Mobile elements Deficiency Guide i.e. N, P, K, Mg

[dHetep]

Mobile Elements

Mobile Elements are mostly going to affect the older leaves first then work its way to other leaves and then the nutrients will be taken from old leaves to newer growths.

Nitrogen (N) Mobile Element and Macro Element Benefit: Nitrogen plays a very big role in your plants; this one element is directly responsible for production of chlorophyll, photosynthesis, Amino Acids, which are the building block of Proteins. The myriad of enzymes which help the plants growth in leaves stems and the how well the vigor of your plants is. Nitrogen is the biggest mobile element meaning it can travel anywhere on the plant. Usually the def will start on the lower to middle part of the plant, and then will usually happen to older leaves first. Then the deficiency will work its way up the plant. Your plant can be green on top, then yellowing on the lower leaves when the deficiency is starting out. Yield will be greatly reduced without good amounts of nitrogen in your plants. Sometimes in bad cases the leaves will turn a purplish color along with the yellowing. Unlike a magnesium deficiency, nitrogen def will start from the tips and work its way back to the leaf node. Nitrogen and Magnesium get confused. The best way to tell them apart is, nitrogen deficiency starts around the tips and works its way to the back of the leaves, where a magnesium deficiency will cover the entire outer part of the leave and make the entire leaves yellow leaving the veins to stay green. If your plants are having a slow growth rate and have yellowing of the leaves, then most likely it’s a nitrogen deficiency. Towards the middle to end of flowering stages, the plant will show a nitrogen deficiency almost always. This process is completely normal and just let the plant naturally yellow out as it uses it's stored nutrients. This actually helps you by getting ready for final flushing and then harvesting. At this point DO NOT not use nitrogen to fix the problem. The yellowing leaves will then eventually drop off after the plant is done with them. Parts affected by a nitrogen deficiency are: Older foliage, going to whole plant, Petioles (rare) cases.

Veg Def



Flwr Def


If you have too much nitrogen in your growing mediums or soil the plant will have like an overall DARK green look and have delayed maturity. Due to Nitrogen being involved in vegetative growth, to much nitrogen will result in tall plants with weak stems. New growth will be very lively and plant transpiration will be high, but not always. Nitrogen toxicity can be seen when there are very dry conditions almost as if there was a drought, which may show a burning effect. If you give your plants ammonium based nutrients they may show NH4+ toxicity, which will show a smaller plant growth and lesions that occur on stems and roots, leaf margins that will roll downward. Also the big fan leaves will have “the claw” look. The tips will point down but the leaves will stay up as if when you bend your fingers downwards. Leaves can be twisted when growing… mainly new growths. Roots will be under developed along with the slowing of flowering. Yields will be decreased, because to much nitrogen in early stages of flowering slows down bud growth. Water uptake is slowing down from the vascular breakdown of the plants as well. Too much potassium and nitrogen will lock out calcium as well.



Problems with Nitrogen being locked out by PH troubles

Water logged soil and Soil with low organic matter. Nitrogen is a very important element in the plant, all of them are but some are more important than others. For soil the best pH to have is 6.8. Why? Because at 6.8, that’s the best number for ALL available nutrients to be absorbed into the plant without any of them being locked out. For hydro and soil less mediums best pH to have is around 5.8. Try not to keep your plants to cold, because the cold temps will cause the nitrogen harder for the plant to be absorbed. PH levels for Nitrogen:

Soil levels Nitrogen gets locked out of soil growing at pH levels of 4.0- 5.5. Nitrogen is absorbed best in soil at a pH level of 6.0-8.0. (I wouldn’t recommend having a pH of over 7.0 in soil) best range to have nitrogen is a pH of 6-7. Anything out of that range will contribute to a nitrogen def.

Hydro and Soil less Mediums Nitrogen gets locked out of Hydro, Soil less mediums at the levels of 4.5-5.0. Nitrogen has the best absorption rate at a pH of 5.5 to 8.0 (I wouldn’t recommend having a pH over 6.5 in hydro and soil less mediums.) Best range to have Nitrogen is: 5.0-7.0. Anything out of that range will contribute to a nitrogen def.

