Need help to ID deficiency

[hedzenmedz]

We are growing in an organic soil medium and as our Gorilla plants are about 3.5 weeks into flower, starting to notice yellowing of some leaves. Any suggestions as to what I’m doing wrong? From past experience with this strain, the Gorilla leaves fade from a darker green in veg to a much paler green during mid to late flower. The ammendments that we use are teas made with EWC, molasses, seaweed extract, fishbone meal, organic calmag, et al. Would very much appreciate feedback.

 

[Emilya Green]

Yes, I concur... it looks like a pretty severe macro nutrient deficiency going on... so some questions need to be asked about your organic grow.
Is this a purely organic grow where you are not giving any synthetic nutrients? Are you using a simple organic soil, or are you using a mineralized supersoil along with it?
If you don't have a mineralized soil, then the nutrients that your plants need are not in there. The teas you are making, even if they have the proper microlife to process potassium, phosphorus, calcium and iron, if these elements are not in the soil, there are going to be deficiencies.
If this is a soil made from a recipe and an attempt has been made to mineralize it, how long did it cook before you used it? This sort of problem is very common in a mineralized soil that was not allowed to compost long enough so as to break down some of the raw materials to be available to the plant.
Lastly, how are you making your teas? A proper compost tea needs to not only have the right ingredients so that the proper microlife is produced for that stage of the grow, but care needs to be taken not to grow the bad microbes, and the common way to do this is with a technique called Active Aeration. To do this properly takes much more than a simple aquarium pump. Also, several of the ingredients you mentioned were appropriate for a vegging plant, but I saw definite lack of inputs appropriate to a flowering plant. I think a better recipe might be in order. I would also like to suggest doing as I am doing this time, and totally get away from brewing your own teas, and going with a professional grade microbial additive such as URB, Voodoo Juice or RealGrower's Recharge. These additives are better than any tea I can brew here, and I have gotten pretty good at it over the years.
So with all this in mind... what exactly do you think is going on?

 

[hedzenmedz]

Yes, I concur... it looks like a pretty severe macro nutrient deficiency going on... so some questions need to be asked about your organic grow.
Is this a purely organic grow where you are not giving any synthetic nutrients? Are you using a simple organic soil, or are you using a mineralized supersoil along with it?
If you don't have a mineralized soil, then the nutrients that your plants need are not in there. The teas you are making, even if they have the proper microlife to process potassium, phosphorus, calcium and iron, if these elements are not in the soil, there are going to be deficiencies.
If this is a soil made from a recipe and an attempt has been made to mineralize it, how long did it cook before you used it? This sort of problem is very common in a mineralized soil that was not allowed to compost long enough so as to break down some of the raw materials to be available to the plant.
Lastly, how are you making your teas? A proper compost tea needs to not only have the right ingredients so that the proper microlife is produced for that stage of the grow, but care needs to be taken not to grow the bad microbes, and the common way to do this is with a technique called Active Aeration. To do this properly takes much more than a simple aquarium pump. Also, several of the ingredients you mentioned were appropriate for a vegging plant, but I saw definite lack of inputs appropriate to a flowering plant. I think a better recipe might be in order. I would also like to suggest doing as I am doing this time, and totally get away from brewing your own teas, and going with a professional grade microbial additive such as URB, Voodoo Juice or RealGrower's Recharge. These additives are better than any tea I can brew here, and I have gotten pretty good at it over the years.
So with all this in mind... what exactly do you think is going on?

Emilya, thank you for replying. Yes, we cook our soil at least 5-6 weeks. The ingedients (promix organic, shellfish compost, perlite, lava rock, glacial rock dust, alfalfa meal, EWC, kelp meal, neem meal. Just before the plants start to flower, we use fishbone meal as an ammendment. I do use voodoo juice, but only as directed on the container. Also, use mycorrhizae when transplanting, on seedlings and clones.
I do use a organic micro nutrient called earth juice. One thing that may not be helping is my use of 5 gal smart pots. Next grow, I’ll up it to 7 and 10 gal smart pots. I keep our mother plants in 10 gal smart pots and have no issues. The worms seem to like it too. I’ve not tried using worms in the 5 gal pots. Historically, we get to about 4-5 weeks of flower before we start to have leaf issues.
Cheers
hedzenmedz

 

[Emilya Green]

I think you have explained the problem. You are lacking a few vital mineral supplements as compared to the subcool recipe that I am using, and this is making you a little light in the areas I earlier suggested. I would add bone meal, azomite, dolomite, a touch of epsom, humic acid, high P bat guano, to your next recipe, just to start... but the main problem is the 5-6 weeks of cooking time. That is not enough time. It takes a good 3 months to break down the mix so that it is readily available.
Earth juice is good, as is Earth Dust.... also you are right... in the 5gal containers you have already used up what had been composted... more soil would have helped... older soil would have helped a lot. I just don't think the nutrients you need are available right now in that soil, especially just 5gal of it. I suggest looking into a better recipe, since this now is a recurring problem, and hopefully you can get through the next grow without these nutrition problems. Also, since more active microlife is your only fix to this other than giving up and feeding from a bottle, I would consider giving a full dosage of VJ every time you water and get those microbes working hard on breaking down that soil.

 

[hedzenmedz]

I think you have explained the problem. You are lacking a few vital mineral supplements as compared to the subcool recipe that I am using, and this is making you a little light in the areas I earlier suggested. I would add bone meal, azomite, dolomite, a touch of epsom, humic acid, high P bat guano, to your next recipe, just to start... but the main problem is the 5-6 weeks of cooking time. That is not enough time. It takes a good 3 months to break down the mix so that it is readily available.
Earth juice is good, as is Earth Dust.... also you are right... in the 5gal containers you have already used up what had been composted... more soil would have helped... older soil would have helped a lot. I just don't think the nutrients you need are available right now in that soil, especially just 5gal of it. I suggest looking into a better recipe, since this now is a recurring problem, and hopefully you can get through the next grow without these nutrition problems. Also, since more active microlife is your only fix to this other than giving up and feeding from a bottle, I would consider giving a full dosage of VJ every time you water and get those microbes working hard on breaking down that soil.

Thanks, Emilya. I was not aware that soil needed to be cooked that long. Next time, I’ll give myself enough time. Yes, I’ll use the VJ for the rest of this grow. Would you please point me to a good soil mix that I can use in the future? Many thanks.
hedz

 

[GrowQs]

She said she runs Subcool's mix..

I think the amount of dirt must matter a lot because my mix was extremely simple, especially compared to the complex subcool mix, but my holes were about 4' X 18" deep and right in the ground for unlimited root expansion, so maybe that helped me a lot..
It makes sense that if you are only going to use a small amount of soil it may have to be of much better quality than if you had a lot of soil..

Brought some inside for the clones after the outdoor chop and it's giving them a touch of tip burn so it must be a little hot in something..

 

[Emilya Green]

yes, search for subcool and 1/4 recipe... his original recipe made a garage full of soil. I made 50 gallons of this soil years ago, and right now today I have 20 gallons of it working and 30 gallons cooking with new amendments and with all the debris from the last grow decomposing back into the soil.

 

[hedzenmedz]

yes, search for subcool and 1/4 recipe... his original recipe made a garage full of soil. I made 50 gallons of this soil years ago, and right now today I have 20 gallons of it working and 30 gallons cooking with new amendments and with all the debris from the last grow decomposing back into the soil.

Thank you for your help, Emilya. I’ve been growing with a medical license for 2 years. I enjoy it immensely, however my skill level doesn’t match my enthusiasm level.