Three fingered leaves in coco

[Cereals]

Hello again everyone! I've got a new problem, kind of, I think.....

For those who haven't seen any of my previous threads, or don't remember the details - I'm working with multiple strains in chunky/cubed coco in 2 gal. smart pots. Actually, I am using three different types of coco among all the girls - piece coir from a brick in some, Botanicare coco cubes in others, and now coco "croutons" in the others. I think this may be part of the problem, really.

If any of you caught my earlier threads, I was having troubles with the girls showing signs of Magnesium deficiency, or so I thought. By this, I mean that I was seeing interveinal chlorosis, followed by the yellowing and curling/dying of he leaf, from the leaf tip inwards.

What I *think* I have deduced so far, is that the problem was never a lack of Magnesium in the girls food (I am running H&G Cocos A+B base ONLY in RO water @ ~1 EC0), rather the problem was that I was letting the containers dry out too much, causing the pH of the coco to swing and also locking things out as a result.

The only evidence I have to back this up is that I have now begun experimenting with bottom-feeding in an attempt to get this shit figured out. It seems to be the only way that I can keep my very airy, chunky coco saturated enough to keep the girls satisfied in between waterings. So far, things have been going pretty well. Since I started bottom feeding all of the girls, they have all showed significant new growth and I'm not noticing any purple streaking on the main stalk or petioles of the new growth. This is what I've been looking for, to be honest. I've seen extremely healthy plants before (not mine) where there was ZERO purple streaking on any stalk/petiole of the plant. That is what a super happy plant looks like to me.

Anyway, so now we arrive at the issue at hand!

Out of all this new growth - I am seeing three-fingered leaf sets popping up on several of the girls. I know it is stress-related because it's happening on multiple strains. Their appearance also coincided with two events: 1) the beginning of the bottom-feeding regimen, and 2) after I cut clones from the plants.

One last note on the bottom-feeding... I think I may have overdone it a bit last watering. I left the girls in about 2 inches of water, it took them about 2 whole days to drink all this. Before this I had been putting much less water in each container, about enough to go 1/4 inch above the base of the smart pots - is this too much water for them to be sitting in?

 

[wildgrow]

I don't use coco, but when I bottom feed I add until the medium stops wicking up the feed. If theres still water in the tray after 5-10 minutes, I empty the tray.

 

[RonSmooth]

My C99 have been acting very odd. The plants grown from seeds grew fine as did the cuts from those plants. This 3rd generation is growing mostly single bladed leaves with a few with three blades. One of them is flowering under veg lighting (18-24hrs on).

I settled on blaming the changing lighting intensities. I took cuttings early in flowering (under 600w HPS), then moved them to 220w of PLL's, then I cut that down to 110w, then back up...(trying to deal with heat issues)

Anyway, the plants are growing fine, just with single bladed leaves. The one that is flowering is a single main stem, covered in single bladed and calxyes/stigma.....weird.

I am loving coco so far. While the c99 have thin, weakish stems, the plants I grew from seed have the biggest, strongest stems I have seem. The growth has been explosive and tI have never seen roots so white and healthy.

Not going to keep running the C99 (female seed co). Not necessarily an issue with the breeder, just not comfortable with the growth patterns.

 

[Cereals]

Thanks for the input guys! I think I may have gotten to the root of the three-fingered leaf issue.

I forgot to mention that I also recently flipped the girls to flower - this also coincides with the beginning of the appearance of three-fingered leaf sets.

Anyway, yesterday I decided to look for light leaks in my tent after reading something pertinent somewhere. Sure enough I found 1 fairly large light leak about 1 inch in diameter and another smaller one. Both leaks were on the "ports" of the tent, which I had failed to cinch tight.

Would this be enough to confuse the girls into three-fingered sets?

Of course only time will tell, but I'm hoping I see them get back to normal - new growth is still looking totally green and lush, but my mind would be much more at ease to see normal growth patterns, especially now that flowering has begun.

So I think I have narrowed the cause of the three-fingered leaves down to a few possibilities:

1. Light leaks causing hormonal confusion
2. Stress from being over-watered
3. Stress from being underfed? (Currently feeding @ ~1 EC, Week 1 of flower)

 

[RonSmooth]

what is/was your lighting?

What was the schedule (photoperiod) and light type/watts/intensity?

It is odd to me that the 3 bladed leaves would appear in flowering when the light intensity is usually higher. When I put plants with single bladed leaves (grown under flouros) under 600w HPS, the new leaves had 3. I would bet that newer leaves will begin to show 5 again. Ill have to wait and see.

Were the plants grown from cutting taken from a flowering plant? This causes odd leaf growth but doesnt adversely affect the plant. Again, it should get back to "normal" after a few weeks of veg lighting. I keep cuts from flowering plants under 24/0 for a couple weeks to help them transition back to vegetative growth.

 

[Cereals]

Well I've chalked it up to either the light leaks or stress from being a bit too moist at the bottom for prolonged periods. If it happens again, I will investigate further and try to pinpoint the exact cause.

Most of them are showing 5 fingered sets again now.

 

[watts]

c99 is known to have 3 finger leaves but will also grow some bigger leaves too

 

[wildgrow]

Light intensity has a lot to do with it. I run my clone closet on 18 hours - 3 hours shoplights, 12 mh, 3 shoplights. The low intensity even keeps plants with 9 finger fans at 3.

 

[heatherlonglee]

Sounds like a low light condition to me. I get funny small shaped leaves in my mother clone room. While flowering I put her on low light until needed. Also I get funny fingered leaves when starting my veg plants on 250 watts, until flipping to 400 watts. At 400 watts in my grow room, all small funny fingered leaves disappear, and look as expected for the rest of the life of the plants.