Solution for Fixing a Nitrogen Deficiency Avoid excessive ammonium nitrogen, which can interfere with other nutrients. Too much N delays flowering. Plants should be allowed to become N-deficient late in flowering for best flavor. A goof solid N-P-K ratio will fix any nitrogen deficiency. Any chemical or organic fertilizers that have Nitrogen in them will fix a nitrogen deficiency., Peters all purpose plant food 20-20-20 is good, Miracle grow All purpose plant food, Miracle grow Tomato plant food, (Only mixing at ½ strength when using chemical nutrients, or it will cause nutrient burn!) as well and blood meal! If you need to give your plants a quick solution to nitrogen and you want to use blood meal, I suggest making it into a tea for faster use, where blood meal is slow acting, but when made into a tea it works quicker! Other sources of nitrogen are dried blood, Cotton seed meal which is slow acting, Insect eating bat guano which is fast acting. Bone meal which is a gradual absorption when not made into a tea.( also excellent source of phosphorus). Fish Meal or Fish Emulsion is a good source of nitrogen and is medium acting. Worm castings, which is gradual absorption. Seabird guano, All purpose Millennia Seabird guano, Orginal Seabird guano All Purpose, Crabshell ,which is slow absorption. Fox Farm Grow Big, which is fast acting. (can bring down your pH as well) Here are a list of things that help fix a Nitrogen Deficiency:

Chemical Nutrients Advanced nutrients Grow (2-1-6) Vita Grow (4-0-0), BC Grow(1.2-3.2-6.5) GH Flora Grow (2-1-6) GH Maxi grow (10-5-14) GH floraNova grow (7-4-10), Dyna gro Grow (7-9-5)

Organic Nutrients Dr. Hornby's Iguana Juice Grow (3-1-3) Advanced Nutrients Mother Earth Grow (1.5-.75-1.5) Earthjuice Grow (2-1-1), Pure Blend Pro (3-1.5-4) Bone Meal(0-10-0) Blood Meal(12-0-0) Fish Emulsion (5-1-1) Seabird Guano (11-13-3) Crab Shells(2.5-3.0-.5) Pure Blend Grow (0.4-.01-.5) Marine Cuisine (10-7-7) MaxiCrop Seaweed (1-0-3) Super Tea (5-5-1) Mexican Bat Guano (10-2-0) Sea Island Jamaican Bat Guano (1-10-0) Kelp Meal (1-0-2) Seaweed Plus Iron Neptune's Harvest (2-4-0.5) Alaska Start-Up(2-1-2) Bio-Grow (1.8-0.1-6.6) Age old Grow (12-6-6) AGE Old Kelp (.30-.25-.15) Neptune's Harvest (2-4-1) Maxicrop Seweed(.1-0-1) METANATURALS Organic grow (3-3-3) METANATURALS Organic nitrogen (16-0-0)

So adding anyone of these above should fix up your nitrogen deficiency! Nitrogen deficient plants usually recover in about a week, affected leaves will not recover. Now if you added to much chemical nutrients and or organics, (which is hard to burn your plants when using organics) you need to flush the soil with plain water. You need to use 2 times as much water as the size of the pot, for example: If you have a 5 gallon pot and need to flush it, you need to use 10 gallons of water to rinse out the soil good enough to get rid of excessive nutrients. Soluble nitrogen (especially nitrate) is the form that's the most quickly available to the roots, while insoluble N (like urea) first needs to be broken down by microbes in the soil before the roots can absorb it.

Note: Blood Meal, Dried Blood, Guanos, Kelp Meal, Cotton Seed Meal, Peat Moss, Sulfur and fish meal are all acidic and can bring your pH down, so if you add these please monitor your pH when using those. Note: Bone Meal, Rock Phosphate, Wood Ashes pretty much all ashes, Shellfish Compost and Crab Meal are all alkaline and can make your pH go up, so if you add any of these please monitor your pH.

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Phosphorus (P) Mobile Element and Macro Element Benefit: Phosphorus does a lot of things for the plant. One of the most important parts of Phosphorus is: It aids in root growth and influences the vigor of the plant and is one of the most important elements in flowering as well helps to germinate seedlings.

Phosphorus is an essential plant nutrient, and since it is needed in large amounts, it is classified as a macronutrient. Phosphorus is a MAJOR important nutrient in the plants reproductive stages. Without this element the plants will have a lot of problems blooming without proper levels of Phosphorus. When your plants are deficient in phosphorus, this can overall reduce the size of your plants. Not enough causes slow growth and causes the plant to become weak, to little amount of Phosphorus causes slow growths in leaves that may or may not drop off. The edges all around the leaves or half of the leaves can be brownish and work its way inwards a bit causing the part of the leaves to curl up in the air a bit. Fan leaves will show dark greenish/purplish and yellowish tones along with a dullish blue color to them. Sometimes the stems can be red, along with red petioles that can happen when having a Phosphorus deficiency. This isn’t a sure sign of you having one though, but can be a sign. Some strains just show the red petioles and stems from its genes.

