2 weeks into flowering, spotting on cola fans

[softyellowlight]

Not noticing any difference, yet, but I pulled off any leaves that were almost entirely spotted, curled and crunchy so I should know if more that are already spotty get even worse...

 

[oldog]

It looks like you only have one or two last feeds left before reaping. Stop 2 weeks before expected reap date. I agree with the suggestions of Magnessium/Manganese difficiency. Give them a couple of good feedings with heavy micro ingredients plus fair amount of NPK. pH is not usually a major problem in soil. Yellowing of big fan leaves is normal towards the end. You want the plant to use up all the nutrients before you reap it. Heavy feeding next week or two and then only water till the end.

 

[softyellowlight]

Thank you for the input!! I've got the next few waterings mixed up with CaMg+, kelp extract and molasses, then I'll feed again this weekend, and then I'm thinking:
1) after that feeding, cut off CaMg+
2) use the Diamond Nectar (Humic) when feeding again
3) cut off kelp and use molasses and Humic every watering
4) cut off molasses and use only Humic
5) cut off Humic and use only water

My theory being that using the Humic acid in such a way will help leech the soil without having to flush it thoroughly. I'm probably overthinking it all! Cheers.

 

[softyellowlight]

I think things are on the upswing now. Spots aren't going away of course but the rapid spreading of spots seemed to halt.

 

[kstampy]

I think things are on the upswing now. Spots aren't going away of course but the rapid spreading of spots seemed to halt.

Great work man, remember those spots are like scars they wont go away but don't fret they are fine being there if you stopped the spreading. Remember results take at least a few days to start showing up so don't over do it!

 

[MacGyver420]

when is the last time you calibrated your ph meter?

it could be your tap water....

it could be that your ph took a swing for a few days in the wrong direction....

try to give the plants a slight flush for few days to a week then continue back on your normal nutrient schedual thats what i would do

good luck!

 

[softyellowlight]

I have one of those 3-in-1 light/pH/moisture meters -- I suppose you can't calibrate them but do you know if they're known to be inaccurate?

Put up the wall fan I have today so I can stop fucking around with trying to push air in with standing floor fans, and rearranged all the plants. Here's how she looks now. I put the door on and I'm waiting to see how warm it gets with the HPS turned back on with this new fan... You can see they're really not that yellow.

 

[VIKINGtrich]

It will spread and kill all fan leaves, and then will start spreading to the sugar leaves, and will dry them out too... IMO, It's a salt build-up, causing a lock-out... Your tap water my have too much shit in it, If it is high is TDS, then try cutting it in half with rain water or distilled or R/O...Also, try feed, water, water, feed..... It's works great!

Hope you get this under control, I would start with your water, then go from there.

 

[softyellowlight]

How do you distinguish a salt build-up from another kind of nutrient lock-out symptomatically? I would be up for trying a soil flush if things don't seem to have turned around soon but I think I've been running these girls low on Ca or Mg for the entire time they've been established clones.

edit: and the light timer got bumped, apparently, because I woke up to bright HPS light when it should have been hour ten of dark... oh well, probably got it turned off within only a few minutes.

 

[medicineman421]

Well to me it looks like a Mg or Ca def i am dealing w the same issue not having checked my pH in the beginning of my grow i have used epsom salt to no avail maybe one of you can diagnose for me

 

[softyellowlight]

medicineman421 wish I had enough experience to help, need a few more grows under my belt before I get to see /all/ the symptoms of fuckups ... lol.

Anyway my ladies are seemingly a bit happier but the spotting has started to move to sugars unfortunately. For the next few days I'm going to try to leech the soil a bit and see what happens, and continue with molasses, Diamond Nectar and CaMg+.


Fortunately the budding continues rapidly. I am pretty happy to be at this level of progress at the beginning of week 4! I think cloning from flower is pretty awesome now that I've seen pistils explode out immediately when you switch to 12/12.

edit: Oh, and I double-checked some standing tap water with my Tetratest aquarium test kits (vials and droppers) against the pH the 3-in-1 reads and I get the 3-in-1 saying it is a bit lower than it really is. I will start pHing my water a bit lower still because I think I've been giving 7.0pH most likely.

