Questions and advice needed for soilless

[savoy]

I'm having plant troubles that I've never had before. I had been using ffof with ff trio with good success for my first few noob grows. As time goes on with research and advice I decided to switch to sunshine # 4, it's cheaper than ffof, and my hydro store doesn't carry promix.

It might be that I'm new to soilless but my plants are all getting really n deficient at day 43-45 like clockwork ever since I switched. The current batch has also gone mg deficient in addition to n def. it's a mess. All 3 plants look the same, im doing something fundamentally wrong across the board. I've added cal mag, grow big etc, gotten my ph down to 6.2 last feed. I feel like I've taken the correct steps but am so frustrated that I may be missing something.

I'm not looking for sick plant advise as much as a solid plan going forward. I don't want to get into details about feed schedules, amounts etc. I'm following the same techniques I have for like 7 grows, it's the last three that are problematic.

With ffof I was always fighting low ph so I'm in the habit of adding lime to maintain a ph of 6.2-6.5. I've been doing that with my sunshine #4 and have been advised that my ph is too high. Should I be following the same guidelines for hydro and keep it at like 5.8? And should I be using hydro nutes as well? I even bought a fresh set of nutes in case the old were expired

I'm about to buy AN ph perfect GBM thinking that maybe the ff just isn't cutting it in soilless. Has anyone used this with sunshine 4?

Sorry for the novel, but I'm so damn frustrated and feel like I'm doing everything by the book to the point where either I missing something really obvious or there are issues with my medium, nute relationship

Thanks

 

[JM]

Should I be following the same guidelines for hydro and keep it at like 5.8? And should I be using hydro nutes as well? I even bought a fresh set of nutes in case the old were expired

:no:

sounds like you are either not upping nutes enough as they start to flower... or maybe misunderstand nutrient requirements?

or possibly ph is out at some point... though sounds like you re close to proper range of 6.3 - 6.5 in your description (@ 6.2)

heres a chart... and look at my sig... have a read on the ph manual link.

View attachment 152913View attachment 152914View attachment 152915

also... if you have a few pics of the symptoms in that 45 day area... please share those too.

 

[JM]

also this thread is prob more appropriate in the Tips / tricks knoledge base / cannabis infirmary...

moving it there... there will be a 2 week expiring redirect.

:smokebuds:

 

[JM]

also, I mean no insult in the nutrient requirement comment.. what I mean is... plant sstill need Nitrogen during flower... just significantly less than they did in veg.

 

[Muddy]

I was just over on the Sunshine web site reading their info. No where do they say that any lime has been added but they do list their pH as between 5.5 - 6.5. That's a pretty wide range so I would think that the pH would need to be verified before planting. If it's closer to 6.5, then no additional lime would be needed. But if down around 5.5, then you would need some. If yours was on the high end and you added more, then you soil pH probably was a problem. If it was high enough it could lockout of both MG and N.

Sunshine #4 isn't a true soil less medium since it contains worm castings. I've done a lot of growing in Pro Mix amended with worm castings, which is about the same, minus the coir. I always got the best results with a pH between 6.2 - 6.4.

If you don't have one already, I'd recommend you get an Accurate 8 soil probe. Use it to test your Sunshine #4 before you start. You'll also find it very handy for checking soil pH though the grow. A lot easier than checking run off. Well worth the $50. Knowing where you're starting at everything else should fall into place.

On the AN nutes, have you checked the ppm of your water? If it's too high, they won't work well.

 

[savoy]

Thanks Jm. I think you were the one who clued me into having a lower ph than I was used to in ffof for soilless in the sick plant area on this issue. I'm past the point of fixing the current generation in my constant grow(thought they are fattening and should be decent yields) its the 2 generations on their way I'm more worried about.

Should I forget about soil and start following a hydro schedule? I think it was you or fd that had a ff feed schedule in a thread about home-made super soil mix the one I use is similar.

 

[savoy]

@ muddy. I don't recall the exact number but I looked up my towns water's ppm stats and the were considered low. In non winter months i use rain water. I've had trouble since switching to sunshine getting my routine in order.

@jm sorry if wrong section, I'm mainly looking for a good methodology regarding sunshine 4 and either continuing trio, or changing to AN. It was less about sick plants, just trying to give a little background info to explain my frustration

 

[JM]

Muddy's advice is spot on nd should help guide you in a little closer to primo..

I'll also second th reccomendation to get a soil ph meter... literally 30 seconds to see where your soil ph is... and no calculating guessing based on ph water input... direct read... worth every penny at 4x the price!

:thumbs:

I suspect ph is your major issue... that is usually what causes the issues you are describing..

 

[JM]

no worries on thread location mate... well now its listed in the soil hread for 2 weeks... and can help future growers in the tips tricks knowledge base...

 

[Muddy]

We all go through it. I just went through two miserable grows fighting pH issues myself. Mostly my own fault though. Always experimenting.

I would find out for sure on the ppm of both your city and rain water before buying the AN nutes. I had to stop using it. My ppm of my city water is too high at 125+ and while the ppm of my rain water was good at 60, the pH was too high, usually over 10. So I'm back on bubbled city water and GO nutes till I get my RO water set up. Then I'll go back to the AN.

Get the soil probe, check your pH first, and you'll be fine with the Sunshine Mix. Lots of people getting good results with it, you can too.