Magnesium Deficiency? Boron? Nitrogen?

I'm at a loss. I don't know what the problem is here:


These are nearly six weeks old. Medium is Spaghnum Moss, Perlite, Dolomite Lime, and a dash of Blood Meal. They were transplanted into these pots about a week and a half ago. They are being fed BMO nutrients (Grow it Green right now). I fed them about 3 days ago a 550 PPM (sans tap base ppm) solution of AN Nirvana, BMO Grow it Green, Botanicare Silica Blast. It was the first feeding of the Nirvana and Silica blast. Silica I used a shade under full label strength, and Nirvana at full label strength. Between the three of them combine, the PPM level was still under that of the last feeding I gave her. I've been using a feed, water, feed, water schedule. Usually each three days it's ready for more water or nutrients. I've heard it's hard to give too much silica, and also hard to give too much organic nutrients (especially since BMO nutrients are organic compost teas), which is why I don't think it's nutrient burn. Also, a friend thought that it could be magnesium deficieny due to the dolomite lime producing too much calcium for the plant, thereby locking out the magnesium. Anyone have any ideas?

for sho magnesium def.

So now: topdress with epsom salts or dissolve them into water and feed? Foliar?

Well any cal/mag product will work .Molassas is a cal/mag source also . I dont use epsom salts someoneelse will have to chime in on its use.
But u should also be thinking about what caused this. U didnt mention any ph values ,temps or what kind of water your using. All this info is important in diagnosing your problem . It is a def. not sure which one without more info , it does resemble mag def but it also looks like a couple others.

kingofqueen said:

Well any cal/mag product will work .Molassas is a cal/mag source also . I dont use epsom salts someoneelse will have to chime in on its use.
But u should also be thinking about what caused this. U didnt mention any ph values ,temps or what kind of water your using. All this info is important in diagnosing your problem . It is a def. not sure which one without more info , it does resemble mag def but it also looks like a couple others.

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You're right. I was amiss with my details. Temperatures are around 80degrees. +/- 5 degrees (-5 at lights off, +5 after 14 hours of lights on). I have yet to do a pH test, as I don't have a meter or money to buy a meter. I am using de-chlorinated tap water (left out 48+ hours).

If someone could indeed "chime in" on using epsom salts, I'd appreciate it. Obviously, if I don't have money for a pH meter, I don't have money for Cal-Mag or any such supplement. But I do have some Epsom Salts laying around here.

You have a salt build up.

Flush it with a good 3x the number of gallons of water to gallons of media.

This is not a deficiency problem. I be the ppm's of your run off are off the charts. You gotta flush and balance.

Snow Crash said:

You have a salt build up.

Flush it with a good 3x the number of gallons of water to gallons of media.

This is not a deficiency problem. I be the ppm's of your run off are off the charts. You gotta flush and balance.

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With that being said would you recomend switching to a feed water water - schedule instead of feed water feed water?

Probably. The plant is just too young to use all the food that is being used. More water, less food, or just more run off when watering to get a good drain of build up.

I think feed, water, feed, water is fine if less food and more water is used.

When you say water...Do you do a complete flush? That's essentially the Make It Rain tek that's around RIU.

Flushing is making it rain . Once you flush your medium you will washed the salt builup(thanks snow crash) out and will have balanced your medium out .When you flush spray down all your leaves too.She will droop but when she wakes up u will see a difference.

I still wander about your Ph though if your water is low ph ,combined with your medium which sounds acid ,peat moss is low ph and from what u stated it seems your medium is composed mostly of peat moss? Guess it depends on the dolomite lime u used if its buffering the ph or not.Good luck bro hope we have pointed you in the right direction.

Absolutely. I flushed last night and she started to perk up nearly immediately. I would think I used enough lime to buffer the medium, but I'm not sure. Thanks for the help.

Cool I,m glad that worked for you. The lime just buffers your PH it does nothing for saltbuild up .Flushing washes the saltbuild up

My girl is still recovering. Trying to get her back to tip-top shape.

your ph is messed up i say is all. growin in that medium is hot. looks straight up peat and is way low in ph. has wrong cation exchange in there.....check the ph run off. bet its way low

He says he has no way to check ph. Flying blind .

Spghanum Moss, dolomite lime, perlite, blood meal - Shouldn't the lime buffer the medium pH to around 7? That's what it claimed on the bag.

ah well then he answered the issue himself then. no ph cant grow right. especialy in a medium of about 3.6 ph adn nothing to help withg calcium....the peat, also used nitrogen in a poor manner

your guessing at the ph then. you need a pen. need to know how much to add to buffer it. each variety of peat is diff ph new. to much lime and to little isnt good.


yes lime is 7 nutural but how much you add makes it chnage the medium

Medi 1 said:

your guessing at the ph then. you need a pen. need to know how much to add to buffer it. each variety of peat is diff ph new. to much lime and to little isnt good.


yes lime is 7 nutural but how much you add makes it chnage the medium

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I'm thinking about taking out the sphagnum and just throwing it into some FFOF I have laying around.

Auzzie07 said:

I'm thinking about taking out the sphagnum and just throwing it into some FFOF I have laying around.

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That would be your best bet if your problems are persisting . FFof is PH balanced .