Possible deficiency super soil

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Drbud78

Member
Soil: bottom 1/2 super soil made from "nature's living soil" concentrate mixed with bushdoctor cocoloco. Top 1/2 cocoloco. This was mixed about a month before transplant.
Lights: hps 400w open hood and 200w draw LED
Temp: floor 67-72 canopy around 77-79
Hemidity: 30-40% or so.
Water pH:6.5 well water 55 ppm.
Supplimenting with blackstap molasses 1-2 tap/gallon every watering .ppm 160-215
Water: approx. Every 3 days
Flowering: flipped 11/22 and female showed 5-7 days later. So about 32 days into flowering or 25 days since sexed.

Strain: Colorado seed inc. Guptilla 8-9 week flower.

First three pics are my small plant that didn't stretch much after flipping the switch. It has recently shown some leaf issues .Started with a couple copper spots on middle leaves and has extended a bit to side leaves. About 2 weeks ago

Next pic: some weird spotting only on one branch. Rest of plant looks nice a green and healthy. The spots are new growth and have been there with no improvement or worsening for a couple of weeks.

Questions I have: since my grow is organic, should I top dress it? I worry that I will run out of nutes towards the end. I also thought about making a guano tea. Does it need it or should I ride it out? Is the leaf coloring a deficiency or just a natural progression of flowering. Thanks!

IMG_20181224_173959.jpg IMG_20181224_173943.jpg IMG_20181224_173933.jpg IMG_20181224_174158.jpg
 
WingAK

WingAK

Well-Known Member
Are you PHing your water or is it 6.5 from the tap? All I grow in is organic living soil and when I ph why water my plants look like that I stopped and plants corrected themselves. I would also say do the worm casting tea or guano like you said.
 
Lordhooha

Lordhooha

Well-Known Member
WingAK said:
Are you PHing your water or is it 6.5 from the tap? All I grow in is organic living soil and when I ph why water my plants look like that I stopped and plants corrected themselves. I would also say do the worm casting tea or guano like you said.
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Yep with living soil ph is something you don’t want to screw with especially if your using ph up or down that’s not intended for living soils as you can kill off the critters feeding your plants.
 
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Drbud78

Member
WingAK said:
Are you PHing your water or is it 6.5 from the tap? All I grow in is organic living soil and when I ph why water my plants look like that I stopped and plants corrected themselves. I would also say do the worm casting tea or guano like you said.
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It's 6.5ish from the tap. I don't correct it. Just the well water with added molasses since my water is really soft.
 
WingAK

WingAK

Well-Known Member
Drbud78 said:
It's 6.5ish from the tap. I don't correct it. Just the well water with added molasses since my water is really soft.
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Well then it doesn’t have enough nutrients in the soil I’d suggest your guano tea . Can I ask why you added coco to your living soil? That could be an issue in its self.
 
WingAK

WingAK

Well-Known Member
Also how long did you veg? It takes the plants some time to get used to the organic soil mine are in veg for around 6 weeks before I feel they have correct enough before I flip to flower.
 
WingAK

WingAK

Well-Known Member
572DF419-9028-43D1-BA66-EC0F6633BF0F.jpeg
This is 6 week veg in organic living super soil I will defoliate and flip to flower but this lady’s look super bad the first 4 weeks looked like your plants with all the sporting and stuff I just gave them time and then they took off.
 
D

Drbud78

Member
WingAK said:
Well then it doesn’t have enough nutrients in the soil I’d suggest your guano tea . Can I ask why you added coco to your living soil? That could be an issue in its self.
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I used bushdoctor cocoloco, so it has some Coco in it. Similar to roots organic from my understanding.
 
D

Drbud78

Member
WingAK said:
Also how long did you veg? It takes the plants some time to get used to the organic soil mine are in veg for around 6 weeks before I feel they have correct enough before I flip to flower.
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I vegged in 1 gallon with some of the super soil in bottom. Transplanted too early into 3 gallon and likely had some over watering. They we're only in the 3 gal for approx. 1 1/2 weeks before flipping.
 
WingAK

WingAK

Well-Known Member
So super soil will give you such good smoke it just takes a bit. I always start seeds in my soil then transplant 3 times by then there used to the soil and take off took awhile for me to learn that not very much info on super soil grows but I think it’s the future of growing.
 
Dr. Who

Dr. Who

Well-Known Member
Coco is used in living soils to increase moisture retention. I find it to be not the best thing for my soils....

The pictures of the early on leaves, with edge damage......The mix was fighting a pH issue, locks and blocks.....It recovered from that. I also wonder if you up potted to your "super soil" and simply put them in bloom.....By doing so, the plant had not "set" the pH to it's needs in the new soil.

Or did it?

By using a coco based soil mix. You increased the time moisture levels are higher. What does moisture do to a soil? Lowers pH right?

I feel your issue is due to the inability of the media to actually hold a cannabis happy pH range.....The high moisture of the coco is keeping the media pH a tic lower then it needs.
Looks like some nutrients are being a bit blocked....

"Super Soil" makers that want you to do any "layering". Have you layer with Promix or Sunshine mix... These are PEAT based media's that are better at pH retention when used in a layering situation.

