Flowering for 6 weeks, is this a problem?

Since there are 100 folks in this forum and only 5 in Plant Problems, I'm going to take a stab here. You can goto https://www.rollitup.org/cfl-growing/50550-poppinsmokey-s-first-grow-cfl-9.html to see how these plants were doing yesterday and 3 days ago.

These plants looked pretty green yesterday other than the fan leaves on the bottom; but I understand that is to be expected. It had been 8 days since their last watering. The soil's pH was 6.3 yesterday, so i pH'ed my water to about 6.1 and gave them the standard amount of water they've been taking for about a month. When I put them to bed last night they looked good and happy.

I wake up this morning to find that the entirety of one plant is yellowing nearly everywhere (fan leaves, bud leaves). The smallest of bud leaves are still dark green, but leaves that were green yesterday at 5:00 p.m. are completely yellow or nearly yellow this morning. The stems look healthy and green. The soil's pH is about 5.5, which is not too unusual the day after a watering. The soil is MG.

This is my first grow, so there is a good chance I'm overreacting to a normal part of the plant's life cycle. However, if there is a problem that I can do somthing about, I'd love to know what that is. The strain is PPPf from nirvana. Thanks in advance to anyone that can help!

I just rechecked the soil's pH, and while most (80%) of the spots I checked are 5.5 - 6.2 there are some (10 - 20%) spots where the pH is reading about 4.0. What causes this, and could this be my problem? Could it be salt buildup that is locking them out? In either case would flushing w/ water at pH 7.0 - 7.3 be a potential solution with little downside. This strain's flowering time is usually 56 days, and today is day 42 of flowering. Sorry for replying to my own thread, but the lights go out in 5.5 hrs and if something is getting done today I probably need to get on it. Thanks in advance!

I will try to help.my last grow went similar but not as bad higher up the plant.Someone stated that I needed more Nitrogen.I would say it is defiencient in something for sure.i would try a quick N application.May I say and It not for eveyone but piss will get to them quick or fish mix or liquid seaweed.At least to slow it down.You do get yellowing during flower but nearing the end more so.IMO Hope this helps and good luck to ya. Showgirl

You say your using MG.Then it has a PH buffer so you don't need to worry about the ph. I made that mistake too.Flushing is a good idea.Showgirl

Thanks for the reply showgirl! I'm using the time released MG soil, and Garden Knowm and other have mentioned that there are still plenty of nutes available in the soil at this time. I don't really have any food here for them (I have some on order for my next goMy limited knowledge leads me to believe it is nute lock due to either bad pH or salt buildup. I've been watering w/ pH'd tap water. Again thank you for you input.

Seems like a normal process....you got about 2 weeks left, its kind of like fall for the plants...they will turn yellow and fall off. You are probably close to starting flushing too....Not sure why they would turn so fast...???

Yeah, GC I'm hoping this is a just a normal process of late flowering. The abrubt change is what has me confounded. I'm mean if you just compare the pics of the plants from 3 days ago to today, it is staggering. These changes occured literally overnight and 20 hours following a watering. I included a pic of the whole plant from about 3 days ago below.

keep in mind i'm not an experienced grower but this abrupt yellowing doesn't seem normal to me. why would a plant turn mostly yellow over night? that can't be gentics can it?i am wondering about your PH being way too low. isn't 6.5 about right for soil? what are you measuring your PH with? the fact that you are getting some readings in the 4.0 range scares me. thats very acidic. for what my opinion is worth i would flush it with lots of clear tap water as soon as you can. let us know what happens please. good luck!

doesn't look like a burn to me. When is the last time you game them nutes?

just thinking out loud here. i think you'll know really soon if you burnt them with too low of PH water. your pix prior to this event look very nice so i would guess you would have seen a nute defiency sooner. soil is more forgiving than hydro so this sudden change seems very odd. i suppose a nute lock out can happen abruptly, if so that still would suggest a real good flushing. i wish you good luck! if i'm totally wrong on this let me know!

I'm been kind of taking a a wait and see approach. Both plants got the same water and only one plant is turning yellow around the bud sites. I'm using MG soil, so the nutes they get are from the time release in the soil. I pH my water with a pH test kit from HTG. I pH my soil with a soil pH meter w/ the 2 probes that go into the soil about 4" or so.

This isn't the first time I've had hot spots in the soil with regards to pH. This is the first time I've noticed any possible pathology associated with this. Keep in mind most of the pot is at a reasonalbe pH for cannibis (about 5.9). However there are more spots in the yellowing plant that are lower pH.

I haven't read where a flush can hurt, so I think I'm going to try that unless someone stops me in the next hour or so. Thanks for the help!

it's either a nute lockout or a nute deficiency. The nute lockout would be caused by the ph indifference. The deficiency, which i believe it looks like, is from lack of feeding. Perhaps try some foliar feeding with a very weak nutrient solution, i suggest maybe 1/4 strength? also here is a chart for ph and nutrient uptake.

I flushed w/ pH'ed distilled water followed by distilled water. While I was waiting for all the water to drain, I harvested about 10 grams dry. I quick dried (Microwave Steam quick dry - Processing Marijuana Forum - Hip Forums) 5 grams of it. For being approximately 2 weeks early and being quick dried it smokes decent and delivers a moderate to strong high. After I was done flushing and let it rest for a couple of hours I rechecked the pH of the soil. It had gone from 4 to 6.5! I'm hoping this was the problem. If it wasn't, I will try another solution. Thank for the help!

Hey Bud (pun intended),

You've got a great looking plant and you're almost there. Yellowing is a natural occurence towards the end of the flowering cycle, and is actually desirable as most of the plant's energy is going into the buds instead of the leaves. Though yours yellowed pretty quickly, I wouldn't be too worried. Try some nitrogen (diluted urine if you're cheap) and start flushing in about a week and a half. Neon green buds against a yellow leaf background is actually really sweet.

Cheers

hey, so what happened? HOW IS SHE LOOKING TODAY? your plants looked really nice and i hope that yellowing was just weirdness.

Its natural my friend. If your plants genetics was grown outdoor and its used to growing for such times and seeing a "real" fall season. This is normal..

Looks perfectly fine to me..6 weeks is a lot, My plants (sativas) are on day 48 and starting to yellow. ( i have 3 plants of the same strain, but one of them is yellowing faster than the others) its all genetics.

Goodluck!

im having the same problem. i was thinkin its normal too. i was just the sudden change in one and not the others that boggled me. and even the leaves up top are yellowing. hhmmmmm ima just wait and see how it goes. flowers look incredible just the leaves are affected