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Leaves have a weird yellow pattern

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Blander66

Member
Hello,

I a on my first out door grow this year. I have all the plants in a locally purchased super soil in 100 gallon pots.

Well I have one plant that has one side of it with a lot of yellowing leaves but they don't look like the normal yellow leaves they are more spotted. It is making me thing its some kind of nutrient deficiency any thoughts?

 
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Blander66

Member
I have them in a water only super soil not salt based nutes. I was thinking of getting soe worm castings and spread a little on the top of the soil. I also do use compost tea every 2 weeks
 
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Blander66

Member
So I added some worm castings to the top and added some blood meal to a few watering, and the problem is not going away and getting worse, even the smaller fan leaves are dying, the buds are still alive but i doubt they will be for long at this rate

Any suggestions?
 
mule420

mule420

Member
Looks like magnesium deficiency, magnesium is a mobile element so the problem starts at the bottom of the plant and moves up to newer growth. 1 or 2 tablespoons of Epsom salts should put it back on track.

Edit: 100 gallon pots holy shit 1 or 2 tablespoons of Epsom not going to work for that... Any Walgreens or what ever pharmacy you have there or walmart has Epsom salts the recommended rate for gardens is printed on the box. You might have a lock out due to the wrong ph so adding anything will just compound the problem. You need to find out the ph of your soil, do a slurry test with ph strips or a meter if you have one. What's your waters ph your using?
 
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Scrappy-doo

Scrappy-doo

Well-known member
Looks like the soil ph is off. The yellow spotting is usually an indicator. Not an easy fix this far along if that's the problem. You can test your soil ph to confirm.
 
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slownickel

Active member
ICMag Donor
Veteran
I would bet on a calcium deficiency.

If you want to learn the real answer, send in a soil analysis real quick.
 
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Blander66

Member
Thanks for the replies. I am going to try and pick up a soil test kit this evening and get a better idea of what's going on.

My waters ph is right around 7. The soil is supposed to be a water only mix that will buffer the ph and provide enough nutes for the entire grow cycle. I have watered with compost tea a few times but not with in the last few weeks
 
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Blander66

Member
I made some measurements they are as follows
My waters PH is 6.50 (well water)
The soil measures 7.5 PH

I tested and the Nitrogen Levels are on the low side and phosphorus is good.

So this has me thinking I should try calcium like suggested above.

Any suggestions on a quick acting source for a organic grow?
 
PDX Dopesmoker

PDX Dopesmoker

Active member
My plants do that when the soil temp is too low. My diagnosis last winter wasn't that the soil was too nutrient poor, but that that microbes in the soil were too cold to be performing their duties (most bacterial fermentation slows way down at lower temperatures). After I got my soil temps back up around 70º I stopped losing the fan leaves as quickly & stopped seeing signs of myriad nutrient deficiencies. When they started to look bad, first it looked like low nitrogen, then low moly, then calcium, but higher soil temps fixed them all without adding any nutes.
Most plants can't remove the goods from the soil on their own, they depend on other organisms (fungus, etc) in the soil to do that, so feeding you plants with nice worm castings might not help until the fungus or bacteria in your soil is active enough to start digesting it. A fungus' digestive system is somewhat like our own, except we're inside out. The fungus lives in its food & exudes digestive juices out of it's skin breaking down & freeing up nutrients in the soil, some of which it absorbs and some of which the nearby pot plant root pick up. They have their stomach lining on the outside. We have ours inconveniently inside which means that you have to put food inside you to digest it & you can't really share with pot plants as easily. Wouldn't it be a lot easier to just live in your food? You wouldn't even need to chew, the stuff would just go through your skin. No dishes to clean up or anything.
I could be wrong about all that, its just a pet theory based mostly on the fact that I like fungus & fermentation in general.
 
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Scrappy-doo

Scrappy-doo

Well-known member
If the soil were too cold he would have purple leaves/stems.

7.5 ph is too high bro that's your problem. Adding calcium or whatever else won't help if the ph is off. You need to address the problem.

