Candy Kush Auto Troubles

[Escent]

Lights: Mars Hydro Ts1000
Tent: 2.3x2.3x5.3
Medium: Fox Farm Happy Frog with 20% perlite added
Nutrients: Dr Earth 4-6-3 and 3-9-4, blackstrap unsulphured molasses, wormcastings, calmag used for one plant once, flower fuel used for one plant twice
Water: Tap water 450ppm, sits out a day being constantly aerated before using, ph'ing from 6.2-6.8
Flowering Variety: Autoflower
Strain: Candy Kush Auto
PAR/PPFD: 200-300 seedling, 400-600 veg/flower in an 18/6 light schedule
Training: LST with stakes and ties.
Temps: 18c-23c
RH: 45-60%

Plants emerged 3 months ago. I overwatered in the beginning because I tried to keep the soil moist, which must've led to the plants being stunted for around a month. 2 occasions my humidifier wasn't working right and my tent hit 99% humidity. My temps have been cold which sucks for seedlings but I haven't been able to fit a heater in my tent with the plants properly. I'm working on trying to get a light baffle set up as well that a heater from the outside could feed into. After a month had passed I top dressed all plants with 1tbsp of the veg and 1tbsp of the flower mix. Used molasses for 2 separate feedings at a rate of 1/2tbsp per gallon of water. Continued feeding nutrients every 2 weeks, except for one week where I went an extra week without and started noticing deficiencies, which also started after using molasses. The plants were blooming at different rates so the nutrients used were ratio'd differently. I'm not sure if the Dr Earth stuff are complete fertilizers with the necessary secondary and micronutrients which may have led to issues in using it, the nutrients weren't entirely powder. It was mixed with some bigger pieces and powder which formed a crust and hardened layer on my soil. Had some twisted leaf growth, had some pale growth tips that happened for a while then went away.

Soil had become compact after using top dressings, didn't know how to fix that. Gave worm castings a couple times as top dress to help with microbes and soil texture, ranging from 1/4 to 1/2 cup. Added barley straw to maintain some moisture and hopefully microbial life as it seems my plants don't want to uptake nutrients. Gave flower fuel to my one messed up plant twice at a 1/3 of the recommended dose.

I have nutrient tip burn as well as deficiencies (maybe certain nutrients blocking others out). Been having issues with the plants throughout the grow. A slow stunted start, and a pretty long veg time. My grows usually have very slow growth, I'm not sure why, like 1-2 inches of veg growth a week. My curling and browning/yellowing leaves led me to believe phosphorus deficiency.

Current state: one plant is very messed up in appearance, yellow, brown, curled leaves, spots, burnt tips. One plant is getting some orange and purple fading, messed up leaves, deficiencies, and tip burn. One plant is just getting pale overall with some tip burn, spots, deficiencies.

I would like to know what went wrong throughout the grow and what can be done currently and in the future.

For my next grow I'm planning on using ocean forest since I already bought the bag, and am unsure if I should add some stuff to it, like dolomite lime and if issues arise for it throughout a grow like it running out of micronutrients.

Thanks

 

[Phytoplankton]

Yeah, you've got/had some issues. The leaves purpling is not an issue, the yellow and brown leaves are! You did so many things, it's hard to put a finger on what went wrong. The molasses didn't cause anything, I use it at 4 times that amount per gallon, all molasses does is feed the microbes in the soil, which in turn helps break down organic matter into nutrients available to the plants. Use calmag according to instructions! My best guess is you've either got a nute lockout or a toxic level of nutes. I'm not sure how much improvement you're gonna get, but I would consider flushing them with water 3x the volume of the pot, to reset the soil. Then use one line of nutes and calmag.

As far as amending the FFOF, go light, FFOF has nutes in it that should last at least 30 days. Some worm casting would be ok, additional vermiculite would be ok. Dolomite lime takes a while to become available to the plants, but would be ok. I use FFOF, and I don't add anything but nutes and cal-mag. If using synthetic nutes plan on having to flush at least once, usually just before or at pre-flower. Are you going for an organic grow? If so that's quite a bit different and Emilya would be the person to ask.

Hopefully we'll get some more opinions.

 

[Escent]

The whole grow was organic aside from the calmag and flower fuel usage. The only plant that received calmag and flower fuel is the plant in the back in the photo of the three plants together. I used those nutrients because my problems came on suddenly and progressed quickly, but it didn't fix it although some sections of the plant are still green. The calmag was used once at 1ml per liter of water, the flower fuel was used at 1/3 of the suggested dose, I used that in two separate waterings.

Aside from that I had been using the dr earth feeding schedule I found online, and adjusted it at times to have different ratios of the two different dr earth nutrients mixed. For the most part I fed slightly under the suggested amount each time. Only last week I decided to give 3tbsp worth instead of the usual 2-2.4tbsp.

 

[Escent]

Regarding the FFOF, my question for adding amendments to it was only if it was missing secondary or micronutrients that may become a problem later on. I noticed that it has oyster shells but no dolomite lime, I wondered if that would be an issue for ph buffering and if it has enough magnesium without the dolomite lime.

I would like to have a custom blend of organic amendments that I put together for topdresses but can settle for premade mixes if they're complete fertilizers. I'm using the Dr Earth but am unsure if it offers all the secondary and micronutrients the plants need. The form it comes in is a combination of powder and small pieces. I noticed that after I applied top dressings, it hardened my soil.

 

[013]

some top dress will definitely add weight and when watered the fine ground particles mat up and cause reduced air flow into the soil. I know most adhere to a fairly strict no-till policy but I use pointed end of wood skewer to loosen top soil

Geoflora makes a nice organic dry mix “coated” top dress…. i do like their product and the coating does reduce the soil clog factor in my opinion.… It’s an all in one product NPK plus cal-mag and they have 2 products in this new line up 1 for veg and another for flower. Easy to use add to soil mix as you pot up and then add as top dress every 2 weeks and water in … they have support thread right here on 420 and are a sponsor too

 

[013]

Also where are my manners???

Welcome aboard Escent!

 

[Escent]

Also where are my manners???

Welcome aboard Escent!

Thanks buddy