Hi all! Ok, so, I just need a bit of guidance on feeding during flower, as I'm getting the opposite results to what I was expecting. I've been growing three ladies outdoors for awhile, they were getting on my deck from may 1st to August 1st. During veg, they seemed to be doing fine on their own with just dirt and water, and I think that during the entire veg phase, I only fed them once, with some 3-1-4 liquid vegetable food I'd had from gardening. (A more experienced grower friend of mine said it'd be fine) That feeding was about halfway through vegging. I didn't want to do too much to the plants, they were all super green, bushy, healthy and growing like.. well.... Weeds. Lol. Anyways, August 1st, they went into a 5x5x6 mylar grow tent, and under three 300 watt LED lights from MARS. (I had to go LED, as it was 100f for 2 weeks, and heat in the tent was a huge problem.) I am now on day 19 of flower (all my plants are bagseed, though I suspect the one plant is Purple Kush, as it's hearty as hell, has 11 point fanleaves, and is freakishly huge and durable). While I was away for a week last week, my wife watered and fed them for me. She gave them 2 tablespoons of 2-4-4 bloom food, mixed into a gallon of water, and then have a half gallon to each plant. She fed, skipped a day, fed, skipped 2 days and gave straight water. (PH'd to about 5.8 or 6) that's all. 12 on, 12 off, and that's about all she did. When I came back, some of the leaves had clawed under, and gone dark, other leaves went yellow or a very pale green. Only 1 or 2 fan leaves had burned tips. But one plant, at least half the leaves from the bottom up are turning a pale yellow. So, I'm confused. The clawed leaves look like nitrogen toxicity, (which explains the burned and crispy tips) which I don't understand, because the bloom certs are super low on nitrogen - isn't bloom certs what the plant needs?.. and the yellowing leaves lead me to believe it's not getting enough nutrients, or perhaps again, too much nitrogen? Other than the clawing and yellowing, the plants look healthy. The plant with the worst of the clawing looks "ok".. I'm not impressed with the bud formation after 19 days, but the other two (even the one with yellowing leaves) seem to be doing ok with the flower formation. If it matters, my temps are currently leaking at around 77 during the day and around 60 at night. Humidity seems to hover right around 50%. No signs of mildew, mold, mites, pests or any of that. Thanks for any insights! PS: The photos I've added don't seem to allow captions, so.. The first photo is of the charlie brown lookin' plant, and is the one with the clawed leaves, and is kind of expendable. I don't care much if it goes or not. .. Photo two is the one without as much clawing, but has a LOT of yellow in it. (The close up photo of the leaf is from this one) . Three is of Chuck again (That's the plant's name) and is the clawed one. 4 and 5 is of the Kush (I call it "Spinal Tap", because the leaves go up to 11) and is the really healthy one that's doing great (with some purple pistils), though it has a few fading-to-yellow leaves starting. It's pretty nice, and very photogenic! This is my priority plant.
I see this when plants start to bud and there's too much nitrogen in the soil. Did you flush when you started flowering?
Honestly, I didn't. I hadn't read anywhere that flushing BEFORE flower is important. (This is my first ever attempt at growing) And now, the plants are in a tent, tangled up in netting, and would be very, very difficult - if not impossible - to flush. There wasn't much nitrogen in the soil to begin with, but flushing makes sense. Hindsight being 20/20 and all.
So, I had a local hydroponics business test my ph balance for me (after running a gallon of distilled water through dry soil and capturing the runoff) and discovered I was locked out. PH was way too high, (8.2) and the PPM count was 1600.. so apparently, that's a problem. I bought some drip clean, and will start fixing the problem asap.. I also picked up a ph meter and a PPM meter. So. Gonna try to get this sorted out.. and will post the results!
Update 8/27/17 So, in the previous few days, I've flushed all plants with 2 gallons of distilled water each, let the soil dry to the point of normal watering required, then watered with 1 gallon of tap water PH'd at 6.25, with the prescribed amount of Drip Clean (House and Garden) and allowed the soil to dry again. I just watered with tap water PH'd to 6.25 with the Drip Clean about 5 minutes ago, and tested the runoff water. The worst off of the three plants (PH was 8.6 when I started all this a week and a half ago) is now running off at PH 6.15 and the PPM is 851. So, where do I go from here? Do I start mixing bloom nutes and Cal-Mag into my PH balanced tap water with Drip Clean mixed in? The newer leaves have stopped clawing and look normal, I think. Some of the lower fan leaves are turning yellow, but aren't deforming. I'm taking it to be nutrient deficiency.. They've gotta be hungry, right? As far as bud development goes,I'm thinking they look a little behind, but theres some good trichromes developing. I'm only 3 weeks into flower, and have another 4-5 weeks left. Thanks! EDIT: So, I was just mixing up a batch of nutes, and I'm now confused as hell. From the tap, my water is 28 ppm. I mixed 2.5 gallons of water and the 1ml of drip clean, then added the bloom nutes. (I'm using what was recommended by the guy at the hydroponics shop - General Organics "BioThrive Bloom", which is 2-4-4.) The directions say to mix 2 teaspoons per gallon, so I put in 5. (It says to put in twice that for a heavy feeding, but since I've just finished a flush and PH balancing of the soil, I decided to err on the side of caution and start light) Once I was done mixing everything, I measured the PH (4.1) and the PPM (272, minus the 28 for the water) and both seem on the low side - especially the PPM. Should I not be giving them closer to 1000-1600 ppm for the final month of bloom? Thanks for the help!