Plant Diagnosis: Metallic Sheen, Burnt Tips

A friend of mine is growing eight plants indoors. I believe they are about five weeks old. They're in makeshift one-gallon pots (will transplant to makeshift five-gallon fabric pots in a couple days). He waters them every other day at the moment. Tap water pH'd to 6.7 with ascorbic acid (about 0.6g per gallon, starting pH and ppm is ~8.4 and ~150, respectively). The growing medium is I think 33% perlite 67% FFOF. No nutrients yet.

The problems occurred before he started adding the ascorbic acid. The strain that has the problem is Jack Herer. I forgot who the breeder is. He is also growing Amnesia Haze by CBD Seeds and Purple Paralysis by Cream of the Crop Seeds, but those strains are not exhibiting any deficiencies or toxicities.

The symptoms are metallic sheen everywhere except new growth and burnt tips/edges and interveinal chlorosis around the middle of the plant. The first pair of true leaves have yellowed and fallen off. Could anyone help us diagnose what the problem is and give advice about how to fix it?

By the way, if the problem is a deficiency, I'd like to make the required nutrient salt myself rather than buy a product. I have a decent background in chemistry, but I'm not sure which nutrients to avoid (I could make sulfates, phosphates, and nitrates) in order to not worsen the problem with further toxicity. So if anyone could give me advice for that as well, I greatly appreciate it.

Thank you in advance.

Have you sprayed anything on the plants

Indacouch said:

Have you sprayed anything on the plants

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No, he hasn't. He doesn't like to foliar feed.

Ascorbic acid is found in its highest concentrations after administration in the chloroplasts of the cell . How does he calculate the dose? It sounds from the effect it's a little hot.

hotrodharley said:

Ascorbic acid is found in its highest concentrations after administration in the chloroplasts of the cell . How does he calculate the dose? It sounds from the effect it's a little hot.

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I calculated the dose for him. I measured the pH of his tap water with different concentrations of ascorbic acid and extrapolated a graph. I then used that graph to estimate how much would be needed to get a pH of 6.2. Although, his pH was 6.7 when I measured today, so I suppose his water has become even more basic since I last tested it.

edit: However, I'm sure the ascorbic acid isn't the cause of this specific problem because the problem started before that. I told him to start using it because I assumed adjusting the pH would help his problem.

Metallic Sheen. Its sounds like a band, I like it

K another thing I notice is the fact your growing different strains what works for one can actually burn another .............on top of that ffof has had a lot of bad batches going out this year some batches are very hot and some are needing to be supplemented with cal/mag I use ffof myself and I'm very unhappy this year I ended up with some def myself As far as ph goes it should buffer itself with no adjusting needed I never ph my soil grows in ffof and it buffers out fine

Indacouch said:

K another thing I notice is the fact your growing different strains what works for one can actually burn another .............on top of that ffof has had a lot of bad batches going out this year some batches are very hot and some are needing to be supplemented with cal/mag I use ffof myself and I'm very unhappy this year I ended up with some def myself As far as ph goes it should buffer itself with no adjusting needed I never ph my soil grows in ffof and it buffers out fine

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Yeah, he had pretty bad magnesium deficiency on his last run. I grow soilless, and he had to supplement just about the same amount of magnesium as I did for the same strain.

xx0numb0xx said:

Yeah, he had pretty bad magnesium deficiency on his last run. I grow soilless, and he had to supplement just about the same amount of magnesium as I did for the same strain.

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Yeah I have had great results with ffof in the past but this year I had def my friends had def It sucked I did some research and found out fox farms is getting materials from different places and quality control is lacking big time ..........I had about 15 bags in my potting shed that were old unopened bags of ffof. I used them didn't have no issues at all ........I didn't have enough so bought more to finish planting warlike this year Every damn plant in the new bags of ffof started def I had to correct. But I started making my own mix this year and it's kicking ass so next year bye bye ffof I'm making my own mix from now on for penny's on the dollar

What's the npk of the dose you are setting for him? I think it needs more P K, it's best to get proper nutrients ( not taking the piss) for the proper job because of other minerals and stuff that's added from proper nutrients. I am pritty sure I had the same problem with my current afghani freebie and she basically refused to produce flowers untill a good leaching, all purpose with sea weed extract. I'm no expert just trying to advice

P.S allways have this chart handy

Labs Dexter said:

What's the npk of the dose you are setting for him? I think it needs more P K, it's best to get proper nutrients ( not taking the piss) for the proper job because of other minerals and stuff that's added from proper nutrients. I am pritty sure I had the same problem with my current afghani freebie and she basically refused to produce flowers untill a good leaching, all purpose with sea weed extract. I'm no expert just trying to advice

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He hasn't fertilized yet because he's afraid of causing more problems. So you think they need more P and K? That's a bit of a tricky combination for me because I don't have potassium hydroxide. I suppose I'll just tell him to buy seaweed extract and maybe add a dash of copper phosphate because I'm inclined to believe that there's a copper deficiency. Thank you for the advice.

xx0numb0xx said:

He hasn't fertilized yet because he's afraid of causing more problems. So you think they need more P and K? That's a bit of a tricky combination for me because I don't have potassium hydroxide. I suppose I'll just tell him to buy seaweed extract and maybe add a dash of copper phosphate because I'm inclined to believe that there's a copper deficiency. Thank you for the advice.

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I would water it well first until you achieve atleast 50% run off because it could be a lock out instead of a deficiency, and your welcome buddy hope it helps.