Organic Grow Yellow leaves?

sero1991

Well-Known Member
Hi Guys,

I’ve made my own soil mix with FFOF earthworm castings, cow manure compost and perlite, I’ve added Dr. Earths Flower Girl 5-7-5 and only been feeding it water ph 7. The bottom leaves are turning yellow and drooping. They are very weak looking too. They are 19 days old. Temps al aye at 78 humidity is low but that couldn’t be the reason for the yellow leafs. Do you guys think the soils ph could be the problem? Or it’s not gettting any nitrogen? I thought FFOF has plenty of nutes? Plus the worm castings and compost and the Dr Earths flower girl. It should be enough
 

Richard Drysift

Well-Known Member
I agree that should be enough for a young plant..possibly even too much. What is your water source? A pic if the plant might help...
 

sero1991

Well-Known Member
I agree that should be enough for a young plant..possibly even too much. What is your water source? A pic if the plant might help...
I didn’t water my after the transplant. I just checked the ph of the soil and it was waay to high 8. It was a ph problem with soil. Hopefully because I saturated it with a more acidic water 6.7 it should fix the problem.
 

Richard Drysift

Well-Known Member
Adjusting the ph of the water you give your plant does not change the ph of the soil. The ph is set by what is in the soil and you need a decent quality soil probe to check it at the root zone. Checking the ph of the soil runoff tells you nothing useful. It's doubtful that bagged soil is that far out ph wise or your plants would be all kinds of colors. FFOF is a fairly stout mix and is ph balanced out of the bag. Adding stuff to the soil could change ph but it would take a whole lot of amendments to move the needle and if that was the case it would move down not up....It makes more sense that you simply put too much available nitrogen to a young plant that didn't need it. Always add extra coco and perlite to bagged soil for seedlings; they can burn easy.
I was asking what kind of water you are giving your plants because chlorinated water can cause a slew of issues in organic soil. If you just post a pic I'm sure we could better diagnose your issue...
 

Kingrow1

Well-Known Member
I was asking what kind of water you are giving your plants because chlorinated water can cause a slew of issues in organic soil.
It dosent, the principle of water chlorination is to stop establishment, once established its actions are actually very weak.

Take a microscope and at a high enough magnification you'll find micro organisms swimming round in your tap water.

This gives rise to the well understood statement that "Tap water is not a pure product".

When you run a lab water is purified to a much greater extent than tap water although if you want to set agar for fungal or bacterial plates tap water will do just fine.

Tap water is merely set to safe human levels, the rest they couldnt give two hoots about removing, most water pipes culture basic algae or slime organisms anyway.

Add to this that organic soil is highly bio-active at 10 billion bacteria per gram and less but still a vast weight of fungal and arachea (or whatever the third soil kingdom is called).

Max limits for tap water chlorination - 3ppm, i rest my case :-)
 

Richard Drysift

Well-Known Member
Sure ok tap water is not the kiss of death. I'm saying it can cause issues over the long term. I water my outdoor garden with city water and the plants are fine but they also get rain. Not saying tap water is the problem here but I had problems using my own city water when I started out growing organic. The soil would dry out quickly and the leaves were papery and showing what I thought were deficiencies.
I switched over to a clean water source and started vermicomposting which totally changed the game. Chlorine and/or chloramine levels vary by location; every municipalities water system is different.
 

Kingrow1

Well-Known Member
Sure ok tap water is not the kiss of death. I'm saying it can cause issues over the long term. I water my outdoor garden with city water and the plants are fine but they also eget rain. Not saying tap water is the problem here but I had problems using my own city water when I started out growing organic. The soil would dry out quickly and the leaves were papery and showing what I thought were deficiencies.
I switched over to a clean water source and started vermicomposting which totally changed the game. Chlorine and/or chloramine levels vary by location; every municipalities water system is different.

If you say your soil dried much faster with city water this would lead me to think that the vast amount of carbonates from probably magnesium and to a much lesser extent calcium changed the structure.

Pour epson salts on your soil and youll get a tighter quicker draining media.
 

fridayfishfry

Well-Known Member
Been there.
If the "flower girl" has organic phosphorus
That makes leaves turn yellow from nute burn

Tricky stuff.. the organic form makes it much more quickly bioavailable, causing nute burn

I would flush asap
Brewing compost tea with it changes it's form
 

Richard Drysift

Well-Known Member
If you say your soil dried much faster with city water this would lead me to think that the vast amount of carbonates from probably magnesium and to a much lesser extent calcium changed the structure.

Pour epson salts on your soil and youll get a tighter quicker draining media.
Water quality is important growing in organic soil. Maybe you are right about the mineral content but simpler solution was to just use cleaner water. I have access to a natural aquifer spring which is much better quality h2o than what they pump into my home and bill me for. I also collect rain and dehumidifier water. No issues; no nutrients.
Water quality is not a problem the OP was having; not after just 19 days anyway. I was just curious as to the water source. The burn is likely from too much available nutrient. Watering lightly they should recover in a few weeks.. if it gets worse transplant to a weaker mix with added coco and perlite.
 

fridayfishfry

Well-Known Member
You should check the flower girl fert ingredients. hello? :wall: must... make.. your.. plant.. live.... somehow.. well known members... noobs... ugahh *last gasp
 

sero1991

Well-Known Member
Adjusting the ph of the water you give your plant does not change the ph of the soil. The ph is set by what is in the soil and you need a decent quality soil probe to check it at the root zone. Checking the ph of the soil runoff tells you nothing useful. It's doubtful that bagged soil is that far out ph wise or your plants would be all kinds of colors. FFOF is a fairly stout mix and is ph balanced out of the bag. Adding stuff to the soil could change ph but it would take a whole lot of amendments to move the needle and if that was the case it would move down not up....It makes more sense that you simply put too much available nitrogen to a young plant that didn't need it. Always add extra coco and perlite to bagged soil for seedlings; they can burn easy.
I was asking what kind of water you are giving your plants because chlorinated water can cause a slew of issues in organic soil. If you just post a pic I'm sure we could better diagnose your issue...
It was nute burn. But since then I’ve only been watering with distilled water ph at 6.7. They are coming back and growing faster then ever. All is good. Thanks for your replies bro
 

sero1991

Well-Known Member
Been there.
If the "flower girl" has organic phosphorus
That makes leaves turn yellow from nute burn

Tricky stuff.. the organic form makes it much more quickly bioavailable, causing nute burn

I would flush asap
Brewing compost tea with it changes it's form
I flushed with distilled water ph at 6.7 all is good now and plants are back on schedule. Side branching is really taking off. Thanks for the reply back bro
 
Top