Hey Fam! I’m in my 1st grow with (2) Citradelic Sunset Autos, (1) Banana Split auto (1) Deliozsa auto.
They’re in 5gal fabric pots with Fox Farms Ocean Forest soil, earthworm castings, and all purpose and bloom dry amendments.
These girls are starting to look sad or something and I don’t know what’s wrong. Can anyone help point me in the right direction?
A little hard to say without more information but the first question that I would ask is what is the moisture content of the soil? Too dry, too wet ? Blumat makes a moisture meter that I find useful or you can just lift the pot or even weigh it to measure dry down.
Also any of those large droopy or yellow fan leaves that look sad can be removed to redirect the energy to the flower and new growth. It looks like you are pretty far into flower and those big leaves can block bud sites and create larf. Plants like to be trimmed and helped along. Just be careful you don’t want to over stress the plant especially in flower. Don’t take more then 10% of the fan leaves at a time and you should be fine.
The bud sites need light and air movement to realize their potential. Big fan leaves especially sick ones can cause disease and they create micro climates that can be ideal for Powdery Mildew etc.
Now that wont fix the problem but if you get the moisture in the sweet spot and focus on the health of new growth and the flowers you should be able to get her back on track.
Also, environment is EVERYTHING and is 70% of the game. If you don’t already use VPD instead of humidity and temp then I would start. It was a game changer for me. Just like PH you gotta keep VDP in the sweet spot or the plant can’t do its thing. I like .8-1 VDP for veg and 1-1.3 VPD for flower.
Forget nutes, genetics, everything, unless your environment isn’t dialed in to the plants needs then everything else is waste of money in my opinion.
Hey @RhodeIslandRed the environment has been around 77 - 78 degrees and between 50 - 60% RH. Let me see what the VPD is.
Edit: VPD is at 1.5
This might be hard to see but you can definitely google and find similar charts.
Every grow is different but you need to keep the VPD in a zone that encourages maximum transpiration.
If you bring it back to a 1 and don’t push it so hard the plant may perk up. If not then at least you’ve ruled that out. also air movement and exchange is important.
It is a very interesting topic and one that has had a lot of discussion as of late. This article digs into it pretty deep.
I am a bit uncomfortable here. I consider myself an amateur but I do have more than 5 years experience so maybe I can help.
Here’s my 2 cents……
I’m repeating what was already stated……. under or overwatering is possible. Any reading you do, likely under/over watering will be the first thing mentioned. How often do you water on average and how much water are you using? (I know that’s not easy to answer. The amount of water you use, when your done watering is there water running out of the cloth pot (not dripping)?)
The good news is if this is the case recovery is easy. Either slow down watering or slightly increase watering. The time it takes for the plants response should only be a few days (potentially overnight).
My opinion, ideally, you want to spend time inspecting when lights turn on and repeat the inspection prior to lights turning off everyday or as frequent as possible. Get a notebook take notes, document for each strain when your watering and feeding plus document what was found during the inspection. Note, you should assume each plant is different and especially each strain is different. Do what your normally do. Overtime you may find certain plants or strains like different amounts of water and/or light and/or nutrient levels. Some plants and strains have higher/lower sensitivity levels. For example, the first strain I had was very forgiving. The found this out when I moved on to another strain.
Water when the plants are ready, (watering every x days is okay best way is when they are ready.)
You have 4 going with three unique strains. Are they all in the same condition?
My gut feeling is it’s nutrient or pH related problem.
Are you monitoring pH? pH is very important. When I have issues I monitor soil pH and runoff pH. Rarely
I need to do that. I always monitor the water pH prior to watering.
If you do start taking notes, I recommend when you inspect note what the bottom, middle and top of plant looks like. Another thing to do is gently tug a leaf bottom, middle and top. Document if leaf’s break off very easily. Document how new growth looks and how old looks. This can be very helpful when trying to identify deficiencies.
