Many signs of stress, is it over watered, need flushed/nutes, or other?

G

Grower Kronk

New Member
Wedding cake auto, 5-gallon, roughly - 50% soil (Dr Earth), 15% coco, 20% castings, 15% perlite. Using Dr earth blends, bone & kelp meal. 2x2 tent, ts1000 light. 40-50 rh, low 70's temp. First2 weeks in Jan watered roughly 1 gal twice a weekish at 6ph, runoff prior (like 1 cup) was at 7.5 pH, so watering lower. Think I have root rot now so last week I didn't water, and only doing .5 gal at a time now. Today runoff measured 7.1 pH. My 2nd grow, so just looking for some advice
 

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simpleleaf

simpleleaf

Well-Known Member
It's good to know the runoff pH, but nutrient pH is the more important one.
You didn't mention PPMs or EC. There's some yellowing of the leaf tips which may indicate too much light or fertilizer.

Are you only watering with plain water? Tap water? Something else?
 
G

Grower Kronk

New Member
simpleleaf said:
It's good to know the runoff pH, but nutrient pH is the more important one.
You didn't mention PPMs or EC. There's some yellowing of the leaf tips which may indicate too much light or fertilizer.

Are you only watering with plain water? Tap water? Something else?
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Tap water, which has a ppm of about 250. Runoff ppm was around 1300 yesterday, previously like 3k a few weeks back. I do not have an EC meter. Within the last month I've done a worm tea and a epsom salt watering (1 tspn/gal). I did a soil slurry pH test a few weeks ago as well, pH was also mid 7's. As for light, I use a phone app to measure lux, and then use an online calculator to convert to ppfd, floats around 590 umol/s, 18/6 light schedule. Hope this helps. Just not sure how to go about correcting the stress I've caused
 
simpleleaf

simpleleaf

Well-Known Member
If you have PPM, you don't need EC, basically they're the same thing on different scales. Your potting mix pH is a little high. Dr. Earth seems to have multiple blends of potting mixes, you might want to study those and make a different choice next grow, something less alkaline.

My method of dropping runoff pH is the inclusion of a small amount of ammonium sulfate in the nutrient mix.

I've never had root rot in my cannabis plants, but I do get it on some outdoor fruit trees. For them I trunk inject 20% phosphorous acid (a variant of phosphite) pH'd with KOH.
 
Dank Bongula

Dank Bongula

Well-Known Member
What is in your Dr earth soil?

What amendments have you added to the soil and when was the last time you fed it?

Why do you think you got root rot? Can you smell it?

How far away is your light? It's only 100watts so you don't need to get fancy with all the calculations. It will be good 12-15 in away but I have seen some run it as close as 8-10in, just depends on how the plant reacts.

Temp in low 70s all the time? You may want to bring that lights on temp up a little more too
 
G

Grower Kronk

New Member
I may explore a different line or brand of soil next run, it seemed to run a high PH the first grow as well. I was wondering if I over watered and that had a detrimental effect on root/soil zone pH, basically the plant not being able to regulate it properly on its own. I've looked into possibly adding sulfur as a pH lowering amendment, I will research ammonium sulfate as well.

For the lights I'm trying to monitor closely so I don't stress the plant even more with too much, Mars hydro recommends 18 in away but it seemed awfully bright for my plant, leaves started drooping towards afternoon/evening. Wasn't sure if it was from the light or other stress factors tho. Maybe if it was healthier I could run full recommended light. Prior to planting I amended with half recommended dose of the all-purpose and flower girl, plus half doses of kelp & bone meal. I'm assuming root rot because of a musty/rotting smell when I dig into the top of the soil, and see a few fungus gnat larvae as well. Last time I fed was on the 9th, top dressed 4 tbsp of flower girl as well as a half cup of worm castings or so. Then sprinkled some Neem seed meal and DE on top to combat the larvae. Def trying to keep temps up too, just hard in winter. I'm guessing at this point I have maybe a month or so left of flowering, so not a ton of time. Any recommendations on how to finish out the grow as far as watering, light, and nutes? Temp drops to high 60's at night, with a bit of a spike in RH as well, maybe 70% or so
 

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Dank Bongula

Dank Bongula

Well-Known Member
Crank your light to 100, move it to within 15in of your plant, bring your daytime temps up in the tent closer to 80. Run an exhaust fan at night to control that evening humidity or at least open the top of your tent. I think if you fix the temps your issues will sort out. It just looks underfed, plants use light, so don't hold back with it. Just because it looks bright to you doesn't mean shit in all honesty especially since it is only 100watts. Not uncommon for plants to just droop a bit closer to lights out. You may be getting root rot because your temps are too low and your roots are sitting in cool, damp conditions. Your plant doesn't like that....it needs warmer temps and wet/dry cycles in the soil. This will also correct your gnat issue.