Here is another thread with a guy having the same exact problem. Difference is he knows what the problem is. You will see the same yellow leaf pattern.

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=332155
 
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slownickel

Active member
ICMag Donor
Veteran
Scrappy-doo said:
If the soil were too cold he would have purple leaves/stems.

7.5 ph is too high bro that's your problem. Adding calcium or whatever else won't help if the ph is off. You need to address the problem.

Here is another thread with a guy having the same exact problem. Difference is he knows what the problem is. You will see the same yellow leaf pattern.

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=332155
Click to expand...

In this case Tony is over watering and desperately needs gypsum.

A high pH is an excess of cations in the soil. Real important to understand that.

Calcium sulfate will balance that problem. Tony by the way is buying gypsum today...

Everyone that has tested their soil correctly so far has been adding Ca with very interesting results... Don't be afraid of gypsum, it will not raise your pH nor lower it much.

I would take a hard look at how much you are watering and how wet it is down below.

Being a large organic grower, I firmly believe in microbiology, but microbiology need air and cannot be placed in a constantly wet environment. MOST EVERYONE is over watering... they are forced to because of all the woojoo that has been added over time forcing plants to pick up more and more, they can't handle it. Calm everything down with a bit of gypsum. Don't confuse gypsum and watering though. They go hand in hand.

How often are you watering and how much?
 
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Blander66

Member
I am watering twice a day for 20 mins at a time thru a drip irrigation system. So each plant is reviving approx 5 gallons a day. I water once in the morning and once at 4:20 in the afternoon. It's all set up on a timer and on really warm days I usually trigger another 10 mins of watering thru the systems app on my phone.

I am thinking I should maybe do a batch of compost tea this weekend to feed them
 
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slownickel

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Veteran
Blander66 said:
I am watering twice a day for 20 mins at a time thru a drip irrigation system. So each plant is reviving approx 5 gallons a day. I water once in the morning and once at 4:20 in the afternoon. It's all set up on a timer and on really warm days I usually trigger another 10 mins of watering thru the systems app on my phone.

I am thinking I should maybe do a batch of compost tea this weekend to feed them
Click to expand...

I would bet you could move that irrigation from daily to twice a week and you would still be over watering...
 
B

Blander66

Member
slownickel said:
I would bet you could move that irrigation from daily to twice a week and you would still be over watering...
Click to expand...

Really? That seems like not a lot of water for 100 gallons of soil. But maybe I'll try not watering them for a few days and see if things start to turn around
 
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slownickel

Active member
ICMag Donor
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The amount of soil has little to do with it. The only water loss is from what the plant takes up if you have a lot of organic material. Think of the soil as a glass of water. You don't water til the glass is half full. And then, you only apply a bit of water to the top soil, so as to not let the roots up top dry out or cook. A mulch helps a lot to maintain that critical top soil area moist and biologically active.

So wet the soil good. Let it dry out pretty well to say nearly 1/3 down in your medium. Then, a very light sprinkling of water only.

Then you wait till the top 1/3 is dry again and do the same, another light watering. This way the soil below is getting a change to get air.

The next irrigation might be a heavy one. The older leaves at the bottom of the plant drooping constantly means the roots down deep are still too wet.
 
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Blander66

Member
slownickel said:
The amount of soil has little to do with it. The only water loss is from what the plant takes up if you have a lot of organic material. Think of the soil as a glass of water. You don't water til the glass is half full. And then, you only apply a bit of water to the top soil, so as to not let the roots up top dry out or cook. A mulch helps a lot to maintain that critical top soil area moist and biologically active.

So wet the soil good. Let it dry out pretty well to say nearly 1/3 down in your medium. Then, a very light sprinkling of water only.

Then you wait till the top 1/3 is dry again and do the same, another light watering. This way the soil below is getting a change to get air.

The next irrigation might be a heavy one. The older leaves at the bottom of the plant drooping constantly means the roots down deep are still too wet.
Click to expand...

Thank you for explaining that. I took a most ours meter and when I put the probes down farther it goes all the way to the wet side of the scale. I think this pin points what's going on
 
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