Very hungry plant, how to feed without overloading organic medium?

First time organic and my medium was trash lol. I got to 5 weeks and the plant was looking very healthy on tap water and seasol once a week.

Literally overnight I started getting general chlorosis so I top dressed 1/2 a cup dr greenthumbs bud and bloom with 2tbsp 4-2-4 powder.

23rd April, nice and green, but minor fade on those biggest fan leaves, I ignored..

25 April, noticed some Interveinal chlorosis and very fast general N fade setting in. This is when I top dressed


27 April, setting in quick


I fed a 12:2:11 organic liquid compost that morning at 1200ppm with some Epsom (tap per gallon)

Today 30 April, heavy N fade, no necrosis.


I've never had anything so accelerated at all, and I'm inexperienced with organic mediums. None of my plants had this heavy of fade previously, even at harvest.

What I would like to know is how I should feed from now on without overloading the medium. It has had a hefty top dress of Dr greenthumbs bud and bloom mixed with 4-2-4 on the 25th and a heavy feed of organic liquid compost on the 27th.

I don't want to overload the medium and lock out, as going from tap water to a top dress and feed with liquid fertilizer in a few days already seems heavy. pH is good. Slurry test 6.6, cheap soil probe just over 6 (only a $25 Meter though)

How should I go about correcting such rapid fade without overloading the medium? It's is textbook N fade with interveinal chlorosus present on a few leaves from mag def from my experience. perfectly uniform on the older leaves, but the whole plant is generally yellowing fast. My organic inexperience is showing. Salts were so much easier lol.

If you would like a detailed medium breakdown I can provide. Environment is spot on. 50 humidity lights on, 65% during the 4 hour off period. Temps 28c day, 21c night.

I don't think organic medium a 3 gallon pot was a good idea.

I have canna terra flores (2-1-3-1), organic liquid compost (10:2:12:6), super phosphate (0:9:0:11), dry organic 3:1:4:1, dry organic 4-2-4, Epsom salts, potash (0:0:41) and dr greenthumbs bud and bloom available as my stash.

Try giving a simple aact; nothing that is bottled just a 3 ingredient tea …something like:
2 cups worm castings
1 Tbs molasses
2 tbs kelp meal
Add to 2-3 gal clean water
Bubble vigorously for 36+ hrs and serve

Adding ewc as a top dress will help too but a brewed tea will go to work right away. It’s likely that since you are giving npk the ph is just out of range for N. Adding active compost in an already broken down form should help. You probably found the root cause: you want a big ass pot for bloom phase. Go bigger next run (7-10g is good) and add more fresh compost to your mix when you do. Consider a liquid fish w/seaweed like Neptune’s harvest or equivalent weekly to get this one to ripening phase. Might be a little late to do now but I also suggest a slow release fertilizer like composted chicken manure and Jobes organic spikes when you build your final size bloom pots. I put two into each of my bloom containers; they feed for 8 weeks that is if you can keep your mix highly active w/ microbes. That’s where the compost comes in; nearly impossible to “overload”…It’s the key to everything.

Richard Drysift said:

Try giving a simple aact; nothing that is bottled just a 3 ingredient tea …something like:
2 cups worm castings
1 Tbs molasses
2 tbs kelp meal
Add to 2-3 gal clean water
Bubble vigorously for 36+ hrs and serve

Adding ewc as a top dress will help too but a brewed tea will go to work right away. It’s likely that since you are giving npk the ph is just out of range for N. Adding active compost in an already broken down form should help. You probably found the root cause: you want a big ass pot for bloom phase. Go bigger next run (7-10g is good) and add more fresh compost to your mix when you do. Consider a liquid fish w/seaweed like Neptune’s harvest or equivalent weekly to get this one to ripening phase. Might be a little late to do now but I also suggest a slow release fertilizer like composted chicken manure and Jobes organic spikes when you build your final size bloom pots. I put two into each of my bloom containers; they feed for 8 weeks that is if you can keep your mix highly active w/ microbes. That’s where the compost comes in; nearly impossible to “overload”…It’s the key to everything.

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I'm thinking of an altered way of the jobe spikes on my outdoor bed and that is why I started following you anyway dammit

this is the key, always topdress on a schedule. when you see the deficiency its too late to topdress and its gonna take a couple of weeks till you get enough available nutrients in your soil.

Richard Drysift said:

Try giving a simple aact; nothing that is bottled just a 3 ingredient tea …something like:
2 cups worm castings
1 Tbs molasses
2 tbs kelp meal
Add to 2-3 gal clean water
Bubble vigorously for 36+ hrs and serve

Adding ewc as a top dress will help too but a brewed tea will go to work right away. It’s likely that since you are giving npk the ph is just out of range for N. Adding active compost in an already broken down form should help. You probably found the root cause: you want a big ass pot for bloom phase. Go bigger next run (7-10g is good) and add more fresh compost to your mix when you do. Consider a liquid fish w/seaweed like Neptune’s harvest or equivalent weekly to get this one to ripening phase. Might be a little late to do now but I also suggest a slow release fertilizer like composted chicken manure and Jobes organic spikes when you build your final size bloom pots. I put two into each of my bloom containers; they feed for 8 weeks that is if you can keep your mix highly active w/ microbes. That’s where the compost comes in; nearly impossible to “overload”…It’s the key to everything.

