Nitrogen toxicity I think, maybe more?

ReDoze

ReDoze

New Member
HI all, first let me say I have been reading, searching pictures and descriptions both here and on other sites. (not a member anywhere else, just using bing)
I am finally posting a help thread because I have a number of issues that I didn't find much help on through my searches. Here's my specs:

Strain: Beatrix Choice / Haze, % of each unknown, mostly Sativa
Time: about 4 weeks in Veg, maybe 6 weeks from seed
Grow is indoor, in a 5ftx5ft tent, under a 900W LED.
Soil grow, 3 gallon container, Happy Frog and Ocean Forest mixed
Water when soil is dry 2" down by fingering it :)
70F-75F temps
Humidity unknown
No active ventilation
No fertilizer for now
See explanations below for more details

Plant was started in a peat pellet, then a pint sized container with jiffy seed starter soil surrounding it. About 2 or 3 weeks ago, I transferred it into the bag you can see in the photos, it is a 3 gallon, not completely full of soil. I used 1/2 FF Ocean Forest and 1/2 Happy Frog, mixed in the bag.

I don't have any active ventilation right now, there is a fan inside the tent just to move the air around, and I have the 6" vent behind the fan open, and an 8" vent open at the top. Temps stay between 70F and 75F.

I had some fungus gnats for a while, but haven't seen any in a couple of days. This was due to overwatering of the garden plants in the background and the MMJ early on.

I fertilized too early, and got nute burn on the little seedling. Since it has been in the 3 gallon pot, I have not fertilized. It seemed to have nitrogen toxicity the last week or so, but since I haven't been fertilizing, I checked my water pH (Hanna tester). Out of the tap, my pH is around 7.4-7.5, after sitting for 1-2 days. I have a well, and hard water, so my whole house has a filter/softener setup. I used some pH down last night and dropped the pH to 6.3 and added 1/2 gallon to the plant. Today, it doesn't really look any better.

Any suggestions? Sorry for the off color, that LED makes it look weird. The main color is a very dark green, consistent with what I'v seen for nitrogen toxicity, and the new growth is more yellow than I would like.
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:welcome: to :420:

Using FFOF and FFHF you will probably not need to feed your plant until you enter flowering, just water. You should only water when the pot is almost dry, 2" down isn't always dry enough, cannabis likes drier over wetter when it comes to soil. Don't worry too much about pH just yet, let it dry out and no more food for a while and then see how it does. Also, check out the New Member Start Links in my signature, in there is a link to uploading photos.
 
Another question I had was who else grows with softened water? I have plenty of house plants that do fine with the water, but I know the softener adds some amount of sodium to the water when treating it.
Has anyone bought the potassium pellets to use in place of sodium in their softener? Did you notice any results?

Also, I checked my runoff pH yesterday when I watered with 6.3 pH'ed water, and my runoff was around 5.4. Does that sound right or even matter?
 
Water softened with salt is not a good water source for cannabis. I would think that potassium pellets would be a better alternative but you would have to make sure the plants do not receive too much K. The pH sounds a little low for soil as that would place your soil pH at around 4.5. What is the pH of your water coming out of the tap?
 
ColoradoHigh said:
Water softened with salt is not a good water source for cannabis. I would think that potassium pellets would be a better alternative but you would have to make sure the plants do not receive too much K. The pH sounds a little low for soil as that would place your soil pH at around 4.5. What is the pH of your water coming out of the tap?
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Water out of the tap is between 7.1 and 7.5 (sampled over the last 2 months or so). One problem I have right now is I don't know the ppm of sodium from my softener. I am going to order a ppm meter in the next week or two to give me an idea. Either way, I thought potassium would be better for my plants than sodium.

I do have a single tap that is unfiltered in my house, but I don't know how a high mineral concentration would affect my plants. I could buy water for a week or two while I wait on the ppm tester.
 
ColoradoHigh said:
I would stop using the salt softened water immediately and go with the unfiltered tap for now. For the short term, high PPM is much less problematic than high Sodium to your grow. You can always check it once you receive your PPM meter.
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OK, thanks. I will get my 5 gallon container filled up tomorrow from the unfiltered source since I will be watering in a few days.

I think my plant is showing sex now. I will try to get a picture up tomorrow and see what you guys think.
 
Well, she was looking a little worse today, so I took her outside, flushed 8 gallons of un-treated water through and checked the runoff.

Unfiltered water was about 7.1 pH, runoff was about 6.2 pH. Also in the past, I wasn't watering enough and probably watering too often. I am hoping the flushing will give the roots some more oxygenated water and by using untreated, I flushed some of the potentially built-up sodium out of the soil.

I also transferred into a 10 gallon smart pot yesterday, so we will see if the extra breathability helps out the roots.
 
Nice to see its doing better. Whenever I am in doubt I usually start with a good flush of distilled water and go from there. It is void of everything and comes neutral usually. Coloradohigh always has good advice.
 
ColoradoHigh said:
It does look better ReDoze! :goodjob: It looks like it could dry out even more and the leaf tip burns are more than likely from nutrient burn but it doesn't look too bad really. When it does dry out, just give it some water and see if the new growth stops burning.
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Thanks, keep an eye on my journal to see more update pictures. She seems to be doing well now.
 
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