Phos issues? Help!

[Mwood1087]

Hey yall so I'm currently at day 39 of flower. Have had zero issues in flowering until now. Use ro water with foxfarm liquid and soluble nutes ph'd to 6.2 per foxfarm. Growing in foxfarm cocoloco which is amended. I'm ASSUMING the plant is not getting enough phos. I generally water every other day but am wondering if I should water daily? Has anyone had this happen? What should I do? What should I change? Thanks!

 

[Rucifer999]

Hey from what I see back off the nutes a bit and water a bit less. I use soil though not coco but it still looks like she has excessive water and Nitrogen(the clawing). The bottom leaves looks like some fungus issues which I've had but fixed by less watering and better aeration.

The leaf stem looks super purp/red look into phosphorus she is showing the deficiency also but like I said you are growing coco so I don't know the proper PH. I could have swore it was lower than what you have it more like 5.7-5.8. You could always cut back on the amount of nutes but adjust your PH first to see if there is any change in the new growth.

 

[Emilya Green]

I see one major flaw in your operation... the pH. You are in a soilless medium and you need to be down in the hydro range. Try 5.8 and see if you can then pick up the needed nutrients. The loco is designed to hold water, so watering more often is not the problem... the stuff just stays wet a long time. I think your plants are struggling a bit so they are not able to use the full load of nutrients called for at this time... but also make sure you are using hydro feeding recommendations and not soil... it goes a bit lighter on the nutes knowing they are there full time in the mix and not alternating each time with plain water as is done in soil.

 

[Mwood1087]

Thanks all. I contacted foxfarm a few months back asking about the ph. They recommend 6.2-6.4 due to the coco loco being amended with dolomite lime. I was originally running 5.5 to 5.7 and had issues with nutrient uptake during veg. After I bumped it up no issues.

 

[Remystemple]

I see one major flaw in your operation... the pH. You are in a soilless medium and you need to be down in the hydro range. Try 5.8 and see if you can then pick up the needed nutrients. The loco is designed to hold water, so watering more often is not the problem... the stuff just stays wet a long time. I think your plants are struggling a bit so they are not able to use the full load of nutrients called for at this time... but also make sure you are using hydro feeding recommendations and not soil... it goes a bit lighter on the nutes knowing they are there full time in the mix and not alternating each time with plain water as is done in soil.

so these conversations that pop up where they say coco ph needs to be higher in flower than veg are bs? again confused about coco ph lol. "it's why it's called pH Bloom" lol idk.

 

[Emilya Green]

Thanks all. I contacted foxfarm a few months back asking about the ph. They recommend 6.2-6.4 due to the coco loco being amended with dolomite lime. I was originally running 5.5 to 5.7 and had issues with nutrient uptake during veg. After I bumped it up no issues.

Well, I would trust the advice given by FF then... hmmm.... you are definitely getting a nutrient lockout... have you flushed recently as FF recommends? Maybe this is just a simple salt lockout?

 

[Mwood1087]

I flushed about a week or so with just ph water. I've had bad reviews about using their sledgehammer flush. So I dunno what's causing it

 

[Emilya Green]

what's bad to review about sweetened yucca water to help flush the salts out the of the medium? You don't need to use sledgehammer though... 3x the container size flushed through that medium... did you do that or just give plain water one time?

 

[Mwood1087]

I just gave plain water ph'd to 6.2 until I got double the runoff of what I normally would give. I normally water with 1 gallon, used 2.5 gallons to flush. I just dont want to mess up my yield anymore than it already is you know

 

[Emilya Green]

I just gave plain water ph'd to 6.2 until I got double the runoff of what I normally would give. I normally water with 1 gallon, used 2.5 gallons to flush. I just dont want to mess up my yield anymore than it already is you know

That probably helped a bit, but it doesn't sound like 3x the volume of the container, so you likely still have a salt buildup problem in there. If you are really thinking that a proper flush is going to harm your yield, I really have no more suggestions to give you. I would study this hydro feeding chart carefully and take heed of the bottom right section that talks about proper flushing, I would make sure that I was giving all the nutrients in the correct proportions, and I still am not convinced that you are at the correct pH....

 

[Mwood1087]

I'm flushing again as we speak. Should I wait until soil is dry to begin feeding again? What is your recommendation on that?

 

[Emilya Green]

If it were soil I would say yes, but it is not... this is coco... and you need to feed every time. Please re-read the instructions at the bottom of that last upload... it explains exactly what to do after the flush. Please read all of the instructions that explain to feed every time and at what rate... and I still think you would be better off pH adjusting to 5.8 and let the buffered coco drift the pH up to the top of the hydro range with its dolomite.

 

[Stltoed]

I flushed about a week or so with just ph water. I've had bad reviews about using their sledgehammer flush. So I dunno what's causing it

Add a little fulvic acid to your flush. If you have a note excess it will help chelate the elements in your medium and make everything more bioavailable. If an excess isnt the case it will help your uptake.

Are you using a PK booster? If your are, and its excessive you could be locking out Zinc, Iron, Calcium or Magnesium. It's not a nitro issue. Too much bloom nutrients can cause all this too, but it's really common to overdo it with a booster

 

[Mwood1087]

I am using a booster. I'm using fox farms cha ching. I've followed the feed schedule to a t and have just recently started to see the issues after about a week or so using cha ching.

 

[Emilya Green]

Since you are using the FF line of nutrients, their boosters are designed very well to work with the other components so as to not cause lockouts. If you follow the directions to that T, and do the regular actual flushes as they call for, the FF line of nutrients works as advertised... I know this for a fact, I ran the stuff exclusively for almost 4 years in many different grow mediums and methods.
Boosters is a word in popular use this month, but I don't see the solubles as boosters to the FF line... I see them as additional supplements that are available to you if you wish to take the time to use them and spend the money on them. You can get a perfectly great grow just using the 3 main liquid FF nutrients, but if you wish to spend a little more, you can get an even better grow. Go up another level and get all their extra extra components, and at that level of spending you get an even greater grow yet. It is this game of getting the grow that you pay for that led me to organic growing instead of making the nutrient companies rich, but that is another story. If everyone who bought the cha-ching had troubles with it causing lockouts, how long do you think FF would stay in business? Let's just go with the most logical and simple solution, and factor in that you havent done it yet, and assume at this point that you are having a salt lockout because you failed to follow the advice given to flush regularly... its right there on the chart... flush regularly.

Follow all of the instructions... and then see what happens.... don't start blaming the nutrients themselves or listening to wild theories when it is more likely that it is your procedures that are at fault.

 

[Mwood1087]

Thanks emilya. And I wasnt blaming the company at all just thought it was odd that once I switched to cha ching is when I got issues.