Hello, I am in my 5th week of flower on my white widow. I have been getting slightly yellow leaves that eventually turn into brown spots on the leaves. The leaves are also mostly clawing. It seems to only affect 1 or 2 fan leaves around each main cola and a few other middle branches. More recently, a few leaves coming from the buds have started showing similar symptoms. The buds are continuing to grow and fill out. I am using amended fox farms ocean forest with 1/3 perilite and 1tbs dolomite lime per gallon of soil. I have always used distilled water that I pH after the nutrients are added. I have always given 1/3 to 1/2 of the recommended dose of grow big in Veg and switched to Tiger bloom in flower. I never feed twice in a row and usually feed water at least once, usually twice before I feed again. After doing some research, I concluded that it was most likely a calcium deficiency and started feeding 2/3 the recommended dose of cal mag(2mL). A local shop tested my soil ph at 6.3 so there should be no issue there. The water is always 7 before nutes are added and usually closer to 5 after adding nutes, I usually have to add about 3-4 mL of PH Up to get the PH in check. I started seeing this when I switched to flower and I am hoping the experts here can help me out! I have pictures and will take more right after the lights go out. Thank you in advance. Cliff Notes: Strain: White widow Soil:FFOF 1/3rd perilite, 1tbs dolomite lime per gallon Pot- 5 gallon plastic pot with drainage holes Light- MarsHydro 300w(60x5) 3 20w actual cfl to supplement Space- 2.5x3x6 closet Temperatures- 78-81 during the day and 71-75 at night Humidity-45-65 I usually open the door when the lights are on if the humidity is too high and run my dehumidifier Fans- 2 clip on fans set to high
Do you get over flow after watering/ feeding? How often do you water/feed? I thinking the cal/mag is a good idea but your plants look like there hungry. Did you flush before the plant went in to flower?
If I water with one gallon I will get a little bit of runoff that gets absorbed back up fairly quickly. I water every 3-4 days when the soil is very dry and the pit is light. I did not do a complete flush when I switched to flower but watered twice with about 1/2 gallon of distilled water each time.
Ok, start watering every second day. Try and make it so your run off is about 20% of the gallon you put in..if you need to, put the plant in a tray so you don't make a mess. Run off is a good thing. It helps remove unwanted salts in the soil from the nutes. Your plant looks like that because it's building the flower and its using up all it has because your not watering enough...normally when the plant enters flowering, it's going to need more water more frequently. Keep your ph in check and you might be ok for the rest of the grow.
The leaves will get dark in flower, that's normal. The drying out and the narrow look is what's bothering me. You are right when you say you have some nitrogen toxicity and I think that's from not flushing and your watering schedule with little runoff.
I am going to water today with just the cal mag, I will send about half a gallon of pure distilled through about an hour before to see if that helps as well.
I watered Friday and gave 1/2 gallon of distilled water followed up with 1 gallon containing 2ml of cal mag an hour later. Most of the leaves on the plant are clawing down and forming a downward canoe shape. Based on the other symptoms it is displaying, I think it may be nitrogen toxicity. I just noticed a few leaves on the main colas are displaying partial Amber trichomes so I may just use distilled here on out. I am in week six since the 12/12 switch and 8 weeks since pre-flowers showed up.
runoff ph was low, 6 maybe even lower. I have read that the lime I added can screw up that reading though. I do notice that after I water and the runoff gets sucked back up, the tray has a white powdery residue coating it.
Either it's the ph , which the runoff should be 6.0-6.5 or and cal/mag defincey! Cal/mag is usually caused but not laways do to ph. I just had one do that to me and that was the problem, i flushed with good ph'ed 7.0 water and added soem cal/mag to the next watering.....problem solved,
I have recently started using cal mag and will use it one last time before i start to flush. I will also do a "pre-flush" before I feed again, as that seemed to raise my runoff PH to around 6.
Don't let it suck up whats left in the trays/catch pans......that stuff is like a sess pool , the light gets to it , and it sits there and evaporates , leaving a acidic ph behind.....always let them drain! had to edit.....smoked too much!
The white is dried salts (nutes) like going to beach being in ocean you get the salt on your skin once water fries. Yeah toss that junk, don't let it sit if you can help it. If you used hydrated lime (worse kind) that might be a problem. If you're going to use lime as a buffer (I have and it's worked well) use dolomite lime. Lime is suppose to keep you neutral at around 7, so unsure why you're so far off from that.
Wow, I always thought you were to let it get sucked back up. I will have to come up with a way to get it out from under the pot without shaking the plant too much. Maybe I will just use the shop vac.
I did use dolomite line at a ratio of 1tbs per gallon of soil. I did had my soil ph tested by a local hydro shop and I believe it was either 6.2 or 6.3. Nonetheless, I will stop letting it suck up the runoff.