Thought I was getting red in the leaves, but might be stress, something else?

Growing Supers Skunk and just started seeing some distress or something as I’m transitioning to flowering. Anybody know what this might be? Seems a bit crusty. A lot of leaves have a bit on the edges, this is the worst example of it by far, but figured I’d check if I’m deficient on something or what? I’m using Flora Micro (6ml) and Nova (9ml) in a gallon of water each week, growing in coco. I thought it might just be drying out, but I upped the watering and there was a good bit of run off, so I backed it off again.

Any thoughts or suggestions are appreciated.

1 Like

Do you know your pH & ec/ppm?

What is your water/feed schedule? Using Grow or Bloom?

What lighting do you use?

At transition, it’s usually a good idea to do a flush. I’m not a Coco grower, but I think I remember reading that flushing is very important in coco due to salt buildups, which will affect your ph & ppms. If your pH & ppms are out of range, you can appear to have many different issues.

W/o knowing your numbers or all the info, I’d guess you’re seeing multiple secondary & micro deficiencies, including calcium, magnesium, and manganese. Plus, your plants could probably use some P & K.

Let us know the answers to the above questions & we’ll be able to better pinpoint the problem.

@raustin, I know you don’t do coco, but you’re a great diagnostician.

1 Like

Thanks Betty.

You have a calcium deficiency which is very common in coco. You MUST add Cal Mag to coco to avoid these symptoms because coco contains nothing. Betty is also right about the flushing periodically when in coco.

2 Likes

Thanks! For lights I’ve got two of these ( https://amzn.to/2Ao1lKc ) ‘VIPARSPECTRA Reflector Series V600 LED’ Haven’t checked PH of the media, but the water I get to 7 or just below.
I have a timer pump ( https://amzn.to/2BXNk5B )that’s set to 45 seconds of water every 8 hours. I switched it to 5 hours initially, but as I said, got a lot of overflow in the pans so I backed it off again.
The nutrients I do once a week, with the 6ml of Flora Micro and 9ml of Flora Nova in a gallon of water between the 4 plants in the tent.
I used General Organics CaMg+ ( Amazon.com ) in a previous formula, but I’m guessing the person who recommended this wasn’t aware I was using coco… Is that an OK product? How much should I add to what I’m using now?

Many thanks to both of you!

You really need to know your Ph. If you add additional Cal Mag and your Ph is too high then it will do no good because the nutrients will be locked out. For coco your Ph should be between 5.6 and 6.1 with 5.8 being the target.

1 Like

Do you know your ec/ppms?

Thanks!
I don’t know the ec/ppm. Had to look it up to even know what it meant.

What’s the simplest way to reliably test PH in coco? I’ve got a soil probe that shows it right at 7, but not sure if they are accurate…

1 Like

The soil probe is not accurate, you need to get yourself a Ph meter. This is a cheap Ph and PPM combo set that will do the trick.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B06XCMNFVQ/ref=sspa_mw_detail_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The best way to test the Ph in coco is to water till runoff. That means that you water the plant until you get water coming out the bottom of the pot, and you collect that water and test it with a ph meter.

1 Like

OK, I actually have one of those PH meters, but didn’t know you could do run off to test the media. I tried it with distilled water to get a base line or whatever, that showed 5.8-6.1 the run off settles fairly solidly at 6.
Reference I’ve found says distilled water is actually around 7, so I expect I’m way of on everything here…?

You can’t really test distilled water with a Ph meter because the is no buffer. If you want to test or calibrate your meter you need calibration solution.

OK, so just when I thought nothing could go right with this situation (other than your help of course!), I went to the local farm store (that I think is getting ready to close down) and he sold me this for $20! I expect these will tell me what I need. Includes the calibration fluid etc.
How do I check the PPM? same thing? Check the run off?
The lights are off for now, so checking will have to wait till tomorrow, but i’ll read through the book in the meantime.
Thanks again!

3 Likes

You got that for $20!? Nice! I paid $140 for mine. That is all you’re going to need to read your Ph and PPM, those are excellent meters, they should last a lifetime.

You check PPM the same way you check Ph, just test the runoff.

1 Like

Yea, really a nice guy. My kid used to work there, so he still gives me his employee discount, and lately he’s been ‘discounting’ all the stuff that doesn’t sell and asking me if I want it, so I’m guessing he’s selling the land soon… He smiled and said "you could sell that for a hundred bucks on ebay, but I just don’t have the time’. Wish I didn’t need it, I’d make an easy $80! :slight_smile:
I’ll give it a try some time tomorrow, I’m out early and back late but hopefully I’ll get in there.

Thanks again!

1 Like

Arg, wish I had read the instructions last night, looks like I have to soak it in the hydrating solution for 24 hours, so I guess I’ll check it tomorrow.

I usually do the nutes on Friday, but I’ll hold off till I see where we’re at with the Ph tomorrow…

What?! That’s a steal! Good find!

Yea, and that’s not nearly all. Loaded me up for pennies on the dollar:
Gotta go through it all and figure out what I’ve got and what I can do with it!

2 Likes

Wow! Great haul!

OK, so I got some numbers:
PH of feeding water: 7
PH of run off: 6.1
EC: 2.4
PPM 500: 1190
PPM 700: 1680

Today is nutrient day, so I’ll wait for input before I feed them, and hope you guys are not out enjoying your Saturday! In the meantime I’ll catalog what I’ve got in case any of that is particularly useful for my situation.

Thanks again!

And here’s the Nutes etc that I got for about $60, if any of it is particularly useful at this point or if you have any regime recommendations with these in mind that’d be appreciated as well! Again, I’m using 6ml of Flora Micro and 9ml of Flora Nova Bloom presently.
2019-01-05_21-41-25

1 Like

There’s some good stuff on that list.