Leaf burn or disease?

[pope creek]

Spent hours studying threads on diagnostics. Didn't find anything that really matches my problem. Here is the story:
Growing outdoors in northern California. Poor soil. I am going 100% organic. Have my garden heavily mulched with creek weed, corn husk, dried alfalfa and stable straw that contains cow, horse and chicken manure.
All these components are pretty rich in nitrogen. But it's basically side dressing. I have also used fish emulsion. Evrything going fine 6 weeks in. Plants growing well. Veggies in garden thriving too.
Yesterday I added more mulch of straw from chicken coop, today two of my 18 plants are showing what looks like leaf burn. See the photos.
The affected leaves are mostly in the middle of the plant. Top shoots seem healthy.
Could they be suffering from too much nitrogen? Since organic is slow acting I am surprised to see damage withing 24 hours of adding chicken shit (careful to avoid mulch actually touching stem).
If it is leaf burn from too many ferts can I expect the rest of the garden to have trouble, or are the two plants extra sensitive?
Is there any remedy like removing mulch and flushing?
Maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree all together...could it be disease, over-watering or connected to excessive heat we suffered last couple of weeks.
Any help or advice is much appreciated.

Affected strain....Sour Diesel and Blue Dream
Grown in soil.
Fertilized with organics including manures and fish emulsion. All organics side-dressed except Fish emulsion that is given as per label.
Started life as clones. In mother earth for approx 6 weeks.
!6 plants look healthy. 2 plants look to be suffering.
symptoms only apparent in last few days.
Growing in Napa County USA

 

[iwltfum]

It kind of looks like an un-composted chicken manure burn to me. I've only seen it on other plants, but I've seen it happen within 24-48 hours of applying un-compsted manure. If it were my plant, I would give it a heavy does of water and try to flush the soluble nitrogen away from the root ball (looks like it's in the ground so this might not even work). Other than flushing, I'm not sure what my next step would be. Maybe a heavy inoculation of microbes to try and get that all decomposed as quickly as possible.

 

[pope creek]

Thank you for taking the time to respond.
I think you may be right and the new chicken shit laced mulch is the culprit.
I have been reading about sheet mulching/lasagna gardening and thought it might help compensate for the poor soils and my lazy preperation of it. Trying to build good soil after the fact was probably not the best way to go.
I understood that organic fertilizer was less likely to burn than chemicals ones. I know weed likes lots of N so I may have been reckless.
I think I may wait another day or so to see if the burning gets worse or effects the other plants, if so pull out all the mulch and like crazy to try to leach clean.
Major drag.

If the trouble does not develop more visible symptoms I may just let it be and see what happens.
So far only two in twenty seem to be in trouble.

Thanks once again.

 

[Fuzzy Duck]

Manures need to be well rotted before use as fresh manure may contain pathogens etc or could be suggested as to hot.

As manures decay over a period of time heat is generated which kills of harmful pathogens & few other things !

Need about a year for good manure well rotted & don't forget to turn the pile once in awhile.



Mmm depends on what you mean by poor soil ?

Amendments can be used to bolster soil structure, available nutrients over a period of time & PH etc

Type of loam your garden soil is to whether drainage needs to be improved or retention of moisture etc, that is like clay vs sandy soils but we do have other loam soil structures to deal with.


Oh ye it is always best to prepare the plot a couple months in hand before planting out organic wise as to let the amendments used settle in & let the beneficial soil microorganism start to break things down a little before use.

 

[pope creek]

Hi Fuzzy Duck

Thanks for taking the time to reply.
I am new to organic gardens and until recently had no internet so info was limited. I have managed through intuition and common sense so far, but desperate to learn the proper way to do things.
I don't have the resources for imported bat pooh and I have ethical problems with most animal based products so I'm growing with whatever is at hand in my local environment. It is a bit of an experiment.
I'm into my second grow of this kind. Last year, my first, went surprisingly well considering I basically invented my regimin as I went along. Still, I was able to grow a bunch of healthy and delicious buds.
This year I'm gardening in a different location with much poorer soil. I got a late start and didn't do enough to prepare my soil, so I'm trying to build the soil as I go using a lasagna-style sheet mulching process. The soil is very compact and dusty and seems lacking in organic matter. Most likely alkaline.
I planted seedlings in holes containing approx 50% soil and 50% homemade compost (nothing special - kitchen and garden waste piled, watered and turned every 2 weeks.
Then mulched heavily with lot's of locally gathered stuff like algae from the creek, corn husk, alfalfa and bedding from stable and chicken coop.
My theory is that the stuff will compost slowly in the garden and feed as it does. You mention pathogens, and they are a concern, but I have read about no-till techniques where you build the soil in place, constantly adding over time. So I am a little confused. Also I am careful to prevent the mulch from actually touching the stems. Most of the manure I gathered from the fields so presumably it has broken down a bit already. In fact some was so old I wondered if it still had any value other than to help structure.
I deliberately chose mulch that can add nitrogen.
The only additional feed is the occasional application of fish emulsion, Epsom, chamomile and molasses.
Generally, at 5 or so weeks in, things are looking pretty good. Plants dark green and vigorous. Pests seem in balance ( though all the organic stuff does attract insects including ants and flies). Companion Veggies bombing on. All seems good.
A couple of days ago I encountered my first potential problem. Having just added another inch of straw from chicken coop I returned the next morning to find a couple of plants exhibiting what look like bleach splashes on leaves in middle of plant. If I was using heavy chemical notes I would assume a burn from a splash, but I don't.
Instead I worry that I have overloaded the nitrogen. However the damage looks similar to pics I have seen of P deficiency.
I am a bit stumped. Not too keen to haul out all the mulch and irrigate heavily to try to leach out salts. But if I must so be it.
The fact that most of the girls and all the veggies are looking healthy gives me pause.
Seems like you think it's a old fashioned chicken shit burn and I suspect you are right.
Happily though, the trouble doesn't seem to have spread or got worse in the last two days so now I think I do nothing but watch. Yeah?