Assistance with first grow, yellowing leaves on Short Rider/NL

Hello rollitup crew, first time post regarding my first grow. So much useful information on these forums, I've learned a lot already and feel quite indebted to the cannabis community in general and Rollitup in particular for being so open and helpful. After trying to grow shroomies a while back and finding the online fungal community somewhat unhelpful, it's refreshing to find such a friendly cannabis scene. So thanks to all of you

On to the matter at hand...I've got a 57 day old autoflower plant that's definitely well into the flowering stage, buds are starting to swell up and such. The strain is either Nirvana Short Rider or Nirvana Northern Lights (planted one of each but got the seeds mixed up during germination, stupid noob mistake that I'll be careful not to repeat). So far things have been pretty smooth, except for a couple of instances of burns from the CFL bulbs due to unanticipated stretching. Over the last 3-4 days I've noticed that this plant's leaves have started to get pretty yellow, and I'm a little concerned something may need fixing. I know it's normal for bottom leaves to start yellowing as harvest time nears, but the yellowing is pretty evenly distributed throughout the plant, with one odd exception - the middle parts of the plant remain dark green, and look very healthy. It's just the top and the bottom parts that are looking pretty yellow. The bottom looks like it's nothing out of the ordinary for this stage, but I'm a little worried things might be getting too yellow on top, considering i'm only just entering week 9 it seems a little early. I was thinking about adding a little bit of Veg nutes to my next feeding to see if it helps, but I definitely want to be careful of overdoing it on the nitrogen when harvest time may be just a few weeks away. What do you guys think? Should I stick with flowering nutes as normal and just let the plant do its thing?

A couple of other things that have me concerned/may be related:
1) A number of the leaves have turned pretty dark around the tips (second picture). Definitely not light burn as I've moved the lights to prevent any more burns, I haven't been able to find any info on what it might be though.

2) Buds on the bottom and middle parts of the plant are showing good crystal formation, but I can spot nary a crystal among the top buds. I've examined them with a loupe and everything but can't really see any crystals on the buds themselves or the sugar leaves. What could be causing this? Is it normal for the upper buds to have delayed crystal formation?


Some details:
1) Got around 240 watts of CFLs running 20/4
2) Fox Farms Ocean Forest Soil with a little extra perlite
3) Been pretty careful about keeping the ph between 6 and 7, usually 6.3-6.5

Any advice or other sharing of experience would be super-duper appreciated. Thanks friends!

Looks like they are yellow because they are flushing. Also looks like your over watering. BTW this is my first post on rollitup

Nice! Thanks for the feedback! I'm not sure I understand your meaning though...you mean the overwatering is causing the yellowing?

Forgot to mention a couple of things:

1) Humidity has been pretty low the past couple of weeks (30-40%, sometimes dipping down into the 25-30% range)
2) Temps have been around 76-80 F in the tent, closer to 82/3 F under the lights
3) Using Fox Farms Nutrient Trio for Soil, plus some blackstrap molasses and cal mag here and there
4) I noticed my stems have been looking redder over the past week +
5) The dark spots (possible nute burn/deficiency) on the tips of the leaves can also be found along many of the leaves' serrated edges

I would add a splash of veg nutes on your next feed ...... it looks like youre pushing the bloom nutes a bit hard ....... and if I had to guess you still have 3+ weeks left in my honest opinion ...... i know it sounds like a long time but yield will make up for it ........ the buds look to have alot of swelling to do still ...... CFL grows tend to take longer total ..... nute burn or the lights being too close can burn the trichs off ...... if i had to guess i would say nute burn ....... how much are you feeding them and how often ? Less is more when it comes to feeding auto's and they require a bit of N through flower ........ I'm not going to start a flushing debate but honestly unless youre cramming a bunch of un needed nutes in them then i would be more concerned with chopping at the proper time ..... drying and cure ........ ive done it all kinds of ways fed up until chop , flushed and just stop feeding them for a week before chop ....... it all comes out the same ...... the difference is whether or not the plant was starved the last couple weeks of development or not ...... now i just feed as normal until right before chop then i just feed water for a couple days then let them dry up for a few days before i chop em it helps with drying after its hung

