Little Advice on my deficiant plants?

Hey guys, thanks to help on this forum my plants which were doomed have sprung back to life... But there is something wrong. The coloring is starting to go bright green in the middle of the plants and they are starting to droop. Is this an mg def? possibly Iron? if so what do i need to do?

The ph of water is set to 6. I am using coco soil with 50/50 perlite under the top soil. As the soil has no nutes I am giving them coco nutrifield nutes in their water which has helped promote a lot of growth.

The browning you can see on the bottom leaves was from when they started growing before i realised i needed to test the water for ph every time and before i started monitoring their temperature.

Please if have a few mins take a peak at these pics and let me know what i am missing.

nobody has any idea?

Coco is void of nutes so if you aren't giving em much then it's very possible it's a def, but you said you were giving them nutes, about what ppm?

im just going by the standard of whats on the bottle for veg time... should i up it more? water them more but less often? should i throw some epsom salts in?

For starters I would flood the entire medium, then let it go for 3 or 4 days, only you know what you have been feeding but generally bottle rec's are too much. I am an idiot when it comes to coco though so.

Thats a good idea actually... they havent had nute burn from what i have given them so i think its safe... ill give them a good drenshing tonight i as just worried about over watering...

the medium is very light.. it could be that some roots just are not getting the nuts from the water i guess.

THe nutes im useing a very good. Recomended by hyrdo shop. NPK 23-21-14. It recomends 1:250

Sounds good, coco is almost like hydro from what I have read, you never really want the top crusty.

well my first grow was disasterous... i just didnt know when or if plants needed nutes.. or what the soil grade was... at least now i can control it.. i guess i just need to fine the right timing and water level.

so its definately a general nute deficiancy? i dont need to add lime, or salts?

So I gave them a big water, theres 6 plant i gave them 4 letres of ph testing coco nuted water. is that enough?

After 24 hours they look slightly better.. but only slightly.

I bought an electronic soil PH testing probe.. it says my soil ph is almost at 8 which suprises me since i am using 50% perlite and 50% coco....

So this has me thinking i must be seeing nutrient lock out... what can i do to fix this? flush with low ph'd water?

OnlyAftrDrk said:

Hey guys, thanks to help on this forum my plants which were doomed have sprung back to life... But there is something wrong. The coloring is starting to go bright green in the middle of the plants and they are starting to droop. Is this an mg def? possibly Iron? if so what do i need to do?

The ph of water is set to 6. I am using coco soil with 50/50 perlite under the top soil. As the soil has no nutes I am giving them coco nutrifield nutes in their water which has helped promote a lot of growth.

The browning you can see on the bottom leaves was from when they started growing before i realised i needed to test the water for ph every time and before i started monitoring their temperature.

Please if have a few mins take a peak at these pics and let me know what i am missing.

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Well you are figuring it out and making it better.

I don't know what to do without compost or compost tea. Maybe you should buy some fertz for hydroponics. I suggest organics because your medium is organic - soiless - hydroponics.

You can make it too from guano, kelp, earthworm castings, and etc. but those in particular do not smell funky. Looks like you need N-P-K in general. I would say 7-4-4 then mix more if you need it. That should keep you safe. Even if you formulate 10-5-5 or whatever you can just use less. Also looks like they need more light.

Fulvic acid + Humic Acid work as a natural PH Down - products like FulMag or Diamond Nectar should keep you from locking up and help aid digestion plus keeping your PH level.

Maybe even invest in distilled water aka bottled water or somebody mentioned boiling tap then leaving it out at room temp for 24 hours to kill chlorine. I would just get the distilled water.

Let me know how the coco goes because I am interested in it. It looks very friendly for root development. PEACE

LiveVibe said:

Well you are figuring it out and making it better.

I don't know what to do without compost or compost tea. Maybe you should buy some fertz for hydroponics. I suggest organics because your medium is organic - soiless - hydroponics.

You can make it too from guano, kelp, earthworm castings, and etc. but those in particular do not smell funky. Looks like you need N-P-K in general. I would say 7-4-4 then mix more if you need it. That should keep you safe. Even if you formulate 10-5-5 or whatever you can just use less. Also looks like they need more light.

Fulvic acid + Humic Acid work as a natural PH Down - products like FulMag or Diamond Nectar should keep you from locking up and help aid digestion plus keeping your PH level.

Maybe even invest in distilled water aka bottled water or somebody mentioned boiling tap then leaving it out at room temp for 24 hours to kill chlorine. I would just get the distilled water.

Let me know how the coco goes because I am interested in it. It looks very friendly for root development. PEACE

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what if i was to flush with water set to 4.5 or 5, would that help the medium?

OnlyAftrDrk said:

what if i was to flush with water set to 4.5 or 5, would that help the medium?

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What is the PH right now?

LiveVibe said:

What is the PH right now?