 

[TheGreenViking]

Just read this thread and was amazed people werent yelling salt buildup from the beginning. FFOF is pretty darn hot already and you were feeding her good. Also, since it's winter has your humidity gone low? That will cause the plants to take more water then nutes out of the soil and thus lead to eventual salt buildup and deficiencies.

 

[softyellowlight]

Yeah, definitely low-humidity Winter in my part of the world, for sure! I also made my mix with more perlite than I think I should have so that helps it dry out a bit too fast. Today I took the trays the plants are in and rinsed em out so that they won't be sitting in puddles of salt build-up if I start leeching them, and I can try watering 'til there's actual run-off every time it's dry. Or should I not really expect to be able to improve their condition if they're suffering from salt build-up mid-way into flowering?

Ah well, good experience gained this grow nonetheless...

 

[emilyC]

flush your medium and water in some full strength complete plant food.
you have a nutrient imbalance by the looks.

 

[TheGreenViking]

Yeah, definitely low-humidity Winter in my part of the world, for sure! I also made my mix with more perlite than I think I should have so that helps it dry out a bit too fast. Today I took the trays the plants are in and rinsed em out so that they won't be sitting in puddles of salt build-up if I start leeching them, and I can try watering 'til there's actual run-off every time it's dry. Or should I not really expect to be able to improve their condition if they're suffering from salt build-up mid-way into flowering?

Ah well, good experience gained this grow nonetheless...

I'm going through the same thing you are so I certainly don't have the answers. I've gone through it once before though so I know a little. Last time I flushed with 3x water. Then I placed my pots on top of hydroton balls in the pot's saucer. That way they're a) elevated off cold floor and b) not directly in stagnant water after a watering. Then I make sure to water to runoff to help eliminate all those salts. I've had runoff ppm's of 2000 before. I take a turkey baster and collect as much water as plausible, and that helps quite a bit. I've also switched to coco, getting tired of soil and it's games. I've also installed a small sonic humidifier that keeps the flowering tent at a 45-50% humidity. They're looking a lot better and I think I can salvage a decent harvest.

 

[softyellowlight]

I truly wish I could try to flush them but they're 5-gallon buckets and I don't have any kind of set-up for attempting that. I can make sure that I'm watering for extra run-off every time I feed and water from now on, though, and I will not be doing soil-in-bucket-on-plate next time -- either I'm going to make sure that bottom layer is something like expanded clay so the run-off doesn't go back into the soil or I'll have them all on something they can freely run-off into.

 

[Scrappy4]

Can you put them in a sink for flushing? a bath tub, or over a larger bucket with boards holding your bucket up?

Anyway truthfully I did not read every post but to me it looks like ph lockout due to low ph. Probably caused from feeding with low ph nutes at a higher rate than they could use, and the subsequent building up in your soil. I say that becuase i have been there. If that was the case a dolomite lime flush would have worked, either way a good flush is in order. good luck.......scrappy

 

[softyellowlight]

I'll test the runoff pH next time I do a huge watering and see what I get, but I'm still leaning toward thinking it is Calcium deficiency from the "holes" that developed in the leaves when the plants were still in vegetative growth -- the "early Calcium deficiency" and "late Calcium deficiency" pictures in Stitch's guide match up with both. They still have 80-90% of the original fan leaves looking fine, happily.

 

[zen_trikester]

K is for Kelp yo! Looks like a potassium def to me. I would do as your doing with the kelp and cal/mg. Foliar feed the mg with calmag or epsom salts and you will find out fast if that is it. FME an mg def turns around fast with a foliar feeding. Don't overdue anything though. You don't have to make up for lost nutes, just give it what it needs now. Overall you were probably underfeeding.

 

[softyellowlight]

Leaf death rate has gone up all I can think to do is try feeding a lot this next time to get the level of macronutrients up, because two weeks of Calcium and Magnesium supplementing has not seemed to have changed anything.

edit: Could I merely have bad genetics growing? I wanted to grow the same thing out as the first time in order to learn how to clone and to see if I could grow it better the second time, but maybe that was a mistake....