One of my cheese plants is not happy with the way I’m treating her… A week ago her pH was low, 5.7, so I added Dolomite Lime (have read that a better stabilizer is oyster shells so I have just got a bag of that now, and have administered to many of my plants). I’ve researched it a bit and found pictures that look like my cheese plant and the advice was " This is a deficiency, even though it looks a little like nutrient burn The main clue is the yellow striping on the leaves. Another clue is the brown tips are going in further than typical nutrient burn." Problem with the advice is that it doesn’t specify what the deficiency is. Another site stated my pH was too high… easy enough to find that out, I’ll post pics and go out and water and test it. Advice is welcome, thanks.
thankfully I don’t see any such stripes or problems in the rest of the garden:
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I tested the run off water, it was 6.3 , so the pH is certainly not too high. The other piece to this puzzle is the addition of my 920W LED, it could be that the plant was burned, although I do measure the distance and keep it a minimum of 30" away from the canopy top (emailed manufacturer for distance specs). Could be too much nutrients after all. Flushed it a bit, not a thorough flush, will see how it fares over the next few days.
What grow medium, nutes, strain? Age of plants? How big are your pots? Is that 920 a qb/strips/etc? What size is your grow space?
A pH of 6.3 could definitely be causing your plants to miss out on vital nutrients. While it’s within range for soil, it’s in the very low range. Have you added any micronutrients? Qb lights will make your plants go through nutes fast, and if the pH is causing lockouts, you’ll really have issues.
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Sorry, my internet is really slow, so it took quite a while for me to get that graphic to load.
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@blackthumbbetty Thanks, My grow medium is soil (ProMix so the peat causes low pH), started my first plants in Aug, but the UK Cheese plant that’s causing concern is approx. 1 month old. My grow space is my garage, utilizing an area 8 by 5 currently, lots of room to expand. Just saw that chart you posted, its very helpful, it appears that if my plants pH are below 6.5 they aren’t absorbing P, Ca and Mg. I did add nutrients, but kept them at half strength, however, if the pH is off perhaps the nutrients are building up? My main light is HPS/MH 1000W, but I recently added 920W LED, (2PCS 300W+32*10W LEDs JUHANG Dual COB+Dimmable 920W Full Spectrum LED). Thanks for the tip on QB lights, I’d been considering them but think I’ll just add another . I was showing my wife your chart, she has a good question, do I trim off the affected leaves, or let them adjust after I raise the pH. Thanks very much
With promix, though, some people treat it like soilless & some treat it like soil. I’m growing in ProMix for the first time. I decided to go with a pH between 6.3-6.5. I tried going with 6.0-6.2 to start, but had issues.
Have you added any secondary & micronutrients, such as calcium, magnesium, manganese, iron, or zinc?
Those leaves probably won’t recover, but if they’re not actually dead, you’re ok leaving them. If you can pull them off w/o any effort, they’re ready to go, anyway.
Bing bing bing! You hit it! Those nutes will just keep building. Your plants are a good size. Are you planning on transplanting soon? If so, the problem could partially fix itself with new promix. If not, you could probably safely do a full flush, using 3x the volume of water as your planters.
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going to check a few things out, ie. the type of ProMix, to see if there is a pH listed, and the brand of nutrients… made a mistake earlier too, meant to say I was going to get a second LED, not a Quantum Board.
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Looks like ph issue to me also. I sometimes like to vary my ph between the range also so I hit all the sweet spots for the nutes. If new growth is unaffected then you got it under control. Are you testing your water?
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Cool, transplant it is, its ready for it anyway, also, one more question if I may, is it relatively safe to manifold this plant or is it in a weakened state and I should just transplant and leave it be? I have 3 other Cheese plants if it goes all wrong,
My plants have all been in the low to unacceptable pH range, I’m just managing to get them close to where they should be now. Started using dolomite lime, but there is a lot written that favors oyster shells over dolomite, so I’ve added oyster shells, and yes I test the run off (now… I didn’t at first till I read it on this forum…) and my tester is calibrated. thanks Will go with trying the transplant, makes sense, and the plant is definitely ready for it.
Also, a flush with ph’d water will immediately help fix the issue. I run into ph issues all the time especially using ro water. Also, in case your not, test ph after adding nutes. They change the ph.
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Your issue is pretty easy to fix and manage. You’ll be amazed how much they grow once they are unlocked.
Thank you both, and BlackthumbBetty that chart puts it into perspective for me, I kept reading “keep your pH between 6 and 7 for soil” which is a bit vague to me, but the chart shows where the plant benefits from the various nutrients, awesome, thanks
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yes, the pH level has been challenging… I get RO with a pH of 7.0, add it to soil which drops the pH by .5, then add nutrients periodically which drops it again by .5, so I’m not much higher than 6.0 with the run off tests, so the addition of oyster shells I’m hoping will stabilize that. What I had been doing, is elevating the RO to 8 with pH up, then watering the plants. Not sure if that’s a taboo or not, but I had to get the pH up until I read about dolomite and oyster shells.
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I have had my fair share of pH/nute lockout. It can be baffling to figure out, especially for newer growers.
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How are you testing your ph?
6.3 is spot on for soils, how u figure even 7 is acceptable he will not be having a lockout with the slightest variation of pH 5.8 could be a little low how ever which would lead to cal mag problem DO NOT JUST add cal mag products you must take care of pH issue with flush because right now if your locked out you will have a surplus of the two elemejts being kicked out so adding will only toxify your plant look into sfl 100 for flushing good stuff I through a few ml every watering which is also a full strength feed Everytime
I have no burn no deficiency in ff strawberry fields GH bloom I’m at about a 6
You tell me what you think that is and this what that pH has going for me
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A really successful grow or once said to me why would you check run off if you’re trying to see if you have a pH issue run off only contains what was left behind from your last watering and dead plant matter so if you wanted to test your soil you have to do a slurry test or a test like I show you a picture of little bit of dirt little bit of water little bit of reagent match the color easy peasy
The pot size for that plant is a bit small.
Adjust your h2o and or nutes before pouring into the pot.
If your runoff is 6.2 and you want to bring it up, flush with 7.0 h2o 3x the pot size. Ie. 3 gal pot would need 9gal of pH 7.0.
When you feed you want to have a pH of 6.5 just before adding, unless your runoff is too low or high.