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I bought an electronic soil PH testing probe.. it says my soil ph is almost at 8 which suprises me since i am using 50% perlite and 50% coco....

So this has me thinking i must be seeing nutrient lock out.. which makes sense since i have been giving them nutes... so i need a way to reduce the ph in the soil... i think

OnlyAftrDrk said:

I bought an electronic soil PH testing probe.. it says my soil ph is almost at 8 which suprises me since i am using 50% perlite and 50% coco....

So this has me thinking i must be seeing nutrient lock out.. which makes sense since i have been giving them nutes... so i need a way to reduce the ph in the soil... i think

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Well this is my personal thing right here -

You are using a very fast wicking and dripping substrate. You really do not have to worry about the PH of the substrate. You worry about the PH of the water + nutes. So you want to test the water and the nutes to see if they are level.

Also people tend to worry way too much about PH and mess with it too much.

So if I were you I would water like normal and test the water plus the nutes to make sure that is about 6-7 and then feed as usual. Flushing at a critical time may stunt your plant and I really feel like it will so maybe you should just get the water and the nutes worked out.

Once you start feeding with water + nutes that are level then the substrate will fix itself BECAUSE it is fast wicking and dripping.

Your substrate has nothing in it that will change the PH. There is no compost or any fertilizer.

The only thing you have to worry about is the source of the fertilizer, compost, and the water - that will determine your PH.

Also I don't know crap about hydroponics. I know about soiless and I tested it maybe twice because I used bottled fertz that I purchased that were tested and true. I used bottled spring water to feed them.

Now that I am using my own compost tea - I test the water once brewed with the compost. The soiless mix already comes tested and true. If you mix your own substrate then you need to test that seperately but since you have a substrate that has no fert or compost in it then the likeliness of it being off is not really a worry although just to make sure for your reassurance and to be absolutely positive then you want to test the substrate mix before you start doing your thing. - SHIT actually come to think of it I have not tested my tea yet - my bad.

Also since your substrate is so fast wicking and dripping, anything at all that you feed will react very fast.

Shit like lime and epsom salt is good for soil or stuff with compost because it breaks down at a medium span of time. If you use that in your hydro/soiless mix it may do it way too fast and hard - know what I mean? Again this is my personal opinion and I have never used your substrate, I am just telling you what I know. Also you seem like you are going to figure it so no worries. Don't bug out too much about the PH when there are other concerns that you may want to address to help balance EVERYTHING out. PEACE.

Thanks mate, that explains a lot...I will keep feeding nute water as they dry up and ill look into a compost tea this weekend

still if its not nutrient lock out, then why do they look like they are eating themselves...

OnlyAftrDrk said:

still if its not nutrient lock out, then why do they look like they are eating themselves...

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It's the lower leaves = not enough light. Also they look kind of depressed and stressed. I can understand that. Story of my life.

They are dying off to give energy to the rest of the plant. YOU NEED MORE LIGHT BUDDY! MORE LIGHT! MORE LIGHT! LOL.

A deficiency is not a lock-out. If you worry about digestion - which you should because you do not have anything to aid digestion then you need to get humus/humic acid and fulvic acid which I highly highly recommend for your substrate.

OnlyAftrDrk said:

Thanks mate, that explains a lot...I will keep feeding nute water as they dry up and ill look into a compost tea this weekend

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I just started using my own compost tea in general and I am having my own issues because I made it and I am no compost pro LOL.

At first I bought fertz from Fox Farm - anyways if you want to brew your own compost tea - it is a lot cheaper.

It's easy to make tea. I just stick 1/4 a cup in a lady's nylon stocking in a brew pitcher with 12 ounces of hot water and wait 16 hours. It turns to tea and I pour it in an empty water bottle in the fridge. I use it on all the plants we have - even the shrubbery. It's very cost efficient.

To be honest with you, I wish I had always brewed compost tea and did not spoil myself with pro grade makers. That way I would be much more experienced and have less trouble, know what I mean?

LiveVibe said:

It's the lower leaves = not enough light. Also they look kind of depressed and stressed. I can understand that. Story of my life.

They are dying off to give energy to the rest of the plant. YOU NEED MORE LIGHT BUDDY! MORE LIGHT! MORE LIGHT! LOL.

A deficiency is not a lock-out. If you worry about digestion - which you should because you do not have anything to aid digestion then you need to get humus/humic acid and fulvic acid which I highly highly recommend for your substrate.

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thanks for the help mate, bottom leaves were from me not phing the water way back... fixed that problem... its not a light issue, i got a nice big cf from the hydro shop sitting right on top.

I fixed the ph, they started growing much better but two days later started getting pailer in their green color, and leaves started clawing... cant figure out where im going wrong... water is nutes and ph's plenty of light...

maybe i should just tray a 1/3 perlight 1/3 soil and 1/3 coco when my next seeds come....

Cany anyone offer some advice?