Calcium Deficiency?

[macaroniNchief]

Hey everyone, I'm on Day 16 of flower and have some issues popping up. I believe its Ca deficiency but not quite sure. The problems started a couple weeks ago. I then found out that my city filters calcium carbonate down to 50 ppm.

I started giving 1/2 doses of calmag in my waterings (tap water) but it doesn't seem to be helping so I'm kinda at a loss. Its kinda hard to see in some of the pics, but there's these little micro specs of red/rust coloration on the yellowed leaves.

Strain: Super Skunk Photos
Soil: FFOF in 3gal fabric pots
Light: RO e680s, 24" @80% power setting
Nutes: GH Flora Trio, GH CaliMagic, Dechlorinator+
Watering: Tap water pH'd to 6.3-6.5 with 10-20% runoff when they're basically bone dry (weighing pots).


Pics from March 28 (DAY 16 FLOWER):

Pics from March 21 (Day 9 Flower)

 

[AdaminCO]

What are your ratios and when was the last time you flushed your soil?

You need to change your watering in flower, don’t wait for bone dry anymore, wait until they’re about half dry and feed. Usually every day for me. Water, feed, water, feed with that line.

 

[Emilya Green]

I see signs of calcium, phosphorus and magnesium deficiencies and that makes me wonder if you are doing the pH correctly. Are you adjusting your pH after all the nutes have been added, immediately before applying it to the plant, or are you pH adjusting your water before all of this happens? Are you applying your nutes at the full recommended strength every other watering?

 

[Buds Buddy]

When you say you're giving 1/2 doses of Cal-Mag, how much is that ? I use GH Cali-Magic & use 2 mil. per gal. in Veg & 3 mil. per gal. in flower. I tried not using Cal Mag in my current grow & the same thing that's happening to you, happened to me. I put the Cal Mag back in & things are already looking better.

 

[macaroniNchief]

What are your ratios and when was the last time you flushed your soil?

You need to change your watering in flower, don’t wait for bone dry anymore, wait until they’re about half dry and feed. Usually every day for me. Water, feed, water, feed with that line.

With ratios, I believe you're talking about nutrients? Last feeding I gave them 0.27 mL/L GRO, 1.1 mL/L MICRO, 1.33 mL/L BLOOM. I'm basically just following the "drain to waste" schedule from General Hydroponics and my most recent feeding was their recipe for Week 2 of Flower.

For flushing, I've never flushed. I do have a bottle of florakleen though but I haven't tried it out yet.

Thanks for the tip about watering. My pots are bone dry on Day 3, so I'll try out alternating watering/feeding them every 2 days.

 

[zigzagman1960]

Needs 5ml/gal cal mag. Are you running LEDs? If so you need your tent at 84f.

 

[macaroniNchief]

I see signs of calcium, phosphorus and magnesium deficiencies and that makes me wonder if you are doing the pH correctly. Are you adjusting your pH after all the nutes have been added, immediately before applying it to the plant, or are you pH adjusting your water before all of this happens? Are you applying your nutes at the full recommended strength every other watering?

So I've been alternating water/feed/water/feed following the "Drain to Waste" schedule for the GH flora series. I've been giving them the full dose for quite awhile now. At the beginning of veg I was only giving 1/2 doses for the first few feedings. I've never flushed my plants either so that may be an issue too.

Here's how I've been mixing the nutrients:

1. Add dechlorinator+ to tap water
2. Add GH Micro
3. Add GH Gro
4. Add GH Bloom
5. Wait 5-10 minutes
6. pH water to 6.3-6.5. At this point, I usually apply to plants within 5-30 minutes.

 

[macaroniNchief]

When you say you're giving 1/2 doses of Cal-Mag, how much is that ? I use GH Cali-Magic & use 2 mil. per gal. in Veg & 3 mil. per gal. in flower. I tried not using Cal Mag in my current grow & the same thing that's happening to you, happened to me. I put the Cal Mag back in & things are already looking better.

I'm also using GH CaliMagic and I've been giving them 2 mL per gallon for the last few weeks. I'm also using tap water but from what I've found online, my city water is low on calcium carbonate.

 

[macaroniNchief]

Needs 5ml/gal cal mag. Are you running LEDs? If so you need your tent at 84f.

Been giving 2 mL/gal cal mag into my tap water. And yeah I'm running LEDs...84 F is damn hot, I'd have to add a space heater.

