Old dude needs help with new grow- Pics

MrMarbles

Member
The photos are of some White Widow I currently have. I'm a former Hydro guy, but wanted to try soil for a change. This is also a new strain I haven't grown before. These plants were planted in Supersoil Potting Mix about a month ago, first in four gallon buckets and were recently transplanted to 10 gallon pots. I was afraid I overpacked the soil in the 4 gal, so I wanted to loosen up the soil a bit, thus the larger pots. I did bust up the previous soil pretty good when I transplanted them and realize I probably did some root damage in the process.
It's been about a week and a half since the transplant and I'm having some issues. They spent two weeks in veg and have been in the flowering stage for about the same amount of time. They are in a 3'x4' closet under one 1000w HPS that's about 3' from the tops at this point. The room is air conditioned and the temp stays relatively even with lows around 72f and a high of about 78f, with Humidity between 50-60%. Since transplanting them they have received what I thought was a sufficient amount of water, maybe 20-32 ounces every other day. I never gave the soil a heavy soaking from the start as I was worried about root rot due to my lack of soil growing experience.
I initially used some Maxicrop, B1 and Superthrive as directed when I transplanted. I probably gave them more water at this point than anytime since, and even then the water run-off was minimal. I have only given them a half strength of Golden Bloom once since then, thinking since it's potting soil I wouldn't need to give them much nutes the first couple of weeks. When I originally tested the soil It measured 5.5 an just recently I was getting a little over six.
I know, now, I should have checked and amended the soil with some Dolomite Lime before putting everything together, but other than adding some to a feeding or mixing some in around the top there's not much chance of re-potting at this point. You can't see it too well in the photos but the leave margins on a few are curling upward a bit, particularly the ones showing the worst spotting. The photos are from two different plants, the first one is showing the early stages of what I'm experiencing and the second two are from another plant with the same issue in a more advanced stage. Plants two and four as I'll call them are not showing the same symptoms yet, but I believe the soil was a little more moist in those. I'm also using one of those moisture probes, but to date it has yet to drop below 3 out of four and even when I dig down a good 8-10 inches the soil feels moist but not wet. The soil does seem like it drains pretty well, but I didn't just want to start throwing water and nutes at the problem until I had a clue as to the problem.
The plants are about 16" at the moment, but appear to have stopped growing at this point in time. I guess I could try various moisture and nute content on each one and see what effect that has. But any suggestions you have based upon the photos would be appreciated. Plant four, while not showing the same spotting is actually getting lighter in green, which makes me think this whole problem is a soil / ph issue and is what's locking out the nutes, but if I'm not giving them enough water, I imagine that also makes it more difficult to absorb the nutes even if they're present.

I can get new/more pics, but not until the light comes on later this evening.

Peace!
 

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candylime12

Well-Known Member
hey bro i did hydro before soil to,
Id first of all growing in soil isnt really that much differnt, but with hydro the nutes are mainly already broke down, in soil the plant has to do it so things take a little longer. with hydro you can see you results of you treatments usaly with in a day or two with soil It might take a week.
i know i was the same way wanted to start throwing nutes at it.
basicly just slow down. just flush the plant well 3xs the amount of water per pot size, and give a week or two of fresh water ph.d only. then diagnose your plant. most times its the soil ph it builds up faster in soil.
 

cerebralvibrator

Active Member
From one 'old dude' to another :-)

Can you get some bigger pics up for us ? maybe take them with lights off so we can see whats gonig on better?

Have you tested PH of the run off at all? As a rule of thumb at this stage flowering you want to see a good 10/15% run off from those pots then let them dry out for a couple of days before watering again. For comparison I put close to 2 litres through my pots in mid flowering to get that run off and thats 8 litre pots so about 25% by volume is about right for me.

I have found in the past that often the best way to correct a lockout/PH issue is to flush them through well (but dont overdo it and drown them!) and then repot with a couple of inches of fresh clean aerated soil for those roots to breath in, but this isnt always practical with big plants I know.
 
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