pH problem? Soggy roots?

C

Chestermen

420 Member
My poor plants have been plagued with what I swear is a pH issue, but from the very first watering I've always been balancing it to 6.8. There has been some bug issues over the life span, I've attached images of the type of fly, though they're mostly all gone now (finally).

I flushed two of the plants three weeks ago because they were getting burnt tips after a feeding and they bounced back but then again started yellowing and having splotchy spotting and drying out/dying on mid and older growth leaves. The dirt never dried after the flush, and went almost two weeks without needing fresh water. I thought it was a temperature issue and after putting a heater in the room for some good results and nice new growth, but now they're back to the same problems.

Could it be that my nutrients and pH buffers have possibly expired? I bought it all years ago and things we're going great, then I took a break for a few years and am using the same products I bought when I first began. I use a digital pH tester that I did not skimp on, and I checked to make sure the calibration was still good.

I also topped both plants and grew the top as a clone which I think was a mistake without having the environment perfected. It's a new set up / home, so humidity and the temperature, as well as light positions, have shifted a few times (I've been changing things as I identify issues).

I've been growing with LED lights (Mars Hydro www.growyour420.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Marshydro-300W.jpg) and a few 65000k compact fluorescent lights.

Strain:
White widow
And
Blueberry

Temp had been stable at 73

Light has been on 24/7
 

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How often do you water?

Perlite adds aeration and sheds water, but vermiculite retains water. Try this to see where your watering game is at. Tilt the pots on steep angle and keep them propped at an angle for an hour or two, this will force the perched water table to shed excess water. See how much water comes out, after an hour or two set them back upright. This will reset the perched water table to a lower level. Don’t add water for at least 5 days maybe longer but stretch the timing out until you see slight leaf wilt. I think it’s possible you are watering too frequently especially since the vermiculite retains water.

Weed is a C3 plant, technically it does not need rest but most growers use 20/4 or 18/6 lighting schedule, obviously you knew this but I’m curious why 24/7 and no rest?
 
013 said:
How often do you water?

Perlite adds aeration and sheds water, but vermiculite retains water. Try this to see where your watering game is at. Tilt the pots on steep angle and keep them propped at an angle for an hour or two, this will force the perched water table to shed excess water. See how much water comes out, after an hour or two set them back upright. This will reset the perched water table to a lower level. Don’t add water for at least 5 days....think it’s possible you are watering too frequently especially since the vermiculite retains water.

Weed is a C3 plant, technically it does not need rest but most growers use 20/4 or 18/6 lighting schedule, obviously you knew this but I’m curious why 24/7 and no rest?
Click to expand...
It's been all over the place for a schedule. I do my best to wait until the water's been absorbed before adding more. I wait until the dirt has pulled away from the pot a bit and the pot feels lighter. I have a good idea of how much water is in the pot by picking it up, so I do my best not to give any unless it's thirsty.

The last time I watered the two big ones was 7 days ago. Three small one I swear had been three weeks since the last watering (I just upsized the pot for her today, I'm hoping the fresh soil will help give some air to the roots.
 
This ProMix is for potted plants and is a mix of
  • Canadian sphagnum peat moss
  • Peat humus
  • Coir (coconut fibre)
  • Perlite
  • Limestone
  • Organic fertilizer
  • Mycorrhizae
So it's some sort of weird peat/soil/coco hybrid. It's buffered with limestone so at least there's no need to pH your nutes.

And anything that takes 7 days (or 3 weeks) to dry out is being watered wrong. If you put a small plant in a big pot you can't soak the whole pot or it will remain waterlogged and drown the roots, which could be the problem here. Droopy leaves, yellowing, fungus gnats, deficiencies are all signs of wet soil.

Small rootballs in big pots need to be watered in a circle just outside the original roots, and then that circle expands with each watering as the roots fill the new soil.
 
013 said:
How often do you water?

Perlite adds aeration and sheds water, but vermiculite retains water. Try this to see where your watering game is at. Tilt the pots on steep angle and keep them propped at an angle for an hour or two, this will force the perched water table to shed excess water. See how much water comes out, after an hour or two set them back upright. This will reset the perched water table to a lower level. Don’t add water for at least 5 days maybe longer but stretch the timing out until you see slight leaf wilt. I think it’s possible you are watering too frequently especially since the vermiculite retains water.

Weed is a C3 plant, technically it does not need rest but most growers use 20/4 or 18/6 lighting schedule, obviously you knew this but I’m curious why 24/7 and no rest?
Click to expand...
I put it into a 24 hour daylight cycle because I needed to separate the vegetative plants from the flowering plants, and since they were going into an area that might be accessed at anytime I didn't want the night cycle to be interrupted. So I opted for always on lights instead. I'm not sure if it has any downsides other then the Hydro bill.
 