Right now my tent's running like 76 lights on and 68 lights off. Maybe I should raise the light a little and bump it up to 100% power to generate some more heat. Right now the light (680 W) is running at 80% power, 21-24" from tops.

 

[Emilya Green]

I agree with the others.. try increasing the calmag and give it with every watering. When using it with nutes, add the calmag right after the dechlorinator. You really don't need to dechlorinate either, plants actually need a little chlorine.

 

[zigzagman1960]

Been giving 2 mL/gal cal mag into my tap water. And yeah I'm running LEDs...84 F is damn hot, I'd have to add a space heater.

Right now my tent's running like 76 lights on and 68 lights off. Maybe I should raise the light a little and bump it up to 100% power to generate some more heat. Right now the light (680 W) is running at 80% power, 21-24" from tops.

5ml every gallon every feeding every watering. 84f when the lights are on for proper LST.

 

[macaroniNchief]

I agree with the others.. try increasing the calmag and give it with every watering. When using it with nutes, add the calmag right after the dechlorinator. You really don't need to dechlorinate either, plants actually need a little chlorine.

Cool thanks. Definitely upping the Calmag dosage. I'll also start adding it into my feeding days in the correct order. Up to this point, I've only given it on water days.

I'll probably ditch the dechlor as well. I think I might've got sold by the grow shop guy on that one lol

 

[macaroniNchief]

5ml every gallon every feeding every watering. 84f when the lights are on for proper LST.

Yep will do on the calmag. For the temperature, I'll close the AC vents in that room and see how much that raises the temperatures. I'm really sketched out about running a space heater when I'm away at work

 

[zigzagman1960]

this is the type I use in my tent. No exposed heating elements.

 

[AdaminCO]

Scrap the dechlorinator, get some ascorbic acid (vitamin C) powder instead.
Look for the white, orange, and black bag on a popular online shopping app.

Chlorine is needed “for unknown reasons” according to everything I’ve read. Honestly haven’t been able to see what the actual benefits are to anything relative to chlorine and growing.

I run 3-5mL/gal of cal Mag once a week as directed from most brands. When youre in Veg, you’re usually using it every feed because you’re watering every 4-7 days, but in flower you’re usually watering every day, so it becomes too much in my experience, so I revert back to once a week, and also alternate feed water each time.

With the nute line you’re using, I highly recommend flushing at flip, and about 5-7 weeks in flower after the “stall”, slightly into the “swell”.

Bottled nutes have the tenancy to build up unused nutrient/salt buildup. Think of it as a blackhead in a pore, but in reverse. That blackhead (salt) is preventing your minerals from getting to the plant through your roots.

A good flush will clear those blockages (lock outs) out and if followed by a full fresh feed, in my experience provides a “reset” and from what I’ve observed is a good boost to the next stages.

I run 5 gal felt and will do 3 gallons of pHd water and 1 gallon of full strength feed. Sometime a myka (Great White) or a humic acid (URB) or both with it.

I don’t flush before harvest or any of that, but certain parts of my nutrient line will require a few flushes to prevent the dreaded lockout issues.

This is what I’ve found to work best, but I’m one of the MC guys still hanging on and making it work.

You’ll get it figured out. You have a good group of folks right here to get you there.

 

[AdaminCO]

Cool thanks. Definitely upping the Calmag dosage. I'll also start adding it into my feeding days in the correct order. Up to this point, I've only given it on water days.

I'll probably ditch the dechlor as well. I think I might've got sold by the grow shop guy on that one lol

Happens to all of us.

 

[Buds Buddy]

I'm going to agree

5ml every gallon every feeding every watering. 84f when the lights are on for proper LST.

I have to agree with you on the Temps; although all the science (lol) says otherwise. When I first started growing my temps were always in the low to mid 80's & I grew big plants. Then I dialed everything in 77F & 65% RH, etc. & my plants shrunk. They were only getting 1/2 the size. About a week ago I removed my AC & my plants have almost doubled in size in that week. I'm done with science until they make a VPD chart that is specifically for LED's. I think those charts are for HPS. Right now my tent runs 81 - 85F & my plants are now perky & happy. They didn't look near as good at 77F.
They say it's the leaf temp that actually matters. Problem is, how do you check it? I was told the red light from a laser thermometer can cause the plant to Hermie.

