Organic flower problems - need help!

[DTOM420]

I haven't been on here in a good while but suddenly my normally solid 100% organic system (no bottled nutrients) is giving my plants a hard time. So, I'm hoping the old AFN braintrust, including @Waira, can help me out. I'm actually having problems in both my flower room and my veg room but I'm going to focus on my flower room right now - I suspect that if I can figure out the problem in the flower room, I'll know the issue that's happening in the veg room.

Here's an overview of my room:
5x5 tent
HLG 600H 3500K light (on about 60%) hanging about 20" above the canopy.
Passive air intake
6" cabon filter and exhaust duct.
3 small fans moving air

Soil - Peat based soil built from a kit from BuildASoil and with premium worm castings and left to cure ~6 months. Current pH is 6.8
Water - well water with ~150ppm and pH of 7.1 after filtering.
5 gallon and 7 gallon Radicle Bags

Inputs:
Lots of biology - Recharge, Rootwise Microbe Complete, EM1, Fermented Insect Frass, occasional AACT
Twice a week I add BuildASoil's Build-A-Bloom - a 2-10-5 organic mixture - to the water.
Once a week I add water soluble gypsum and epsom salt to the water

Environmentals - Daytime Temp: 78º-81º Humidity: 54%-60%
Nightime Temp: 72º-74º Humidity: 54%-62%

Strains: Jinxproof Pucker Punch (photoperiod)
Ethos Candy Store R1 (photoperiod)
Ethos OKC R1 (photoperiod)
Modus Operandi Cherry AK47 x Suge's Pure Kush

Problem:
It started right after I moved them from the veg room into the flower room, under the bigger light. I did top dress them with some fresh soil that I added a little bat guano and fishbone meal to my regular soil mix - I tope dressed about 2". First problem I noticed was some slightly burnt tips with an upward curl to the tip and yellowing along the outer edge of the leaves. The syptoms were primarily in the older fan leaves but were top to bottom - they started on the whole plant, rather than on the top or the bottom. There was also a general lightening of the fan leaf cdolor, particularl;y on the Pucker punch and (later) on the Candy Store R1. The leaves went from a really dark green that they all were throughout veg to a lime green color. The fade was even across the whole leaf - it dint start in one area and spread across the leaf. See the pictures below. Around the same time I started noticing some tiny white specs on the tops of the leaves, which turned out to be some sort of mite. I'm not sure which mite it is but I'm going to try to embed a short video clip of a few of them below. I started treating for them with bioinsecticides from Marrone Bio and ladybugs and I think that I have them hammered back and under control. I don't think they are the culprit to my leaf issues. I tried upping my feedings of calcium and magnesium but the problem has just progressed and gotten a lot more severe, as you can see from the bottom pictures.

Then, one day I noticed a funny (unpleasant) smell from the pots and realized the bottoms of the Radicle bags had roots growing through them and when I lifted the pots out of the plant saucers below them, the bottom roots were brown and wet and smelled NASTY! In addition, I could see (barely) that there were teeny-tiny bugs (mite size) moving about on the bottom of the trays. So, I was thinking either root rot, root aphids or both! My microscope had broken so I couldn't take pictures but I started to treat as if I had both problems. I pulled the pots from the saucers and sprayed the bottoms of the pots with a strong horticultural Hydrogen Peroxide mixture. Then I cleaned and bleached the saucers before putting the pots back in them- on 1.25" risers this time. I let them dry for 24hrs and then I dipped the pots into Pyganic AND gave them a drench with Pyganic; as a knockdown for any root aphids. Then, I followed all the up with a total dry, until they were crying for water. Even though I have not been pHing my water for a couple of years now (because of the soil and all the biology - I haven't needed to) I have been pHing since I started watering them again.

I also considered that this could be related to the light since it started once they moved to the big light, from a 300watt HLG fixture in 3500K. But I don't have a PAR meter so I can't tell the reading but I turned the light down to about 40% and put it up almost 3' from the canopy and got no visible positive response. So, I'm dubious it's a light issue.

It's been a week and I still don't have a definitive response that they're improving or that they're getting worse. I'm in the middle of week 6 of flower and the actual buds look decent and they've got a lot of trich's but I think they've stagnated; even though I can see a little growth in the buds and the trichomes. I hope they bounce back before they completely finish but I would feel a lot better if I knew exactly what's been going on. I've thrown so many things at them, I really don't know what will be the fix - not like I would had I made ONE change and seen the improvement. I'm REALLY leaning toward the problems having been caused by a soil-dwelling bug that took root from the bags sitting in the plant saucers. But, it's still a guess, albeit an educated one. I'm going to send of a soil sample for testing to see what the soil looks like - to eliminate a lack of a particular nutrient in the soil. But I'd sure like to hear some expert opinions on what other's think problem might be!