So pretty much the overall dark green color with a purple, red, or blue tint to the fan leaves is a good sign of a Phosphorus deficiency. Having Cold weather (below 50F/10C) can make phosphorous absorption very troublesome for plants. Many people get a Phosphorus deficiency confused with a fungus problem because the ends of the leaves look like a fungus problem, but the damage occurs at the end of the leaves. The side of the leaves has a glass like feeling to it as if it had a pH problem. Parts affected by a phosphorus deficiency are: Older Leaves, Whole plant, Petioles. Too much Phosphorus levels affect plant growth by suppressing the uptake of: Iron, potassium and Zinc, potentially causing deficiency symptoms of these nutrients to occur def in plants. A Zinc deficiency is most common under excessive phosphorus conditions, as well as causing other nutrients to have absorption troubles like zinc and copper.

Phosphorus fluctuates when concentrated and combined with calcium

Picture 1 is a Phosphorus deficiency during vegetative growth.



Picture 2 is what a phosphorus deficiency looks like in flowering.

Problems with Phosphorus being locked out by PH troubles
Cold wet soils, acid or very alkaline soils, compacted soil.

Soil Phosphorus gets locked out of soil growing at pH levels of 4.0-5.5 Phosphorus is absorbed best in soil at a pH level of 6.0-7.5 (wouldn’t recommend having a pH of over 7.0 in soil) Anything out of the ranges listed will contribute to a Phosphorus deficiency.

Hydro and Soil less Mediums Phosphorus gets locked out of Hydro and Soil less Mediums at pH levels of 6.0-8.5. Phosphorus is absorbed best in Hydro and Soil less Mediums at pH levels of 4.0- 5.8. (I wouldn’t recommend having a pH over 6.5 in hydro and soil less mediums.) Best range for hydro and soil less mediums is 5.0 to 6.0. Anything out of the ranges listed will contribute to a Phosphorus Deficiency.

Solution for Fixing a Phosphorus Deficiency

Some deficiency during flowering is normal, but too much shouldn't be tolerated. Any chemical or organic fertilizers that have Phosphorus in them will fix a Phosphorus deficiency. If you have a phosphorus deficiency you should use any N-P-K ratio that is over 5. Again Peters all purpose 20-20-20 is a good mix. Miracle grow Tomato plant food, Miracle grow All purpose plant food (Only mixing at ½ strength when using chemical nutrients, or it will cause nutrient burn!) Other forms of phosphorus supplements are: Bone meal, which is gradual absorption, I suggest making it into a tea for faster use, where bone/blood meal is slow acting, but when made into a tea it works quicker! Fruit eating bat guano, which is fast absorption, Worm castings, which is gradual absorption, Fish meal, which is medium absorption, Soft Rock Phosphate, which is medium absorption, Jamaican or Indonesian Guano, which is fast absorption, Crabshell, which is slow absorption. Tiger Bloom, which is fast absorption. Here is a list of things to help fix a Phosphorus Deficiency.

Chemical Advanced nutrients Bloom (0-5-4) Vita Bloom (0-7-5) BC Bloom (1.1-4.4-7) GH Flora Bloom (0-5-4) GH Maxi Bloom (5-15-14) GH Floranova Bloom (4-8-7) Dyna-Gro Bloom (3-12-6) Fox Farm Tiger Bloom (2-8-4) Awsome Blossums

Organic Dr. Hornby's Iguana Juice Bloom (4-3-6) Advanced Nutrients Mother Earth Bloom (.5-1.5-2) Fox Farm Big Bloom (.01-.3-.7) Earth Juice Bloom (0-3-1) Pure Blend Bloom (2.5-2-5) Pure Blend Pro Bloom (2.5-2-5) Buddswell (0-7-0) Sea Island Jamaican Bat Guano (1-10-0) Indonesian Bat Guano (0-13-0) Rainbow Mix Bloom (1-9-2) Earth Juice Bloom (0-3-1) BIO BLOOM (2-6-3.5) AGE OLD BLOOM (5-10-5) ALASKA MORBLOOM (0-10-10) METANATURALS ORGANIC BLOOM (1-5-5)

Any of these will cure your phosphorus deficiency. Affected leaves will not show recovery but new growth will appear normal. Now if you added to much chemical ferts and or organics, (which is hard to burn your plants when using organics) you need to flush the soil with plain water. You need to use two times as much water as the size of the pot, for example: If you

have a 5 gallon pot and need to flush it, you need to use 10 gallons of water to rinse out the soil good enough to get rid of excessive nutrients.

