I'm in week 2 of flowering my autoflowers. Four are in a tent with HPS and are doing decently well, but have yellow/brown spots on a lot of the fan leaves. I took off the ones more than 50% dead/damaged. The bud production is still doing well, but they aren't growing any taller. They just had to do without 30~ hours of light/air/etc. during a power outage and were moved during week 2 of vegetative from a humid and hot upstairs to a cooler basement (maintained at 72 in the tent, down to high 60's at night). I have used fox farms soil and fed them 1/4 strength nutes from fox farms as well. I can't tell if I am over or underfeeding them. This IS my first grow on my own so I'm still learning (did one prior with my caregiver, non-autos). The tips of the leaves are all still green, so I feel I am underfeeding them. But I keep hearing autos are very picky on nutes, change in light pattern, overwatering, etc. Next grow I am going back to normal fem seeds since I had no problems there. Anyway, same everything for my other 2 plants in my second tent. Only difference is they are under a Advanced LED Lights Diamond Series XML 350 light. They have been moved a little more since they went from the HPS to this LED tent about 3 days into flowering. They have a few more spots on the leaves, but these were also my two worst plants from my other tent. I snapped the stalk on the Skunk (1 out of 3 Auto Skunk Mass, no skin broken and it supported itself with no additional help) and the White Widow (1 out of 3 WW's) was the slowest of the group. They now have really fat, hair ridden, trichome-laden buds. Other than their fan leaves, they look like they are producing equal or better bud than the 4 plants under the HPS. To my point, should I flush? I will get pictures soon (within the day). Other information. 4 plants (2 Skunk and 2 WW) in the shared 4x8 are on one side under a 400 watts HPS with another 400 watt in the middle of the tent and one more on the other side. LED tent is a 4x4, 330 watts actual draw. Everything is on a 18/6 cycle. I water about twice a week, slightly more for Skunks and slightly less for White Widows. My judgement for watering is weight of the plants and seeing if the leaves are curling (need) or "fat" (good). I fed them 1/4 nutes twice on the first week of flowering, then 1/2 nutes on the second week (only once in fear of burning them). Tents stay between 64 at night and 72 during the day (75 for the HPS tent). Humidity during the days is around 45-55% with it reaching 65% at night. Any advice is helpful.
Never be afraid to flush!........it is a natural but horrendous process that is found in nature, called storms or floods, that by nature washes all that toxic crap from the plants root zone, I totally abhor doing it, as I get drenched and very bitchy as hell, so do I might add the plants, all the more reason for doing it in fine weather, but sometimes you don't have a choice, once you realize that you have unintentionally burnt those roots, Flush, with 3 times the volume of the pot with air temperate, Ph neutral water, allow the plant or recover in dim light 1 day, for very severe cases repeat 1 day later, rest for 2 days then repeat. Never Never remove dieing or dead leaves, plant is feeding of of them, yes necrotic brown should fall and you may remove them, but wait for the leaf to fall, after all it's just Cosmetic!! Your problem is typical of Fox farm users, typical FF is just to strong, better to dilute by mixing in 50% perlite or vermiculite to prevent compaction Many growers who grow Autos are looking for a quick turn over, as such many growers no longer feed there auto plants, and just plant light and pick, and I still believe that is the way to run with auto's. "V"
Alright, I will do a flush! I will also be more careful with what I remove. This is why I am trying to keep expanding my knowledge. I didn't know it was just cosmetic, I thought it was wasting nutrients and hurting the plant by leaving those leaves lol. I do hear FF is strong, guess I didn't realize how strong. I wanted to do a run of autos just for the experience and to personally see how it worked for me (growing). I don't need a quick turn around so I will be doing a Medical Seeds Channel + next time as a scrog. Supposedly it's a great plant for just about everything. High THC, CBD, good mother for clones (I don't plan on doing clones, I like starting from seed), great for scrog, easy on beginners and can handle too little or too much nutes well. This is from what I've been reading lately, and in a 4x4 with my light it should work well. Anyway, here are some pictures. I feel so bad even showing these with how poorly I've done this grow but it's all experience, and since I don't sell it's not that big an issue. Thanks for the responses so far!
Also sorry the pictures are so big, I'm not sure how to resize them. Just be warned they are large images.
Looks like a nitrogen and possibly calmag defficiency to me. Fox farms nutes lack adequate calcium and magnesium, if your tap water doesn't have enough you will probably need to supplement, and will definitely want to do so. I use ffof soil, with 10% to 20% perlite and usually need to start feeding sometime in week three or four from seed. The autos I have grown needed plenty of nutes. Leaves going yellow in mass, despite what people tell you, isn't healthy even in flower. There is a common belief that all your leaves dropping is normal, but most often its just a lack of nutrients. Flushing is great if the plants are burned, but i seriously doubt you have nutrient buildup after only two small feedings. If you have a deficiency it will only make your problem worse, because it will be that much longer before you can give the, nutrients again.
Flushed the ones in the led tent and am going to feed the other guys without a flush. Little comparison for curiosities sake. The 4 in the HPS tent aren't ready to be watered yet though so no food yet either. I'll post more pictures later today on how the flushed guys are doing, but only having been a day it probably won't be that big of a difference. I'll also update the other 4 when I feed them (probably tomorrow morning for feed).
I'll make sure my next grow is in the indoor section, from seed to finish. Anyway quick picture update of the two in the led tent, and the led itself for anyone curious.
The autos in the led tent seem to have liked the flush, but they are still kinda small. I am happy with what they have so far given their original state of health. I fed my other 4 in the HPS tent (no flush) this morning full strength nutes with calmag thrown in. Tomorrow I will post more pictures of everything.
Quick update (no pics, sorry). I think I am going to keep these guys going until one of two things happen. I get my new seeds and germinate them, then my plants will all go back into the HPS tent. If my leaves all yellow and start going, then I'll look to harvest. I keep reading some autoflower trichomes don't amber up, just get cloudy. So I will keep an eye on that as well, but would like to see these buds fatten up some more I'd say 70% of the trichomes on the main colas are clouding up, and most of the lower nugs are still clear. The auto skunk mass are stanky and potent, the auto white widows smell like a fresh flower without any weed smell (unless it's covered by the skunk lol).
Everything is drying as we speak so I will know the harvest very soon. Here is a picture of a super tiny, low branch nug. Just to show the trichomes of the plant, the fan leaves were also covered in trics! This is the Skunk, not the white widow.