Help with Durban Poison - nutrient excess or deficiency

Hi all,

Looking for some advice on my ILGM Durban Poison photo, which just started flowering this week.

It’s in a 10 gal bag filled with coast of maine stonington soil. I topped off the soil three weeks ago (since the soil settled and the bag is completely compacted with roots) and added a little bone meal, langbeinite and worm castings. About two weeks ago I started half dose of fox farms open sesame (5-45-19; half teaspoon in two gal of water twice a week).

I noticed last week that a few leaves looked almost like they had burnt/rusty colored tips. The issue then progressed to leaf edges too. Lower leaves on the plant are fading in color and appear to be rotting/dying. The burnt tip/edges affects leaves at both the top and bottom of the plant.

Thinking I might have a potassium deficiency based on graphs/photos I’ve seen I gave it a full dose of fox farms beastie bloomz (0-50-30) today since it’s high in potassium. Now I’m second guessing myself and wondering if this a nutrient excess/burn from the langbeinite and fox farms. What do you think? Any help is very much appreciated.






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@Naturalmedsman i would give it a few days and see how she looks after feeding

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Thanks! It looked like it was getting a little worse, so I flushed the soil pretty well. Going to give it a few days and try adding beastie bloomz at a lower dose.

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Hey @Naturalmedsman looks like something is out of range. What is you location? I would trim some leaves to allow more light to reach bud sites. Durban Poison can get a little bushy so now is a good time to do that.

Answer these simple questions the best you can. If you are not sure, just bring it to our attention. We will figure it out.

  1. Indoor or outdoor? - size of grow?
  2. Otigin of seeds?
  3. Regular, feminized, or autoflower?
  4. Origin of water. PH, EC/TDS of source water?
  5. PH and TDS/EC of if mixed solution?
  6. Grow method? Soil, Soil-less, Coco, Hydro, Aquaponics. Please explain.
  7. Nutrients or fertilizer system used.
  8. What typr of lighting are you using? LED, HID (MH, CMH, HPS), or Fluorescents? Please elaborate.
  9. What are the temps in your growspce? Day / Night?
  10. What is the RH = relative humidity in your growspace? Day / Night?
  11. AC, Humidifier, De-humidifier?
  12. Do you have a Ventilation system? Size? 4", 6"?
  13. Co2 Yes / No?
  14. How long have you been growing?
  15. What budget have you set in order to grow successfully?
  16. If you grow hydro, then please explain your hydro method. DWC, R-DWC, Ebb and Flow, Or; Other? Other?

16b. Size and temperature of solution in reservoir?

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Did you check your ppm numbers before you gave nutrients and if so what were your numbers and do you water and feed to 20% runoff.

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:point_up_2: that’s a lot of Phosphorus

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I’m in the northeast but in a subtropical microclimate. I’ve defoliated a few times. Currently holding off on more because I don’t want to further stress the plant right now. Thank you!

  1. Indoor or outdoor? - size of grow? Single plant in 10 gal fabric pot
  2. Otigin of seeds? ILGM
  3. Regular, feminized, or autoflower? Feminized
  4. Origin of water. PH, EC/TDS of source water? Tap ph around 7
  5. PH and TDS/EC of if mixed solution? Ph drops to 6-6.5 with fox farms dry nutrients
  6. Grow method? Soil, Soil-less, Coco, Hydro, Aquaponics. Please explain. Soil, coast of maine stongington blend super soil
  7. Nutrients or fertilizer system used. In vegetative state, organic fertilizer - bone meal, langbeinite, worm castings; from preflower onward fox farms open sesame, beastie bloomz and cha ching (sequentially as flowering progresses)
  8. What typr of lighting are you using? LED, HID (MH, CMH, HPS), or Fluorescents? Please elaborate. Daylight
  9. What are the temps in your growspce? Day / Night? Low 90s to high 60s
  10. What is the RH = relative humidity in your growspace? Day / Night? 50-100% depending upon n weather
  11. AC, Humidifier, De-humidifier? No
  12. Do you have a Ventilation system? Size? 4", 6"? No
  13. Co2 Yes / No? No
  14. How long have you been growing? Second year
  15. What budget have you set in order to grow successfully? NA
  16. If you grow hydro, then please explain your hydro method. DWC, R-DWC, Ebb and Flow, Or; Other? Other? NA