Earlier symptoms:

Top to bottom on plant:

Here's the video of the mites:



Here's a blurry photo of a couple of the mites on the top of a leaf:

Advanced Damage:

Here are a couple of nug shots:

 

[Fitzy]

It looks to be a few problems potassium mag and zinc and with root rot it's not surprising considering now bc you have top dressed so often and such it could be also bc of all the organic feed with the added light, added light by putting it ur flower area combined with the nutes the plant starts eatting more to keep up with the light demands

 

[DTOM420]

It looks to be a few problems potassium mag and zinc and with root rot it's not surprising considering now bc you have top dressed so often and such it could be also bc of all the organic feed with the added light, added light by putting it ur flower area combined with the nutes the plant starts eatting more to keep up with the light demands

I'm not quite following you - I only top dressed once, right before I flipped. I moved the plants into the bloom room before the flip and started out with the big light turned way down and let them continue to veg for about 10 days, before I flipped. Oveer those 10 days and the first 10 days of 12/12 I slowly turned the light up and it's still not on full power. I didn't understand that last sentence in your reply - could you re-word it for me?

Are you saying you think it's a simple nutrients issue? That soil mix is pretty rich and is designed to take you through a full run with water-only, in most cases. Plus, I've been feeding BuildABloom in my waterinss that should have added the extra potassium and the epsom salt should have taken care of any magnesium shortage. I didn't mention it but I've also been adding TM7 which is a micronutrient supplement that should have covered the Zinc. I'm not saying you're wrong - just wondering how it could be a nutrient deficiency given all that? I even tried Optic Foliar's Overgrow and foliar feeding epsom salt and got zero response. If it was a magnesium deficiency, shouldn't I have seen a response from those foliar applications?

Everything I read on root aphids says that their effect mimics all sorts of nutrient deficiencies. That's why I keep coming back to bugs.

 

[Olderfart]

I await @Waira's take on this one. Given the description of your nutes and soil, I suspect some sort of lockout rather than a simple deficiency, but I have too little experience to help out. Waira is your man.

 

[Fitzy]

I'm not quite following you - I only top dressed once, right before I flipped. I moved the plants into the bloom room before the flip and started out with the big light turned way down and let them continue to veg for about 10 days, before I flipped. Oveer those 10 days and the first 10 days of 12/12 I slowly turned the light up and it's still not on full power. I didn't understand that last sentence in your reply - could you re-word it for me?

Are you saying you think it's a simple nutrients issue? That soil mix is pretty rich and is designed to take you through a full run with water-only, in most cases. Plus, I've been feeding BuildABloom in my waterinss that should have added the extra potassium and the epsom salt should have taken care of any magnesium shortage. I didn't mention it but I've also been adding TM7 which is a micronutrient supplement that should have covered the Zinc. I'm not saying you're wrong - just wondering how it could be a nutrient deficiency given all that? I even tried Optic Foliar's Overgrow and foliar feeding epsom salt and got zero response. If it was a magnesium deficiency, shouldn't I have seen a response from those foliar applications?

Everything I read on root aphids says that their effect mimics all sorts of nutrient deficiencies. That's why I keep coming back to bugs.

Ya I'm saying I've seen problems with plants in strong light some over feed causing a lockout which is a deficiency now bug can absolutely cause u issues but just the root rot can cause deficiency so it's hard to say it's just one thing @Waira will definitely have a better idea but my point is all of these things are causing the issues. So you have a few things to get control of to rule out things. And as far as lights if they are to close it can cause plants to look like a deficiency when in reality it's depleting its reserves of food faster than it can uptake them.

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

Like dominoes falling one after the other, Based on what I read here is a stab at what I think has happened. No drainage, stagnent water in the plant tray begins an anaerobic growth in the roots - root rot. Peat is a medium that should be fertigated to run-off to waste. The top dressing adds to the salt build up and the PH is to high for iron and other metals to be taken into the plant. H2o2 kills a lot of beneficial microbes along with the undesirables. Letting the pot dry out kills more microbes and roots. Organic is all about the microbes in the root bio-sphere. Here we are piling on the stress the plant is under already. Then top it all off with what looks to be two spotted spider mites. I would add Botinicare HydroGuard, Yucca powder (surfactant to help rewet the media), lower the PH to 6.2, Fertigate to run-off at least once a week. Get a predator mite for the Borg as it is too late in the grow for neem.

