Dear all, I would like to describe an issue I have to see if I can get any advice of cause and cure. I am in week 3 of flowering and the issue is that some of my plants (not all) are developing yellow lower fan leaves that after research I would believe is either iron or nitrogen deficiency. There are some purple coloring on steams and leaf stems as well that might suggest the nitrogen deficiency. However this might be strain specific as well. It is the first time im doing this strain, it is Amnesia. The pictures added might not have the full color spectrum but you will get an idea of the yellowing. In real they are much more pale/yellow from the middle and outwards... To give yo as much information as possible. I use a medium of coco + perlite. I am using the whole canna series of nutrients (attached). I am using an autopot system that automatically feeds the buckets from below, doing this I have cut down the EC a bit (under Canna´s light feeding schedule). This because they get nutrients at each watering. I keep my PH at 5.5 - 5.9, In the beginning I had it up to 6.2 a couple of times The thing here is that it is the smaller plants that have developed these leaves, the bigger ones all look healthy and thriving. That make me believe that it is not a general underfeeding causing it. This autopot system give all buckets the same amount of water before the valves close. So I tend to believe that the smaller ones have been over watered and this might be the cause. I use RO water so I use cal/mag supplement up to 0.4 before adding the nutes as in the schedule. In the beginning I used one with added iron and the last couple of weeks I have used pure cal/mag I collected some water that dripped down from the bottom from of the affected ones this morning and it still had the same PH/EC as in the reservoir at the moment. My thought of solution is to close the valves of the affected ones and hand-water them so they do not get as much water as the others. And in addition to this foliar spray them with a mix of water, extra nitrogen and perhaps the cal/mag supplement with extra iron added. Any one experienced the same kind of thing or have an idea what it might be? If any more info is needed, just ask and I will try to elaborate as much as possible. Best, /G
Def looks like N def to me mate! Also a lot of the lower leaves will not get the correct amount of light, so will also yellow off and die. I would not suggest adding any N in flower though.
Thank you for your input. I just read this: "Yellowing leaves: Speaking of deficiencies, overwatered plants have them. Oxygen enables plants to metabolize nutrients, but overwatered plants have an oxygen problem. The roots are stuck in stagnant water and dense soil with no aeration. This deprives the plant of the oxygen it needs to uptake nutrients.", So it might be that the smaller ones have been getting a bit too much water. I will try to keep my schedule since the larger ones look fine and limit the water for the smaller ones for a while. Hopefully this will ease the issue. I had some light issues in the beginning causing me to run for a little while with lower lights than needed. So they are not as "bushy" as they would normally been, so in this case these yellowing leaves still are directly exposed to the light.
do u just go on a bunch of peoples forums and spew your own personal thoughts or do u have any grow journals of ur own?
Hey bud! Welcome to the party! I used AutoPots for my first grow and had nothing but issues. You probably have a nutrient lockout at this point as there is no flushing going on. My suggestion would be to pull one out that is doing better than the worst but not as good as the best. Run water thru that has 1/4 strength nutes, calmag and is ph'd at 6.0. Keep the ppm in the < 250 range. Run enough through that you'll get lots of runoff. Once it starts running through, after the flow starts and at least 250ml has drained, put a container under the pot, let the drain off accumulate and then measure whats come out. I imagine that you're ph from the runoff will be way out of wack and ppm's will probably be over 2000. If that's the case, you'll need to get the ph of the coco back into range and flush out some of the accumulated salts. ex: if ph runoff is 7 and you want it in the 5.8.- 6 range, flush with solution ph'd at 5.5. If ph is 4.5 - 5.5 and you want to bring it up, us ph'd solution of 6.5. don't flush without ph'ing, calmag and light nutes. you don't want to totally clear the slate. just clean it. If I was you, i'd pull the autopot system out and water by hand to run-off for the rest of your grow. I think the autopots are good but probably better suited for the hydrocorton balls and growing something other than cannabis. cheers!
Informative reply mate - Like it. Funny you say that about Auto pots being no good though - Well known Member here - @Ivean is having great success using these! Is it just the nutrient build up, or is there other reasons why it didnt work for you? I was contemplating getting some for my next grow....
I've been using autopots and soil for the last year and love them. Will never go back to hand watering I grow with soil and biotabs though so the only thing in my tank is tap water.
