Yellowing Tips - Need Advice - [See Pics]

plants are in potting soil supplemented with espoma organic slow release nutrients

a nitrogen deficiency would be my first guess, but I would also hear some other opinions. How much have you been feeding? Light or heavy?

gliss said:

a nitrogen deficiency would be my first guess, but I would also hear some other opinions. How much have you been feeding? Light or heavy?

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no feeding at all besides a transplant with fresh soil with espoma organic ferts in it every 3-4 weeks (they get put into bigger pots etc)

that fertilizer has lots of chicken poop and blood meal in it so there should be lots of nitrogen I think, maybe too much even?

when the plants get watered there's lots of run off each time, do you think that can leech all the nitrogen out of the soil?

~420temp~ said:

no feeding at all besides a transplant with fresh soil with espoma organic ferts in it every 3-4 weeks (they get put into bigger pots etc)

that fertilizer has lots of chicken poop and blood meal in it so there should be lots of nitrogen I think, maybe too much even?

when the plants get watered there's lots of run off each time, do you think that can leech all the nitrogen out of the soil?

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absolutely. I think the runoff might be the issue here. How much runoff are you talking about? It sounds like quite a bit from the way you mentioned it. I'm sure you've heard the concept of flushing your plants, it sounds similar to what is happening here to you, just maybe not as severe -- you might be flushing nutrients out of your soil when you water.

It definitely does look like a deficiency of some kind and since it is yellowing from the tips inward with no curl it looks like it lacks nitrogen to me.

soil PH is reading at 7.5 - 8

could that be causing the yellowing tips or is it most likely nitrogen deficiency?

Isn't 8 a bit high for soil? Posting just to follow.

~420temp~ said:

soil PH is reading at 7.5 - 8

could that be causing the yellowing tips or is it most likely nitrogen deficiency?

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7.5 - 8 is too high for soil for sure, and you're completely right - a high PH could be causing your plant to lockout nitrogen and/or others. I would try bumping it down to around 6.5.

Do you PH when you water? You could try adjusting the PH of your water to around 6.5 with some PH down, or if you don't have any PH specific products then some vinegar or lemon juice will lower the PH of water quickly. I would water the plants with this water in the 6.0 - 6.5 range and you should see improvement. Just be sure not to overdo it with the adjustment!

Keep in mind, 2.4% of your overall 4% N, is water insoluble...it takes time for this N to become available to the plant. For sure your pH is too high, in the same breath N is awfully hard to lock out, even at your pH. Slow and steady wins this race; don't knee jerk your way into more problems.