My Slurricane #7 S1 is starting to have problems as well as the Forbidden Jelly. Not sure if its an imbalance or the plants are starting to get hungry. Since Im basically experimenting with this organic stuff I figured hungry. The instructions on the down to earth box says top dress once a month and this is about 1 week after that since I prepped my soil a week before I even dropped my beans.
The directions on the box say 1-2 tablespoons per gallon of medium per month, so what I did was mix up 7 tablespoons of the 4-4-4 along with 2 tablespoons of the 2-6-5. This may prove to be a mistake since the 2-6-5 has a higher p and k ratio, but it has the secondary and micro nutrients I think both plants are hungry for. Mixed in to the top inch or 2 of soil and watered it in with some liquid fox farm nutrients, very weak ones but I still added them to give the plants an immediately available source of sulphur/zinc. The Slurricane was showing signs of deficiencies of both along with a phosphorus deficiency. So I mixed in 2tsp of big bloom, and 2 tsp of microbe brew. The microbe brew added some microbes, zinc, copper and sulphur, and the big bloom gave some sulphur and a small bump of p and k.
Like I said Im not sure if what I an doing is the right thing. Im trying to read the plant to the best of my ability and respond accordingly. I probably should have taken pics but I'll upload some later. What Im seeing on the Slurricane is some necrotic spots popping up on the lower leaves they were kinda purplish before turning brown so I figured phosphorus deficiency, and up top the tips and margins are starting to get a little pale/yellow, and as far as I know thats either zinc or sulphur deficiency. It hasn't began on the Forbidden Jelly as much, the tips at the top are just starting to become pale but she looks like she is progressing the same as the slurricane, so hopefully what I did remedies the issue over the next 1-2 weeks.
Pics
Slurricane #7 S1
So here's some pics, the overall plant amd the trouble Im seeing. Its all on the oldest and newest leaves which is what lead me to think hungry. Definitely not nitrogen starved but I think maybe other stuff. There is maybe too much N in the soil because the oldest leaves are also dark but they arent clawing and the stems aren't flimsy. I did do a quick check of my ph meter calibration and its dead on for the 2 setpoint calibration at 7 and 4. Im thinking of biting the bullet and getting a meter for the soil so I can test periodically. The grow star apera line is $180-200 the basic apera ph60s-e is $170. There's not much of a difference other than the grow star line is made specifically for soil whereas the ph60 line is made for general solid pH testing so I might spring for the grow star one when I get paid next Thursday. Im kind of sick of doing slurry tests.
Forbidden Jelly
Not really much to show here, she's a little droopy because technically she got over watered. She was still pretty heafty when I decided to recharge the food supply. Other than that just a few new leaves had tips that were starting to yellow and theres very minimal purplish splotches to take pics of. One other thing I thought about is the spring water I collect. Im still wondering if thats messing with the nutrient balance somehow.
