Help diagnosing problems?

ballin jack

Well-Known Member
(Edit: TL/DR: please look at the pics and tell me if you think it's nutrient deficiency/surplus/or bugs, because I'm confused)

Hi all, I've been trying forever to figure out what issues my plants are having, but everything I look at online looks exactly the same. I can't tell if it's a nutrient deficiency, surplus, or bugs. Could you tell me if any of these are obvious to you? There are lots of little problems that I would like to start to be able to recognize and address on my own, but I'm pretty clueless right now.

First off:
Indoor soil grow (Pro Mix Mycorrhizae), 600W HPS light for 9 plants, LED grow light for 3 addt'l plants, Temp 75-80F, Humidity 30%-40%, 4th week of flower on 12/12 lighting (vegged for probably 2.5 months). Growing 4 different strains: Northern Lights, Girl Scout Cookies, Pineapple Express and ChemDawg. All are clones.

Water when soil is dry a couple inches down ( usually every 2-3 days), and for the first 3 weeks of flower I gave nutrients every other watering ( so 1-2 times per week). Using Botanicare BLOOM Nutrient (1-4-5) along with Cal-Mag and Liquid Karma supplements. 5 mL each of the Cal-Mag and Liquid Karma, and then reduce the BLOOM by 20% to 15mL because using supplements. All of those are per gallon of water.

Since I started noticing problems with the leaves (yellowing, brown stripes, burnt tips, etc) I haven't given nutrients at all for a week, have just been watering regularly when needed. I thought maybe I was overfeeding. If anything though, the problems have gotten worse since I stopped giving nutrients.

The only thing I am unsure of is pH. I'm using well water (filtered, but not reverse-osmosis), and when I've tested with capsules and a probe, it has been 6.5-7. I don't trust the probe though, it never moves from 7 lol. I've ordered a digital pH meter, but it hasn't arrived yet. When I've tested the runoff water it has come out at 7, but I just don't trust that the pH meter is accurate. So, that's an unknown right now.

Please check out the following pics and let me know if anything jumps out at you as a problem you recognize.

Pic0 - just a shot of the grow tent.
Pic1 - shot of the ladies with the lights off
Pic2-4 - These are all of the same plant (Girl Scout Cookies). It is in the middle back underneath the HPS light. I cannot figure out what the brown spots and yellowing leaves are indicative of. It's only on the newer growth, and the brown spots are all extremely regular in pattern. I haven't seen anything that looks exactly like it online.
Pic6&7 - Are of the same plant (Pineapple Express) under the LED light. There are tiny mottled spots. I don't know if it's some kind of LED light burn? It's on random leaves though, and it doesn't seem like all the plants under the light have that issue.
Pic9&10 - The same leaf, from one of the plants under the LED light (not sure which plant). The white spots look shiny, almost like snail slime, and the tiny black dots are also shiny. My thought is bugs, but I've spent probably an hour looking at the leaves, under the leaves, in the dirt, under 60x magnification, and I see absolutely no bugs/no movement of anything at all from what I can tell.
Pic12 - This is a pic of dead leaf, just wondering if those white spots are normal for a dead/decaying leaf, or if it's a sign of mold or something. Some leaves like this are still attached to the bottom of some plants, I pull them off when I find them. Not sure if they're just dying naturally as the plant ages.

Any help with anything you recognize would be greatly appreciated, thank you!!
 

Attachments

Last edited:

ballin jack

Well-Known Member
Weak nutes. They still need some N for the first 3 weeks of flower.
Cal-Mag has some Nitrogen in it, and the Bloom has a real small amount too. I would have thought that would be enough, but maybe not? Also, the leaf tips are burning which I read was a sign of nutrient burn...
 

70's natureboy

Well-Known Member
Your nutes are very low in N. I'm actually going to try it on my N sensitive Sour Diesels. I don't think it's working so well for your plants though. It might have if you would have used more grow nutes at the beginning of your flower period. At this point I think you have too much P and K and not enough N.. I don't know the best way to resolve that since I have never had to deal with it. You need some kind of High N fertilizer once or twice to stop the yellowing.
 

sf_frankie

Well-Known Member
Agree with all of the above. Not enough N. What were you feeding during veg? You can switch back to that or even do half/half of your veg and bloom nutes.
 

ballin jack

Well-Known Member
Agree with all of the above. Not enough N. What were you feeding during veg? You can switch back to that or even do half/half of your veg and bloom nutes.
I was using Botanicare GROW (3-2-4). I cut it off as soon as flowering started though. I guess it does make sense they could be low in N and too high in P and K now. Maybe I'll give them a single feeding of the Grow and see if they green up, I still have 4-6 weeks left in flower, so plenty of time to flush of nitrogen later.
 

zombedud

Active Member
To me, it looks like nutrient lockout on that one lady. The yellowing seems to be happening mid height up, not from the bottom. Along with the telltale burnt tips and the copper patch on that leaf is also a sure sign.

I'm a soil grower too, and I always end up with one or two that don't like how I'm treating them.
 

ballin jack

Well-Known Member
To me, it looks like nutrient lockout on that one lady. The yellowing seems to be happening mid height up, not from the bottom. Along with the telltale burnt tips and the copper patch on that leaf is also a sure sign.

I'm a soil grower too, and I always end up with one or two that don't like how I'm treating them.
That's what I thought too. The leaves aren't yellowing at the bottom, so it can't be Nitrogen. Mag deficiency was the closest thing it looked like to me, but the brown spots are so regular it didn't look exactly the same as pics I've seen. I'm gonna test the pH as soon as my meter gets here, and I'm betting it's off, causing nute lockout.
 

puffdatchronic

Well-Known Member
And yes im pretty sure its too close. Even for 250watt leds its 18 inches . I use to use mine that close and had similar issues , stopped happening when i started going by the manufacturer instructions. I think its light burn.. could be something else but thats my 2c
 

zombedud

Active Member
That's what I thought too. The leaves aren't yellowing at the bottom, so it can't be Nitrogen. Mag deficiency was the closest thing it looked like to me, but the brown spots are so regular it didn't look exactly the same as pics I've seen. I'm gonna test the pH as soon as my meter gets here, and I'm betting it's off, causing nute lockout.
I've had good luck with watering with plain pH 6.8 water and adding a bit of Epsom salts (I think I use 1tsp/gallon) when this happens. Takes my ladies about a week to recover. Best of luck!
 
Top