Yellowing Lower Leaves

Hello all.

I have two plants growing in a small box in my house. But the lowest set of true leaves have slowly been yellowing over the last few days, and today they look very bad. One of them has started to curl. I don't think that it's nute burn, because it's only happening to the lower leaves, and I haven't added any nutes anyhow.


Here's a picture of one of the leaves, it's not high quality but you can see the difference between the lowest leaf and the darker ones above it.


This picture shows the curling of the yellowed leaf opposite the one in the picture above. As you can clearly see, it's a similar color to the other leaf, but curling upwards quite badly.

I can only guess as to why this is happening, and what it means, which is why I've posted here to get some more expert opinions. My guess as to what's happening is that the lowest leaves aren't getting sufficient light (my box barely has enough light as it is, and the upper leaves have grown large enough that almost no light gets through to the bottom leaves). But like I said, I don't know, and so I'd be glad of input from experienced growers.

Also, what should I do about these leaves? Should I clip them off the plants? Please let me know your opinions. Thanks!

 

Thanks for the responses!

I've been planning to transplant them for a while, but I was nervous about doing it too soon. I guess there's no more need for that worry now, is there? I'll move them into their bigger pots tomorrow.

And I haven't been adding any ferts yet, I've been waiting until flowering to try that because I don't want to risk nute burning my plants during veg, before I have a mother ready.

The soil I've used is Creekside Topsoil, the ingredients listed being: Compost, black soil, and sand. So I don't think that there are any ferts in the soil itself. Further, I never noticed any apparent fert-related issues while the plants were younger, although if you check my grow journal you may see signs that I simply missed in my ignorance.

 

OK, I just transplanted both plants. It was a harrowing experience, and I'm nervous that it didn't go well (especially for poor Iggy, I could see her roots dangling when I removed the bottom of her old pot).

For Honey, I cut out the bottom of the party cup she was in, and then slit the sides, and once it was in a cup shaped depression in the new pot, I pulled the cup halves away. The plant leaned a bit, but I think she'll be alright.

For Iggy, as soon as I'd cut away the bottom of her cup I saw the roots dangling, so I didn't cut any more of the cup away, and just placed it into a depression in the soil of her new pot. I'll post pics later of the transplanted plants.

Does this sound OK? I know that transplanting is a nerve-wracking experience for everyone the first time probably, but I could still use a little reassurance. I'll update this thread periodically, to keep you all posted on how the plants are doing.

 

Here's a picture of Iggy in her new, much larger pot.



This is a closeup shot of the issues that I described in my plants. You can see the two leaves nearest are yellowed, and even turning brown at the very end. The lower fan leaf in view below is a very pale yellow color.


Here's a view of Iggy as a whole plant. You can see her leaf colors, as well as how they sag.


This is my other plant, Honey, viewed from the top. You can see that she's been having the same problems that Iggy had.


This is another view of Honey. You can see that her leaves are looking a bit perkier than Iggy's, although I'm still scared for her.

So what do you think? Can you tell anything from my pictures so soon after the transplant?

 

In that case, I'll update this thread in three days. Thanks Geurilla, not just for your help on my grow but for always answering people's questions in this forum, as well as for your great website.

 

I decided to update this thread sooner than three days from now, just in case anyone might notice something going wrong in time for me to correct it.


This is Iggy, from a three quarter view. You can see that her leaves are still discolored, and they've started to droop a bit. I know that it's too soon to see any improvement from the transplant, but I'm nervous.


This is a side view of Iggy, just to give a clearer picture of her leaves drooping.


This is Honey from the top. You can see that her leaves are still discolored too.


And here's Honey from the side. I couldn't get my camera into the box at a good angle for her, so the picture is angled. But you can use the edge of the pot in the background as a reference. Her leaves seem to be drooping too, although not as severely as Iggy's.

It could be a nitrogen deficiency, although I don't know if the effects of that would've shown up earlier or not. The plants were certainly too big for their containers, so I'm still hoping that that was the only problem. At what point (and what signs would point to) a nitrogen deficiency for sure? I read in the Cannibas Grow Bible that you don't want to add any nutrients for 5 days to a week after a transplant, but I don't want my plants to die or shrivel up irreperably while I wait.

Also, I gave each plant a little water yesterday, just to make sure that the new soil had some moisture in it, do you think that it's likely that this is what's accounting for the leaf droop?

 

I don't know yet, I don't have any reliable pH testing equipment here for a couple more days, but I had to use my tap water for the last two waterings (and I know that my tap water isn't optimal, it makes me sick to drink). Normally I water with bottled water, which I imagine would be around pH 7, and hasn't caused me any problems in the past. I'll have better information for you soon though.

 

More pictures today, but no good news.


Iggy from the three quarters view, with the browning of her leaves more severe than ever.


Iggy from the side. Her drooping leaves have gotten worse.


Honey from the top. The yellowing of her leaves has spread, and some of the tips of the leaves have begun turning brown.


And Honey from the side... her leaves are clearly drooping too now.

So that's the update for my plants today. They're not looking good, but I can't tell if it's just because of shock from the transplant or some other reason. I don't have a reliable means of testing pH right now (although I'm considering grabbing some from a school lab tomorrow, even though I know they don't help much for soil pH, but I'm getting desperate and ever more nervous!). It could also be a nutrient deficiency, although I still don't know if it'd be OK to feed them so soon after the transplant.

I know it's a lot to ask without any concrete info from me on pH, but do these symptoms clearly match anything anyone's seen before? I'm sorry to be so irritating about all of this, but I really want my plants to make it!

 

When I cut the bottom out, I saw the roots dangling and was nervous about causing irreperable damage to the root structure by shifting everything around too much, so I left the cup around the sides (but with no bottom). I read in the Cannibus Grow Bible that this will still work, as the roots will always find their way down. If this isn't right, I'll change it right away!

 

Yeah, I have a chem test kit coming in the mail, but it'll be a day or two until it gets here (at least... depends on when the seller actually shipped it).

How likely do you think it is that the soil is sour? It could certainly be an issue from the two (small) waterings with my house's tap water. If a flush is necessary, I'll do it with distilled bottled water... do you think that that will work for the meantime, or is it just a last ditch effort?

 

Alright, I'll try the flush tomorrow morning, and I'll let you all know how it goes (with pictures too) afterwards. And just in case anyone's curious, I'll be following the flush instructions in the Cannibus Grow Bible, but using distilled bottled water instead of tap. Should I do this, or should I wash away all the soil and then try to place soil around them, or just drop them back into fresh soil, or what? Pray for me and my little plants.

 

OK, transplant done. There's no real point to pictures right now, since the plants haven't changed, just the soil. But I'll come back tomorrow with new pictures.

I had to use some Miracle-Gro soil for Iggy, and exclusively Miracle-Gro potting soil for Honey (my old bag of loam ran out, and the only kind of soil I could get at the stores was the miracle grow). It may not be ideal, but it's the only thing I could do. Fingers crossed everyone!