16b. Size and temperature of solution in reservoir? NA

I typically water (with or without nutrients) until I see a little run off. Usually it’s about 2 gal of water daily. Admittedly, on one the days I fed we were having a heat wave and it was very dry. The issues started after that. Maybe I needed to water more to flush some of the fertilizer through.

I dont have meter to check PPM. Used the same setup (fertilizer and soil) for my last 2 grows without any issue so didn’t think I’d need one.

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Agree! These bloom boosters are strong. I had great success with them on my last two grows using half doses of them. Nice dense buds with good smell and flavor.

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A few photos from today.




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That’s alot water id say that’s your problem you want to water wet to dry cycles

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Agree it’s a lot. It was 90 degrees with no rain for a few weeks here, and with the plant being root bound, the soil was drying out. Even my tomatoes, which are pretty in 30-50 gal pots were drying out.

The temps are in the high 70s/low 80s now so I think I can probably water every other day or so. Skipped today since I flushed soil yesterday and it rained a little last night.

Plant will uptake heavily when hot/dry. This can cause issues if the salt levels in the medium are fairly high. That said; your plant looks hungry but really need some runoff TDS numbers to determine for sure. My guess is the medium is depleted and causing your issues.

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I’m going to buy a TDS meter. Unfortunately I’m a traveling starting Saturday morning and not returning until Thursday. the earliest I can get one delivered is Saturday end of day. Local hardware store doesn’t seem to sell them.

If the medium wasn’t depleted before it should be fairly depleted now since I flushed it yesterday. Going to reassess tomorrow and water with fox farms tomorrow or Saturday morning before I head out.

Hopefully I don’t kill this plant.

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I would defoliate those brown leaves as they are dying and will promote some bad fungus to grow. Beside they are blocking lower bud sites. Also start from the bottom and take off some of the larf.
Also I’d add some beneficial microbes and cover the top of your soil with insert washed sand to block and bugs from attacking from the soil.
You should be heading into a wetter period and promoting a healthier root zone will provide for breakdown of excessive salt buildup in your soil.
“Another way in which these microorganisms benefit your grow is by breaking down nutrients and micronutrients and making them more readily available to your plants through the production of chelators. Plus, there are several strains of bacteria that supply your plants with growth and bloom cofactors to further increase branching, budding and flowering sites.”

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Thanks for the advice. I removed a bunch of the dead or dying leaves today. @Dforce gave me the idea to pot up, which I did from a 10 gal to a 20 gal bag, before leaving for travels. When I did that I added myco, 1.5 cu ft of stongington blend super soil and watered with both a 5-1-1 and 0-10-10 fish emulsion. Seems to have worked as the new growth is coming in a nice shade of green and flowers a coming along.






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@danniep40 @Myfriendis410 @LateNightGardner @Dforce

The Durban still seems to be improving well. I did finally get a ppm meter and a more reliable ph meter and checked the runoff this morning. Tap water was 7.8 ph and 39 ppm. I brought the ph down to about 6.3 before watering. The runoff had a ph of 6.4, but the ppm was 2,390 which seems high based on what I’ve read. However, I don’t know what the baseline was at the start of the grow. Since the plant seems to be doing better, I was just going to water and not add any nutrients for the next week or so and then recheck. Sound of okay or do you think I should flush again?



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Yes just water with runoff everytime and check it. Looking good.

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Yep just keep watering to 20% runoff then check ppms when below 1000 start feeding again looking good man

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What he said.

FYI at under 100 ppm no need to PH water.

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