat 50205 Digital Water? They are about $75 on Amazon. I was listening to Kis Organics podcast Episode 22. On the show Steve Troy, the North American distributor of Blumats, suggested these as target values using their digital water meter: Veg: 120-150 mBar; Flower: 150-180 mBar. Higher numbers are dryer. The lowest recommended for cannabis is 80-90 mBar.
 

XtraGood

Well-Known Member
Have you considered a Blumat 50205 Digital Water? They are about $75 on Amazon. I was listening to Kis Organics podcast Episode 22. On the show Steve Troy, the North American distributor of Blumats, suggested these as target values using their digital water meter: Veg: 120-150 mBar; Flower: 150-180 mBar. Higher numbers are dryer. The lowest recommended for cannabis is 80-90 mBar.
I have seen those, they look interesting but are expensive. I did get an EcoWitt Wi-Fi soil moisture sensor, it works when paired with a gateway and does online graphing and alerts. Also pretty cheap, especially when on sale. With this being coco only I end up adjusting the carrots slightly most days anyhow to water more or less in different parts of the 15 gallon pot. The moisture sensors end up getting used with favorite seedlings instead.
 
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