# Leaf Discoloration - Help



## DogBoy420 (Oct 31, 2014)

Hi Everyone,

This is my very first post.

I have some leaf discoloration on some plants I've grown from Dr. Greenthumb Bubba OG feminized seeds.  And I was hoping someone here could tell me what the problem is.

The plants are just now entering the flowering phase.  Two weeks ago, I transplanted them from pure Roots Organic soil into some pretty hot Super Soil I made from scratch.  Not 100% Super Soil, but a 75% Super Soil 25% Roots Organic mix.

The leaf discoloration is occurring on all 3 of my plants, at about the 75% height level.  Here is a pic.  Is the soil a bit too hot maybe?

View attachment 003 (800x600).jpg


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## BenfukD (Oct 31, 2014)

looks like cal/mag


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## Locked (Oct 31, 2014)

Hard to tell without seeing the plant but might be a Cal/Mag deficiency.  I am guessing you are growing all Organic?


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## DogBoy420 (Oct 31, 2014)

Hamster Lewis said:


> Hard to tell without seeing the plant but might be a Cal/Mag deficiency.  I am guessing you are growing all Organic?



Yes, all organic.

I included plenty of cal/mag in the Super Soil recipe, and they've just been transplanted into it, and I use tap water, so I don't think it's cal/mag deficiency.

The rest of the plant (on all 3 plants) is healthy as can be. All fan leaves are reaching for the sky, look strong, green, etc.  It's just a single ring of fan leaves at the 75% height mark that show this discoloration.

Really strange.


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## Locked (Oct 31, 2014)

DogBoy420 said:


> Yes, all organic.
> 
> I included plenty of cal/mag in the Super Soil recipe, and they've just been transplanted into it, and I use tap water, so I don't think it's cal/mag deficiency.
> 
> ...




Can you post a pic of the whole plant? When you say 75 percent height mark is that on the lower portion of the plant or the higher?  Before I started routinely trimming off the bottom 1/4-1/3, I used to always get some really beat up looking fan leaves on the lower part of the plant.


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## DogBoy420 (Oct 31, 2014)

Hamster Lewis said:


> Can you post a pic of the whole plant? When you say 75 percent height mark is that on the lower portion of the plant or the higher?  Before I started routinely trimming off the bottom 1/4-1/3, I used to always get some really beat up looking fan leaves on the lower part of the plant.



Yes, I'll post full pics tomorrow.  The flowering light is on now, and those pics wash out so bad...

I mean the 75% mark toward the top...

Thanks.


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## moxie (Oct 31, 2014)

make sure that your ph levels are accurate , and i think most of us use cal/mag adjusted r/o water and not tap water ,,,, i could never get an average grow much less an above average grow with my tap water ,,, the ph levels would spike to 8 or 9 within a few hours and i was always adjusting , but it took a while for me to figure out that it was the ph


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## The Hemp Goddess (Nov 1, 2014)

I have always had to supplement my super soils.  Whether you have any Cal-Mag left in your super soil will depend on how fast whatever you used breaks down.  By flowering, you could well have depleted some of the nutrients.  I also believe from the look of the leaf that it is a Cal-Mag issue.  PH is really not an issue with organic grows unless it is way out of whack as the soil feeds the plants.  Can you tell us exatly what you put into your super soil and how much?  Did you let it cook sufficiently?


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## DogBoy420 (Nov 1, 2014)

The Hemp Goddess said:


> I have always had to supplement my super soils.  Whether you have any Cal-Mag left in your super soil will depend on how fast whatever you used breaks down.  By flowering, you could well have depleted some of the nutrients.  I also believe from the look of the leaf that it is a Cal-Mag issue.  PH is really not an issue with organic grows unless it is way out of whack as the soil feeds the plants.  Can you tell us exatly what you put into your super soil and how much?  Did you let it cook sufficiently?



Thank you for your reply.

I will include a list of my Super Soil ingredients below (it's a long list...).

I allowed my Super Soil to cook for 50 days before using it.  And I used Roots Organic to veg the plants.  I transplanted them into the Super Soil only two weeks ago, so I don't think the Super Soil nutrients have been depleted yet.

When I transplanted two weeks ago, I used a mixture of 25% Roots Organic and 75% Super Soil.