Click to expand...

Thank you. I didn't even think about a tea. I have those items here. I'll give it a go when I get home.

crimsonecho said:

this is the key, always topdress on a schedule. when you see the deficiency its too late to topdress and its gonna take a couple of weeks till you get enough available nutrients in your soil.

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For sure...partly the reason I thought I would tie it over with some liquid compost. It smells like rotten dick skins. I'm holding my breath in both ways, for results and for the smell.

Live and learn.

VincenzioVonHook said:

For sure...partly the reason I thought I would tie it over with some liquid compost. It smells like rotten dick skins. I'm holding my breath in both ways, for results and for the smell.

Live and learn.

Click to expand...

yeah whenever i get slightly lazy bam fucking fade in mid flower and stuff. terrible situation. for 3 gallons you can topdress every 2 weeks for heavy feeders from start to finish ime but every plant is different so running clones help in dialing it in.

crimsonecho said:

yeah whenever i get slightly lazy bam fucking fade in mid flower and stuff. terrible situation. for 3 gallons you can topdress every 2 weeks for heavy feeders from start to finish ime but every plant is different so running clones help in dialing it in.

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I'd say this will definitely effect the overall output...right at a crucial stage. I've never seen fade this quick at all, but it was quite a useful learning experience and intersting see the actions (or lack of) effect the plant systemically.

I assumed it was a 5 gallon pot due to the 300mm diameter and 235mm height (equal dia to my 5 Gal fabrics) and was even hesitant at that size, but my simple ass took no notice of elementary geometry at the time. It might be 300mm at the top, but it's 200mm down the bottom...that taper makes it just under 3 gallon, not 5.

Pot choice mega fail for organic medium. Rookie mistake. Never go by eye with pot size (especially considering it has 10.5L printed on the bottom for Christ's sake, I was 8.5L short of my initial estimate of 5 Gal).

VincenzioVonHook said:

For sure...partly the reason I thought I would tie it over with some liquid compost. It smells like rotten dick skins. I'm holding my breath in both ways, for results and for the smell.

Live and learn.

Click to expand...

Fucksake man, Rotten Dick Skins. That is a good one.

Melquides said:

Fucksake man, Rotten Dick Skins. That is a good one.

Click to expand...

That's the name of my new line of organic nutrients... They'll be Rotten Dick Skins' Organic Cannabis Smorgasbord™

And I'll create super cartoony packaging featuring the face of fictitious Rotten Dick Skin...I picture him as a cross between your typical dirtbag hippie crossed with a slack-jawed yokel.

Why has none mentioned the simple and effective fish emulsion and epsoms salt foliar spray? 1 tsp fis, 1/4 tsp epsoms salt and 1 quart water. Mist well one time for two days.

Careful with teas. Sometimes over heat organics. I suggest using dry as an amendment. And top dressing is a 5-6 week routine for my soils. Water solubles are used to push growth. Not compensate for depleted soils.

Good luck.

LeastExpectedGrower said:

That's the name of my new line of organic nutrients... They'll be Rotten Dick Skins' Organic Cannabis Smorgasbord™

And I'll create super cartoony packaging featuring the face of fictitious Rotten Dick Skin...I picture him as a cross between your typical dirtbag hippie crossed with a slack-jawed yokel.

Click to expand...

Can i Please design A lable? Maybe a Middle Age'd Cougar driving a 70 SS El Camino, and the back is filled with various skinned and unskinned Wangs. Kinda Heavy metal style Label Art.

Melquides said:

Can i Please design A lable? Maybe a Middle Age'd Cougar driving a 70 SS El Camino, and the back is filled with various skinned and unskinned Wangs. Kinda Heavy metal style Label Art. View attachment 5126480

Click to expand...

Interesting concept...middle aged cougar, muscle car, cheap sex.

I'll be in my bunk considering the options.

I top dress once a week with a few tbsp of Dr Earth Homegrown during veg, and Flowergirl for flower. I scratch the surface of the soil, top dress with ammendments, then use the same tool to mix the dry ammendments into the top layer of soil.

I mix Neptune's Harvest Fish Fertilizer (2-4-1) @ 2tbsp per gallon, Liquid Seaweed (I have Neptune's Harvest and Bio Bizz that I rotate), and I add a tsp of fulvic acid (Ful-Power) Then I lightly water the top layer with the soil/dry ammendments mixed up. On this grow at week 3 of flower, I ground up some langbeinite into a powder, and mixed that into my water as well. This is in 3 gallons of soil.

This is my second grow in the 3 gallon sips, but so far so good. Bigger pots are definitely the way to go, but im looking for something I can move around easily. @MICHI-CAN made a good point about foliar.