New Grower Mystery problems with my Day-20 plants -- any idea what this is?

[Dr. Frog]

Hey Archer, I'm also using Dr. Earth's 808 homegrown. The same thing happened to my two plants early on, and things only got worse over time. My pH was way off though. Like Muddy mentioned, the soil doesn't have any lime to help buffer the pH. By the time I got the lime and topdressed, my plants were pretty stunted and wouldn't end up producing much.

And yes, it does hold a ridiculous amount of water. I don't know if I'd use this soil again myself. The ingredients and everything sounded great on paper, but the soil is very hard and compact now, and watering is a pain (won't wet through for a long time, even with wetting a wettig agent like yucca).

Hopefully that portion of you mixed in will help lighten it up throughout the grow. Best of luck!

 

[Muddy]

Next time I water I'm taking a) tap water pH, b) tap water + nute pH, c) runoff pH. This will be a bit hard for me to do in the coming days, however, as my next nute feeding isn't scheduled until Sunday. I suppose I could whip up a batch just to test its pH, though.

The soil is probably low pH and probably nutrient-hot. I've heard that disturbing or repotting autos really stresses them out, though, and that many of them can't handle it. What would you recommend in terms of options that don't involve remixing the soil with another medium?

Autos can stunt if transplanted improperly but I doubt you'll need to go that route. Let's see what your pH readings are after the next watering and we'll go from there. Probably adding some lime to your current mix will be enough to straighten things out a bit.

 

[Archer]

Tested this morning. It's not a feeding day, so I won't be able to test nutes mix in / runoff out until the next feeding (Sunday).

RESULTS:

- Tap Water w/ Trace Amounts of Alaska F.E. = 9.7 pH
- Runoff water from the pots = 6.7 pH

How do those numbers look? Soil is pretty clearly acidic, but am I in the sweet spot or the danger zone?

 

[Muddy]

I'm a little confused. If you can't feed them yet, where did the run off number come from? Is that from your last feeding? If so, something is way off. Feeding at 9.7 and getting run off at 6.7 would indicate that your soil pH is around 3.7, which I find hard to believe.

 

[Archer]

It wasn't from a feeding. It was from a watering. The water bucket contained some dried/trace amounts of Alaska Fish Emulsion, which is why I mentioned that. But it was 99% tap water.

I'm as puzzled as you are by the readings. I find it incredibly hard to believe my soil has a pH of 3.7, but that's what the numbers are saying. Water in = 9.7; Runoff water out = 6.7.

 

[Archer]

It's been about a week, and the problem seems to be getting worse. I've tried an application of dolomite lime to the soil -- which I know will take awhile to kick in. I've also done two more waterings with Cal/Mag, in the off-chance that it's a calcium deficiency. My pH meter proved highly unreliable, so I junked it and am ordering a new one.

In the meantime, here are the latest pics. Generally speaking, this rust-colored spotting starts appearing on the lower fan leaves, which gradually burn at the tips and decay. The rust spots have started spreading higher up the plants now.

Interestingly, only two of my four plants seem to be affected by this problem. All four of the plants show what appears to be nute burn: brown leaf tips. But only two are showing this strange speckling pattern.

Theories:

1. Calcium def, due to low soil pH and lockout.
2. Nute burn.
3. Fungal infestation.
4. Spider mites.

In support of #3 and #4, I've included a photo of a strange, white, filamentous growth that seems to be appearing at the soil's surface on one of the two plants with the rust spotting. I can't tell if this is mite webbing, fungal mycelium, or something else. Whatever it is, I don't like the look of it.

Pics:

 

[Dr. Frog]

Man it bums me out to see this Dr. Earth Homegrown causing problems. I originally didn't want to report the issues with my plants growing in this soil. I assumed it was MY fault, or that I'd gotten a bag from a bad batch.

I've all but abandoned my two autos growing in Dr. Earth. I moved them from the tent into a closet with a few CFL's to finish out and salvage what I could.

