I've got some plants 3 weeks in flower and they're showing early signs of deficiencies. Seems my soil mixture was a little to light to carry them all the way through. Would top dressing them with 4-5" of soil be sufficient? Or is that just a waste of good soil?
I just looked at your plants. You did cut quite a bit off of the bottom. I thought they looked good though. What, exactly is the soil mix? I would suggest 2 things - first, a worm casting "slurry" made by taking a few cups of castings, just covering them with water, shaking them vigorously off and on for an hour and then using it on each plant, leaving a thick casting top dressing, and also making up a kelp meal tea by soaking (a quarter cup per gallon) some kelp in water for 3-4 days and watering that in. I don't see your plants in organic soil as being deficient. Then there's also natural plant senescence - (Plant Biology: Senescence) and it can happen as early as this. Your plants are nearing the end of their life, and for them to start changing colors now is a natural thing. My plants are never, ever green towards the end. Sometimes they are lucky to have half the leaves they started flowering with. I'd do the slurry and kelp thing and then not worry about it again. Your plants look good. HTH J
Right on, when using chemicals I typically give a small N boost right around the 3rd week of flowering. Doesn't really matter. My base soil is pretty simple: 1 bale ProMix HP 2 bags FFOF 1 brick coir To this I added a couple of bags of NSPB, which is a mix of 14-16 organic amendments, specifically designed for cannabis, all conveniently mixed and placed in a paper bag. It's not available to the general public, and I was fortunate enough to get my hands on a few test bags. This stuff is simply amazing. If you're a member on ICMag, and you have ever seen Philthy's room, or Marlo's WOW grow, you'll know what I'm talking about. Only reason I was asking about the soil top dressing is because it wouldn't require buying anything as I have one final tote of the mix. I do expect the leaves to yellow up, just wasn't expecting it this early. Maybe in week 5, but not day 20. Definitely appreciate the feedback, I'd still like to get a look at them not under the HPS. I'll have to check 'em out tonight. And yeah, cut off a lot from the bottom of them, and it seems like they're done stretching unfortunately. Hopefully this will result in some hella fat buds up top, otherwise my yields are screwed. LOL, 3" of stretch total. I was expecting 8-10" this is garbage.
My issue with this mix would be the lack of humus - ie: compost or worm castings, as this is where our soil life comes from. Youve got whatever Fox Farms threw into the mix, but we all know how that goes; thus my suggestion for a worm castings slurry to ensure adequate microbes in the soil. I still dont think you have any kind of "deficiency" going on. All the amendments in the world cant/wont fix bad/no humus. Good luck pal. You have nice looking plants. Maybe go a little easier with the scissors tho? *lol* j
Right on, I did forget to mention that I added a bag of EWC to the mix originally, but more can't hurt and I'll get to work on that one. Definitely could have went easier on the scissors. Stretch didn't go nearly as far as I was hoping, and given I'm only a 400w, light penetration leaves a lot to be desired. Always had a heavy hand with the scissors, but that's usually from clone with growth patterns I'm well aware of in advance. Took a little risk here and it didn't pay off. Regardless, the well-developed root system and large canopy size (plenty of "solar panels" should hopefully result in some solid colas.