Note: Blood Meal, Dried Blood, Guanos, Kelp Meal, Cotton Seed Meal, Peat Moss, Sulfur and fish meal are all acidic and can bring your pH down, so if you add these please monitor your pH when using those. Note: Bone Meal, Rock Phosphate, Wood Ashes pretty much all ashes, Shellfish Compost and Crab Meal are all alkaline and can make your pH go up, so if you add any of these please monitor your pH.

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Potassium (K) Mobile Element and Macro Element Potassium plays a big role as well. Having good amounts of potassium in your plants helps in having sturdy and thick stems, disease-resistance, water respiration, as well aids in photosynthesis. Potassium is also found in the whole plant. It is necessary for all activities having to do with water transportation. Potassium is necessary for all stages of growth, especially important in the development of Buds. Having to little of Potassium in your plants causes the plants leaves to show retarded growth and show a scorched tip and edges around the leaves. Plants may stretch and your branches can be easily broken or weak. Don’t get this deficiency confused with iron, because it almost acts like iron but to tell the difference in the two is: for potassium the tips of the leaves curl and the edges burn and die. Older leaves may show a red color and leaves could curl upwards. Dead patches (Necrosis) can happen on the margins of larger fan leaves thus, the leaves will eventually die off and turn brown. The Older leaves will show different patches of color (mottle) and turn yellow between the veins, following by whole leaves that turn dark yellow and die. The plants overall growth slows down, mostly when they are in vegetative stage. To little amount of potassium also slows the growth of buds during flowering stages. Dark edges will appear around the edges of the leaf when the deficiency is starting to happen. When your Relative humidity is low, you can almost bet your going to soon get a potassium deficiency from your plants perspiration.

Potassium can get poorly absorbed when having too much Calcium or ammonium nitrogen, and maybe cold weather. Having to much sodium (Na) causes potassium to be displaced. SO keep those in mind… Parts affected by a Potassium Deficiency are: older leaves and leaf margins. When you have too much Potassium in your soil, it can lead to big troubles, like salt damage and acid fixation of the root system, as well as too much potassium can cause a calcium deficiency. Your fan leaves will show like a light to a dark yellow to whitish color in between the veins. Due to a molecular imbalance, potassium toxicity can cause a reduced uptake and lead to the deficiencies of Mg, and in some cases, Ca. Also leads to the other nutrients to not be absorbed properly leading to lots of other deficiency such as: magnesium, manganese, zinc and iron and can cause problems with calcium as well.





Problems with Potassium being locked out by PH troubles Soils with excessive Leeching and High pH soils and or water.Soils that are potassium fixated. An excess of kitchen salts (sodium) in the root system/enviroment.

Soil Potassium gets locked out of soil growing at pH levels of 4.0-5.5 Potassium is absorbed best in soil at a pH level of 6.0-9.5. (I wouldn’t recommend having a pH of over 7.0 in soil) anything out of the ranges listed will contribute to a Potassium deficiency.

Hydro and Soil less Mediums Potassium gets locked out of Hydro and Soil less Mediums at pH levels of 4.0-4.5, 6.0-6.5. Potassium is absorbed best in Hydro and Soil less Mediums at pH levels of 4.7-5.3, 6.7-8.5. (I wouldn’t recommend having a pH over 6.5 in hydro and soil less mediums.) Best range for hydro and soil less mediums is 5.0 to 6.0. Anything out of the ranges listed will contribute to a potassium deficiency.

Solution for Fixing a Potassium Deficiency Any Chemical/Organic nutrients that have potassium in them will fix a potassium deficiency. Again Peters All Purpose plant food 20-20-20, will cure the potassium deficiency, Miracle grow Tomato plant food, Miracle grow All purpose plant food. (Only mixing at ½ strength when using chemical nutrients or it will cause nutrient burn!) Some other supplements of potassium are: Wood ashes, which are fast absorption, Kelp Meal, which is medium absorption, Greensand, which is slow absorption, granite dust, which is slow absorption. Sulfate of Potash, Sulfate of Potash Magnesia, Muriate of Potash, which are medium absorption. FOXFARM GROW BIG HYDROPONIC CONCENTRATE, which is fast absorption. (FFGB can bring your pH down as well) Earth Juice Meta-K, which is fast acting. (Can bring down your pH as well) Leaves will never recover, but the plant will show recovery after about 4 to 5 days when using a fast acting nutrient.

Note: Wood Ashes, can make your pH go up a bit, so please monitor your pH when using it.

