These plants seemed perfectly healthy and then yesterday I noticed that the top leaves are fading, curling downward, and are developing those brown / black spots. What’s wrong? And can they be saved? They’re mother plants... As for grow conditions: I’ve had them vegging under CFLs, they’re in soil, I’ve been doing basically a no till type of organic grow. Specifically, KNF (Korean natural farming) if you’re familiar with that. They get water only a couple times a week because they don’t seem to take it up terribly fast. If they can’t be saved, then that leads me to my next question: if you take a clone off of a clone, will it still express the same characteristics? I’ve heard before that generational cloning can lose characteristics after a while... is that true? Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
So I’m thinking it’s a manganese deficiency after doing some more research... how can a manganese deficiency be corrected organically? Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
Pretty rare for septoria to start at the top of the plant but anything's possible I guess. It looks like you have an iron deficiency going on and possibly others if the pH has built up too high which can happen with tap water pretty easy. Micro-nutrient deficiencies generally start at the top. I kept a mother for about 6 years and would take it out, cut the rootball down to about half and put it back in the same pot with fresh soil once a year and I water with RO only. I knew a guy that took clones off his plants before flowering and has been running the same strain for 10 years at least and the bud is great. He doesn't want to keep mothers. I wouldn't worry about genetic drift for many, many generations.
Thanks so much for the feedback. I myself thought it might be manganese deficiency, since it’s the top / young leaves that are pale green and spotted. The rest of the plant looks gorgeous, nice rich dark green. How would I add manganese? I topdressed with some Espoma Plant Tone, will that work? As for cutting the root ball down, I’ve heard about that technique before. These have only been alive for a couple of months, so I could be wrong but I wouldn’t personally think that’s the issue. They’re not too rootbound at all. Thanks also for the input on the cloning issue. That’s pretty much what I assumed, I imagine it’s called “cloning” for a reason. Thanks again Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
It's possible Mn could be lacking too but iron starts yellowing from the back of the leaf and low Mn can cause spotting. When more than one micro is low it's almost always because pH is out of whack and interfering with many.
I see what you mean, I just don’t see how there could be a pH issue. My tap is slightly alkaline (8.1) but I also use KNF, where the feeding solutions tend to be on the acidic side, so I figured it might balance out. Just say it is the water - would simply switching to RO water correct the issue? And again - are there any organic fertilizers or amendments I could topdress to fix / prevent deficiencies? Or will the Espoma Plant tone suffice? Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum