romy6 said:Did you by chance give them too much NPK?
fiveohmike said:overwatering?
holyhotpeppers said:Have you checked your soil PH? What kind of soil are you usuing? What are your nutes?
Scarlet Fire said:Doesn't sound like overwatering or pH too high or low then. My guess would be Ca and/or Fe deficiency if everything has been well fed.
hydromike said:Calcium deficiency, for sure.
Ok, i got some chilli focus. Should i give it a try? Foliar spray or watering? Which is the best way?megahot said:Give it some water and if ypu havent fed it anything but seaweed in the last few weeks, Id feed em
spicy_echo said:Here we go again with the cal-mag lol maybe this is an actual case of needing it. What about nutrient lock? It seems to be something overlooked many times before going straight to a fert.
Thanks, i'll do that.hydromike said:Feed the soil! Foliar spray is meant as a supplemental fertilizing, and there is actually very little scientific evidence that shows that foliar feeding has any significant effect on plant growth (athough some swear by it).
I use regular tap water. I check the ph every 10 days and it's always around 6.5 - 6.9 maximum.spydrweb77 said:Are you watering with city supplied water or from a well, or other source? I ask because a lot of municipal water sources have good amounts of calcium and magnesium it's just unavailable due to the high pH of city water. The pH is usually buffered up to 8 or higher to reduce degradation of water mains, which makes the ca and mg unavailable. The pH of your fertigation water is more important in container growing than the pH of the soil itself in my opinion.
Watering with some white vinegar added to your tap might go a long way to help your issues if you are watering with hig pH water.
P.s. just noticed you are in Greece, so I'm not sure what your water supply is like there...
locopao said:Ok, i got some chilli focus. Should i give it a try? Foliar spray or watering? Which is the best way?
Thanks for your answers!
What can i do if the problem is nutrient lock? Any advice? Thanks in advance.
spydrweb77 said:Try taking a sample of your tap and letting it sit overnight before testing it. The pH will often "rebound" once the water has sat and stabilized for a bit. The 6.5 - 6.9 readings your are getting may not be 100% accurate if you are testing the water right after taking a sample.
I know you are in Greece, but over here, they add so many buffers to my water that it usually tests over 9.0.
I have never used chili focus or any other foliars really, so I'm not sure how long it may take. I would not expect much recovery in the damaged leaves as ca and mg are not very mobile. So, the new growth should improve once you figure things out, but the damaged portions of the plant will probably remain that way.
Are you growing any other plants? If so, are those suffering any similar problems? Just asking because it may help you narrow down any possibly problems...
Can you get a quality report from whoever supplies your tap water?? Maybe there is excessive chlorine or chloramines in the water that is causing a problem...
My tap water generally does not cause any issues with my in ground plants, but my plants in containers do much better when I off-gas the chlorine and add a little vinegar to bring the pH down.
spicy_echo said:
Well PH levels to high can cause nute lock for sure but it doesn't sound like that is the case here. I'm no expert on soil, but just like mike said. Feed your soil with good, natural, organic nutes. Compost Tea is a good place to start. No idea what is available to you in Greece. I didn't realize until last year that I was using fish emulsion, seaweed, a few other nutes, and all of it was probably getting washed away by the city water I was pouring into it. I would check for sure on a water report with the city if available and go from there. Chlorine in water can kill anything living in your soil. That's something that can be easily avoided just by leaving it sitting out in the sun for a day.