Can someone help diagnose please?

[Macdaddy420]

Hey guys, I’d really appreciate it if anyone is able to help me figure out what is going on with my plants, I have 3 fem gorilla glues that are not looking super healthy at the moment. They are in a compost/manure/soil mix under 18/6 lighting. Only recently started to lose leaves and look unhealthy. Mostly just given water and occasional small dose of nutrients.

I have been monitoring pH with watering and kept it between 6-7pH.
Given a watering today with water pH around 6.5
First 4 photos are from today, last photo is from a week ago when they were looking happy still.
Thanks for any advice/help in advance!

 

[Roy Growin]

Looks like something is seriously wrong in the root zone
I would either take clones and start again or repot into a different mix as a last resort

 

[Macdaddy420]

Looks like something is seriously wrong in the root zone
I would either take clones and start again or repot into a different mix as a last resort

I’ve had little black flies in the tent, I believe they are fungus gnats? Can that be the cause of the leaf deterioration?

 

[Roy Growin]

I’ve had little black flies in the tent, I believe they are fungus gnats? Can that be the cause of the leaf deterioration?

If the soil is infested with their larvae, yes they can do some damage to the ultra-fine root hairs
Top water your pots with 1-3% H2O2 to kill them, repeat after 3-5 days - suspect your plants will enjoy the additional Oxygen anyway
But really - no, I've never seen sciarid flies cause that much damage

 

[Absorber]

I’ve had little black flies in the tent, I believe they are fungus gnats? Can that be the cause of the leaf deterioration?

I agree with @Roy Growin when you up potted the plants probably looked good for a week or so until the roots grew into the new medium.
If you have a ppm tester id top water a pot with water only and test the ppm run off
Id hazard a guess it will be well over 1200ppm .
I believe your soil is to hot nutrient wise.

 

[Absorber]

I had a similar thing ,I used a similar soil mix on my Canuk comparative grow in my signature, the ones in SIP pots I ended up flushing the pots with water until the run off tested below 900ppm
Then it took a couple of weeks to adjust.

 

[Macdaddy420]

I agree with @Roy Growin when you up potted the plants probably looked good for a week or so until the roots grew into the new medium.
If you have a ppm tester id top water a pot with water only and test the ppm run off
Id hazard a guess it will be well over 1200ppm .
I believe your soil is to hot nutrient wise.

I took your advice and watered to run off with 6.5 pH water. Ppm reading was 780. Would repotting to a less hot mix be a potential solution? Last two watering have been water only

 

[Absorber]

I took your advice and watered to run off with 6.5 pH water. Ppm reading was 780. Would repotting to a less hot mix be a potential solution? Last two watering have been water only

780ppm doesn't sound to bad ,I would have expected it higher what was ph run off did you test that aswell?
Repotting wouldn't hurt so long as you can manage it without damaging them .

 

[Macdaddy420]

780ppm doesn't sound to bad ,I would have expected it higher what was ph run off did you test that aswell?
Repotting wouldn't hurt so long as you can manage it without damaging them .

pH reading was around 5.7 soil mix may be to acidic after all

 

[Absorber]

pH reading was around 5.7 soil mix may be to acidic after all

Yea mine was the opposite too high i got it down flushing with 6.2pH water it was at 9
You might be suffering from lockout due to ph .
But im sure there's a better way to amend your pH than what I did. Indoor dirt grows are new for me im a hydro fan .

 

[Absorber]

What's say you @Gee64

 

[Gee64]

Ouch, that looks like a root issue. Possibly unfinished compost or uncomposted manure.

What kind of nutes did you use, were they organic or synthetic?

Synthetics can sever your myco link.

What brand of myco did you use?

How long have they been in these pots?

 

[Macdaddy420]

Ouch, that looks like a root issue. Possibly unfinished compost or uncomposted manure.

What kind of nutes did you use, were they organic or synthetic?

Synthetics can sever your myco link.

What brand of myco did you use?

How long have they been in these pots?

Yeah I’m getting a vibe it’s a root problem uhh I used a little bit of synthetic but I’ve only given them one feed since repotting.
I didn’t use any myco and they’ve been in those pots for around 3-4 weeks

 

[Wastei]

Plants need a complete plant food from start to finish to flourish. High amount of nitrogen from urea or ammonium nitrate is toxic for Cannabis plants.

It's more important to know if the soil mix is amended with things like gypsum and lime to raise pH of what I believe is a peat based soil mix? What's actually in it? What does it say on the bag?

Get the plants raised on saucers and remove the sand from the trays. Use blue/yellow sticky traps to catch fungus gnats, mounted vertically.

I think you need to look over your watering practice, it's important to not let the pots dry out to much between waterings and have enough aeration from inerts like perlite in the soil mix. It's hard to get it right with all the mixed information on the internet and this site.

What I did in the beginning was testing different watering techniques and styles of growing like hydro to get a better grasp and understanding where's the line goes for over watering to better understand the "Goldilock" zone of not to wet and no to dry.

One thing I've learned growing hydro was that the plant doesn't need a wet and dry cycle and you're better of spending your time on better understanding on how to increase the rate and frequency of feedings no matter the growing method.

Cheers!

 

[Macdaddy420]

Plants need a complete plant food from start to finish to flourish. High amount of nitrogen from urea or ammonium nitrate is toxic for Cannabis plants.

It's more important to know if the soil mix is amended with things like gypsum and lime to raise pH of what I believe is a peat based soil mix? What's actually in it? What does it say on the bag?

Get the plants raised on saucers and remove the sand from the trays. Use blue/yellow sticky traps to catch fungus gnats, mounted vertically.

I think you need to look over your watering practice, it's important to not let the pots dry out to much between waterings and have enough aeration from inerts like perlite in the soil mix. It's hard to get it right with all the mixed information on the internet and this site.

What I did in the beginning was testing different watering techniques and styles of growing like hydro to get a better grasp and understanding where's the line goes for over watering to better understand the "Goldilock" zone of not to wet and no to dry.

One thing I've learned growing hydro was that the plant doesn't need a wet and dry cycle and you're better of spending your time on better understanding on how to increase the rate and frequency of feedings no matter the growing method.

Cheers!

Thanks for the information.
As I live in Australia it can be difficult to find the best nutrients and soils available,
I have read that a tomato designed soil is a good place to start? Should I repot with a more well rounded soil as opposed to the soil I mixed myself with compost/manure/soil? It seems like the soils I’ve created has a lot of organic material which will be bringing down the pH if what I’ve read is correct.

I also read that fungus gnats are much easier to get rid of if the soil is allowed to dry out at the top, I have been using sticky traps and noticed the gnats hanging around the bottom of the pots, hence the sand around the bottom as they do not like it.

I have recently picked up a new nutrient from the local hardware store (which I haven’t used yet) it’s called manutec and I believe it’s a more hydro based nutrient.