Age of plant: Day 43 of flower, day 107 since sprout Lights: 150W HPS, about 2 - 3 inches away Temps: Usually 74 - 78F with lights on, though it has gotten as hot as 86 some days. 55 - 65 with lights off. Soil up 'till 2.5 gallon pot: Mostly coco plus some recycled soil, 1 qt worm castings, plus bone meal, plus perlite. Soil in 5 gal fabric pot (transplanted Day 14 of flower): Monrovia organics (peat based), plus 2 Tbs bone meal Nutrients in flower: Blue Mountain Organics Flower Power (NPK 1-8-7) Flower Power and BMO Super Plant Tonic (NPK 1.25-.4-.9) Super Plant Tonic (I lest fed at about 1/2 strength 4 days ago) Nutrients used in veg: Miragle Gro Orchid food (26-16-12) pH: I don't know. I don't have any meters or testers. I'm not sure if the yellowing started on the bud leaves or the fan leaves. I first noticed it last night on the fan leaves, but with the HPS light I couldn't see it on the bud leaves. I'm attaching pics. Thanks for your help!
your flower nutes are lacking nitrogen. that is why your fan leaves are yellowing. the plant is sucking nitrogen out of them to promote bud growth. give them some veg nutes and they should stop yellowing and dropping leaves.
Thanks, Wert. I was thinking it might be an N deficiency, but N def. always starts on the lower leaves and the younger leaves are the last to yellow. No? Also I thought N def. yellowing starts on the outer part of the leaf and progresses inward.
I last watered on Friday (4 days ago) and the plant isn't dry yet. She usually takes about 4 qts. Should I give her 2 qts w/ full strength veg nutes? (Can you tell I'm panicking?)
Nitrogen! Mine did the same thing to me, mine are nitrogen pigs, I don't know of any other plant that requires the nitrogen that my guys need.
Thanks, Rec. Did your plant have yellowing bud leaves with many of the fan leaves un-affected? Most of the lower leaves on this plant are nice and green. Some of the tops are still green. The yellowing seems to be willy-nilly all over the plant.
i thought that was what was happening by the picture plus your flower nutes are very low in nitrogen. doesnt really look like a ph problem to me. the only other thing would be is sulfer def. look up that and make a comparison. and check your nute bottles to see if they have a percent or two of sulfer. if that turns out to be the problem check out a calmag. just check the bottle and make sure it has pleanty of sulfer because not all do. epsom salt could help too but it wont contain nitrogen the way cal mag does.
The damn bottle doesn't say dick. Their web page says, "The ingredients are Artesian Spring Water, Fossilized High Phosphorus Bat Guano, Fossilized High Phosphorus Seabird Guano, Worm Castings, Azomite, Unsulphured Molasses, Humic Acid, Beet Root Extract, Comfrey Hay Extract, Alfalfa Meal Extract, Endo and Ecto Bacteria." I checked out some pics of sulfur deficiency, and the yellowing starts from the back (inward) side of the leaf. Most of my leaves have the yellowing starting at the outside. Except for that one big fan leaf in the front. Oddly, the part on that leaf that is not yellow is is shielded by the door when it's closed. It's as if the parts that are exposed to more air and light are yellowing first. Does that mean anything?
I checked out Azomite and it does have some sulfur. These nutes are from a small time organic op, not really commercial. So I don't know if they even do a chemical analysis of the final product. I could get some epsom salts from the drugstore tonight and mix that with the veg nutes. Would that cover my bases? Or would it be best not to give the epsom salts if it's not a sulfur deficiency?
these bmo nutes are weak i think im having problems at 3 weeks flowering using these nutes like every 2 weeks
6 weeks into flower? It sounds like your plant is going through the last of it's phases before it dies. It sucks all the nutrients out of the leaves to produce trichomes, basically trying to maximize the chances of pollination as that's what they're for anyways. That's why they're so sticky. It's perfectly fine. In fact, that's exactly what you want. By the way, those colas look realll nice and fat. Nicely done, sir.
Oh, I'm really confused now. The breeder said 9 - 10 weeks, and the buds don't look mature. There isn't even one orange pistil. The pistils are all thick and white. I'll check for amber trichs. I have 1 hour until lights off. I'm thinking of giving her 2 qts of half strength veg nutes. It couldn't hurt, could it? I saw a pic online of a plant that had been exposed to too much temperature variation, and I'm wondering if that could be my problem, especially because of the leaf that has a green patch where it was protected by the door. At night it has gotten as low as 55, and then up to about 86 the next day. (We had a cold snap and then it warmed up one day.)