InTheShed said:
This ProMix is for potted plants and is a mix of
  • Canadian sphagnum peat moss
  • Peat humus
  • Coir (coconut fibre)
  • Perlite
  • Limestone
  • Organic fertilizer
  • Mycorrhizae
So it's some sort of weird peat/soil/coco hybrid. It's buffered with limestone so at least there's no need to pH your nutes.

And anything that takes 7 days (or 3 weeks) to dry out is being watered wrong. If you put a small plant in a big pot you can't soak the whole pot or it will remain waterlogged and drown the roots, which could be the problem here. Droopy leaves, yellowing, fungus gnats, deficiencies are all signs of wet soil.

Small rootballs in big pots need to be watered in a circle just outside the original roots, and then that circle expands with each watering as the roots fill the new soil.
Click to expand...
Thanks! I'll definitely give that a go.

I think I did exactly that and turned a big pot of fresh dirt into a bucket of mud after moving the plant into a bigger pot and watering wrong. I'll keep an eye on it, try to dry it out then be more deliberate with the watering.

Thanks again!
 
InTheShed said:
This ProMix is for potted plants and is a mix of
  • Canadian sphagnum peat moss
  • Peat humus
  • Coir (coconut fibre)
  • Perlite
  • Limestone
  • Organic fertilizer
  • Mycorrhizae
So it's some sort of weird peat/soil/coco hybrid. It's buffered with limestone so at least there's no need to pH your nutes.

And anything that takes 7 days (or 3 weeks) to dry out is being watered wrong. If you put a small plant in a big pot you can't soak the whole pot or it will remain waterlogged and drown the roots, which could be the problem here. Droopy leaves, yellowing, fungus gnats, deficiencies are all signs of wet soil.

Small rootballs in big pots need to be watered in a circle just outside the original roots, and then that circle expands with each watering as the roots fill the new soil.
Click to expand...
I might be wrong but promix should be ph as hydro 5.6/5.8/.... then 6 flower the buffer is to bring it back up when you go in at a lower ph , you drift up coving the feeding scale
 
Chestermen said:
My poor plants have been plagued with what I swear is a pH issue, but from the very first watering I've always been balancing it to 6.8. There has been some bug issues over the life span, I've attached images of the type of fly, though they're mostly all gone now (finally).

I flushed two of the plants three weeks ago because they were getting burnt tips after a feeding and they bounced back but then again started yellowing and having splotchy spotting and drying out/dying on mid and older growth leaves. The dirt never dried after the flush, and went almost two weeks without needing fresh water. I thought it was a temperature issue and after putting a heater in the room for some good results and nice new growth, but now they're back to the same problems.

Could it be that my nutrients and pH buffers have possibly expired? I bought it all years ago and things we're going great, then I took a break for a few years and am using the same products I bought when I first began. I use a digital pH tester that I did not skimp on, and I checked to make sure the calibration was still good.

I also topped both plants and grew the top as a clone which I think was a mistake without having the environment perfected. It's a new set up / home, so humidity and the temperature, as well as light positions, have shifted a few times (I've been changing things as I identify issues).

I've been growing with LED lights (Mars Hydro www.growyour420.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Marshydro-300W.jpg) and a few 65000k compact fluorescent lights.

Strain:
White widow
And
Blueberry

Temp had been stable at 73

Light has been on 24/7
Click to expand...
You can certainly veg without darkness but you will find that they won't stretch very much. As shared above it's a C3 so it does not need rest but it does need to "seek" the sun to get some of its stretch and it does do some of it in the dark; the rest is genetics and how close the light is.
 
TheNuttyProfessor said:
I might be wrong but promix should be ph as hydro 5.6/5.8/.... then 6 flower the buffer is to bring it back up when you go in at a lower ph , you drift up coving the feeding scale
Click to expand...

TheNuttyProfessor said:
there is some videos from promix on youtube , punch in promix ph i just watched one to be sure , the ph is 5.6 5.8
Im running a soil the same but its my own spin on it , its classed as soilless , /hydro soil , you water feed ,water ,feed for best results ,:thumb:
Click to expand...
A couple of things to be clear. This is not ProMix HP. This is basically home potting soil with the ingredients I listed above including peat (5.8), soil (6.8), and coco (hydro). I don't know where PremierTech has decided to buffer the pH of the substrate to, but buffered substrates do not need to have pH balanced nutes, and that is from the manufacturer.

Any info you get about pH and buffered substrates should come from either the manufacturer of the product or scientific/.edu sites rather than youtube videos where misinformation runs rampant.

For info on pH and ProMix check out the opening post in the link in my signature on pH'ing nutes.
 
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