Indoor MasonJar’s Indoor Adventure

[MasonJarOG]

Plants look nice to me. But I'm a newb so I think they all look good as hell if they are alive. Still impressed with y'all growings!

That said, how did you know it was a micronutrient def? I read back up a couple posts and saw the TM7 label. What is that stuff?

1. The "Root" Cause: Systemic pH Lockout (Alkaline Drift)

The primary driver of 90% of the symptoms was the soil pH drifting to 7.01+, caused by the "Salt Elevator" effect in my Tray2Grow system. This created a chemical blockade preventing the roots from accessing specific micro nutrients.

• Symptom A: Iron Deficiency (The "High Contrast" Look)
• Where: Newest top growth (specifically on the Blue Dog).
• Leaf Sign: Intense Interveinal Chlorosis. The veins remained dark green, but the space between them turned bright lime/yellow.
• Meaning: At pH 7.0, Iron turns solid. The plant could not move Iron to the new leaves fast enough to produce chlorophyll.
• Symptom B: Magnesium Deficiency (The "Tiger Stripes")
• Where: Middle and older fan leaves (specifically on Galaxy Brain and Boss Hogg).
• Leaf Sign: Yellowing margins that crept inward between the veins, creating a striped appearance.
• Meaning: Unlike Iron, Magnesium is mobile. The plant cannibalized these older leaves to send Magnesium to the top shoots.
• Symptom C: Boron Deficiency (The "Texture" Change)
• Where: New expanding leaves.
• Leaf Sign: Twisting or sideways curling of leaf blades, accompanied by a "puffy" or quilted texture between the veins.
• Meaning: Boron regulates cell wall structure. When locked out by high pH, cells form unevenly, causing the leaf to crinkle.

2. The Secondary Conflict: Potassium (K) Toxicity
While the plants were starving for Calcium and Magnesium, they were overdosing on Potassium, likely from the "Slow n Steady" I added in two separate feedings.
• Symptom: The "Rust" Spots (Necrosis)
• Where: Scattered on fan leaves that were also yellowing.
• Leaf Sign: Brown, crispy, necrotic spots appearing inside the yellow areas, along with burnt tips on the serrated edges.
• Meaning: This was a "Potassium Blockade." Excess Potassium chemically blocks the uptake of Calcium and Magnesium. The brown spots were tissue death (Necrosis) caused by the resulting Calcium deficiency.

3. The Environmental Stress: Light Bleaching (DLI Overload)
While the roots were locked out, the lights were driving the metabolism too hard.
• Symptom: The "Pale" Top
• Where: The very tallest tips of the canopy (Blue Dog).
• Leaf Sign: A generalized, washing-out of color (bleaching) that looked like the plant was fading to white.

• Meaning: DLI of 49.5. The light engine was running at 100mph, but the fuel line (roots) was clogged. The plant began breaking down its own chlorophyll to survive the intensity. So I raised the lighting higher in the tent to lower the top of canopy DLI as I run these lights 24/0 and occasionally shut them off for and hour or two when I foliar spray.

I bounced this off some other growers I know to validate findings. A lot of this is based on reading and info from Ed Rosenthal's book Cannabis Growers Handbook. https://a.co/d/hakO5Ui

 

[MasonJarOG]

I would not be having to flush the bags with low ph water if I had tested my soil prior to planting. I’ll probably consolidate this mix into a tub at the end of the grow and send a sample to Logan labs to see what was going on.

 

[MasonJarOG]

Seems to have the plants signaling they like the flush and everything is in flower. Blue Dog is the primary one that’s really not happy with this situation but I’m curiously optimistic to see how she turns out in the end.

Boss Hogg

Galaxy Brain- the number one plant has some really nice sativa looking leaves.

The Perfect strain - strawberry biscotti - it doesn’t give a shit about the soil ph or issues. Last time I ran this it was the same experience.

 

[MasonJarOG]

Foilar spraying calmag fuel on the Blue Dog and Boss Hogg’s while the soil ph recovers.

 

[MasonJarOG]

Tested deeper into the 7 gal bag with a ph/moisture probe and got much better results since working to drop ph. Went from 7.1-7.25 down to 6.2-6.6.
Blue Dog looks much happier.
Before

After

Starting up the Advanced Nutrients Connoisseur ph perfect Coco Bloom A & B, 80 ml each for the 10gal in the reservoir.

Boss Hogg’s top left/center are wanting more calmag and phos. (Note the yellowing in the upper canopy leaf and zoom)

Just ph’ing the water to 5.8 now since the low 5.2 is not needed any longer after cracking the salt elevator and lockout. I ph adjust after it’s mixed good.

Strawberry Biscotti is on autopilot top right
The galaxy brains bottom left/center are hitting stride with the soil ph dropping to 6.2 and the previous foilar sprays of calmag fuel. They’re absolutely tumbleweeds.

 

[MasonJarOG]

Over did it again! Those 3 gal plants are step kids

 

[Entombed]

Man I was just about to say fuckin nice job on the pH save. Cool read with the info about what you are seeing on the leaves and what it means.