Is this recipe too much for my plants ?

[GuyInTheChair]

I've been using an organic soil recipe to feed my plants that was given to me by a friend, although the end results smoke very nicely, I am noticing signs from my plants that something is just not right. From what I've read it looks to be either a cal-mag deficiency or nutrient burn.
here is the recipe:
in lbs
5 flax meal
3 alfalfa meal
1 greensand
1 sunflower seed hull ash
1 kelp meal
1/2 rock phosphate
3 1/2 high phosphorous bat guano
+ 5 gallons perlite
+ large bag (33 litres) worm castings
+ 1 lb lime
add that to a bale of HP

Plus I've been using Pure Blend Pro every other watering, up to 20ml per gallon of PBP Bloom, and using cal-mag Plus and Liquid Karma as directions on the bottle. Along with this I've added 10ml per gallon of molasses and 5ml per gallon soluble sea kelp.

The PPMs when I mix the PBP and everything else bring it to about 1500, and the ph is at 5.7-6.1 when I water. Water temp is 60 degrees.

Some leaves just seem to dry up from the ends and curl under or upwards. Some plants seem pale green and have yellowing around the edges. I took some pictures of a few leaves, is it too much to feed my plants ? they are large plants in 7 gallon containers. vegged for 4 weeks under lots of light. Temps are 74-80 deg. daytime, 72 nighttime
humidity is 50-65%
the room has co2

Any advice is greatly appreciated,

Here's the pics...

 

[BurnOne]

What kind of lime are you using?

 

[GuyInTheChair]

thanks for reading my post, I am using dolomite lime

 

[GuyInTheChair]

I am noticing that there are some leaves with yellow bands running across the leaf, and some buds seem to have stopped growing, no white hairs coming out and the tops of the buds are closed looking like an acorn or something...it's weird

 

[BurnOne]

Cut out the PBP and see if they recover. Keep us posted.
Burn1

 

[GuyInTheChair]

I will definitely keep you posted, I'm going to get this figured out one way or another...

here's some more pictures from today, sorry that some of them aren't so clear

 

[BurnOne]

What are the NPK of the meals you are using? Is the dolomite powdered or pelletized? Your PPM meter is all but useless in organics. Organic nutrients have very low salt and will always show low numbers on your meter. Alfalfa meal can be very hot as well. Keep us posted.
Burn1

 

[JoJoDancer]

It's fine to measure ph of your solutions but you should also measure your soil. Most soil problems are ph related. Then we over compensate wanting a quick fix.. Which is the wrong thing to do. Also when you mix your supersoil you should maybe flush it and let it sit a few days in the pots (before) transplanting. Slighty alkaline soil 7.5 with a chealted micro with iron added gives me lesser evils.

ps: Also check out a PH spectrum graph for soil and see slighty alk is the way to go...

 

[GuyInTheChair]

thanks for helping me with this guys, I really do appreciate your time.

Burn1, when you said to cut out the PBP, do you think I should cut out all the other stuff as well like liquid karma, cal-mag, soluble sea kelp and molasses and just water them with plain ph adjusted water ?

I'm going to take a ph reading before I water and measure the runoff to see what my soil ph is.

I wish I could give you the NPK ratios but I'm in a wheelchair and I can't get to the containers where I have them stored.

Is it possible that it's a nitrogen deficiency due to me having such large plants and they have used up all the nitrogen that was in the soil with such a long veg time (3-4 weeks) and then they are 4.5 weeks into flower right now... from some of the threads I"ve read by MynameisTitch it states that purpling and yellowing of the leaves is a sign of nitrogen deficiency, I guess the ph of the soil being off could lead to this getting locked out so I'll take some readings next time I water and see what happens... thanks guys !

 

[BurnOne]

Guy-
The worm castings and dolomite lime will take care of the pH. Which brings up a point... Don't worry about pH in organics. The stuff you're using to adjust it may very well be the problem. I'm going to use the "flush word" here for the very first time. You might want to use PLAIN water on your soil until it runs out the bottom of the pots a couple of times to flush out the PBP. If you are using water from a municipal water supply with chlorine in it, let it sit in an open five gallon bucket overnight so the chlorine will evaporate before you pour it on. It looks like nitrogen burn to me. I wonder if the hull ash and flax meal have a lot of nitrogen in them?
Next time pick up some bone meal and follow the directions in the beginners sticky. You have everything else.
Burn1

 

[GuyInTheChair]

ok, I'll be flushing with plain water tomorrow to get the PBP out of there. As for my water source, I'm on a well, and it's got fairly high iron, although my ppm meter only reads 50-60 ppms when testing the water out of the well. My reverse osmosis system froze and busted on me this winter so maybe I should be buying another RO system.... is there a brand that is recommended ? I just want something I can install and replace the cartridges.

After I flush them, should I use a 1/4 strength mix of the PBP and calmag and liquid karma next watering or should I use just molasses and soluble sea kelp ? thanks !

