Bottom leaves are yellowing - help!

Hi guys. Newbie grower and experiencing some slowing of growth plus bottom leaves yellowing. Leaves on the nodes above are starting to yellow. Also some new growth are yellowing at the tips. They look to be drooping too. They feel kinda crispy to the touch

i had a heater in there for a bit but it was getting too hot; about 80. Also I think the ph was too high so I ph down on the last water.

They look over watered

Grow So High said:

They look over watered

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My first thought was overwatering aswell but also yellowing on the bottom is Nitrogen def, and the purple stems is sign of CalMag deficiency. At that stage they should get only half strength nutes. Whats your feeding schedule?

etruthfx said:

My first thought was overwatering aswell but also yellowing on the bottom is Nitrogen def, and the purple stems is sign of CalMag deficiency. At that stage they should get only half strength nutes. Whats your feeding schedule?

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my feeding schedule is about every other watering, but I water like once a week to give time for the soil to dry. It stays damp for a long time. I also thought I was over watering it

Hung0va said:

my feeding schedule is about every other watering, but I water like once a week to give time for the soil to dry. It stays damp for a long time. I also thought I was over watering it

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What nutes are you using? Supplementing CalMag?

What soil are you using?

etruthfx said:

What nutes are you using? Supplementing CalMag?

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I’m using sta-green 24-8-16
The soil is also from the same brand, says it’s got fertilizer in it.

Hung0va said:

my feeding schedule is about every other watering, but I water like once a week to give time for the soil to dry. It stays damp for a long time. I also thought I was over watering it

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HO, I don't grow primarily in soil but I think this is a clue to your issue.
How large is the pot that the plant is in?
Looks pretty big, so it will take a long time for it to dry between waterings. That also means the interior is the last to dry and roots will concentrate there. Did you step up pot sizes or were those the originals?
Also, how much of that nutes mix are you using? It's a really hot N mix.

Hay Hung0va,
If you plant in a bigger pot it would be a good idea to do a wet dry cycle. Most of the time people start off in small pots and graduate themselves up to a 5-gallon pot. The idea is the plant will have a good root ball when doing this getting bigger and bigger after each transplant. So when you start on a big pot if you do a wet dry cycle as your soil dries your plant roots will stretch out further trying to find water. Each time your medium dries your plan will continue stretching out its roots to find that water witch build a better Foundation for your plant. Keeping it really wet or moist will have a negative effect on your root ball meaning your plants Roots will not stretch out and get a more wider base. Looking at the pictures of your plant it does look a little malnourished and overwatered. This is just my opinion, I hope it helps. Cheers- G.I.JOSE

Hung0va said:

I’m using sta-green 24-8-16
The soil is also from the same brand, says it’s got fertilizer in it.
View attachment 4489495

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In my opinion here is what I would do. I use promix which is a soilless mixture and dries extremely fast. By using soil it's holding moisture longer and leading to overwattering. Try using a soil mix or promix. The leaves are very dark green because there is an excess of Nitrogen coming from the nutes in the soil AND the bottle nutes combined. They are getting plenty of nitrogen but not enough Calcium/Magnesium. Hope this helps. I would use only bottled nutes or super soil, not both. Keep these in mind when transplanting. Consider using Cocoa added, or even Promix with Cocoa. Using cocoa would use more Ca/Mg than normal but also grow and dry out faster. Ca/Mg normally comes in a separate bottle unless otherwise stated. I don't see CaMg in the nutrient ratios of what you are using that means you need to add it yourself.

Pick that lower yellow stuff off, it will never recover and you will be paranoid. Keep an eye on other lower leaves moving forward. Seriously look at air pots. Although I use NFT I have seen air pots results. Cheap and they work, can wet/dry cycle more

Wow. Thanks for all your help guys. I started from a plastic cup and moved it straight into this 3 gal pot.

here’s what I think I will do.. repot it in the same pot but add something like cocoa into the soil mix to help the drainage

Hung0va said:

Wow. Thanks for all your help guys. I started from a plastic cup and moved it straight into this 3 gal pot.

here’s what I think I will do.. repot it in the same pot but add something like cocoa into the soil mix to help the drainage

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Right, and if the purple stems persist supplement CaMg
Taking a look at the nutes and soil, seems it's from lowes not typical Marijuana cultivating soil and nutes.
If you were growing outdoor, these would be perfect. Unfortunately you are going to run into alot of problems indoor. The first one being the drainage issue, the second being hot soil/nute burn which will carry over and affect you in flowering as you can't get the nitrogen out of the soil for flowering. The nutes are just typical outdoor nutes for regular plants, nothing special. Very high in nitrogen and hot all around you'll be prone to lockout with this setup. I suggest a proper nutrient line and soilless/cocoa mixture, Ionic Nutes are the best, even with Ionic you still have to add Calimag. That is all, Good luck bro.

Hung0va said:

Wow. Thanks for all your help guys. I started from a plastic cup and moved it straight into this 3 gal pot.

here’s what I think I will do.. repot it in the same pot but add something like cocoa into the soil mix to help the drainage

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With soil I would just add 30% perlite. Cheap and easy fix. That will solve the watering issue. Do u have a cheap moisture meeter?

For future problems/diagnosis....


Lose the Sta-Green (I started with the same) and order some

It works

If you do re-pot, use some root growth booster like great white.

Leave them in the same pots, this way you will prevent any shock. Let the pots dry a little more than normal this time and give less amounts of water. Also if you need to feed give a quarter of the amount recommended and build up. they will recover!!!! Work that perlite in the top if you can. that will allow some air flow. this is without repotting. if you repot work the perlite it in the soil. I like the post of deficiencies.

Just want to put my two cents in. From my experience I have done grows where I graduate from Solo cups to number five pots 3 gallon pots to 5 gallon pots and another Grow from Solo Cup to 5 gallon pot. I prefer doing the graduate from 3 gallon to 5 gallon because you get a really good root ball. I'll post a pic of the root balls of the two males that I found that I planted from a solo cup to a 3-gallon pot. You can clearly see the density of where the Solo Cup root ball started and where the root ball grew out to. I prefer to have a more solid root base than this. Like always everybody has their own opinion and experience this is just my two cents. You have to come up with your own way of doing your grow with knowledge you gain
- G.I.JOSE
P.S. these plants were just be gettin their third week of flower.

This is what if done so far: raised the light to about 15-20inches, boiled eggshells and added Epsom salt, letting the soil dry out right now. The top leaves are curling in and has kinda a purple tint on the back. Also they are rusting at the tip. The bottom leaves are getting black spots everywhere.

They need food!!! STAT!