Flowering phase(s) - How, why and when do the leaves start falling off?

[tomuch]

I've done four grows from start to finish, but always different strains, and the last time we did a grow with my mate, we had a bubbler-setup, which my friend managed 100%, I mainly assisted. Now, this is 8 years ago, and now I'm not sure how, why and when leaves start falling off flowering plants.

My plant is originally a mystery-seed, now at day 15 of flowering. Only PK since I flipped (yes, early, but small doses). Anyway - I've understood that while flowering the top of the plant sucks the nutrition from bottom leaves, and might even leave a plant almost leaf-less, so to speak, when it's time for harvest.

Can someone tell me if this correct, and perhaps tell me some other reasons why this happens, to what strains etc? Thank you in advance.

Tomas

 

[Final Phase]

Your memory has not failed you. Leaves begin to dry up from about week 4 of flowering, then the majority of the leaves at end are around around the buds and colas...

 

[caveman117]

if your plant is happy than in most scenarios the plant won't start to drastically lise leaves until the very end of flower. I personally have nutrient/ph issues and my plants start to go yellow around week3/4. this hurts my yield quite a bit so I'm in the process of working my problems out.

from what I understand there are four flowering phases, preflower, early flower, peak flower and finishing. each different phase has an optimum nutrient regiment that works the best fpr it. I have been told and read that you dont want to completely stop nirrogen until the middle of peak flowering. which could be a suporting cause of your yellowing.

take my advice with a grain of salt btw. I havent quite figured out how to keep my plants green and lush through flower, these are just my thoughts on what should work in theory.

 

[tomuch]

if your plant is happy than in most scenarios the plant won't start to drastically lise leaves until the very end of flower. I personally have nutrient/ph issues and my plants start to go yellow around week3/4. this hurts my yield quite a bit so I'm in the process of working my problems out.

from what I understand there are four flowering phases, preflower, early flower, peak flower and finishing. each different phase has an optimum nutrient regiment that works the best fpr it. I have been told and read that you dont want to completely stop nirrogen until the middle of peak flowering. which could be a suporting cause of your yellowing.

take my advice with a grain of salt btw. I havent quite figured out how to keep my plants green and lush through flower, these are just my thoughts on what should work in theory.

Thanks for your input. I don't yet have yellow leaves, excvept 3-5 somewhat "drying up" leaves at the very bottom. I haven't given N at all now since the flip, and I've also understood that the flowering phases are four, not just the one. What do you think, should I just attempt to leave as many leaves until they fall off, despite them maybe even putting shade over some lower buds, or should I just take off some of the "non-sugar" leaves, that are more like fan leaves, to give more light to the buds? My plant is in a sort of "bowl" form. I don't have a picture of it, except the top buds taken today. I'll put them here just so you can see the color of the plant. It's consistant throughout the whole plant as I said. I think, that if I don't give any more N to it, I'll just be careful not to over-nute with PK that I'm using, to keep the lady as healthy as it now is.

Any input is VERY welcome!

Yours,
Tomas

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[Diabolical666]

Give N till wk 6, then you wont have any drastic yellowing. Uptill wk six it is taking ALOT of energy to produce, shit...even after, but you have stored then

 

[240sxing]

Yeah lack of nitrogen which is a natural thing the only way I've kept leaves green was with slight N toxicity.

 

[tomuch]

Sorry for the HPS being on when taking the pictures. I just thought I'd show you more of my plant than just the top(s). What do you think? Strain: Still a mystery to be honest... Smells like "green" and lemon +piss!

Tomas​

 

[pseudobotanist]

You're not feeding nitrogen hence the loss of leaves.

 

[tomuch]

You're not feeding nitrogen hence the loss of leaves.

Yeah, that seems to be the case/issue here. Actually, I think I mentioned that I don't have the "falling leaves" issue yet, but that I'm quite sure it's gonna start very soon. I found ONE yellowish leave, that fell off when I touched its stem, 2min ago - lol. So.. I guess we're in for an interesting experiment, read below.

So - now I did something interesting. Since I'm out of good N-P-K nutrients - I added some soil that has a NPK value of 6-12-24, and a pH of 6,2 (which is ideal according to my experience growing in soil). When I say I added some soil, I mean that the pot wasn't entirely full - so I got maybe 500ml of it added/mixed without raping the valuable roots. Humidity of the soil is 40%. Now, as the plant goes into darkness in 30min, I think it might like the Nitrogen and perhaps start/continue keeping up correct nutrition levels.

This adding-some-soil-thing is something I just thought of by semi-coincidence based on the facts that nitrogen must be the one keeping them green longer, the leaves, I mean. I guess we'll see during this third week (days 15-21) how it works - if it works.

Yours,

Tomas​

 

[PeyoteReligion]

Looks fine, slight leaf drop at the bottom isn't really too much a cause for concern. That said I'd hit with some more N and not worry tooich about it. Plant lookin healthy

 

[tomuch]

Looks fine, slight leaf drop at the bottom isn't really too much a cause for concern. That said I'd hit with some more N and not worry tooich about it. Plant lookin healthy

Thanks PR - That's what I was thinking too. And since there's no real hurry, the plant is healthy, despite the lower leaves hanging and getting the nutes sucked off of them slowly. I now have perfect N + PK + Water only planned in a careful but not too careful schedule. I'm quite sure I'll get a good result of this lady. Once again thanks, you guys are wonderful!

Yours,
Tomas

 

[bigsteve]

The lower, larger fan leaves will start to yellow just about the same time the flowering plant stops growing vertically. Plants will continue to add height for the first 2-3 weeks at 12/12 as the plant switches from veg to flower mode. Try measuring your gals as soon as they go to 12/12 and see if there is a connection for you. If so that will assure you that your plants are acting normal.

Good luck, BigSteve.

 

[tomuch]

The lower, larger fan leaves will start to yellow just about the same time the flowering plant stops growing vertically. Plants will continue to add height for the first 2-3 weeks at 12/12 as the plant switches from veg to flower mode. Try measuring your gals as soon as they go to 12/12 and see if there is a connection for you. If so that will assure you that your plants are acting normal.

Good luck, BigSteve.

Yeah, the stretch has been as expected - grown now In 16 days of light and darkness (12/12) maybe 17% in height as well as growing a shitload of new tops and now finally I've had five of the lower-most leaves drop off, getting a little yellow first, then just drying up a little and yeah - dropped. A couple were cut, since I thought it couldn't hurt to do it and not just wait for them to drop tomorrow.

Anyhow, I've given a little N plus miniscule amounts of aminos and cal+mag, that was in the nutes where the N was that I now use for one or two more weeks, in small amounts. Water and PK - and repeat, is what I've done up until now. But I think I'm gonna try out some different feeding techniques despite being in the middle of flowering (or more like the beginning, phase 1 or 2, day 16,5.).

I'll post some pictures tomorrow for you to see how it's developed from lately. It's mad, what a difference a day (or two) makes at this stage..

Yours,

Tomas