Plants dieing under blackstar240 (AGAIN!) help

I'm just finishing up my first grow which I used blackstar leds on, Including a 240w, grown is soil (ffof).

What I can tell you is this. My girls were all fine right until week 5 or 6, which is right about the time I switched to 12/12. Soon after my girls started showing some deficiencies. I immediately started added 1 tablespoon of Cal-Mag to one gallon of water mixed with my nutes every feeding. At that point the Cal-Mag did not reverse any damage but it sure stopped it from getting worse. I then started the same Cal-Mag regimen on my vegging plants that were showing no deficiencies and to this day, 8 weeks into flowering, none of those girls are having any problems. They look great.

In Summary, I believe if your going to use LEDs, Maybe just Blackstar specifically, maybe not, you have to supplement with Cal-Mag. At least I do.

PS - I've run my LED's anywhere from 2 inches from the canopy to as high as 24 inches. I've never had any burn problems from the light itself. One morning I woke up and the top cola of one of my plants was literally touching the LED panel and was bending on a 90 degree angle. No problems other than the bud was a little flat on one side. lo

Hope that all made sense, Im still drinking my first cup of coffee. *YAWN*

thanks for the input mate i hope it works for me plus rep

kang420 said:

thanks for the input mate i hope it works for me plus rep

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Yes, I hope it helps you out man. Good luck and keep us posted.

jubiare said:

amaximus, when u talk about calmag, do you add it to ro water or tap water? Puff, do u add 5ml/gallon to ro water or tap water? Thankzzzz

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I add the Cal-Mag right to my room temperature tap water. (I tend to fill my containers with tap water and let them sit uncovered for a few days before using them. I think I read somewhere something about impurities evaporating; ie chlorine? I don't know how true it is but it certainly couldn't hurt and at the very least I don't like to give my girls cold water)

I have this cal-mag is it ok?
http://www.fluidsensoronline.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=94_161_163&products_id=443

I use water from a natural spring well, i dont know the EC but i just bought an EC meter just incase theres any problem there, i bottle the water and leave it in bottles for a few days but ive never left the top open, also how much cal mag in ml per liter are you using as tsp and tbs are hard to measure and theres uk gallons and us gallons which are different by a liter, so if you know ml per liter please let me know, it says 2ml per liter on the cal mag but that might be abit much?

jubiare said:

amaximus, when u talk about calmag, do you add it to ro water or tap water? Puff, do u add 5ml/gallon to ro water or tap water? Thankzzzz

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5ml/gal with ro water. I go to the little water store and fill up 5gallon jugs of purified water. My tap takes too much ph solution to get higher and lower.

puffenuff said:

5ml/gal with ro water. I go to the little water store and fill up 5gallon jugs of purified water. My tap takes too much ph solution to get higher and lower.

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Are you talking about a us gallon or uk gallon?
1 US gallon = 3.785411784 liters
1 UK (Imperial) gallon = 4.54609188 liters

id rather know how many ml per liter lol as i only mix 1 or two liters at a time

*US gallon

Its looking even bloody worse today guys after the cal-mag, i still have it under mh light, even the top leaves are getting bad now. advice????

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Foliar the calmag at 2ml/L. I Have a viper A100 LED and show signs of calcuim deficiancy within a week of these LED without a calcuim suppliment. Also a good point to say to you is if it has'nt been said already is if you live in a soft water area you NEED cal/mag. My tap water ppm is as low as 15ppm so it is a must anyhow.. On the bright side though is is amazingly fresh and delicious to drink straight from the tap!

budman111 said:

Foliar the calmag at 2ml/L. I Have a viper A100 LED and show signs of calcuim deficiancy within a week of these LED without a calcuim suppliment. Also a good point to say to you is if it has'nt been said already is if you live in a soft water area you NEED cal/mag. My tap water ppm is as low as 15ppm so it is a must anyhow.. On the bright side though is is amazingly fresh and delicious to drink straight from the tap!

