Lower leaves always do this to me

[PT Brad]

Why do my lower leaves always do this?
Gaia green dry amendments
3 G pot, 600W HPS week 2 flower

I think I constantly underfed, going to go back to 5G pot next run

 

[Bill284]

I get that on the odd lower leaf that doesn't get much light. The rest of your girls look great. What have you been feeding them and how often.

 

[PT Brad]

I have been feeding the Ucann by Gaia green every 2 weeks. It is a 3 gallon fabric pot and I top Dress with 7 TBS and some worm castings. Water with Tap water that bubbles in a bucket for a couple days then I PH to 6.5 although I’ve been Battling with meters so I’ve been sticking to 6.7 because I know it’s legit. Is that too high?

 

[NuttyProfessor]

Can you get them under normal lighting and take some new pics, , almost looks like heat , is there a heater in there or fan drying those leaves out , is it all plants ?

 

[PT Brad]

I tried to sneak in for a quick picture, sorry my camera sucks. I’ll try to get a better one tonight.
I notice my leaves are always a dark green with purple stems. I am always scared to overfeed so I think they may be hungry for PK.
There is no heater but a couple fans. I wondered about wind burn but I see lots of people have fans blowing right on? Maybe paired with my low humidity is an issue.
Also night temps are 65 lights on 70 with a leaf temp of 75. Humidity is 40%. It’s too hard for me to get humidity up so that’s why I’m keeping it a bit cooler?
Tonight I topdress and water.
Thank you for taking the time to answer, I know there is a lot of content on here and I constantly read but sometimes it’s nice to just chat haha....

 

[NuttyProfessor]

I would give plain water rather than feed , the darker green leaves is the first sign's of toxicity , these dry amendments take time to work ,break down rather so im guessing they are just feeding your plants now and you might have over done it , not 100percent as its going to my fist time trying dry amendments but i had it on my watch list
Im sure others will be here to chime in soon don't panic

 

[NuttyProfessor]

dry air will do that to leaves i meant to add , have the fan across the top of buds /canopy

 

[Pat Puffer]

From the reading i have done, top dress amendments get top dressed and some amendments can take up to a month to start to be available for the soil. Some are quicker and some are slower. Alfalfa Meal is a quick release. If there is any bone meal, it may take over a month. Guanos release quickly for phophorous, otherwise bone takes a touch. I was under the impression that to have amendments available, one should be top dressing with it before it's needed. But a company like Geo-Flora says put on top and water...what do i know. They are the professionals.

 

[NuttyProfessor]

Where you watering to run off every time , then letting dry out , could be the only reason for the overload , that's just my second thought on it its what id be thinking , but i am using dry for a first so ill keep an eye on this thread for other people who used or used them, get the heads up my self ,

 

[Emilya Green]

From the reading i have done, top dress amendments get top dressed and some amendments can take up to a month to start to be available for the soil. Some are quicker and some are slower. Alfalfa Meal is a quick release. If there is any bone meal, it may take over a month. Guanos release quickly for phophorous, otherwise bone takes a touch. I was under the impression that to have amendments available, one should be top dressing with it before it's needed. But a company like Geo-Flora says put on top and water...what do i know. They are the professionals.

It is because along with the geoflora comes a massive inoculation of microbes... and not just any microbes like would come out of the worm castings, but the specific microbes needed to process and feed to the plant the exact minerals needed at this time. I highly recommend scrapping the Gaia Green and moving the easiest organic system available to us, @GeoFlora Nutrients. They are a sponsor here too, so giving them business helps us as a community. That means a LOT to me.

I see several problems in your current method... not supplying specific microbes, using tap water that still has chloramine in it even after bubbling, This is not helping with the microbes, but the biggest problem is that you are not getting the right microbes coming in with the worm castings, so even though the minerals are there in the GG, there are no workers to get it to the plant. RealGrower's Recharge, Voodoo Juice, URB... there are many microbial injection products out there that could make your grow work much better... but I like the all around approach at Geoflora. 8oz per gallon of the granules top dressed and watered in once every two weeks. Nothing else needed but water inbetween. There are so many specific microbes coming in with the granules, it can even laugh at tap water.

 

[Pat Puffer]

@Emilya I am glad someone has mentioned the use of tap water compromising our rhizosphere. The knowledge of chloramines is paramount as well. I use an aquarium water additive to break up chloramines. Chlorines, as you mention, can be bubbled off or evaporate. Due to this fact, many municipalities are switching over. If we run LOS or a formnof Super Soil, we as growers are cheating ourselves by using tap water...but uhh...you say Geo has SUPER microbes? That's interesting.

In case you (other members) are wondering what your municipal water uses? Check (DudeGrows) dot something "municipal water". He goes to great detail and lists tons of districtd and what they use. Imagine my surprise when i found it my district uses chloramines. Bleh! So i found a chemical that breaks it down. Top Fin (edit company) water conditioner. Compost Teas get nice and bubbly and do it way quicker with less chance at going south.
There are also Vitamin C filters we can attach in line with our water system or even just as a hose attachment.

 

[Gmann]

I use 5 gal. pots and they are great. I use tap water , but it sets for several days . I have five EPA licenses in water. I know exactly what is in my water. Let tap water rest - no problem .

 

[PT Brad]

Thank you everyone for the responses....
I agree I am going to play it safe and just water today to be safe. The directions are to top dress every 2 weeks but it’s probably like all other nutrients which direct you to use more.
I let the pots completely dry out and then fully saturate, but not as much runoff as I do running bottled to not lose all the food but tonight I think I’ll do a nice deep water...
I have read a lot about the chlorine issues and have thought about using fish water conditioner so I will try that, after all if it’s safe for fish I would assume it’s ok for plants. However I did do an entire run on filtered water and I had the same problems so I sort of eliminated that and I see others do ok with tap water. My area has a reputation for good water as well and it’s 140 ppm I believe.
I have a big bag of the Gaia green to work through first and I have jumped around a bit. I am sure the Geoflora nutrients are better but cash is tight right now so I am motivated to get better with what I have. I believe good gardeners can succeed with what they have.

