My First Leaf Discoloration

As I have two completed grows in FFOF soil, I can definitely attest to the fact that a plant which is veg for one month, will run shy of nutrients by about 2 weeks. Since you have only vegged for 2 weeks, I can't see there being a problem with the nutrient side of the soil. That being said, by watering every day, you are ultimately washing the nutrients into your plant as they become more readily available more easily to the root system.
I am on board whenever somebody says check pH. In fact if you knew what exactly was going in, you could check your runoff water and get a darn good approximation of what PH your soil is at.
I also have a funny feeling that your water that you have been using, is the source of your problem. When you give us a range of 6-7, that doesn't really tell us very much. If the pH is 6, that will stop the uptake of certain nutrients like calcium or magnesium or.....Whatever. Your lower leaves should definitely not look like that so if my best piece of advice would be to invest in a pH pen for now. Dial in your ph and stop watering every day if they dont need it.

Also check out this chart, it gives the basic rundown of what minerals and nutrients are available to your plant in soil and in Hydro. This is what I'm talking about when I see pH is key.
Hope this helps.....lets get some close ups!?

I'm already using a ph pen, and usually get a reading around 6.8, so maybe I need to sometimes focus upon lower ph levels for balance.

Another factor is the fluctuating temperature and humidity (e.g. right now, it's at 82.5F and 36.9% respectively). I just opened a window (it's cold outside) which will bring the temperature back in range, and increased the output of the humidifier. The plants are usually in the right temperature and humidity for most of the day, but there are reasonably lengthy stretches where that changes unfortunately, and that may be causing (or contributing to) this issue.

What's bothering me is I'm not seeing the signs of over or under watering (droopy leaves, etc.) in the healthier parts of the plants, so it's hard for me to declare this is a watering issue -- although maybe I'm missing something due to my newbie status here.

Moreover, I looked into growing problems online, and found nothing lining up with my issue here. Nutrient deficiencies and so on should be showing up on the healthy part of the plant, but are not apparently.

I have a cool magnifying camera for awesome closeups, which I will use to determine harvest time (trichome status), and will share some photos when I can.

btw: temperature is now nicely at 77.1F, while humidity has risen to 39%.
 
See the leaves on my DWC girl in the bottom right corner....thats a PH problem on only my old growth. 6.8 is a bit high too......see the chart shows 6.8....N,P,K,Ca, Mg will all be fine in your plant, but high Ph causes issues for your plant to uptake Boron and iron. Look up Boron and iron deficiencies and see if it lines up with the discoloration you're seeing on your leaves?

That's where I'd start with the info u just provided.
 
See the leaves on my DWC girl in the bottom right corner....thats a PH problem on only my old growth. 6.8 is a bit high too......see the chart shows 6.8....N,P,K,Ca, Mg will all be fine in your plant, but high Ph causes issues for your plant to uptake Boron and iron. Look up Boron and iron deficiencies and see if it lines up with the discoloration you're seeing on your leaves?

That's where I'd start with the info u just provided.

I looked up both of those deficiencies, but they both affect new growth, and unless I'm mistaken (which you can verify in the image that I posted within this thread), the new growth on my plants look fine.

The image chart at growweedeasy.com looks different than the one you posted:

How to Check pH & Stop Cannabis Nutrient Deficiencies | Grow Weed Easy

"For soil an optimum root zone pH for cannabis is between 6.0 and 7.0, with the most time spent with a pH between 6.2 - 6.9. It's a good idea to let the pH cover a range instead of always adjusting to the exact same pH number... In a soil environment that doesn’t use liquid nutrients, pH isn’t as important."

That chart shows that all nutrients are covered from 6.5-7.0 pH, and I have rarely gone below 6.5.

Nothing is lining up with the discoloring of my lower leaves.
 
I believe that I have found the problem.

The pH of the runoff water from the Cheese strain (where the problem is much worse) is only 6.0, which means a phosphorous and calcium deficiency, which lines up perfectly with the symptoms.

The CBD strain shows minor signs of the same problem, but its runoff measured at 6.4, so I'm still unsure why there would be any problem here, but it likely involves my newbie watering status.

Hopefully the problem is resolved, now that I'm much more focused upon proper watering technique.
 

I'm miserable. The problem hasn't stopped.

If I over or under watered the plants, then I should see drooping leaves, but I never saw any, so I'm unconvinced that I watered them wrong to produce this problem.

I've been told a couple of times that Ocean Forest soil has enough nutes for a micro-grow (i.e. only two-week veg).

I flushed the plants twice to test the pH of the runoff.

The CBD plant showed 6.4 both times, so why is there any nute deficiency there? This one is a complete mystery, based upon provided information.

The Cheese plant reached 6.2 (after being 6.0), which may be enough for phosphorous, but not calcium.

The only conclusion that I can come up with is Ocean Forest does not have enough nutrients, and I need to supplement.

Two questions for you all:

Am I screwed at this point? There's at least a lot of leaf damage, as you can see in the embedded photo taken today.

If I'm not screwed, what nute product(s) do you recommend? I need to get this right fast.
 
Try something like CNS17 at 20 ml per gallon. It looks like a severe P deficiency.
 

I received my General Organics BioThrive Bloom, and promptly flushed both plants (2 teaspoons of Bloom per gallon, 6.6 pH).

Runoff on both was 6.4 pH.

Then I took the included photo, so I can later compare it with the plants' progress to ensure the damage is halted.

Hopefully that will finally put a stop to this severe P deficiency, and Bloom will be enough until harvest around the end of this month.