plants look great ...... nice job with the first grow

Hey tedkdc thanks a lot for the encouragement and helpful suggestions! I've been trying to feed only once a week at most since about week 5 and erring on the "light feeding" side...last time I fed it was 7 days ago, with 1/4 dose FF Tiger Bloom, full dose FF Big Bloom, and 1 tbsp molasses. I watered it three days ago with ph'd water (accidentally rose it a little higher than intended, to 6.7 that time). Good to know I've still got some time before harvest, honestly I was worried it was coming up sooner rather than later, it being my first grow I'm still pretty unfamiliar with the telltale signs of maturity/ripening.

I was wondering if I should go up to 1/2 dose Tiger Bloom this time around, since it does contain a bit of nitrogen. Maybe a splash of veg nutes, like you said, would do the trick.

Now that you point it out I have been keeping my bulbs very close to the buds, not close enough to burn them but pretty damn close. I didn't know trichs could be burned off like that. I'll try to move them away a bit and see if it helps.

Thanks again for sharing your experience! Mighty helpful!

it would be a safe bet that whatever youre feeding it at full str is probably a bit much ......... i feed mine in small doses multiple times a week ....... anytime you can say youre feeding at full str its safe to say its not a lite feeding even if its just once a week

personally i would hold off on a bloom feed and just give it a lite veg feed like less then 1/4 str

ohh btw there are a bunch of helpful people that grow shrooms here too ....... just have to click the right sub forum and youll get loads of knowledge

thanks again tekdc, good tips.

I recently noticed some flying insects around my plants...so that may be the problem. Not sure if they're fungus gnats or root aphids, but I think it has to be one of those two since I can't find any critters on the leaves/branches, just around the soil, especially when I lightly shake the pot. I haven't been able to get a good look at one, but I'll bet that's what's been causing the problem... I just hope it's not too late to salvage my plants

Any advice on what to do if it's root aphids? I'm not very optimistic about eradicating them completely, since the research i've done over the past couple of hours has led me to believe they're pretty tough to get rid of. Is there any reason I would have to scrap the plants? If it's just a matter of having to settle for a lower yield/lower quality bud, I can live with that. What would you do?

I would let my pot dry up , clean all trays or anything that has standing water ....... put out sticky traps a few of them ..... apple cider vinegar and water like 1/2 and 1/2 i think and a couple drops of dish soap in a bowl and just set it next to your plant or on the soil will trap them also, you just leave it in the bowl dont water with it or nothing its a trap.. i didnt even think about gnats but yes it could be very likely that could be the issue if they are established ............ root aphid's ..... are a different story ...... burn the soil in a pile then scrape up the ashes ........ mix them in concrete and form a block ........ throw the block in the ocean ............ and sell the house .......... no but really everything has to be cleaned beyond clean to get rid of them all infected soil discarded and your tent has to be hard core cleaned ........ like so clean you would be scared to eat off of it due to the chemical residue possibly left behind

Thanks man. Damn pests messing with my first grow...i managed to get a picture of one of the fliers, it definitely looks like a fungus gnat as opposed to an aphid (whew). I may go out and pick up some apple cider today and try your bowl suggestion. I've also got some hydrogen peroxide sitting around, I read that can be an effective way to deal with them. I'll upload the pic a little later.

Ended up getting close to 2 Os off of her, not the stickiest flowers in the world but they're decently dense, they vape all right and I'm satisfied with the stone. All in all close to 4 Os for my three plants ain't too bad for a first harvest

After cutting her I checked the roots and found a good number of ants, but couldn't find anything in the way of gnats or aphids. I definitely need to make my soil airier next time, there were some parts that were too damp, possibly some root rot damage involved. Already stocked up on perlite for the next grow.

Thanks for the assistance tekdc!

Looks fine to me. If this is really your first grow, you won, its good.