Hard Water to blame?

[bigweedo]

Hi All,

I have hard water (just tested 115 PPM out of tap.) It seems like I run into the same problem at 3 weeks into flowering. My plants start to yellow and turn crazy colors. Daytime and night time temps are in the high 60's and low 70's. pH is 6.5, seems like everything is good.





I'm starting to think my hard water is causing nutrient lock out. Plant stems and leaf veins are turning a weird red. I've attached a picture, does it seem like it is a calcium def?

Please help!:icon_smile:

 

[Growdude]

115 is not that bad. Overwatering or being hungry can cause yellowing like that.

 

[4u2sm0ke]

Yeah Im with GrowDude..and say at week 3 bloom she is asking for a bit more Nitro...Do you notice redish rusty spots later in flower around week 5? is so I would start some cal/mag as well as a little more Nitro

Take care and be safe
:48:

 

[bigweedo]

Do you guys usually give a little shot of nitrogen around mid flowering? I might throw in 1/2 tsp of my grow in the next watering

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

What are you feeding your plants? What PPMs are you running? I have run water in that range before without issues. You might want to let your pH drift some.

 

[bigweedo]

I'm using Earth Juice Seablast line. I've never tested PPMs with nutrients added yet, I've just been following the strong recommendation with the pH being at 6.5 at time of feeding. It drops the pH from around 7.6 to 6.5. What do you mean by letting my pH drift?

 

[bigweedo]

By the way, the plant directly under the light is showing the worse symptoms, this points at deficiency right? The plant furthest from the light shows the least amount of symptoms.

 

[Hushpuppy]

I follow with the above question of what nutes and how much, and what kind of schedule, as it appears to be developing flower nute deficiency which is in line with the timing. Or you could be causing a lockout when you switch to flowering nutes. Or you could just be suffering a loss of nitrogen from the switch-over.

Also, what kind of soil/medium and how long have the plants been vegging before being placed into flower.

 

[bigweedo]

They are in 5 gallon buckets with black gold as soil. Vegged for 6 weeks. The plants are always so lush and green during veg under flourscents, but once they go under the hps things seem to change. I used grow during veg (17-8-17) at 1/2 tsp every watering. Once a week I water with a gallon of water with 1/2 tsp of (8-35-14). This is called transition and I will be switching to bloom 3-26-22 with an additive of bloom master (0-0-50)

 

[Hushpuppy]

I just looked into the earth juice line and saw that it is organic but I couldn't tell if it has beneficial microbes or not, or if it is already chelated nutrients. It appears that either you are not feeding them enough and they are running out of nutes faster than you supply them(because when they go into transition to flowering, they go into nute overdrive), or there isn't enough microbes within the soil to chelate the nutes fast enough to properly feed the plants and they are getting deficient.

Can you tell if there is microbes supplied in the nutes or if it is pre-chelated?

 

[bigweedo]

pretty sure the seablast line isn't organic, so I doubt there are microbs. So, it sounds like my hard water isn't the problem? Sounds like I am under feeding, these plants are big.

 

[Hushpuppy]

That is interesting as what I looked up said specifically "organic" but that could just be an organic line of the same product. Yeah if it isn't organic then I would be inclined to think you just are a little low on the nutes. I am not sure about how much of everything the "Transition" has in it, but it may be that it doesn't have enough of the grow nutes to keep it from yellowing on the lower part of the plant.

I would bump up the transition dosage and see if that helps it green up again.

 

[trillions of atoms]

Looks hungry.... if ph is in the zone might wanna bump up the chow.


If problem persists try using a hardwater micro nutrient line like general hydroponics or get an r/o filter.

 

[bigweedo]

Just fed 3/4 tsp of the transition...pH was 6.3 and ppm was 414 (tap water had 114ppm prior to nutrients)

Do I need more ppm?

 

[DrFever]

YUP you need to be in the 800's min try for 850 range You need N all through growth, during flowering you need less of it, about 1/2 to 2/3 as much as veg but you need it because N is the base element for photosynthetic production. Your leaves turning yellow means your plants are out of available N. Give them an initial dose at full strength to help them recover then continue with about a 1/2 strength regimen. 6.3 is to low of ph you need min 6.8 - 7.0 for nutrients to work properly i suggest flushing your medium with 800 ppm 7.0 and catch return check ph levels as they may be way to low if there High then your over dosing your plants. But its critical to keep a constant ph level in the 6.8 to 7.0 in your medium at all times fluctuations only brings stress , slow growth and low yields

 

[bigweedo]

So it's looking like I need to buy some pH up and up my rates?

 

[4u2sm0ke]

Soil is 6.5-7.0

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

I'm using Earth Juice Seablast line. I've never tested PPMs with nutrients added yet, I've just been following the strong recommendation with the pH being at 6.5 at time of feeding. It drops the pH from around 7.6 to 6.5. What do you mean by letting my pH drift?

The reason that pH is important is that all nutrients are not uptaken at the same pH levels. I have linked a chart that shows nutrient uptake at different pH levels. You can see that there are a couple of major elements that are not uptaken at pH levels below 6.5. So when I talk about pH drift, I am talking about not keeping a steady pH, but allowing it to go from about 6.0 to about 6.8 to insure uptake of all nutes.

http://www.marijuanapassion.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=1833&d=1141100090

I also believe that the Earth Juice Seablast is organic.

 

[bigweedo]

It isn't organic, 100% sure. So, do I need to buy pH up and up my rates. PPM of feeding was a little over 400 and pH was 6.3

 

[trillions of atoms]

Bump up the feed 400 is not enough.