Hi all, I am trying to help my dad who has a medicinal license. He is well on his way with his first crop, but I believe he is starting to have a possible phosphorus deficiency. His plants have green stocks, but some of the stems are turning purple, and he is seeing some purple in the leaves as well and right where the stem meets the leaf there is a definite very red dot.. I have done some reading, and I am a little confused. He is using a soil less grow medium (sunshine #4 I think), liquid 3 part nutes (possibly General Hyroponics??) He does ph his water, and these babies are 3 weeks into flowering. If it is a deficiency, can we just add more of the bloom or micro fert, or should the roots be flushed with clean water to get rid of a build up??? If it is a build up, why dis it refered to it as a deficiency?? I will post some pics tomorrow, as the plants are now sleeping for the night.. Thanks in advance.
Possible phosphorus deficiency
- Thread starter go4snypr
- Start date
I can't say too much about this, but I thought purple stems were MG def.
I have purple stems on mine and they've been there for a while. I started using CaliMagic (for MG def) and noticed that the purple never really went away but they are either purple/green stripes or some purple and the new growth is green.
If you want, you can look at my grow, I'm a few weeks into flower, so that are about the same stage as yours. It's a soil grow, so that's different from yours.
The link to my pic-heavy grow journal is in my signature below.
soil-less grows are more touchy about nutes that soil grows, if you over nute, you can get a lockout and that would cause nute def.
_IF_ it it Phosphorus def, PH Up is acid and should stop that. If you have lockout, I think the solution is to flush and wait, but you need to double check, as mine again is a soil grow.
Post some pics when you can.
Also, some have told me that purple stems is not always a bad thing. Most of mine have been purple from near the start and still have some purple, yet they look very healthy and are about 40" tall. Again, pics are in the grow journal, judge the health for yourself, but they are growing pretty well.
Do you use a PPM meter? and what are the other stats: temp, humidity, type of water grow, etc... these things might be helpful.
I have purple stems on mine and they've been there for a while. I started using CaliMagic (for MG def) and noticed that the purple never really went away but they are either purple/green stripes or some purple and the new growth is green.
If you want, you can look at my grow, I'm a few weeks into flower, so that are about the same stage as yours. It's a soil grow, so that's different from yours.
The link to my pic-heavy grow journal is in my signature below.
soil-less grows are more touchy about nutes that soil grows, if you over nute, you can get a lockout and that would cause nute def.
_IF_ it it Phosphorus def, PH Up is acid and should stop that. If you have lockout, I think the solution is to flush and wait, but you need to double check, as mine again is a soil grow.
Post some pics when you can.
Also, some have told me that purple stems is not always a bad thing. Most of mine have been purple from near the start and still have some purple, yet they look very healthy and are about 40" tall. Again, pics are in the grow journal, judge the health for yourself, but they are growing pretty well.
Do you use a PPM meter? and what are the other stats: temp, humidity, type of water grow, etc... these things might be helpful.
You're both right, it's normally Phosphorous however it can be Magnesium as well.
What is he pHing his water at?
Also aside from the purple color how is the plant doing?
Fuzzy Duck
Well-Known Member
Magnesium had never really occured to me that it may cause the purpling effect on stems !
Which does explain alot on my own grows... with simaler symptoms of purpling of the stem & a touch of intervienal chlorosis of the leafs on the odd plant from time to time, mainly in veg tho but all clears up once feeding/nutrients are increased.
Nice one for pointing that out JJ
Which does explain alot on my own grows... with simaler symptoms of purpling of the stem & a touch of intervienal chlorosis of the leafs on the odd plant from time to time, mainly in veg tho but all clears up once feeding/nutrients are increased.
Nice one for pointing that out JJ
what strain. what day and night temps?
those can have an effect on purp stems i think.
those can have an effect on purp stems i think.
- Thread starter
- #6
Hey thanks for the replies. I am unsure of strains, as we ruined the first batch of seeds that we knew/told were nebula. The daytime temps are running in the mid 80's and not dropping too low at nights because we put a heater in with them to keep the temps up. He had an experienced grower come over and look and that guy said not to worry about it because the rest of the plant looks fine. I did have him water a couple of times with no nutes and now they are back on the regular feeding schedule. On a side question though, he is going on the 4th week of flower, i read that the leaves will start turning yellow due to nitrogen deficiency, when should we start seeing this??
it only looks like N deficiency its actually the start of the plant dying.
some strains hold their vigor very well so you may not always see this sign before your plants are ready, but you can expect it at any time really if the plant is flowering with a natural inclination to be more likely as every week passes.
its basically one of those signs that doesnt mean very much on its own, its too varied a patter across strains =)
some strains hold their vigor very well so you may not always see this sign before your plants are ready, but you can expect it at any time really if the plant is flowering with a natural inclination to be more likely as every week passes.
its basically one of those signs that doesnt mean very much on its own, its too varied a patter across strains =)
- Thread starter
- #8
well, I am not going to worry too much about it then. The plants all look very good. Here is a pic of one of them. He has a bunch of different strains as we went with random bag seeds. Some are bushy like this one, others are a straight up stock with one big cola. I will upload some pics to my gallery a little later today.
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