Really hoping your 3rd theory isn't the one. I've looked all over my plants with the same speckle issues and can't find any sort of bugs. However, my buds have gone from great, sweet-smelling dankness to a putrid grassy smell. It's kind of gross really. The buds *look* normal. I can't find anything weird visually and I never worry about filamentous stuff growing in the soil... but that smell... stinks in a bad way. Hoping this soil wasn't a source of some gross fungal infection. :/

Gonna stay tuned to see how your experience compares with mine. Good luck!

 

[namvet25]

Those speckled brown spots usually mean cal def.Thats some course looking soil you got.Looks like mostly ground bark and wood with pine needles.This could be causing your ph problem.

 

[Archer]

Man it bums me out to see this Dr. Earth Homegrown causing problems. I originally didn't want to report the issues with my plants growing in this soil. I assumed it was MY fault, or that I'd gotten a bag from a bad batch.

I've all but abandoned my two autos growing in Dr. Earth. I moved them from the tent into a closet with a few CFL's to finish out and salvage what I could.

Really hoping your 3rd theory isn't the one. I've looked all over my plants with the same speckle issues and can't find any sort of bugs. However, my buds have gone from great, sweet-smelling dankness to a putrid grassy smell. It's kind of gross really. The buds *look* normal. I can't find anything weird visually and I never worry about filamentous stuff growing in the soil... but that smell... stinks in a bad way. Hoping this soil wasn't a source of some gross fungal infection. :/

Gonna stay tuned to see how your experience compares with mine. Good luck!

Thanks for the info, even if it's not encouraging to hear.

At this point I'm wondering if I should dispose of the two plants that appear to be "infected" by whatever is going wrong. Two of the plants seem unaffected for now, which is great.

The reason I doubt this is spider mites is that, based on everything I've read, spider mites would be all over all four of the plants if they were present.

Calcium may still be the culprit, but if so, it's weird that the spotting is only happening on two of the plants. And calcium deficiency doesn't explain the white stuff in the soil.

Given what you've said about the poor bud quality coming from plants you've grown in the same soil, which exhibited the same issues, I may toss the two and try my luck with the rest of the grow.

I'd hate to toss the entire grow altogether, of course, but it may come to that in the long run. This soil has given me nothing but problems from the beginning. Some of those problems may be too severe to correct at this stage.

 

[Dr. Frog]

Those speckled brown spots usually mean cal def.Thats some course looking soil you got.Looks like mostly ground bark and wood with pine needles.This could be causing your ph problem.

The soil does contain a ton of wood bits, bark, etc. Out of the bag, it's a nice loamy feeling mix. After a few waterings, all those larger particles float to the top with the perlite and the rest seems to compact. At least, that's how my experience with the texture went.

Thanks for the info, even if it's not encouraging to hear.

At this point I'm wondering if I should dispose of the two plants that appear to be "infected" by whatever is going wrong. Two of the plants seem unaffected for now, which is great.

The reason I doubt this is spider mites is that, based on everything I've read, spider mites would be all over all four of the plants if they were present.

Calcium may still be the culprit, but if so, it's weird that the spotting is only happening on two of the plants. And calcium deficiency doesn't explain the white stuff in the soil.

Given what you've said about the poor bud quality coming from plants you've grown in the same soil, which exhibited the same issues, I may toss the two and try my luck with the rest of the grow.

I'd hate to toss the entire grow altogether, of course, but it may come to that in the long run. This soil has given me nothing but problems from the beginning. Some of those problems may be too severe to correct at this stage.

If it were me, I'd keep all the plants and just continue to watch/smell them. I just set mine up in a dinky closet with a box fan and CFLs. I can't say too much about bud quality just yet... I want to dry them and see if that funk ever goes away. Gonna chop them on Monday. I'll let you know how that turns out.

Are your plants still spotting? Are you noticing it on new growth? It was hard for me to determine whether or not I had "fixed" my issue. I just topdressed lime and watered, then the plants stopped looking droopy and sick. Checked the pH and it was good enough. They perked up, but that spotting damage is permanent.

I think dolomite lime supplies usable calcium, so I assume you should be covered, as long as the soil pH is corrected.