 

[GuyInTheChair]

ok I just watered with plain water, the ph of the water before watering was 5.7, the ph of the runoff came out at 6.1

does that seem in a good range or too low ?

is this normal ? I measured my well water right out of the tap into my barrel and it came out at 5.0 after about 7 hours it has gone up to 6.6 with just an airstone bubbling the water. Is it normal for the ph to swing that much ? there is no chlorine, just straight well water

 

[j.guit.err]

That is a little odd...you can use ph down to correct the water ph, and the lime should keep the soil stable.

 

[BurnOne]

Don't use ANY kind of pH up or down!!!
This is ORGANICS!!!
The humic acids in the worm castings will buffer the pH so the plants will take up nutrients outside the optimal pH range of CHEMICAL growing.
If anybody says you need to adjust pH, then they need to go to the BEGINNERS STICKY and read!
Guy-
Your well water is just fine the way it is. You can go directly from the tap to the roots. DON"T ADD MORE PBP! WE"RE TRYING TO FLUSH IT OUT! Use plain water.
Throw that pH meter away.
Burn1

 

[GuyInTheChair]

ok, I just watered all of the plants with "plain" tap water, no ph additives. While I was bent down watering I noticed a new problem, or maybe it's the original problem that's been causing my issues in the first place... Once I watered I saw these tiny white or translucent things running across the tops of my pots. I got the magnifying glass out and they are definitely not mites. Their bodies are long and thin, not much bigger than a hair, and they were moving pretty fast across the rim of my pot. After looking at different threads and pictures they seem to look like fungus gnats. I had already watered with nematodes last week to prevent this situation but maybe I didn't use enough or they haven't started working yet. I"m 4 weeks from harvest, should I get more nematodes now or is it too late for them to get working ? I'll put up more sticky traps this week as soon as I can get some, is there anything else I should be doing to prevent them from ruining my crop ?

 

[GuyInTheChair]

I forgot to mention that I have a large jug of gnatrol here too, should I dose them with that first ?

 

[BurnOne]

When you get things straightened out, just let the top of the soil in the pots dry out. The gnats will die off in a couple days. They usually come when you over water.
Burn1

 

[GuyInTheChair]

Do you think I should water with plain water again next time or should I give them a small mixture of pbp, liquid karma and cal-mag ? or maybe just some molasses and soluble sea kelp with the next watering ?

 

[BurnOne]

Give them plain water until you see a change. DON"T OVERWATER!
Burn1

 

[GuyInTheChair]

ok BurnOne, here's an update...

the plants seem to be doing better after giving them plain water for a bit over a week now. I recently gave them some molasses with their last watering and now I have 2 weeks left till harvest and I'm just going to give them plain water from now until I chop. The fungus gnat situation doesn't seem to be getting much worse so I haven't done anything about them. Thanks for your advice about not using any ph up or down, I really think that was causing a lot of my issues because once I would start watering, the ph meter would show that the ph was going up in my reservoir halfway through watering so I would add more ph down and I must have had to add ph down a few times during each watering which from what you say and other agree is not necessary when using organics.

Now I'm going to be growing purple kush for the forseeable future because of the medicinal qualities it has and because I find it a beautiful strain to grow. I'm wondering if you could have a look again at my organic recipe and tell me if something is needed or should be removed. I'm pretty happy with the way the medicine turns out in the end but I know I could keep them happier throughout the grow in hopes of getting more weight at harvest time. Is there a real noticeable difference when using additives such as Voodoo Juice, Piranha, Rhizotonic, Canna PK 13/14 or am I just waisting my money by trying these products out ? I'm currently getting 8.5 lbs from 6 x 1000w lights and from what I hear that is pretty good for a novice grower in a wheelchair, but I always want to improve my results and it's what keeps me motivated to keep wheeling my ass in and out of the growroom many times each day. I'm hoping to one day be an advisor or something like that for growers who are in wheelchairs and who want to grow their own medicine and not rely on a designated grower because I've had some very bad experiences DG's. Well I plan on vegging my PK's for 4 weeks and flowering them in 7 gallon pots using the SCROG technique. Does this mix look like it's got everything I need in there ? plus I'll be supplementing feeding with pure blend pro, LK, CalMag, Molasses and sea kelp every other watering ....here's my mix again.. Thanks man !!!
here is the recipe:
in lbs
5 flax meal
3 alfalfa meal
1 greensand
1 sunflower seed hull ash
1 kelp meal
1/2 rock phosphate
3 1/2 high phosphorous bat guano
+ 5 gallons perlite
+ large bag (33 litres) worm castings
+ 1 lb lime
add that to a bale of HP

Also... a friend gave me a bag of leanordite and told me to use that to help with calcium and magnesium issues, but should I just use lime or use both lime and lenordite ? hard to know what to do when everyone has their own methods, but the person that told me to use it mostly grows outdoors and although the quantity he gets is good, his quality is well below what I want in my medicine.