Question from a fellow grower: I am having brown leaves form around the leaves of every single plant. I have 20 total growing and of those all 20 are showing this sign. I am answering all of your questions below and attaching photos. I would like to post and interact in the forum but once again, I do not see any way of creating a new topic in the forum. Any help is appreciated.
Strain: Strawberry Cough (10) Green Crack (10)
Type (fem/auto/reg): Feminized
Climate (indoor/outdoor): indoor
Medium (soil/hydro/details): Moonshine
pH of runoff or solution in reservoir: 5.7
Nutrient mix strength (EC/TDS): Kelp 0.5-0-0.5, Big Bloom 0-0.5-0.7, was originally using tap water pH’ed at 6.7-6.8. For the last 8 days I’ve been using RO water pH’ed at 6.8 hoping this would help but I don’t see any signs of recovery
Light type & schedule: 18 hrs on 6 hrs off (6) Mars Hyrdo LED lights 300w
Temperatures day & night: 70° window a/c controls temp
Humidity day & night: 50-80% large fluctuation, not controlled
So when I started noticing this browning I stopped giving any nutrients bc I thought it was burning them. After 4 days of no change I started thinking okay it’s the water.
I was using tap water pH’ed at 6.8 so 9 days ago I started giving them RO water pH’ed @ 6.8 with no nutrients, no changes and the browning is still getting worse. I’m so confused. Let me go take some pics in regular lights and I’ll post up. Gimme 10 minutes. I’m watching this thread like a hawk hoping for some help.
I don’t think I’m qualified to help you but I could ask questions so others could help . What type of Ph tester do you use and can you recalibrate it . I have two meters to compare for accuracy so that I can eliminate Ph as a issue . Also I see water sitting in the drip trays . Do you leave the water in the trays .
@Halcyon_EQ says they are using Moonshine soil .It looks to be MJ specific . I have found that by raising the pots up off from the drip trays allows the water to drain away from the soil so it can dry out some after watering . It’s hard to tell from the pictures .
If your meter is correct, this is too low for a soil grow. I’m not sure what this medium is considered
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Your humidity is pretty high. The plants have a hard time pulling nutrients through from the roots when it’s that high. I’m not saying that’s your issue, but you’re going to want to lower it by the time they start flowering.
We do need to know about your watering practices as @raustin mentioned
Sorry this thing kept telling me I could only post 3 times on this thread. So I do not leave water in the trays. This one has it bc I tested the runoff.
It’s probably because of your user level. When you first join your number of posts are limited. Try creating a topic. That’s one of the milestones needed to move on if you haven’t already
The Moonshine soil has ingredients a lot like the roots organics I use - a soilless, amended coco based medium. I water at 5.8pH like a hydro and I water every other day to significant runoff with 1/4 nutrient dosage. This seems to be a matter of preference, as a lot of people using soilless media do use the 6.5pH range with varying watering cycles/amounts. But it’s how I was taught on this site by my mentor and it continues to work for me.
Given that you are watering at 6.5 and getting something a lot lower indicates to me you should be watering at 5.8. The person on this site who taught me how to distinguish between 5.8 and 6.5 recommended a slurry test. Add 2 teaspoons of the soil to two teaspoons of 6pH water, mix up good, and let it sit for 15 minutes. If the pH is under 6, use the 5.8pH guide. Over 6, use 6.5. Do this and see what you get.
Also, in addition to measuring the runoff pH, o you have a TDS meter that you can measure the ppms with? Because the Moonshine soil is amended with nutrients, you may be over-nuting and burning the plants. If your runoff ppms are over 2000, its a likelihood
Get the ppm/TDS meter. You need that to determine if your issues are caused by overnuting the roots, which is kind of looks like.
I suspect pH is also a contributing issue. For the time being, I recommend watering at 5.8pH to significant runoff, no nutrients - maybe some calmag since you are using RO water. I water every other day and would suggest the same since my medium is very similar to yours.