 

[Buds Buddy]

Scrap the dechlorinator, get some ascorbic acid (vitamin C) powder instead.
Look for the white, orange, and black bag on a popular online shopping app.

Chlorine is needed “for unknown reasons” according to everything I’ve read. Honestly haven’t been able to see what the actual benefits are to anything relative to chlorine and growing.

I run 3-5mL/gal of cal Mag once a week as directed from most brands. When youre in Veg, you’re usually using it every feed because you’re watering every 4-7 days, but in flower you’re usually watering every day, so it becomes too much in my experience, so I revert back to once a week, and also alternate feed water each time.

With the nute line you’re using, I highly recommend flushing at flip, and about 5-7 weeks in flower after the “stall”, slightly into the “swell”.

Bottled nutes have the tenancy to build up unused nutrient/salt buildup. Think of it as a blackhead in a pore, but in reverse. That blackhead (salt) is preventing your minerals from getting to the plant through your roots.

A good flush will clear those blockages (lock outs) out and if followed by a full fresh feed, in my experience provides a “reset” and from what I’ve observed is a good boost to the next stages.

I run 5 gal felt and will do 3 gallons of pHd water and 1 gallon of full strength feed. Sometime a myka (Great White) or a humic acid (URB) or both with it.

I don’t flush before harvest or any of that, but certain parts of my nutrient line will require a few flushes to prevent the dreaded lockout issues.

This is what I’ve found to work best, but I’m one of the MC guys still hanging on and making it work.

You’ll get it figured out. You have a good group of folks right here to get you there.

You Flush with Mega Crop ? Just wondering because I've used it since Ver.2 & still use it today; but have never flushed. To be honest, I never flush unless I see a toxicity. I guess you're pretty much doing preventive maintenance to make sure you don't get a tox. ?

 

[AdaminCO]

You Flush with Mega Crop ? Just wondering because I've used it since Ver.2 & still use it today; but have never flushed. To be honest, I never flush unless I see a toxicity. I guess you're pretty much doing preventive maintenance to make sure you don't get a tox. ?

Yes I do at least after the swell. It might be a waste, but not all of MC is amino chelated, so I figure do it as a preventative.
Now I don’t do the 3x per gallon thing, usually run 2x and another gallon with feed. More of a reset than a flush I guess.

On the temps… I found an article stating that the 75F was based off HPS and when using LED the sweet spot is 84F. VPD shouldn’t change, the RH would be a bit higher. I’m usually at 82-84F, 45-50% during the day, 72-75F at night.

“There is a prevailing consensus that 75 °F is the ideal ambient temperature to grow Cannabis under HPS lighting without CO2 supplementation. This Experiment result indicates that an 84 °F ambient air temperature is required to achieve the same optimal leaf surface temperatures when using plant-optimized LED lighting-- and that a 75 °F ambient air temperature with LED lighting would not achieve optimal leaf surface temperatures, slowing metabolic rates and leaf and flower production.”

 

[SmokingWings]

I'll probably ditch the dechlor as well. I think I might've got sold by the grow shop guy on that one lol

The idea of not using chlorinated city water for outdoor or indoor plant growing has been around for about a 100 years, give or take a decade. Way back when many people thought that the chlorine would eventually kill the plants as it built up in the soil. Then as botanists worked out the relationship between plants and soil microorganisms it became common to believe that the chlorine killed off large populations of the microbes.

The "grow shop guy" gets blamed for a lot of things that really is not his or her fault.

You can stop de-chlorinating the 'city' water if you want. Or continue to remove the chlorine. The plants will grow either way.

Chlorine is needed “for unknown reasons” according to everything I’ve read. Honestly haven’t been able to see what the actual benefits are to anything relative to chlorine and growing.

I have come across the same thing in searching for info on chlorine as it affects growing any kind of plant. Chlorine as used to treat drinking water does not occur naturally; it is a man-made process involving common salt.

Changed the question to the importance of salt for plants and that answer made some sense. All plants need very small amounts of salt to remain healthy.

Is it possible that the process of making chlorine is not 100% perfect and as a result a very small amount of salt still remains and that is what the plant needs or uses?

The problem is when our continued use of salt based fertilizers builds up in the soil. Then we have to remove them through some sort of washing or flushing and bring the soil back to where it was with just a small amount of chlorine or salt.