Curing magnesium deficiency

I got 150 grams of Magnesium Sulfate (epsom salts) for a few euros. Instructions on another website say "Adding Epsom salts (diluted to 8.5 oz. per 2.2 gal. of water) to the soil can rectify magnesium deficiencies." which equals to about 29 grams of salt per 1 litre of water. My normal watering amount is roughly 1-1.5 litres. How much do you recommend to start out with?

Plants are about 2,5 weeks old autoflowers.


High res images: http://i.imgur.com/8CzVdS7.jpg and http://i.imgur.com/szvKe8z.jpg

Personally, I would use the wick system..... This way you don't over feed and add too much salt to the soil. The plant takes what it wants. And the soil acts only as an anchor for your roots.

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately wick system not a viable option for me. My growing conditions are far from perfect and I can't imagine building something like that on my existing grow setup.

Uh... You need a simple tray underneath that will hold water..... And a brick, to hold planter above water... And an air pump....... A few lengths of rope as wicks...

You can even do this without the air pump... Just use less water. Water the resevoir not the plant.

there is nothing to "build".

I only have a small tray below my pot and I have another situation where I'm using a bucket and a bowl as a container for run-off water. For the main suffering plants there's some room for wicks (maybe a couple of centimeters total) since the pot is slightly hollow from underneath. The reason why my plants are MG deficient is because my soil PH is below MG availability range, hence the roots can't absorb it from the soil. I think it would be pain in the ass to maintain or set up (for the bucket at least, since it has a lot of soil between the roots and the plant, where as my other pot has very little soil under the roots). Holes below the pot are not equally distributed, how would I stick the wick in and guarantee that mg will reach the plant? I like the wick system, but for me it would create a bunch of other problems (no room for new run-off water from watering [existing tray is too small to contain enough water], no space for a new resevoir etc). I have to mix and match everything here and right now all my plants are sitting on the same level and lights are adjusted equally. I think I would be better off watering with a mildly salted water to see how it goes first and hopefully the plants will be able to absorb some of that MG that gets in contact with the roots.

Thanks.

Use a 1/4 to a 1/3 teaspoon to that much water my friend mix it well and water it. Keep it simple. Good Luck.

Your soil doesn't look like it has very good drainage, you should have added some perlite to improve the drainage. Also you need more than MG for deficiencies. Your plant ;looks hungry all around. Do you have access to a water soluble fertilizer or a liquid fertilizer, because the time released pellets are uncontrolled and you may burn your plants.

you need Mg fast bro...spray it on the leaves directly at a rate of 1tsp/gal water. do it twice weekly and add it to your soil also. 29 grams is way too much. to a 1 gal pot add about a half tsp to the top of the soil and water it in. alternatively you can add a half tsp/dolo lime. that gives you your Ca and your Mg.

I started out with 1 teaspoon mixed with 1 litre of water that I distributed across my plants (that's roughly 1 tablespoon per gallon). I didn't measure it in grams, I just followed instructions here. It says up to 2 tablespoons per gallon. I will do a lighter mixture now with 1/4 teaspoon per litre and spray it on the leaves (i have no idea how much to spray, I guess until they are all covered with it). Which numbers are optimal?

As for fertilizer... I haven't got any, I was planning on using urine mixed with water (done it once so far - forum thread https://www.rollitup.org/organics/17800-using-urine-fertilizer.html), it seems to be working for people. In the past I haven't used any fertilizers at all. I will try to find some water solububle or liquid fertilizers tomorrow. There are not many time release pellets in my current soil. On the package it says "enriched with NPK 15:9:9 & Start 10:52:10 fertilizers". I'd say drainage is fine. It's not packed very tight, when it dried up, it formed canyons. I added more fresh soil to cover it up. Ph is off too (5.5-6 according to the package). I really don't have access to a proper grow shop here so I had to order my soil online and it was the best I could come up with (8x3 litre packs, carrying them home from the post office wasn't easy lol). Anyway... when I planted the seeds I only had 9 litres of soil in that pot so it wasn't very deep. I topped it up afterwards and here I am. All in all I just needed something to grow as quick as possible.

Thank you all. I appreciate your help. Gonna go and mix up that salt spray now.

Spraying is done. Is that too much? Should I turn the lights off while it dries?

High res images: http://i.imgur.com/dieIDLv.jpg http://i.imgur.com/giZ3Jkr.jpg http://i.imgur.com/GAqY9Pt.jpg

i never did. def get that ph up bro...6.8 for soil grows. dolo like from any home improvement store.

How would you mix the dolo in to get ph up? I'm checking an online store (and using google to find a local place that sells dolomite), but I can't find any. It's all for construction, not as a soil additive. I'd do everything "as it should be" if it was easy, but I haven't found any good options for myself so that's why everything is subpar. Plants have grown decently enough and I'm happy if I can produce smokeable buds. In my first grow I used used flower soil + some random compost, lots of issues that mostly went ignored, but i got buds!

Almost all fert have more than enough Mg. The ph is out.

just sprinkle it on top of the soil then scratch it in. amazon has it. try the garden centers near you also.

Thank you dannyboy. Would this do the trick? http://www.amazon.co.uk/Elixir-Dolomite-Dolodust-Magnesium-Limestone/dp/B00CBUDQDA/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1390277919&sr=8-2&keywords=dolomite

That dolomite lime will work. While you are at it you could pick up a cheap balanced fertilizer. I saw a combo fish, blood, bone meal fertilizer for 5 euros on the same site.

Cascadian said:

That dolomite lime will work. While you are at it you could pick up a cheap balanced fertilizer. I saw a combo fish, blood, bone meal fertilizer for 5 euros on the same site.

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I jumped at the opportunity and this is what I got "We're sorry. This item can't be shipped to your selected destination." (for both items). Heading out now to check out my local supermarket, they had some fertilizers last time I checked, I will have tough time finding dolomite though (any alternative ideas?). While my PH will probably remain lower than what would be optimal (at least for the duration of this grow, since I can't buy everything I need and it all takes time [I expect plants to be mature enough for harvest by mid march, they will start flowering soon, already preflowering]), hopefully I can still get enough value out of it. My goal is to grow only 60g every two months for personal needs, I think I can reach that (15g per plant).

Foliar with epsom salt. That way you are not relying on the roots for uptake where the PH will interfere.

Cascadian said:

Foliar with epsom salt. That way you are not relying on the roots for uptake where the PH will interfere.

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That's the plan. I will do it after every couple of days.

Bought 8:3:4 and 4:5:6 fertilizers that I will apply with my watering to feed the plants. 1st week 8:3:4, 2nd week 50% of both, weeks 3-6 with 4:5:6. Sounds reasonable?

Glad you picked up some nutes. I would stick mostly with the 8-3-4 until about a week after you have some good preflowers. But, I have also not grown an autoflower so take my advice with a grain of salt...