Yo, what’s good growers? It’s your boy Dan, here to talk about one of the biggest problems for you and your plants: magnesium deficiency. Ain’t nobody want their weed to be stunted, so listen up and take some notes from my practical advice on how to avoid and overcome this issue.
So let’s start with the basics. Magnesium deficiency happens when there’s a bottom to top nutrient imbalance in your cannabis plant. You’ll notice the lower growth looking hella unhealthy, with the oldest and lowest leaves turning yellow and crunchy brown. And if you don’t fix it quick, that deficiency is gonna spread like wildfire up the plant, turning shoots purple and making leaf chlorosis accelerate.
But hold up, before you go rushing to increase your nutrient doses, let me tell you that’s not the move. In fact, it’ll likely lead to nutrient lockout. The first step is to identify the problem correctly – yellow leaves and brown spots starting from the bottom are a red flag for magnesium deficiency. And micronutrient deficiencies always start in the root zone, so that’s where you gotta tackle it.
Now let’s talk about who’s most at risk for magnesium deficiency. If you’re using coco coir as a growing medium, you might have some trouble with micronutrient uptake, including magnesium. Same goes for hydroponic growers who let their pH slip to 5.0 or below – that low pH is a recipe for micronutrient lockout. And even indoor soil growers can face this issue if they over-water their soil or use lightly fertilised soil without enough trace elements.
So how do you treat magnesium deficiency? First off, flush out your substrate with 6.0pH water. Then prepare a feed with the optimal pH for your growing medium (soil: 6.0-6.5, coco: 6.0 and hydro: 5.5-6.0) and add a high-quality cannabis-specific magnesium supplement to your usual nutes brew.
If you’re looking for a long-term solution, consider upgrading your nutrients instead of just adding a supplement. Specific nutrient lines customised to soil, coco or hydro grow styles make life a whole lot easier, trust me.
And if you’re trying to avoid magnesium deficiency altogether, here are some tips for you. Soil growers should pot up from smaller containers filled with lightly fertilised soil to larger containers with a time-released fertiliser/soil mix. After a few weeks of vegetative growth, those roots will be hungry for nutes and more fertile soil will save you money on bottles of liquid alternatives. And investing in a high-quality growing medium and cannabis-specific nutrients is really the best way to avoid any troubleshooting later during your grow.
Now I gotta address something that some of y’all might be thinking – what about Epsom salts? To be real with y’all, recommending them would be cannabis quack-doctoring. Let’s just say it kinda works to treat a magnesium deficiency…roughly as well as a 19th-century barber performing surgery.
So there you have it, folks. My practical advice on how to avoid and overcome magnesium deficiency in your cannabis plants. Keep these tips in mind and remember, don’t panic if you notice some yellowing – just stay calm and follow these steps to get your plants back on track. Peace out!
