What is this deficiency?

[Saosin]

Thank you guys. This really is a helpful community. Glad I discovered it.

 

[Waira]

So as long as I add cal mag to my r/o water, I shouldn't have to worry about the ph fluctuating and getting too acidic? The reason why I ask is because the problem kind of progressed, but mainly on the same leaves, they just look way worse. How long does it take for the cal/mag to kick in? I've been using it for about a week now. There's definitely other deficiencies happening too. You're right about that.

...no, that's not what I mean mate,.. if you're using organic nutes, there's no need to pH adjust them usually,.. synthetics, yes! But if you have a sour pot, RO water isn't adding any buffering minerals to help with what the soil itself has (lime), which may not be enough,...
I'd say my bud HM has called it, P and possibly Ca defc., which can have similar symptoms on the same areas of the plant,.. stay on full strength Ca-Mg, get more potent bloom nutes too, that buddha isn't going to cut it to fix a severe defc.,... you need something stronger, even if temporary; get a PK booster of some kind, with bigger P-K #'s... a little synthetic sin;t going to hurt anything including bud quality, but letting the P defc. linger on surely will,... I use a mix of organic and synthetic nutes, mainly bloom boosters in the latter, and results are just fine,... I'd look into getting a micronutrient supplement too, like Earth juice Microblast,... not being able to check that in-pot pH is a problem though, only way now is the run-off test,.. if you pH is too acidic, it'll lock out the P even if there's some in there,... do you have a pH meter in good working order, recently calibrated, stored in the right solution, etc.,..? We can do a very crude run-off test, instead of the more complicated but more accurate method shown in the yellow sticky section above this one,...Use water only, no adjusting, preferably RO/Di, until you get a cup or so of run-off, then collect enough after that to test the pH,.. run-off is a crude test as is even the method mentioned, but if your r-o' is in the low 5's or something, we know the soil is off pH and needs to be corrected by flushing with higher pH water, usually 2-3x pot volume, but test ph after every gallon,...

 

[Saosin]

...no, that's not what I mean mate,.. if you're using organic nutes, there's no need to pH adjust them usually,.. synthetics, yes! But if you have a sour pot, RO water isn't adding any buffering minerals to help with what the soil itself has (lime), which may not be enough,...
I'd say my bud HM has called it, P and possibly Ca defc., which can have similar symptoms on the same areas of the plant,.. stay on full strength Ca-Mg, get more potent bloom nutes too, that buddha isn't going to cut it to fix a severe defc.,... you need something stronger, even if temporary; get a PK booster of some kind, with bigger P-K #'s... a little synthetic sin;t going to hurt anything including bud quality, but letting the P defc. linger on surely will,... I use a mix of organic and synthetic nutes, mainly bloom boosters in the latter, and results are just fine,... I'd look into getting a micronutrient supplement too, like Earth juice Microblast,... not being able to check that in-pot pH is a problem though, only way now is the run-off test,.. if you pH is too acidic, it'll lock out the P even if there's some in there,... do you have a pH meter in good working order, recently calibrated, stored in the right solution, etc.,..? We can do a very crude run-off test, instead of the more complicated but more accurate method shown in the yellow sticky section above this one,...Use water only, no adjusting, preferably RO/Di, until you get a cup or so of run-off, then collect enough after that to test the pH,.. run-off is a crude test as is even the method mentioned, but if your r-o' is in the low 5's or something, we know the soil is off pH and needs to be corrected by flushing with higher pH water, usually 2-3x pot volume, but test ph after every gallon,...

Hey @Waira, I did a VERY crude run-off test. Unfortunately I don't have a ph pen and my broke ass can't really afford a good one at the moment, but I have the GH tester vial and solution. I figured maybe this can give somewhat of an idea, maybe not lol. I put 7.0 r/o water in and got 6.0-6.5 out. So my soil appears to be on the acidic side, right? I have fed with the buddha bloom 3 times now since I already bought it, doubling the dose one time just to give it the benefit of the doubt, and the problem is still getting worse. Maybe I haven't given it enough time to kick in?

So I'm leaning towards either the nutrients are too weak or the soil is too acidic. I'm wondering though, if the soil was too acidic all along, why would the plant start having issues in mid-flower? Just wondering What do you recommend I do at this point? Thank you for your help man.

 

[Waira]

....soil may have been OK or borderline, pH can shift and drift easily in the pot,.. lots of influencing factors in play,... organic are slower to act for one thing,... and the pH may still be low enough to lock out the P,...
At this point without solid readings, only thing left to do is flush; usually it's 2-3x pot volume with pH adjusted water..7.0 in your case, but the water itself being RO has no more pH buffering minerals (CaCO3) in it, so will swing wildly from even small inputs,... consider using tap water, or a blend of them.. but you need to know if your water is hard, and to what degree,... adding Ca-Mg can help get some ppm's in there, but few such supplements have much carbonate based Ca/Mg in them (it's the carbonate that's involved with the buffering mainly),... after putting through thst first volumes worth, check pH run-off again to mark progress,... run another 1/2 gal, test again, stop when pH is close to input value,.. then make up a weak nute solution + Ca-Mg and adjust it, then put it in,... do all this fast, in under 20 min to limit smothering time of roots (O2 starvation),... then to speed draining, you can set the pots on some newspaper (start with a 1/4" stack)with some paper towels tucked under the pot in contact with drainage holes; this will wick out the excess moisture much faster,... check the paper after an hour and replace as needed,.... then it'll be a few days to see if halting occurs,....

 

[Saosin]

....soil may have been OK or borderline, pH can shift and drift easily in the pot,.. lots of influencing factors in play,... organic are slower to act for one thing,... and the pH may still be low enough to lock out the P,...
At this point without solid readings, only thing left to do is flush; usually it's 2-3x pot volume with pH adjusted water..7.0 in your case, but the water itself being RO has no more pH buffering minerals (CaCO3) in it, so will swing wildly from even small inputs,... consider using tap water, or a blend of them.. but you need to know if your water is hard, and to what degree,... adding Ca-Mg can help get some ppm's in there, but few such supplements have much carbonate based Ca/Mg in them (it's the carbonate that's involved with the buffering mainly),... after putting through thst first volumes worth, check pH run-off again to mark progress,... run another 1/2 gal, test again, stop when pH is close to input value,.. then make up a weak nute solution + Ca-Mg and adjust it, then put it in,... do all this fast, in under 20 min to limit smothering time of roots (O2 starvation),... then to speed draining, you can set the pots on some newspaper (start with a 1/4" stack)with some paper towels tucked under the pot in contact with drainage holes; this will wick out the excess moisture much faster,... check the paper after an hour and replace as needed,.... then it'll be a few days to see if halting occurs,....

Okay thanks. My tap water isn't hard. Should I let the tap water sit for a couple of days before flushing with it?

 

[Waira]

depends on if it's chlorinated, and how much and what type,.. usually letting it sit out for day is fine, but if it's chloramine treated, it won't gas off,... but for this purpose, it doesn't matter, a little exposure will be the least of it's worries,...