To see this working, head to your live site.

Nutrient deficiency, lockout, or root problem?

growing two plants outdoors 15‘ apart. critical kush and blue gelato 41. They are both on the same exact feeding/watering schedule and have been since late April. They have just entered week 2 of flower and the gelato plant is the healthiest plant I have ever seen. However the kush plant is struggling. They are both in 10gl pots with ffof soil. Receiving biweekly feedings from the complete lineup of the foxfarm soil feeding schedule and cal/mag With as-needed watering a between. all of which are ph’ed to 6.4. I do not have a tds meter so I cannot provide before or runoff measurements. They both currently stand just over 6’ tall. The kush plant has yellow leaves that are curling up and dying from the bottom up and is ascending very rapidly. About 10-15 leaves are dying a day. The stems of the fan leaves are turning purple and the veins are too. It is happening very rapidly. Easy diagnosis of nitrogen deficiency correct? Well then why are all of the leaf tips burned too. And the gelato plant shows neither of these symptoms. Is it a lockout? Well I just flushed last week. Since these started in April could the root ball be choking itself out? i don’t know. I need help.

11 comments

Comments (11)

Mr. Grow It

Aug 09, 2021

Without runoff pH and PPM numbers, we are just guessing. Could be underfeeding or could be overfeeding due to a lockout.

Fred

Aug 15, 2021

Replying to

@Mr. Grow It so I’ve upped the nutrient level and this issue is acting the same if not worse. im running out of fan leaves to sacrifice.

would you recommend a flush?

reason I ask is because the leaves are showing nutrient burn and deficiency at the same time.

ive got 5-6 weeks of flower remaining and idk if it’s going to make it til the end.

any more advice?

Mr. Grow It

Aug 21, 2021

Replying to

@Fred I haven't been able to be on the forum so sorry for the delayed response. Yeah I'd flush if the plant is still having issues. But you last left a reply 5 days ago; You've probably already done something.

Fred

Aug 21, 2021

Replying to

@Mr. Grow It so what I did was on a normal watering day I added some ff sledgehammer not as a flush but just to add a surfactant. well then tropical storm Fred (go figure) dumped close to 7” of rain on us in two days. Natures flush. During the heavy storm I lost a bunch of deficient foliage, but in two days I’ve noticed a pretty good rebound. Did a heavy feeding since there was so much rain. did ppm and ph on the feed and runoffs and everything seems to be where it should.

i have been tossing some other ideas around that could have contributed to its illness’. There is drainage in the pot but idk if it’s perfect. So there could be some rot in the bottom. I think next year I’ll add some stone in the bottom before soil. Second, we had some intense heat when I first started this thread and since they’re in plastic 10gal pots on a raised deck, a good chance some excessive evaporation took place with near 100° temps. And I still think 13+ weeks of veg was too much and the roots overcrowded the pot.

either way, they’re finishing up week 3 of flower and this strain has another 5 or so to go. I think they’ll pull through, just not perfect.

thanks for all of your help. I’ll reach out if something bad happens again.