You got 4 plants 3 strains. Since your a beginner (don’t take that the wrong way) Keep your self in check. My opinion/recommendation, stick with one strain and go with 2-3 plants. Try to master the strain or just get some experience before going to multiple. Every strain has a sweet spot. (It’s not that drastic but it’s enough to where you should assume that’s the case.)
I didn’t find your nutrients online. Can you provide a link?I’m not familiar. My opinion only, I tend to add some extra calcium by default.
You started with fresh/new soil. When did you start adding nutrients?
I think I am rambling here. So stopping here. I’ll keep an eye out for a response. Hope I’m helping.
It looks like improper watering to me but it could be a number of different things.
Hey @LuckyRadar thank you for your response. I had been on the fence about whether or not it was over/under watering or maybe pH issue but the pH of the medium is at 6.3. I water when the pot feels lighter. I found a cannabis deficiency chart and it’s looking like is a potassium deficiency. I am going to try adding some kelp meal.
Personally I would remove those yellow leaves and focus on the new growth and the flower. I would also not add anything. There is a tendency to want to buy something or add something when things go wrong - think cal/mag - but often the plant just needs the correct ph & moisture in the medium and the right environment/VPD for the cultivar which is determined by its genetics. When everything is dialed in my main job is waiting as the plant does most of the work.
Every time I look at your pics I think over watering or the start of a pH problem.
My recommendation for the next step is to let the soil dry out such that when you put your finger in the soil it’s bone dry for the first 2-3 inches of soil then water with pH around 6.6. Consider doing this for two water cycles.
I like to wait until the plant starts to begin drooping before I water. My gut feeling is it’s good for the soil and the plant.
In the end, whatever you choose to do, take a systematic approach. Stay disciplined. One variable at a time. Have patience. I recommend starting with the water experiment because it’s a short experiment (or shorter than experimenting with nutrients)
If you go with potassium I’d go with a liquid concentrate so that it’s more immediately available to the plant. Anytime I use liquid concentrate I use 50 percent of the recommended dosage.
Good luck mate. Keep us posted. (We are counting on you lol I joke)
Order some Sustee’s to stick in your soil. They are passive moisture meters that have a section that changes color to blue when water is sufficient, and turns back to white when it’s time to water again. It will take the guess work and the learning curve out of watering, as I can’t help but to agree that this appears to be your issue.
I personally would rule out deficiency if you’re growing in Ocean Forest, because your plants aren’t large enough or old enough to have gone through the nutrients that it should still have available. If anything, just transplant to a larger fabric pot with more ocean forest to re-supplement nutrients, because potassium toxicity isn’t something you want either.
If you can, raise the pots and have a drain tray beneath the raised area so that they never sit in the runoff water, and the bottom portion of the fabric pot gets actively aerated. Let them dry out til the pots feel like they barely weigh anything, and the top 1 inch of soil is bone dry, if just using tactile measures and not a meter.
You’re VPD is on point so it’s not your environment, and so is your PH, so you’re not experiencing nutrient lock out. Has to be your moisture content bro.
Hit us back with some updates when they come. Good luck my dude!
I appreciate the dope insight that you’re dropping for me. I ordered the self watering trays from AC Infinity. Hopefully they’ll be here soon.
Those meters you mentioned sounds clutch!! Looking into those right now. I appreciate you @GrowMoDroBro and @LuckyRadar for sharing your wisdom and experience.
I’m definitely going to keep you all updated.
Amp
Just checking in. Any updates/progress?
Next time try fox farm happy frog or fox farm strawberry fields, the ocean forest is a little hot, I had a lot of problems with the ocean forest. also if you are using nutrients/feeding cut back the dose there is a lot of what they already need in the soil. I have to agree with @RhodeIslandRed too it does look overwatered.
Hey @LuckyRadar theyre still looking a little sad but they’re putting up a pretty good fight too. I’ll post pics when I get back home. I’m about 3 weeks away from when we should be going to dry. They’re getting thicker and smellier.