Now if you added to much chemical nutrients and or organics, (which is hard to burn your plants when using organics) you need to flush the soil with plain water. You need to use 2 times as much water as the size of the pot, for example: If you have a 5 gallon pot and need to flush it, you need to use 10 gallons of water to rinse out the soil good enough to get rid of excessive nutrients.

Magnesium (Mg) - Micronutrient and Mobile Element Magnesium helps supports healthy veins while keeping a healthy leaf production and its structure. Magnesium is significant for chlorophyll-production and enzyme break downs. Magnesium which must be present in relatively large quantities for the plant to survive, but yet not too much to where it will cause the plant to show toxicity. Magnesium is one of the easiest deficiencies to tell. The green veins along with the yellowness of the entire surrounding leave is a dead giveaway, but sometimes that’s not always the case here. In case you have one of those where it doesn’t show the green veins, sometimes leaf tips and edges may discolor and curl upward. The growing tips can turn lime green when the deficiency progresses to the top of the plant. The edges will feel like dry and crispy and usually affects the lower leaves in younger plants, then will affect the middle to upper half when it gets older, but it can also happen on older leaves as well. The deficiency will start at the tip then will take over the entire outer left and right sides of the leaves. The inner part will be yellow and or brownish in color, followed by leaves falling without withering. The tips can also twist and turn as well as curving upwards as if you curl your tongues.

Excessive levels of magnesium in your plants will exhibit a buildup of toxic salts that will kill the leaves and lock out other nutrients like Calcium (Ca). Mg can get locked out by having too much Calcium, Chlorine or ammonium in your soil/water. One of the worst problems a person can have is a magnesium def caused by a pH lockout. By giving it more magnesium to cure the problem when you are thinking you are doing good, but actually you are doing more harm then good. When the plants can’t take in a nutrient because of the pH being off for that element, the plant will not absorb it but it will be in the soil therefore causing a buildup. A buildup will be noticed by the outer parts of the plant becoming whitish and or a yellowish color. The tips and part way in on the inner leaves will die and feel like glass. Parts affected by Magnesium deficiency are: space between the veins (Interveinal) of older leaves; may begin around interior perimeter of leaf.



Problems with Magnesium being locked out by PH troubles Light Acid Soils, soils with excessive potassium, calcium and or phosphorus

Soil Magnesium gets locked out of soil growing at pH levels of 2.0-6.4 Magnesium is absorbed best in soil at a pH level of 6.5-9.1 . (I wouldn’t recommend having a pH of over 7.0 in soil) anything out of the ranges listed will contribute to a Magnesium deficiency.

Hydro and Soil less Mediums Magnesium gets locked out of Hydro and Soil less Mediums at pH levels of 2.0-5.7. Magnesium is absorbed best in Hydro and Soil less Mediums at pH levels of 5.8-9.1

(I wouldn’t recommend having a pH over 6.5 in hydro and soil less mediums.) Best range for hydro and soil less mediums is 5.0 to 6.0. Anything out of the ranges listed will contribute to a Magnesium deficiency.

Solution for Fixing a Magnesium Deficiency

Any Chemical/Organic nutrients that have Magnesium in them will fix a Magnesium deficiency. (Only mixing at ½ strength when using chemical nutrients or it will cause nutrient burn!)

Other nutrients that have magnesium in them are: Epsom salts, which is fast absorption. Dolomite lime and or garden lime (same thing just called different) which is slow absorption. Sulfate of Potash, Magnesia which is medium absorption. Worm Castings, which is slow absorption. Crabshell which is slow absorption. Earth Juice Mircoblast, which is fast acting. (a must buy!! Has lots of 2ndary nutrients).

Now if you added to much chemical nutrients and or organics, (which is hard to burn your plants when using organics) You need to Flush the soil with plain water. You need to use 2 times as much water as the size of the pot, for example: If you have a 5 gallon pot and need to flush it, you need to use 10 gallons of water to rinse out the soil good enough to get rid of excessive nutrients. Picture one shows a mid grade magnesium deficiency.

Information provided from;
Marijuana Garden Saver:
The Complete guide to Sick Plants, pH, and Pest troubles!


Please feel free to add more pics and info.

[Romeu9]

Excelent! thanks dHetep!

[Mykol76]

nice info tnx.

[Nutes]

thanks alot for that info mate, read it all from start to finish

helps me alot in hydro for the various stages of growth to the best ph's for best uptake of that nutrient

many respects

peace

[lamsbread]

Nice reference matirial,very useful info, with some nice pictures too.

Thanks for sharing:)

Peace

Lams

[mopman]

Nice Guide

[Dust]

Nice article always good to remind those things to growers