Hi,
I thought I would start a new thread, as opposed to just adding to to others. Hopefully, this is a question that will help others, as well as myself.
I have three plants that germinated and have been growing since September 22, when they first sprouted. They are all Strawberry Kush and are all growing in the same medium, and receiving the same nutes.
Medium is Black Gold Just Coco, with ~30% perlite added.
The nutes are Botanicare Pure Blend Pro / Grow, CalMag+, and Liquid Karma. I have also been adding a half tsp of Great White to each gallon of Distilled Water.
Earlier, I had been setting at pH range for nutes at anywhere between 5.8 and 6.2, as that is what I’ve read is best for hydro, which, if I am correct, includes coco. I have yet to see any real signs of nute burn.
In another post, I was reading this chart for uptake of nutes, which leads to part of my question.
In reading this, it looks like, in hydro, Calcium stops being absorbed at 5.8, yet Magnesium doesn’t begin to be absorbed until 5.8. Does this chart represent an accurate assessment, or is there a pH sweet spot where both Ca and Mg are absorbed?
Originally, I had some issues with one plant out of three showing yellow spots on just a single leaf. I upped the CalMag+ and the problem went away, kind of. I did notice that, while not yellow, there were some shinier spots, still green, on some of the leaves of the one plant, but all looked well.
I am including 2 shots of each plant, for opinions / suggestions: To give an estimate of the plant sizes, they are in 10 Gallon Smart Pots.
Here is the first plant. You will notice a couple yellow spots on one of the leaves. (Btw, the leaves on this plant are the largest, yet the plant is the shortest.The one leaf in the foreround of the pic is the size of my hand, yet it has become more bushy without attaining great height.) The shot does not do justice to the size of the leaves.
Here is the area that was topped on the first plant. As far as I can see, it looks ok. The yellow spots are limited to just the two leaves on this plant.
This is the second plant. The only thing I’ve ever seen with this was one tip that looked burnt, so I dropped back on the N a bit for the mix.
This is where the second plant was FIMmed. You can kind of see the funky leaf structure where the FIMming occured, but it looks like new growth is doing ok.
This is the third plant, where the yellow spots are showing up in mid growth areas. It is the tallest plant, at over 12" high, yet also not as dense as the others, with wider node spacing; however, it grows the fastest and within a few days added about 4" of new growth to the top.
This is where the third plant was FIMmed. Again, il I have yellow spots on mid-growth, it seems like the FIMmed area is branching nicely.
From what I’ve read, Magnesium deficiancy and Calcium almost look the same, so I’m wondering if I am deficient in Cal or Mag, or if it is something else?
The odd thing is that all three plants get the exact same regimen at the exact same time, yet with definite, varied results.
For the most part, stems are green and appear strong, I don’t see anything out of the ordinary in any of the containers and I mix the nutes for all three by the gallon.
As an added question, I have been giving each plant ~30 ounces of water per day, at 15 ounces in the morning and 15 in the early evening. The nutes are pre-mixed into the water, and as mentioned, I have been averaging between 5.8 and 6.2 on pH.
As far as run-off, there isn’t any, as they are all in 10 gallon Smart Pots, and I have been expanding the watering area asthey plants increase in size. (This was suggested by the local hydro shop, as a awy to limit stress, yet also provide proper water / nutes as the plants grow. I have not watered toofar out, as I waas concerned about cutting off oxygen to the roots as they expand in the coco.
Any help is appreciated, and thanks for reading.
Barring catastrophe, I would like to take some clones this week and thin out the lower growth. Opinions on that are also welcome.