Hey guys.
It's been around 2 months, and what can I say? Some good, some very bad news.
Good news first - Yes, I only used one substrate now. Biobizz Light Mix to be precise. Nothing else. I pre-moistened the substrate as recommended by Biobizz themselves. And what else did I do? I made a fifth "trial" plant, in a solo cup. Because what if my watering is just too much, too little? This will help me understand more about all of this. With this trial plant, I can 100% avoid any "dry spots" or "incorrect watering techniques". It exists to prove myself that it can't be the watering itself, and to use it as an example for other people to judge if it happens.. once again.
So that's what I did. 5 Plants, 4 of them in their final pots already, because autoflowers, 4gal pot. I know, not recommended, I should transplant. But I had the solo cup plant just to prove everything, especially for myself. So one in a solo cup, around 0.4L (whatever that in gallons is). All filled with Biobizz Light Mix.
I pre-watered said substrate with 4L of water for each 4gal pot, around 3 days before planting the already sprouted seeds. I let the substrate relax for that time at warm temps, as recommended by Biobizz, so it can activate. To this water I only added some calmag and epsom salts, to reach a 3:1 calmag ratio. It was fully calculated with my water analysis. 2.5ml of Calmag and 0.5g of epsom salts on 4L of water. That's all. Nothing else. Chill, relax, it's just a weed.
And - They grew wonderfully. Seriously, it was unbelievable. Especially the one in the solo cup looked like a 10+ day old plant at only 7 days of age.
Day 8 after sprout. Ignore the CO2 bag, it was a leftover from another grow:
As you can see, they were THRIVING. It was amazing. Considering that I pre-watered with a huge amount of water, they weren't watered until day 11 after being planted, so 13 days in total of no water at all, until the substrate lost a good amount of weight. I checked daily. The plants never drooped or anything, they showed no signs of "not enough water". The solo cup plant got watered on day 5, as it lost enough weight by then and the leaves showed the first small signs of "I need water", but they weren't drooping yet. Just tapwater, dechlorinated, at 6.5PH, taken from 1L of solution with the perfect ratio of cal/mag. Around 100ml of water. I really wanted to force them for once to show the symptoms of underwatering in some way, as I never had this happen before.
Sadly, on day 11 after sprout, I noticed something on the solo cup plant - Yellow new growth. This is exactly what I was scared of. Yellowing of the veins themselves on the newest side branch growth, with the leaf material itself still being rather green. This is how it ALWAYS starts, with the side-branches.
It came back, once again. But only on the solo cup plant, eh? It's just a cheapie seed, nothing to worry about. The others are fine! I thought, at least. I repotted the solo cup plant with AMAZING root growth (seriously, the cup was almost only roots, big white hairy roots everywhere) into ~4L of Biobizz Light Mix, maybe that might fix it.
On day 12 I started some light LST on my 4 main plants, as they were growing a bit too fast, which was good. Who doesn't like fast growth? PPFD/PAR at around 350 at this moment.
But while doing some LST, I sadly noticed that I'm cursed once again. First shaded by the leaf that I cut off of every plant (Don't ask, that's how I usually LST if plants grow amazingly), I now noticed that the growth I thought was fine, actually isn't fine at all. No, this growth didn't come after I cut the leaf off, in case someone wants to say that this is the cause as to why all my plants are literally dying now. I noticed it while cutting it off.
Yellow new growth.. everywhere. Not the "oh it's only fresh growth!", but the "Yes, I am once again f-ed" growth. But I didn't care, just as recommended. Just don't care, let them grow, water them if needed, chill. It's just a weed in the end.
And here I am today, not caring, just letting them grow, just chilling and not babying them, like everyone always recommends. Not directed at you guys, but generally at everyone who told me that they die because I do "too much". I only checked how light the pots were, and if they were light enough, I watered again. That's all I did. With water, calmag, and epsom salts.
Because last time, only water didn't work. I also made sure not to get them too dry this time, as there's life inside the substrate. I always wanted to keep a small amount of moisture in the substrate here. Because in other attempts, I let them dry out more.
They haven't moved for around 6 days now. Everything is yellowing up, veins are bright yellow, growth is 100% stunted. I cut some brown edges off here and there, to see if there will appear more damage, and sure enough it appeared.
This is what I've been talking about for the past year, and now, just like in my first 3 or 4 grows where they all straight up died while I only watered and did nothing else, I didn't care and just did the least amount of things possible, besides the fact that I fixed my cal/mag ratio this time, with huge hopes of it finally fixing all the problems. Because back then in my first grows, I didn't fix my cal/mag, I just watered.
But I don't want to just be negative, I wanna share some things that might help some people, maybe give some clues. These things I did in the past 3 or 4 days, because they were not moving anymore anyways:
First of all - I measured the runoff of one of the plants today, even if it's useless in soil or whatever this counts as. Soilless? Soilless organics? No idea. If everything dies, you just check stuff. The runoff was at 6.9/6.95PH, confirmed by three PH pens, calibrated. I watered with a 6.5PH solution. Runoff was taken from a clean saucer, and measured directly after it came out the plant. Biobizz says to be at around 6.2-6.3PH with light mix, so I don't know what to do with these numbers now.
Secondly - I did try an epsom salt "top-dressing" on one of them, and watered it in. It didn't help. Why did I do that? Because every symptom hints at a Sulfur deficiency, I just don't know why or how this is possible. Yellow veins, stunted growth, no chlorophyll being produced, and and and. Epsom salts contain a good amount of sulfur, so I gave it a try on ONE of them, not all. If they all die, try it on one to see how it works out.
Thirdly - I have a PH soil probe. 9 out of 10 people hate it, and I used it. Because if everything dies, why wouldn't I poke a stick into my substrate? The PH soil probe read a PH of 6.2 in unused, fresh Light Mix, the same PH that it should have. When I poked it into the first 2 inches of the used substrate the plants were in, the PH showed around 5.0PH. The deeper I went, the lower the PH showed on the probe, all the way down to 4.0PH. Confusing to me, but someone else surely knows more. Especially confusing because the runoff measured 6.95PH.
Fourthly (Is that even a word?) - I did a squeeze test from one of the plants substrates. because if everything dies, why wouldn't I grab some of the substrate and just squeeze it into a cup? Some people feel insulted whenever I do stuff while the plants are at their last breaths, like come on, if a patient keeps dying for no reason, your job as a doctor is to find the hell out WHY he's dying, and you will try EVERYTHING in your last few attempts. So I squeezed it, and checked the PH, which came out to 5.5PH in the upper half of the substrate.
That's all the info I have right now. Did I do nothing this time? Almost, yes, besides the calmag and epsom salts. Did I keep it as simple as possible? Yes, I did. Did I try lots of stupid stuff at the end? Because they're almost dead anyways, so yes, I did!
What do you guys think?