Coco has been used in small amounts in some old school soil mix's.....The old "Moonshine" mix comes to mind.... "Dankness's" updated version does too. It's one small brick to what is in the end, 4+ cf of soil. The mix is a BASE soil - good for about 30 days..

I used the Moonshine mix for a base for awhile.....I dropped the coco and added about 2 gallons of fluffed peat and upped the castings to dbl what Dank did...

Dank used an odd mix of 2 different Kelp extracts, 1 premade fert tea (AN's - blaa) and Age Old organic bloom nutes.....To feed from the get go and until needed by the plant again (bloom) This is a "bloom" soil mix.....

You should always wait 8-10 days from up potting to your final bloom mix pot. Before you flip to bloom lighting times! You want those roots to be moving into the new soil nicely.....As they spread. more nutrition is available and the plant thrives.
 
D

Drbud78

Member
Dr. Who said:
Coco is used in living soils to increase moisture retention. I find it to be not the best thing for my soils....

The pictures of the early on leaves, with edge damage......The mix was fighting a pH issue, locks and blocks.....It recovered from that. I also wonder if you up potted to your "super soil" and simply put them in bloom.....By doing so, the plant had not "set" the pH to it's needs in the new soil.

Or did it?

By using a coco based soil mix. You increased the time moisture levels are higher. What does moisture do to a soil? Lowers pH right?

I feel your issue is due to the inability of the media to actually hold a cannabis happy pH range.....The high moisture of the coco is keeping the media pH a tic lower then it needs.
Looks like some nutrients are being a bit blocked....

"Super Soil" makers that want you to do any "layering". Have you layer with Promix or Sunshine mix... These are PEAT based media's that are better at pH retention when used in a layering situation.

Coco has been used in small amounts in some old school soil mix's.....The old "Moonshine" mix comes to mind.... "Dankness's" updated version does too. It's one small brick to what is in the end, 4+ cf of soil. The mix is a BASE soil - good for about 30 days..

I used the Moonshine mix for a base for awhile.....I dropped the coco and added about 2 gallons of fluffed peat and upped the castings to dbl what Dank did...

Dank used an odd mix of 2 different Kelp extracts, 1 premade fert tea (AN's - blaa) and Age Old organic bloom nutes.....To feed from the get go and until needed by the plant again (bloom) This is a "bloom" soil mix.....

You should always wait 8-10 days from up potting to your final bloom mix pot. Before you flip to bloom lighting times! You want those roots to be moving into the new soil nicely.....As they spread. more nutrition is available and the plant thrives.
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Thanks! I'm learning, and should have waited another week to flip the switch. Growing in supersoil has been much more problematic for me than using bottled nutrients. I also had fewer issues with roots soil than bushdoctor cocoloco.

Is there anything else I should be doing differently for the next 4ish weeks? Increase or lower pH? I measured my tap well water today and it came out 6.8 and with some molasses added to it about 6.5. should I stop using molasses?

I've worried about my super soil running out of nutes, since this was 1 cu ft of cocoloco mixed with a 5 lb concentrate of nature's living soil and not kind soil or a homemade batch .I do have approx 1 lb of that concentrate left that I could use to top dress if that would be beneficial?
 
Dr. Who

Dr. Who

Well-Known Member
Drbud78 said:
Thanks! I'm learning, and should have waited another week to flip the switch. Growing in supersoil has been much more problematic for me than using bottled nutrients. I also had fewer issues with roots soil than bushdoctor cocoloco.

Is there anything else I should be doing differently for the next 4ish weeks? Increase or lower pH? I measured my tap well water today and it came out 6.8 and with some molasses added to it about 6.5. should I stop using molasses?

I've worried about my super soil running out of nutes, since this was 1 cu ft of cocoloco mixed with a 5 lb concentrate of nature's living soil and not kind soil or a homemade batch .I do have approx 1 lb of that concentrate left that I could use to top dress if that would be beneficial?
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You can keep the pH of any in going to waters to where you are now. 6.8 is good.

Molasses. I don't care for adding molasses directly to water used to water plants. All it really does is feed the living bio's.....IF you want to....keep it low dose, say no more then 7.5 ml per gallon, and not every time you water. Maybe once every 2 weeks.....

You might top dress with a little castings to boost some bio activity....
 
A

AllThingsGreen

Member
If you’re having issues with slow drainage and water retention, you could make some LABS (lactobacillus). It should aerate your soil and kill the bad bacteria that like anaerobic condition. It’ll also process some nutrients (like phosphorous) making the bio available to your plants.
 
Kingrow1

Kingrow1

Well-Known Member
AllThingsGreen said:
If you’re having issues with slow drainage and water retention, you could make some LABS (lactobacillus). It should aerate your soil and kill the bad bacteria that like anaerobic condition. It’ll also process some nutrients (like phosphorous) making the bio available to your plants.
Click to expand...
No and to culture what is abundant is the concept of stupidity.

:-)
 
whitebb2727

whitebb2727

Well-Known Member
Oh. I forgot to add that super soil, living soil or whatever you want to call it works better in bigger pots. It's harder to do in smaller pots.

Get some espoma garden tone or down to earth all purpose and some work castings. Too dress a little of each every other week.
 
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