Hello all, and I thank you in advance for any help you can give me. I am not sure of the problem I am having because I have not encountered it before. I was looking for advice and I don't want to leave any information out, so please forgive me if this post is sort of long. First of all, the basics: I am growing outdoors in Northern California, just a small crop of 8 plants. 7 of them are Girl Scout Cookies and 1 is Romulan. I have dirt around each plant which when filled is 2 gallons of water. I fill them 2 times a day, and flood the surrounding dirt once a day. I am using an amended soil with added perlite. I am trying out a new bloom regiment this year and feed them once a week, which is: Advanced Nutrients Bloom, Bud Candy, Rock Resinator, and Superthrive. Throughout vegetation I used Great White Mycorrizae and a Humic Acid/Fulvic Acid granular mix to create a healthy root zone. I will soon start using some molassas and I began their first two weeks of flower with Mother Of All Blooms, and will use it again at the end. It may seem like a lot but I make sure not to burn them. I flushed the soil before switching to bloom nutrients as well. That is as much information as I could think of, but please let me know if you need to know anything else. Okay, now to the problems. The first two images are my plants, just so you can get an idea of their general health. Pretty good I think. The next two pictures are of some problems I am having and think I've solved. I think I've traced it to an acidic soil PH, and have begun PH-ing everything to spec, which has appeared to do wonders. Leaves do not appear to be getting worse. I'm pretty sure those messed up leaves were many types of essentials being locked out. Could I be wrong? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. It may be important to note that the majority of leaves remained healthy, but I don't like to let things like this go. But assuming that problem is solved, I will get to the real reason I am here:The final picture is of the main stalk of my Romulan plant. It turned a dark purple, and I can't find information about this anywhere. I squeezed on it and everything but it does not feel mushy. That plant is flowering at a decent pace but has yet to produce any trichomes to speak of. The Girl Scout Cookies are all covered in trichomes. I am not sure if this is related to what is going on with the stalk, but I really need some help. I've put too much effort into these plants and I searched for two years to get a Romulan clone again. I would hate to be disappointed. Please let me know if any of you have had experience with this problem. Once again, thank you and I look forward to hearing from you. Hopefully this thread can help others too who can't find information about this. Btw... sorry if this doesn't look okay, I posted it with my phone.
When your ph falls below 6.5 plants can begin to fade in nutrient uptake of Mg and Ca, which appears what your plants are expressing from the pics, but now also appear to be in need of a dose of N. Forget the purple issue, probably okay. Nice plants btw.
That yellowing and spotting is phosphorus and potassium related. Not N. Ignore the purple stem. It usually means mild stress, or is a precursor to phosphorus def. Continue as normal, and monitor P and K levels in your feed. Your babes look great btw.
Mg and Ca begin to be locked out in nutrient uptake at about 6.4 of ph, so if P and K are your issue, then they only slip in uptake when ph falls to around 5.9 and is not locked out until further falling to around 5.5 and lower. I respectively disagree with the above assessment.
Maybe i misread, but the op did state the pics were from a plant with acidic soil. So i would infer that as 5.5-6.0. That would cause PK def along with others. The yellowed leaf with random spotting is pretty much the classic pic for K def. Lemme find a pic http://www.marijuanapassion.com/forum/showthread.php?t=54233 First reference i could find. Calcium def will manifest itself in rusty brown spots, not brown blackish ones. Too much Ca, on the other hand, can also cause this.
http://boards.cannabis.com/attachments/plant-problems/281235d1325194867-brown-spots-some-twisted-leaves-some-tips-curled-down-phchart.jpg
Don't worry about a thing. Even the healthiest outdoor plants are shedding some leaves and yellowing a bit right now. And Romulan is known for having purple stems. I've never worried about PH outdoors. Leave that to the indoor growers....
Yep, I've still got several heavy yielders to harvest same as the op, displaying same symptoms year after year.
mjmama25, is quite right ...always a good thing in Norcal to read up on mold and Botrytis, as 'we' get huge fog banks rolling in from the Pacific North West now and later in the year. to my blog: http://forum.grasscity.com/blog/1093/entry-9670-botrytis-cinerea-or-grey-mold-bud-rot/ As little as a year ago I would have advised on providing a 'cure' for your immobile (K) the red is actually anthocyanin or standard plant coloring emphasized by the cooler temp. during the early morn and late evening, many growers found this popular years ago and is now standard for a lot of canna strains, many outdoor growers use it as a form of camouflage, as it conceals many of the lighter shades of green, and conceals easily in shadows. I do not advise on the use of Molasses, but urge you to consider going 100% organic on your grows Good Luck "V"