When can I add more nutrients to fix Calcium Deficiency?

Lion-O

Active Member
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I have 4 white widow plants. Room has an average temp of 73 / 69.7 degrees. Humidity is average of 34.3 / 32. Light cycle of MH 600 watt bulb is 18/6, distance of about 12 - 14 inches depending on plant, as differing heights. Fan is large tornado type on low, blowing not directly on plants, but still making them move slightly, 24hrs. It's getting some intake are from a nearby room which is vented to this room, with the duct sitting behind the fan, sort of a cheap intake fan, but utilizing the circulating fan for the room.

As you can see from the pics, one plant in particular has more damage than others, but there does seem to be slight calcium deficiency on all of them. I also believed the dying leaves to have been nutrient burn so I gave them a flush as you can see below.

On 4/21 fed nutes of 2 ml Foliage pro, pro-tekt and organic molasses, 3 ml cal-mag. Ph 6.3, RO water.

On 4/23 I flushed my about four week old white widow plants in veg, as I believed they had nutrient burn. Every single time I watered, I added nutrients, so go figure... Soil is Happy Frog with about 1/4 or 1/5 perlite at this time, in about 1/2 gal. pots. Flushed with PH'd water to 6.3, used unfiltered well water.

On the 27th the plants got 2 cups each of 6.45 PH well water, 1 ml of pro-tekt and 1 ml of Foliage pro. Grow buddy software calculated each plant got about .5ml nutrients.

On the 29th watered with well water, 2.5 cups per plant, no nutes, 6.35 PH.

On 5/2, I repotted to 5 gallon pots, with about the same ratio of perlite. Found the soil to be very dry, and roots wound all around the edges of the pot. Watering the plants this time with 6.35 well water, 2 ml of pro-tekt and Foliage pro. With 5 gallon pots they took 14 cups of water until I saw run-off! Then there was quite a bit as I emptied the trays (round trays under each pot) once then saw water again under each. Grow buddy software calculated about 7ml of nutrients.

From what I can tell, it seems the plants have some calcium deficiency, as they pretty much look exactly like the calcium def. photos online. There are scattered brown spots as well as some yellowed dying leaves on bottom of plants. I'm fairly certain it's calcium deficiency, but how long until I notice a turn-around? I don't want to give too much nutes again, and I just watered them a significant amount at their repotting yesterday. Should I give more nutes at the next watering cycle, or keep on the water, feed, water, feed alternating schedule which I SHOULD have been doing all along? Should I be using cal-mag if I'm going to continue with just the well water? I read that foliage pro had everything the plants needed.

Thanks for any input, and yes, if you read my previous post asking for help, these are the same plants, so at least they're still alive! I'm also open to being told I have got it all wrong, but I hope that I've thought about this intelligently so far.
 

Lion-O

Active Member
Coming up on the next watering date so hopefully someone has some insight. As a side note, I topped the plants earlier today, and while I was at it attempted to clone from the tops and a few lower leaf branches that weren't messed up - figured why not, as I was just going to toss the tops anyhow. Added a couple better trims for cloning as I didn't want to waste the soil/effort if the tops didn't take root.
 

Budzbuddha

Well-Known Member
Part of the problem is your containers .... 1/2 gallon is just not a good size . They will or have already become rootbound with this size. The combination of pot size PLUS soil , leaves very little room for rootball.

You feeding and watering seems all over the place. A simple feed , water , feed or feed water water feed schedule is much easier and less STRESSFUL for your plants.

With DYNAGRO products the finished solution Alone is good enough. These nutes are designed to give you a balanced feed at a very low ppm requirement. Its like 550-600 ppm finished solution. When i mix foliage pro with my TAP water - i get 6.3-6.5 ph
( checked with pen ) so NO SPECIAL WATER is required.

Your deficiency is coming from using RO WATER . It is stripped of calcium and magnesium. Reverse osmosis takes out a lot of minerals. That is why you need to ADD CALMAG.

Forget the fancy water. Do your mix ( according to dynagro feed schedule )
1 tsp per gallon water : mix will dial in around 6.3-6.4
If not then .... a little PH up or down will rope it in.
Remember Dynagro Protekt GOES IN WATER FIRST !
It needs to be well mixed BEFORE adding nutes.

Good luck :bigjoint:
 

Lion-O

Active Member
Part of the problem is your containers .... 1/2 gallon is just not a good size . They will or have already become rootbound with this size. The combination of pot size PLUS soil , leaves very little room for rootball.

You feeding and watering seems all over the place. A simple feed , water , feed or feed water water feed schedule is much easier and less STRESSFUL for your plants.

With DYNAGRO products the finished solution Alone is good enough. These nutes are designed to give you a balanced feed at a very low ppm requirement. Its like 550-600 ppm finished solution. When i mix foliage pro with my TAP water - i get 6.3-6.5 ph
( checked with pen ) so NO SPECIAL WATER is required.

Your deficiency is coming from using RO WATER . It is stripped of calcium and magnesium. Reverse osmosis takes out a lot of minerals. That is why you need to ADD CALMAG.

Forget the fancy water. Do your mix ( according to dynagro feed schedule )
1 tsp per gallon water : mix will dial in around 6.3-6.4
If not then .... a little PH up or down will rope it in.
Remember Dynagro Protekt GOES IN WATER FIRST !
It needs to be well mixed BEFORE adding nutes.

Good luck :bigjoint:
Thanks. I stated I moved to 5 gal containers though. I ask about when to add nutes as although the last watering had nutes, I see the damage / leaf issues continuing on newer / top growth. Also, my unfiltered water is from a well high in iron. I don't know if I should water with cal mag on the non nute times or not, and if I should stick with RO water or use the straight well water, or use filtered/softened water which I also have available.
 
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