These won't solve the problem but they will help you get to harvest.

 

[Waira]

:smoking: DTOM, what's happening mate?
...some funky bizz going down here for sure,.... Bad news, 2-spot spider mites = war, not a battle. You will need a couple different pesti's with different modes of action for best results, generally speaking... I have been very lucky, I've not had this war before; other vermin yes, but not the fucking Arachni-Borg!

VPD, environment looks OK; lights, I can't tell from pics, but I don't think i see light stress signs,.. it wouldn't affect lowers like that anyway...
Symptoms look odd, resembles K defc/toxicity (they look the same basically), but if anything it's defc., not much K going in...?
I do see a lot of SO4 from gypsum and epsoms- oooo, that might be it, at least in part! I think too much S causes antagonistic uptake with K, which makes sense considering,...
Also, that rotten stank smacks of Hydrogen sulfide, an anaerobic generated crappola on those smothered pot bottoms. I have had this before in house plants!
It's toxic to plants, and I'm sure it's presence is not helping matters, but can't be sure it's the primary cause... but all that extra S going in, may be promoting it under those O2 starved bottoms....

What to do,... cut out the S totally for now, and get them bottoms aired out *(ah, you did that already!)... A heavy watering, lots of run-off might be in order; drain the pot bottoms on newspaper and paper towels on top (better wicking action, or a regular towel... this will pull the extra water out faster....
That dry-out may not have been helpful, but I see what you were going for.... problem is, it pisses the roots off, causes a shift in pH and relative concentration of TDS's in there (less water, richer nute load, burns potentially)... The stank is from lack of O2, not so much excess moisture (thought that's key to it happening)....
So, I'd consider that plentiful run-off watering, wouldn't hurt to just look at pH and ppm just to see if it's crazy high/off, even though run-off isn't a good measure of in-pot pH, it'll be a clue of sorts, ditto for the ppm reading... If that comes out in the 1000's, it's overloaded in there. The shitty deal is, you're not supposed to flush this type of soil, or you risk stripping out other nutes, and unbalancing their ratios, and all that sideways jazz!

 

[DTOM420]

Thanks for the input @Waira and @Mañ'O'Green! Great to see y'all again! I'll try some of those suggestions. Thanks for the tip on the source for those predotor mites, Mañ; I've always worried that the beneficials on Amazon aren't good quality. That's a great price!

Question for ya..... I remembered that I did add a little extra nutrient mix (from the same BuildASoil kit I use for making soil) to the soil shortly before I used it. Could this possibly be the result of some "cooking" (or curing) action going on in the soil? I usually let soil sit for 2-3 months (at a minimum) before I use it to grow with. I think this time I added a little booster about 2 weeks before I transplanted. I wonder if that could be causing these problems? I'm not talking about chelated nutrients - the mix is all things like feather meal, alfalfa meal, kelp, etc.

Thanks again mates!

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

Thanks for the input @Waira and @Mañ'O'Green! Great to see y'all again! I'll try some of those suggestions. Thanks for the tip on the source for those predotor mites, Mañ; I've always worried that the beneficials on Amazon aren't good quality. That's a great price!

Question for ya..... I remembered that I did add a little extra nutrient mix (from the same BuildASoil kit I use for making soil) to the soil shortly before I used it. Could this possibly be the result of some "cooking" (or curing) action going on in the soil? I usually let soil sit for 2-3 months (at a minimum) before I use it to grow with. I think this time I added a little booster about 2 weeks before I transplanted. I wonder if that could be causing these problems? I'm not talking about chelated nutrients - the mix is all things like feather meal, alfalfa meal, kelp, etc.

Thanks again mates!

The thing about purchasing any live biological is the transportation environment. The parameters must be within the zone that supports their life. The only thing I could buy where I live now is reptiles anything else would be DOA from the heat. There may be a closer source for you also. You just want that type of predator mite. You might think about releasing some of those around your yard if you have enough. I bought some Praying Mantis 15 years ago and still have a healthy population every summer.

 

[WildBill]

If you had a good program before, where did you deviate from your norm? Yeah, you're in this problem, but you need to find what change you made.
You mixed in some addition nutes. Did you fully mix it or top dress? Did you immediately use it? Was it mixed in a tote or just in a pot? If you mixed in a tote and if the moisture was high enough or you added water, you should have seen if there was a jump in bacteriological and fungi activity with the heat if you didn't immediately use it.