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Thanks budman my tap water is good to drink too as its a spring well, i dont know the ppm/ec but ive bought an ec meter so i should know next week, the ph of the water is 6.9 and i need to add quite a few drops of ph down to bring it to 5.8 i hope thats not a problem?
ill try a folair feed now when the lights go out, what ec should my water be ideally?

puffenuff said:

5ml/gal with ro water. I go to the little water store and fill up 5gallon jugs of purified water. My tap takes too much ph solution to get higher and lower.

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Is this a problem? i need about ten drops of ph down per liter

I feel like a dick listen to this, i had a little bottle of ph down that was for aquariums and had bought a big bottle of hydroponic ph down. for whatever reason i was using the little bottle first to use it up and ive just done a test with my water and it takes 12 drops of the aquarium ph down per liter to move the ph from 7.1 to 5.8 ( my ph got higher i think because of alot of rain) and another test with the hydroponic ph down which only take 6 drops to bring the water from 7.1 to 5.8! do you think this could be the problem? and is 6 drops per liter ok or still too much? i dident think that could do anything other than lower the ph. the little bottle for aquariums is now in the bin

Let me start off with saying: Never use Aqua PH Down as it causes funky problems and if you are lowering the ph for soil, 5.8 is optimum hydro and 6.5 is optimum soil in my experience. Next if you use a good ass soil mix you don't need to adjust your water because the soil will buffer it out to the perfect level.

For me the only problems I have encountered growing with Blackstars is they only require nutes at half strength but I only grow via bubbleponics/dwc now so it might be a hydro thing. I veg with CFL now but when i used my blackstars I found that the light needed to be much higher to blend the spectrums with great results and I only needed half as many panels with the same result. hope any of this helps.

I dont use soil am growing in coco thats why i need the ph at 5.8, i already know what ph i need, believe it or not ive been growing in soil with cfl and hps for years just never ran into problems like this. but then again i never needed to lower my ph that much and never grew under led, i hope this works how long do you think i should keep it under mh light before putting it back under led?

Hell I have used the same light but a different soil the Bonticare moisture formula media. Keep nutes at 1/3 strength with the 240 and at 24 inches looks to me like bleaching is your problem. I never used the cal/mag just GH 3 part and I have never had an isuue with the BlackStar 240 I think I have had mine running for 4 years straight now. I have noticed that under the LED the girls always seem to like the warmer temp's in the high 80's. Oh just ordered my second 500 panel.

SWUSAZ said:

Hell I have used the same light but a different soil the Bonticare moisture formula media. Keep nutes at 1/3 strength with the 240 and at 24 inches looks to me like bleaching is your problem. I never used the cal/mag just GH 3 part and I have never had an isuue with the BlackStar 240 I think I have had mine running for 4 years straight now. I have noticed that under the LED the girls always seem to like the warmer temp's in the high 80's. Oh just ordered my second 500 panel.

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Thanks for the advice on the nutes and temps but i really really dont believe its light bleaching as it starts at the bottom leaves and the top leaves are fine, also its 16 inches away and they say it should be 12 inches, i dont have room to keep it 2 feet away! ive seen lots of pics of light bleaching and its allways the top leaves closest to the light that get fadded not the lower leaves that the light is hardly even shining on

Alright Kang.............It's my first time using cocco, and I've definitely noticed that your watering habits are key with this medium.......under led, cocco tends to take up to five days to dry out at this early stage, i would definitely try a complete dryout on your girls.........and you need a ph soil tester, the ph of the water is not nearly as important as your medium ph..............once you give us a ph reading of your cocco/perlite mix, the fix should come fast...........good luck grower

PSUAGRO. said:

Alright Kang.............It's my first time using cocco, and I've definitely noticed that your watering habits are key with this medium.......under led, cocco tends to take up to five days to dry out at this early stage, i would definitely try a complete dryout on your girls.........and you need a ph soil tester, the ph of the water is not nearly as important as your medium ph..............once you give us a ph reading of your cocco/perlite mix, the fix should come fast...........good luck grower

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Jesus ive got a meter for this and a meter for that lol i just bought a soil ph meter so ill be able to tell you that before the end of next week cheers mate