Please - Need Help With 1st Grow - Coco Deficiency or Nute Burn?

HReeferman

New Member
Hello all. Been getting a ton of great info to start off from this site, finally took the plunge and started my first grow. Just need some for medical use, not much, but would really like for this grow not to go bad. I'm about 4 1/2 weeks in and was going to start flowering next week, but I'm kind of nervous because I think I will have lost some big fan leaves by then.

I'm using Cyco coco/perlite blend and did nothing to it. Doing 3 plants, each a different strain from Nirvana, Papaya, Northern Lights, and Blue Mystic. They are Indica's but I think one is a hybrid, forgot which one. Started in 3 gal smart pots (maybe I should have started smaller) but just increased area I watered until 4 nodes or so, then started watering entire container. Have been using Canna A&B, Rhizo and Zyme. I started with just tap water for about 1 1/2 week which was 200 PPM (500 scale) like Canna says to use. But after contacting my water company, they said there is no calcium, magnesium, or iron in the water. Where the hell the 200 PPM is coming from without those elements I have no idea. So started using 75% RO water with 25% tap a little more than a week ago to which I add Cal-Mag+ to to bring PPM's to 200 before mixing in the Canna, but the problems just seem to keep growing with more leaves showing problems. Some are curling up, some are curling down and some are turning yellow.

PH kept 5.8 through all feedings.

600 w MH that I kept at 1/3 power at 18" away for a couple days and then went to 75%. Went to 100% after a few days but then went back down to 75% because I didn't know if it was nute burn or the lights. I've been back to 100% now for more than a week at 18". I have an air cooled head with a fan that is cool to touch both top and bottom. Temperature ranges between low 80's when lights are on to mid 70's when off. Humidity ranges between 55%-65% although I try to keep it at 60%.

I've been watering to get 50% runoff to try to make sure stuff is getting flushed (I know that's excessive).

I can't tell if it's nute burn or underfeeding or a deficiency.

The Blue Mystic has some mottling in the leaves which might not be that evident in the photo, and on the big leaf that's looking the worst the area between the veins is definitely a lot lighter, and the edges are curling up on some of the bigger leaves. The very early leaves are pretty much all dried up.

On the Northern Lights, the leaves are looking pretty green without the light areas, but the two biggest leaves from a few nodes ago have their edges curling down badly with their tips turning yellow.

The Papaya's growth looks like it's been real stunted from the begging and never looked good. The color or the leave were always kind of a lime green and the veins were definitely darker. All the tips are burned and one of the only big leaves on it is on it's way out.

I was trying real hard to not overfeed. I just used plain tap water for first ten days letting the top of the coco dry a little between waterings, then started with what I thought were light nutes, <400 PPM including my tap water. Next watering was 4 days later at 250 PPM because I thought I was getting a little nute burn especially on the Papaya. Then I thought I was feeding too little for their size and the next feeding was a couple days later at 550 PPM. Then I did another feeding 4 days later again at 550 PPM. The coco still had moisture, but I figured if I was overwatering I would see it by them drooping, which I haven't. It still looked like I was getting nute burn so the next feeding was 3 days later back down to 350 PPM. There was still some light mottling, especially to the Blue Mystic, which I thought was from underfeeding so fed everything at 600 PPM and there were still a lot of light areas between veins which I attributed to underfeeding so gave them 650 PPM the next day, which was yesterday. All these PPM's again, are total including RO water/tap water/calmag+

So the gist of it is, I have no idea if I am (or have been) overfeeding or underfeeding or have some other issue. I just know that at no time did any of these plants look healthy throughout. And I thought COCO was going to be easy. I can hardly wait till they open up a dispensary here so I can just go in and buy the stuff without all this trouble, lol.

Below are photos of both the bad leaves and the new growth.
 
Re: Pleeease - Need Help WIth 1st Grow - Coco Deficiancy or Nute Burn?

Looks like a classic case of Nitrogen Toxicity to me Reeferman.
If my maths is correct you are using your nutes at 40ml per 10 Litres (200 PPM (500 scale) i think that's right) which is to high by far.
I have found that even 20ml per 10L can have a slightly less effect than you have, but still the same.
My schedule is no nutes for the first 2 weeks at least. Then move to 10ml per 10L of cana A+B until the plants look like they can withstand any punishment; normally around 4-5 weeks. Then I'll switch to 20ml and check almost hourly to see if new growth is yellowing, if so, then back down to 15ml.

You may not need to worry at all as your new growth seems to be in fine condition. I would still cut back on the nutes though.

If however my maths is completely out of US/EU/UK synch then hopefully someone else can pip in :Namaste:

Having had another long look, I can see a bit of soggyness in those leave too. Bud is on the ball there.
 
Re: Pleeease - Need Help WIth 1st Grow - Coco Deficiancy or Nute Burn?

First off, thank you very much for taking the time to reply.

If my math is correct and I convert from gallons to liters, that's 3.7 liters per gallon, so your 20 Ml for 10 liters comes out to 2.7 gallons, or 7.5 ml/gallon. I actually was doing closer to 5 ml/gal with my tap water, before I started with my RO water, and that gave me a total 510PPM (500 scale) or an EC of under 1.1, which I wouldn't think was too high at a little more than two weeks. Then the next time I fed was 5 days later (again with my 200 PPM tap water) and used 6.5 mil/gal which works out to 5.6 ml for 10 liters (if my math is correct) and then I though my EC was too high at I think it was 1.2, so I added some more water to knock it down to 1.1, so that ends up being way less than what you are suggesting. That's why I thought I might actually be underfeeding them judging from the PPM's I've been feeding compared to a lot of folk. But I'm to afraid to up my nutes and see what happens for fear of frying them.
 
Re: Pleeease - Need Help WIth 1st Grow - Coco Deficiancy or Nute Burn?

I was watering like every 5 days at first then 4 days, then 3 days. I haven't really let the coco dry out much except for the very top, but after I water the leaves don't ever look bent over at all like I was overwatering. I feed every time I water.
 
Thanks for your input Buddro. I was planning on watering every day, but read a lot about how you shouldn't until you get a real thick root system. And also was reading how you can treat it like soil and wait till it dries out a bit, or like hydro. And because I didn't really know if I had a really developed root system because of some issues early on, and the fact that I started them in 3 gallon containers, which I probably should have since I wasn't looking to veg them for too long, I figured I would air on the side of caution and water less until I was confident they were looking good, especially when starting flower. So in the instance I was treating it more like soil, not feeding every day but not letting it dry out, why should I have the particular problems I do.

So, given those 3 strains and the fact that I'm going to be starting week 5 and the plants aren't huge, (the Papaya is extremly stunted) what EC do you think I should start doing my daily feedings at?
 
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