Top of my soil has a white crust, any idea what this is?

N

nwaredstar7

Member
As title says, the top of my soil has a white crust. Anyone know what this is?

Healthy plants yet some on the bottom are yellowing and turning brownish gold in some areas and bottom of the plants are droopy. I'm in week 2 of flowering and just started using schultz bloom nutes. I know all of this is basic information and might not be enough but honestly I don't have all the answers of my grow for you. Best I can type of setup, ask anything that would help me help you and I'll try to help you help me =)
 
Mother's Finest

Mother's Finest

Well-Known Member
If it's not something you put on top of or inside of the soil, it's almost definately fungus. Pics would be necessary to diagnose your plant's problems.
 
N

nwaredstar7

Member
Temp is about 80 F and humidity is pretty low. Can't say exact but it's a pretty dry space. It doesn't look like a fungus, it looks more like a coating on the top of the soil.
 
Mother's Finest

Mother's Finest

Well-Known Member
Sometimes stuff like perlite mixed into the soil will just sit there while the brown, organic matter gets washed downward. Each time you water, more perlite (or whatever) is uncovered.
 
Pipe Dream

Pipe Dream

Well-Known Member
Should I be concerned if I notice fungi or mold growing on top of my soil after I apply Peace of Mind® or Happy Frog® fertilizers?
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Not at all. This is a normal condition. If fact, the fungi and mold are exactly what Peace of Mind® and Happy Frog® fertilizers should be creating. These are beneficial bacteria which help deliver nutrients to your plants. However, you can reduce the appearance of surface mold by mixing Peace of Mind® or Happy Frog® thoroughly into the top few inches of soil surface and water thoroughly[/FONT]

http://www.foxfarmfertilizer.com/faqfox-pom-happyfrog.html#anchorpom4

Maybe this? Justcopy/pasted it could apply to you even if your not using Fox farm products.
 
nomaninsf

nomaninsf

Well-Known Member
I have had this happen before. It's hard to tell for sure what your problem is without a pic but for me it was a buildup of salts in my medium. This was back when I used to use General Hydroponics. There nutes are cheap but have a high salt content and can cause nute lockout if you let them build up. Post a pic
 
N

nwaredstar7

Member
Can't get a pic, but I think it may be salt build up. Was using tap water for first 6 weeks and it's decent quality well water but it's slightly hard. If it's not it may be the perlite buildup. Going to start flushing at week 6, strain is Northern Lights #5 so it's a pretty short flower (6-7 weeks according to Nirvana). While you're here, know when to start adding molasses to feeding? I'm on week 2 day 4 of flowering.
 
nomaninsf

nomaninsf

Well-Known Member
I have had salt buildup before on the surface that didn't affect the plant. If you want to play it safe you can give them a feeding of just water and Clearex, Flora Kleen, or Final Phase to leach those salts out.
 
N

nwaredstar7

Member
In general it doesn't seem to be affecting the plant very much. The plants seemed unhealthy a day ago and I gave them a feeding of nuts at full strength and today they propped up and look beautiful (been pushing them to the edge of just before burning the entire grow to make them as bushy as possible) so I'm thinking now it's just a slight salt buildup, which will be flushed out a week before chop.
 
L

Lost frost

New Member
Sounds more like a insect problem usually when your top of soil is covered in white mold u most likely have insects crawling around in there they are very very tiny but they are visible to the eye, there's several insect killing sprays u can use that are safe on your plants I from experience learned that it happens when your climate is not well controlled, high temps can bring in high humidity and humidity n these plants aren't really friends bc it attracts breeding grounds for insects, get a temp/rh that gives u both temp and humidity so u kno where u always stand at in your climates .
 
Dr.Pecker

Dr.Pecker

Well-Known Member
nwaredstar7 said:
As title says, the top of my soil has a white crust. Anyone know what this is?

Healthy plants yet some on the bottom are yellowing and turning brownish gold in some areas and bottom of the plants are droopy. I'm in week 2 of flowering and just started using schultz bloom nutes. I know all of this is basic information and might not be enough but honestly I don't have all the answers of my grow for you. Best I can type of setup, ask anything that would help me help you and I'll try to help you help me =)
Click to expand...
If your using that 10 50 10 stuff then it most likely is salt build up. Do you have a tds meter? You should have one if you're using synthetic nutrients. I've used that stuff before and had good results but I used calmag and ph adjusted my solution. I reused my soil (bx promix) then had all kinds of problems. I checked my runoff and it was 150 x 10 way higher than what I was putting in. This told me I had salt build up and needed to rinse my soil. It probably took 25 gallons of water to rinse out five gallons worth of soil. you can get a tds meter for around $15.
 
Flash63

Flash63

Well-Known Member
Get your self a E.C.meter and check the effluent,sounds like you have build up of salts.
 
Kingrow1

Kingrow1

Well-Known Member
Get this in my promix but with that its just whatever source of lime they use which is the salt build up not my ferts although ferts dont make it much better.
 
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