Also, if your tent is sitting on a cold hard surface move some insulation between your pot and the floor. Plant riser, foam, cardboard box, small pallet, anything like that to get the pot off the cold.
 
G

Grower Kronk

New Member
Thank you brother, I will give it a shot. The TS 1000 is 150w, idk if that makes a difference or not. But I do have a pot elevator to keep it off the ground and provide air flow on the bottom, & will crank exhaust fan up higher at night. I know my temps are low, I've always been afraid to crank the light too much though. I always read articles of it causing more harm to already stressed plants, but in this case it makes sense too little light/low temps (especially low temps from what you're saying) being the cause of stress. I know it will always look bright to me, that's why I use the lux meter on my phone and convert it, because I just have no idea what the strength is by looking at it. As for nutrients, you think it looks underfed because of a lack thereof, or the lack of light? Most of my tips are burnt, so I was worried there were too many nutes, but I think watering issues can cause yellowing tips also, not sure if it's the culprit or not. Warmer temps should help that tho like you said. Appreciate the feedback!!
 
Dank Bongula

Dank Bongula

Well-Known Member
Oh, yeah....that is 150watts...I was mistaken and thinking of the ts600w for some damn reason, sorry about that. I also have both the ts1000 and an sf1000 right next to each other in my smaller veg/auto tent (30inx30in). You'll be fine at 15in with that light. I have them both maxed out and they keep my tent around 85-87 during the day.

And yeah, looking underfed due to the temps and being damp and the light being weaker than it should be. Let it perk back up and it'll get back to work using those nutes you already fed. I wouldn't top dress right now.
 
simpleleaf

simpleleaf

Well-Known Member
Grower Kronk said:
I may explore a different line or brand of soil next run, it seemed to run a high PH the first grow as well. I was wondering if I over watered and that had a detrimental effect on root/soil zone pH, basically the plant not being able to regulate it properly on its own. I've looked into possibly adding sulfur as a pH lowering amendment, I will research ammonium sulfate as well.

For the lights I'm trying to monitor closely so I don't stress the plant even more with too much, Mars hydro recommends 18 in away but it seemed awfully bright for my plant, leaves started drooping towards afternoon/evening. Wasn't sure if it was from the light or other stress factors tho. Maybe if it was healthier I could run full recommended light. Prior to planting I amended with half recommended dose of the all-purpose and flower girl, plus half doses of kelp & bone meal. I'm assuming root rot because of a musty/rotting smell when I dig into the top of the soil, and see a few fungus gnat larvae as well. Last time I fed was on the 9th, top dressed 4 tbsp of flower girl as well as a half cup of worm castings or so. Then sprinkled some Neem seed meal and DE on top to combat the larvae. Def trying to keep temps up too, just hard in winter. I'm guessing at this point I have maybe a month or so left of flowering, so not a ton of time. Any recommendations on how to finish out the grow as far as watering, light, and nutes? Temp drops to high 60's at night, with a bit of a spike in RH as well, maybe 70% or so
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The reason I decided against sulfur (I have a bunch of dusting sulfur) was due to the long-term breakdown, I didn't think it would act fast enough. Your plant is auto, so you're on a shorter schedule than I was. Yesterday when I watered the gallon I mixed had 0.1 g AMS, right now I'm aiming for 20:1 nitrate:ammonium ratio. Those keywords should get you to some good reading on the subject.

Grower Kronk said:
Thank you brother, I will give it a shot. The TS 1000 is 150w, idk if that makes a difference or not. But I do have a pot elevator to keep it off the ground and provide air flow on the bottom, & will crank exhaust fan up higher at night. I know my temps are low, I've always been afraid to crank the light too much though. I always read articles of it causing more harm to already stressed plants, but in this case it makes sense too little light/low temps (especially low temps from what you're saying) being the cause of stress. I know it will always look bright to me, that's why I use the lux meter on my phone and convert it, because I just have no idea what the strength is by looking at it. As for nutrients, you think it looks underfed because of a lack thereof, or the lack of light? Most of my tips are burnt, so I was worried there were too many nutes, but I think watering issues can cause yellowing tips also, not sure if it's the culprit or not. Warmer temps should help that tho like you said. Appreciate the feedback!!
Click to expand...
I wanted to respond to the underfed comment, your runoff is dissolving a lot of salts. You wrote, "Runoff ppm was around 1300 yesterday..." I wouldn't want it any higher, you could perhaps try watering with RO, but that will only get you a couple hundred drop, and you'll lose some minerals, whatever your water company says is in your tap water.
 
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