 

[Emilya Green]

isn't there a chemical in that fish stuff that is poisonous to us? Be careful...if it was that easy everyone would do it. What does seem to work is to put a vitamin C tablet in a bathtub sized amount of water... once mixed in it drops all the chlorine and chloramine to the bottom as sediment.

 

[PT Brad]

I agree, it’s probably what scared me away last time lol
Man I wish I didn’t suck so much at this haha but at least I am medicated with my own mistakes

 

[Plant Dad]

Thank you everyone for the responses....
I agree I am going to play it safe and just water today to be safe. The directions are to top dress every 2 weeks but it’s probably like all other nutrients which direct you to use more.
I let the pots completely dry out and then fully saturate, but not as much runoff as I do running bottled to not lose all the food but tonight I think I’ll do a nice deep water...
I have read a lot about the chlorine issues and have thought about using fish water conditioner so I will try that, after all if it’s safe for fish I would assume it’s ok for plants. However I did do an entire run on filtered water and I had the same problems so I sort of eliminated that and I see others do ok with tap water. My area has a reputation for good water as well and it’s 140 ppm I believe.
I have a big bag of the Gaia green to work through first and I have jumped around a bit. I am sure the Geoflora nutrients are better but cash is tight right now so I am motivated to get better with what I have. I believe good gardeners can succeed with what they have.

Geoflora is so expensive in Canada... We gotta find something reasonable here.... I'm currently using Gaia Green too. From what Ive seen, most people up here are using Mega Crop. I'm gonna have to take a second look at that. How about some compost teas or just some molasses to feed microbes...

 

[Emilya Green]

How about some compost teas or just some molasses to feed microbes...

Compost teas are harder to make correctly than most people think. It takes a good strong air pump first of all, so that you are actively aerating your brew so that the bad bacteria that don't need oxygen do not survive in your brew bucket. Then, you need the correct inputs into your tea... its not just as simple as putting kelp meal or worm castings into a brew and calling it good.... at each stage of the grow different sets of minerals are being needed by the plants along with those specific microbes that work with those minerals and your goal in the brew bucket is to grow just those microbes. If you want microbes that work on potassium for instance, you need just a little potassium in your brew bucket, not so much as to feed the plants, but enough so that the microbes that specialize in that mineral thrive in your bucket, while other less beneficial bacteria die out because they have no food.

Brewing a proper compost tea takes a bit of work, the proper inputs and then the timing necessary to pull of this together. This is why URB, Voodoo Juice and Realgrower's Recharge have become so popular.... these products make it easy to add the beneficial microbes, exactly those that you need, to your grow on a regular basis.

Then, molasses. There is no magic here other than the sugar in molasses is exactly the right form of sugar to feed microbes... all of them, good and bad. Molasses will take whatever microbes you have, and allow them to thrive. Aside from a bit of sulfur and magnesium and iron that is needed by the plants, molasses is mainly for using at about 1 tablespoon per day of brewing in order to keep the microbes fed while they are multiplying in your brew or to add to your soil to help feed whatever is already there.

 

[NuttyProfessor]

if your stuck for cash teas will work out cheaper , the pump is one off buy lasts years , a bag of good compost a few quid will last a few grows , if you have room to mix your own soils , i can send you a pm of some i ran water only and one or two teas near the end , worked out about £1 per 5 gallon pot , i made this soil for people on a budget ( like my self ) , Its on my journal but there's a lot of pages now so it will be hard to find
I made my own dry amendments also for top dress , can send pm for that too but its just made and not in use , I used a lot of fruit peel ash for (K) for the flowering stage .
I did this little auto in the soil

Example of tea bucket the choice is in your hands

 

[Plant Dad]

Compost teas are harder to make correctly than most people think. It takes a good strong air pump first of all, so that you are actively aerating your brew so that the bad bacteria that don't need oxygen do not survive in your brew bucket. Then, you need the correct inputs into your tea... its not just as simple as putting kelp meal or worm castings into a brew and calling it good.... at each stage of the grow different sets of minerals are being needed by the plants along with those specific microbes that work with those minerals and your goal in the brew bucket is to grow just those microbes. If you want microbes that work on potassium for instance, you need just a little potassium in your brew bucket, not so much as to feed the plants, but enough so that the microbes that specialize in that mineral thrive in your bucket, while other less beneficial bacteria die out because they have no food.

Brewing a proper compost tea takes a bit of work, the proper inputs and then the timing necessary to pull of this together. This is why URB, Voodoo Juice and Realgrower's Recharge have become so popular.... these products make it easy to add the beneficial microbes, exactly those that you need, to your grow on a regular basis.

Then, molasses. There is no magic here other than the sugar in molasses is exactly the right form of sugar to feed microbes... all of them, good and bad. Molasses will take whatever microbes you have, and allow them to thrive. Aside from a bit of sulfur and magnesium and iron that is needed by the plants, molasses is mainly for using at about 1 tablespoon per day of brewing in order to keep the microbes fed while they are multiplying in your brew or to add to your soil to help feed whatever is already there.

I bought a big jug of molasses the other day. I just plan to add to my watering. With chloramine in my water I really don't know if I have a micro to feed.... lol

 

[PT Brad]

Well I went with my gut and top dressed them anyways... I have never seen such a transformation overnight it’s insane....
An hour after lights on and they are now praying like crazy.... maybe they grew right into the sweet spot for the light overnight???