Here are full-plant pics taken a few minutes ago:

View attachment 001 (800x600).jpg


View attachment 003 (800x600).jpg


View attachment 002 (800x600).jpg


My Super Soil recipe is:

2 large bags Roots Organic soil
20 lbs Earthworm castings
16 Red cups (about 1kg) organic rice hulls
420g Fish bone meal (Down to Earth 3-16-0)
420g Bat guano (Happy Frog 0-5-0)
420g Blood meal (Down to Earth 12-0-0)
100g Neem seed meal (Down to Earth)
80g Potassium sulfate (0-0-50)
200g Ancient Forest Alaska Humus (General Organics)
200g Xtreme mycorrhizal granules
200g Azomite
100g Sea kelp (Algamin 1-0-2)
70g Dolomite lime (30% cal 3% mg, or 75/12)
50g Alfalfa meal (Down to Earth 2.5-1-1)
20g Humic acid powder (Down to Earth)
8g Epsom salt


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## Hushpuppy (Nov 2, 2014)

It looks to me like something is binding up the calcium so that the plant is developing a calcium deficiency. How much is the g that you have for a measure, is that grams of dry elements? Can you tell me how much volume that is on the dolomite lime?


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## DogBoy420 (Nov 2, 2014)

Hushpuppy said:


> It looks to me like something is binding up the calcium so that the plant is developing a calcium deficiency. How much is the g that you have for a measure, is that grams of dry elements? Can you tell me how much volume that is on the dolomite lime?



Thanks for the reply.

Yes, the g is grams of dry elements.

The dolomite lime is quite dense, but I don't know the volume vs. weight.  I'll try to estimate.

Again, thanks.


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## Hushpuppy (Nov 4, 2014)

I just noticed that the numbers on the "dolomite lime" don't look right ffor dolomite lime. Most of the "dolomite lime that I have seen is higher content of magnesium and lower content of calcium. Are you certain that the lime you have is dolomite and not "hydrated lime"? The reason is the concentrations are just the opposite with hydrated lime versus dolomite lime. I am thinking that the calcium may be binding and flocculating which prevents it from being available to the plants. I'm not exactly sure why it would be doing that as I am not overly experienced with organics but the symptoms look just like that is what is happening. Did the problem show up Immediately after the transplant, just before or about a week after the transplant?

Where's Jmansweed when we need him?


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## DogBoy420 (Nov 4, 2014)

Hushpuppy said:


> I just noticed that the numbers on the "dolomite lime" don't look right ffor dolomite lime. Most of the "dolomite lime that I have seen is higher content of magnesium and lower content of calcium. Are you certain that the lime you have is dolomite and not "hydrated lime"? The reason is the concentrations are just the opposite with hydrated lime versus dolomite lime. I am thinking that the calcium may be binding and flocculating which prevents it from being available to the plants. I'm not exactly sure why it would be doing that as I am not overly experienced with organics but the symptoms look just like that is what is happening. Did the problem show up Immediately after the transplant, just before or about a week after the transplant?
> 
> Where's Jmansweed when we need him?



Thank you very much for your reply.

 The bag said "dolomite lime".  And it was powdered (not pelleted), which made me feel better about it dissolving and spreading throughout the mix when I added water and turned my compost tumbler 100 revolutions...I'm still sore from that...

 The problem showed up about 1 week after transplant...all new growth is pristine...so far.


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## Hushpuppy (Nov 4, 2014)

Ok so the lime sounds like it is good. It also sounds like the new growth is ok as well so its possible that the plants got a little shocked when you transplanted them, but I believe it has recovered. The necrotic spots don't go away once the damage is done, but no more than it is shouldn't hurt anything as long as the plant continues to improve. Just keep an eye on them and if anything changes, or gets worse then post us a pic of it. But I suspect they are going to be ok now


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## DogBoy420 (Nov 10, 2014)

Hushpuppy said:


> Ok so the lime sounds like it is good. It also sounds like the new growth is ok as well so its possible that the plants got a little shocked when you transplanted them, but I believe it has recovered. The necrotic spots don't go away once the damage is done, but no more than it is shouldn't hurt anything as long as the plant continues to improve. Just keep an eye on them and if anything changes, or gets worse then post us a pic of it. But I suspect they are going to be ok now



I think you're right about the initial transplant shock.  The plants look really good, except that one ring of discolored leaves around each plant that occurred just after transplant.


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## Lesso (Nov 14, 2014)

Are you watering with tap water?


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## justafarmer (Nov 14, 2014)

DogBoy420 said:


> and I use tap water, so I don't think it's cal/mag deficiency.




looks like he is.....


cheers ~


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## Lesso (Nov 14, 2014)

Get an ro filter.....you are adding a ton of calcium. You tap water has calcium in there as well. Often times too much calcium presents the same way as too little calcium.


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## Hushpuppy (Nov 16, 2014)

Lesso is correct about too much calcium causing the same symptoms of too little calcium. Calcium is a (I hate to say heavier element because scientifically it isn't) but it "clumps" and binds up easily with other elements, which causes it to lock itself and other things out iff there is too much present. Often tap water can have a lot of calcium in it. That is why I always recommend to new growers to have their water source tested locally for elements and pH, that way you know from the start what you are working with.


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