I'll continue to use Ocean Forest soil, but I'm no longer convinced that soil is sufficient for the whole micro-grow.

btw:

If you're wondering why that grey box is taped to a hygrometer in the photo, I'm just using the hygrometer as a magnet, and the grey box connects to a really cool app called SensorPush to give me temperature and humidity readings (and history data) without having to open the case (which is great in my case, as I unfortunately have to manually manage temperature and humidity).

I can set bottom and top thresholds too, so my phone alerts me when temperature/humidity becomes unacceptable.

I don't need it for now, but you can even buy their wifi gateway, so you can get readings over the internet.

I love and highly recommend it fwiw.
 

The challenge continues, and I'm unsure what I should do at this point.

On the Cheese plant (left), should I remove the ruined leaves to give more light to the greener ones underneath?

A couple of mid-level fan leaves are yellowing on the CBD strain, but I'm unsure why (although I assume it's another nute issue -- maybe calcium deficiency). Should I use Cal-Mag?

I'm only a couple of weeks away from estimated harvest time. Just to gain my first experience in drying and curing, I want to harvest something, but I'm afraid there will be nothing to harvest then.

I'm so irritated that I was misled into the idea that FFOF soil alone would suffice. Other forums are showing growers using that soil with Dolomite Lime and about 25% more perlite. Live and learn, but my plants don't deserve to suffer like this.
 
Yes it’s time to remove the necrotic leaves. Have you been using that stuff for a while? I tried it and didn’t like it, smelled funny and didn’t work great. They also go bad much faster than mineral fertilizer. If you like GH I suggest MaxiBloom.
 
Yes it’s time to remove the necrotic leaves. Have you been using that stuff for a while? I tried it and didn’t like it, smelled funny and didn’t work great. They also go bad much faster than mineral fertilizer. If you like GH I suggest MaxiBloom.


I removed the completely dead leaves, as seen in the photo.

I agree that the smell is rough, but I can't verify the quality of the product, since it was introduced when serious problems emerged (and this is my first grow). Not being judgmental about it, but I'm trying to grow organic, so I went with GH's organic line. Frankly, I'm not yet clear regarding the health impact of various products.

It seems like I need more than just the bloom at this point, as I'm afraid that flushing the plants a couple of times removed nutrients from the soil.

Will anyone with a trained eye please look at that photo (even though it's not very well lit) and give me some much-needed guidance?

While Cheese (left plant) is looking rough -- seriously, is there any hope here? -- I feel the CBD plant has a good shot of yielding something useful.

Too much to learn, but learn I must -- and any help I receive is much appreciated.
 
I don't think BioThrive Bloom has much calcium in it which the left plant looks like it also requires (rusting younger leaves). When you use smallish containers you usually need to use fertilizer after the nutrients in the soil run out. Most if not all CalMag products will not be considered organic. The good thing about MaxiBloom is that it covers all the nutrients. My reccommendation is to return the BioThrive Bloom and get MaxiBloom or CNS17 Bloom. If you want to stick to organic check out Neptune's Harvest Fish Fertilizer. It looks like you're going to get a good amount of buds, but you really want to stop this problem before it starts to ruin the quality of your buds.
 

Following up on this issue, the bottom leaves are now fully yellow/brown and dry (as seen in the image above taken today), and I don't understand why.

When reading about common growing problems, it seems odd to me that the top of the plants look healthy.

Are the plants missing something, or do they have too much of something?

I'm on a once-daily watering schedule between 6-7ph (Brita filtered water sometimes with ph up/down as needed), generally have humidity between 40-50% (although it does drop into 30s and goes above 50 during the day at times), keep temperature between 65-80F (although it goes beyond those boundaries at times).

As indicated earlier in this thread, but repeating here for your convenience, there are no additional nutrients added to the Fox Farm Ocean Forest soil.

They are both about one month away from their estimated harvest time.

Why are the bottom leaves unhealthy?

Is there something more I should do here?
Its possible you have over-fed them
 

I'm miserable. The problem hasn't stopped.

If I over or under watered the plants, then I should see drooping leaves, but I never saw any, so I'm unconvinced that I watered them wrong to produce this problem.

I've been told a couple of times that Ocean Forest soil has enough nutes for a micro-grow (i.e. only two-week veg).

I flushed the plants twice to test the pH of the runoff.

The CBD plant showed 6.4 both times, so why is there any nute deficiency there? This one is a complete mystery, based upon provided information.

The Cheese plant reached 6.2 (after being 6.0), which may be enough for phosphorous, but not calcium.

The only conclusion that I can come up with is Ocean Forest does not have enough nutrients, and I need to supplement.

Two questions for you all:

Am I screwed at this point? There's at least a lot of leaf damage, as you can see in the embedded photo taken today.

If I'm not screwed, what nute product(s) do you recommend? I need to get this right fast.
I use biobiz 6.5 ph 1.2 EC. LASTS FOR ABOUT 3 WEEKS BEFORE FIRST FEED,WHICH SHOULD BE EQUIVALENT TO WHAT IT WAS IN THE SOIL,1.2. i USUALLY GO 1.4
 
His deficiency started very typical, lowest leaves and pale plant. My suggestion would be to get the Neptune’s Harvest stuff, it’s a very good complete organic fertilizer. Those fat buds are hungry.
 
His deficiency started very typical, lowest leaves and pale plant. My suggestion would be to get the Neptune’s Harvest stuff, it’s a very good complete organic fertilizer. Those fat buds are hungry.

Thank you. The NPK ratio on the "Neptune's Harvest FS118 Fish & Seaweed Fertilizer" (amazon.com) is 2-3-1.

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First, is that the right product?

Second, if so, then is that ratio sufficient in this case?
 
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