I'd only use them again for cannabis in a open room. Not in a tent for sure. - The valve stayed open on 1, closed on another. - Little yellow stoppers on the valves are fussy. - Build-up in the pot reservoirs, they got slimy and needed to be cleaned a couple times during the grow. (it was summer and warmer) - Heavy pots, hard to work with in a small space with a bad back. getting them back into the "tray" can be messy if theres solution in it. - salts build-up - roots weren't very healthy in the end, lot of them but brown, stained from wicking up instead of flushing down. - even though it does the work, still need to monitor closely, Thats what I remember. Cheers
ya that would work! water only wicked up easy to know when its failed, they dry out. nutes were the downfall for mine
Thank you for a very informative answer. I sure hope I do not encounter so many issues with the system, if so, I could have put those money on something else lol. Do you really think it can be a nutrient lockout despite using coco specific nutrients and followed the schedule suggested from the manufacturer? And if so, if I continue to use the system, should I do every 3-4th fillup of the tank with plain ph´d water to flush out excess nutrients? The last sounds as it could be a good idea in any case. About the suggestion of taking on in the middle. The thing is that most look the same, quite fine, with some purple leaf stems, and then these few with the deficiency symptoms. The common denominator with the deficient ones is that they are all smaller than the rest and have been so from the start, so I still want to believe (or hope) that they became over watered since the system delivers the same amount to each pot. Lets see. I will try your suggestion with the runoff and take things from there. I gave them a foliar spray with a light nutrient mix with extra nitrogen yesterday. I read you should not give too much nitrogen in flower but in some cases small amounts can be good to reverse the deficiency. Lets see =) Thanks again for your input and all your other replies as well.
I don't think that the autopots CAN overwater. The whole point of an autopot (or Octopot) is that the plant decides how much water it needs and only uses that amount no matter how much is available in the reservoir. I'm using autopots this time around with great success and used an Octopot during my last grow with amazing success. I'd look elsewhere. This is the advice I got during my last grow: NUTES: Lookin good mate. Wee tip for you. Half strength is plenty. The only plants that need full strength are those that will grow to be over half a kilo. Otherwise, just over half strength is more than enough. 600-700ppm I'm usually a hydro grower so it's something we measure meticulously. Been growing in coco this year and haven't had to go past 450ppm yet which is about 1/3 strength. Only up your nutes if leaves turn yellow. Bottoms go yellow up the Base nutes (npk) Tops go yellow you up the micro nutes. Shit turns purple in bloom and you up the PK. As long you keep your feed light and just up it as I stated there then you should never have any nutrient problems. Go back to the way you were doing it mate and throw your feeding schedule in the bin. They're worth less than the paper they're printed on.
there is only 1 leaf picture . really need a pic of the plant as well to see what area it came from. now i could just say what i see thats incorrect with that single leaf but my info likely be very far off with out the entire plant pic.
Adding my two cents here - during my last three grows i tried chasing down nutrient issues but never had any luck until i started watering with plain water every other watering and making sure you water till you get runoff. I’m not sure if thats possible with the pots you have but keep that in mind for future reference. I read somewhere that using coco/perlite mix with salt-based nutes causes some salt buildup at the roots, especially if it gets too dry between waters, and needs to be “rinsed out” I’m doing this on my current grow with fantastic results and have never had more healthy plants. I also stopped buying distilled water and now i use tap (free!) thats sat out for at least 24 hours (5 gal buckets) to get rid of chlorine. Im not saying this will work for everyone but in my case, it did! Cheers, happy growing!
Thanks, Yes, one of the main reasons to the decision of the aotopot was that I wanted to avoid under or over watering just exactly as you said. That each plant takes just as much or as little as they need. And save some time of hand watering. Still, each pot has its own "mini reservoir" and an individual valve that opens to the same level in each tray, and as soon as the water level start to drop in the individual tray they open up again, (making the ones that drink more get more water). Maybe also the coco works as a sponge that sucks up water in a faster rate than the smaller ones have been able to handle? (just a thought) For this particular grow (for different reasons) I had to put some of the clones in temporary smaller buckets and most of them directly in the autopts, and after 8-10 days I could transplant the ones from the smaller buckets in to the larger autopots. At that stage i already saw roots in the bottom of the ones that was directly planted to the autopots. While the other ones still would have "half the way" left due to different sizes in buckets. I still continued to handwater for another week before turning on the watering from the main reservoir. Maybe some of them did not have the roots necessary yet to handle the base amount of water that each. I will definitely save your advice about the nutes and running on 1/3 or 1/2 strenght max and up them up when signs of deficiency turns up.. Like now =) Thanks again