I can't comment on the soil nutes part, I'm pretty clueless are far as soil grows go, but I've never seen that kinda effect with temps getting wacky. Usually too much temp variation can stunt a plant's growth a bit. You should check to make sure what the breeder meant by 9-10 weeks. Is that from seed or from switch to 12/12? Either way I would wait for someone who knows more than me about this to give their opinion. I'm still pretty new as far as plant problems go as I don't have enough grows under my belt yet and my last ones have gone relatively well.
Oh, well. I did the deed. Fed her 2 qts of half strength veg nutes, and it looked like she could take more water so I gave her an additional 1 qt of full strength veg nutes. (I can't measure anything smaller than 1/4 tsp). That amounts to 3 quarts of 2/3 strength veg nutes. When I looked at the buds with a loupe what I saw was too much cat hair! I have filters on my intakes, so the cat hair comes from the air or my clothes when I open the door. (I know, Ms. Pig Pen over here.) I have to rig up the fans so that I can turn them off before I open the door. Air (with hair -- hairy air) rushes in the door when I open it. I should vacuum more often and put on clean clothes before I open the door. (Prolly not gonna happen.) She does have a few orange pistils. I didn't find any amber trichomes. My loupe is only 10x so I can't tell cloudy from clear. But she really doesn't look 1 or even 2 weeks from being mature, judging from my previous (and only other) grow. (I know -- Ms. Know-it-all Pig-pen here.) I haven't been able to contact the breeder, so I don't know how he counts flowering days, but the plant is on day 51 of 12/12, so that's ~7 weeks of 12/12. Thanks to all of you for your help! You've been great. I'll keep you posted.
Oh, Virtuoso, just re-read your post. He definitely didn't mean from seed. He meant flowering weeks. I just don't know if he counts from onset of 12/12 or from first sign of flowers. I'm counting from when I saw the first pistils. That happened 8 days after I flipped the lights.
you could always folier spray with the epsom salts. you can find instructions online easily. i really doubt you will get any burn from this i have done it before without any ill effects. plus the magnesium in it cant hurt either. lots of people talk about " it is natural for the plant to start droping leafs this late in flower." i disagree with that compleatly. the plants can flower for several months in the out doors. they dont just turn off and die. you kinda have to kill them to make them finish. in nature they would run out of food or the weather would get to cold and extreme for them to survive. i do hydro now and i find that i can make them finish any time i want just by flushing the plant. the shock from the lack of nutes causes the plant to push out everything its got and die. you can further this by allowing them to wilt between watering. basiclly my point is they dont just start dieing at week 6. they should be heathy right up until your 9-10 week time frame. maybe at the start of week 9 you can just stop feeding them and give them plain water this will let them have a slow decline and force them to finish. you do have to force them to die at around the right time or else they start to hermie. o yeah extreme temp changes usually cause the leafs to ripple not turn yellow.
Thanks, Wert! About the foliar feeding with epsom salts -- I foliar fed during veg, but if I get epsom salts on the buds will it make them taste bad? I could spray it on the undersides of the lower leaves and shield the buds with a piece of cardboard or something. What concentraion of epsom salts should I for foliar feeding? Thanks again, buddy.
PS, Wert -- Extremely helpful information about flowering and the natural maturation process. I will always remember that. I did let the plant wilt a tiny bit 2 waterings ago and I have been very conservative with the nutes, so it's all starting to add up. She needs more nutes!
probably right about the underfed. that might be why they are showing multiple types of deficiencys. seems to show a nitrogen and a sulfur. its hard to test anything without meters just kinda have to guess. the veg nutes should help her out some but other wise the development looks good. as far as the concentration for the epsom salts im not sure but i remember there was lots of info on it. the taste shouldn't be affected but if you are worried you can rinse the buds with plain water a few days before harvest to wash them. just be sure to make sure they dry quickly, shake them off well. you don't want to get bud rot or powdery mildew right before harvest that would be a bummer. in the end probably just skip the folier and give it a good feeding.
Thanks again. Good advice. Next watering (in about a week) I'll give it half veg nutes and half flower nutes, full strength, plus epsom salts. I'll use the epsom salts tomorrow if the yellowing progresses more. Linux is prolly right that the BMO nutes are weak, and the MG orchid food may be weak, too. When I used it on my orchids (years ago) I underfed them, too. Got flowers that were part purple fading to white -- that was a weird sight on an orchid. I rinsed my last canna plant prior to harvest in an effort to get the cat hair off. It was pointless because the cat hair was really stuck to the trichomes. But I did like you said and shook the stems vigorously and it dried quickly. Unfortunately I can't remove this plant from the cabinet before harvest because the pot is too big to fit through the door. (It's a fabric pot and I put it in the cabinet before I filled it all the way.)