I have been a bad bad care taker

These girls have been in flower for almost 4 weeks. The looked good back in veg, imo. Somehow I lied to my self along the way and now I'm realizing I was wrong.

I have been feeding fox farms trio (obviously stopped the grow big) as well as the ff micro trio mix (cha ching, etc). Both as directed. Defaulting mostly to less. They are planted in ff Ocean forest and happy frog mix with extra perlite.

Incoming water tested in the neutral range for pH. Has really high iron though.

Light schedule is solid. Watering is every other to every three days depending if I give them a good soak or just a water.

This change was barely noticable at first and I figured at that rate the plants would make it the rest of the time as the middle to tops looked really good. I also expected some leaf discoloration and drop as they went 12 12.

I think I need to lay off feeding and flush.

For clarification, the plant in the very middle is on a different timeline.

Input?

It looks like you are either suffering from salt build up and or root lock
What size pots?

EDIT: I just noticed , you are not watering to runoff?

Leach the soil with PH'd water.
Let dry.
Feed with your regular nute regimen at half strength, plus Recharge (https://www.amazon.com/Real-Growers-Recharge-8oz/dp/B00J1CAEIG/) to gain some bennies.
That's where I'd start.

Using fabric pots, I don't see salt build up on the outside or bottom of the pots. I know that's not a confirmation.

I have been having operator error with watering and the fabric pots. I do have drip pans and I do water typically until water is coming out of the pots BUT I am not trying to get a lot of water out of the pots and into the pans as I'm inside. Could that be an issue? In the past I have used plastic pots and naturally had water pour out but I wasnt in a tent and didn't care as I was in an outside building and water could run out.

drsaltzman said:

Leach the soil with PH'd water.
Let dry.
Feed with your regular nute regimen at half strength, plus Recharge (https://www.amazon.com/Real-Growers-Recharge-8oz/dp/B00J1CAEIG/) to gain some bennies.
That's where I'd start.

Click to expand...

What is PH'd water? And by leach the soil do you mean like a good soak or a flush?

Mr. Bakerton said:

What is PH'd water? And by leach the soil do you mean like a good soak or a flush?

Click to expand...

PH the soil to about 6.5 and a good flush , yes

Herb & Suds said:

PH the soil to about 6.5 and a good flush , yes

Click to expand...

Herbs and Suds said PH the soil but he meant the water.
Just get about a 6.5 PH level in your water and flush (leach) the soil.
Get plenty of runoff. Lots.
Wait until the pots are dry and then continue your feeding at 1/2 strength.
If you can get Recharge, I'd keep some on hand.
It helps keep your soil in good shape which in turn does the same for your plants.
This has worked for me like a charm when my plants get fussy.

Mr. Bakerton said:

Using fabric pots, I don't see salt build up on the outside or bottom of the pots. I know that's not a confirmation.

I have been having operator error with watering and the fabric pots. I do have drip pans and I do water typically until water is coming out of the pots BUT I am not trying to get a lot of water out of the pots and into the pans as I'm inside. Could that be an issue? In the past I have used plastic pots and naturally had water pour out but I wasnt in a tent and didn't care as I was in an outside building and water could run out.

Click to expand...

The issue could be many things.
Leaching the soil is kind of like a reset for the medium.
Get rid of anything building up (doesn't have to show up on the outside of the pots to be affecting the plants), settle the PH in the soil which could be off one way or the other, and the Recharge will add beneficial bacteria to the soil which helps with the PH and your roots.
You could see a benefit in a few days to a week.
Good luck!

I had a plant getting yellow prematurely too. I ended up dropping 5g of water pH'ed to 6.5...dropped my runoff PPM from over 2000 down to 330ppm. Then I didn't wait for it to dry but fed .5g of nutrients (about 1/3rd strength) on the backside of the flush...and by the time it had dried out, any leaves that weren't too far gone headed back to green.

Lockout and your plants are cannibalizing themselves to stay fed.

How do I get pH water? Is this distilled water at the store or do I add something to my water to move it up or down?


Thanks. I'm going to do this asap.

Mr. Bakerton said:

How do I get pH water? Is this distilled water at the store or do I add something to my water to move it up or down?


Thanks. I'm going to do this asap.

Click to expand...

You get a pH meter and test water then use pH adjustment additives to get it to the right place. Distilled water without adjusting can hurt your plants.

drsaltzman said:

Herbs and Suds said PH the soil but he meant the water.
Just get about a 6.5 PH level in your water and flush (leach) the soil.
Get plenty of runoff. Lots.
Wait until the pots are dry and then continue your feeding at 1/2 strength.
If you can get Recharge, I'd keep some on hand.
It helps keep your soil in good shape which in turn does the same for your plants.
This has worked for me like a charm when my plants get fussy.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the correction ...exactly !

Yep. pH was low. About 4.5. yikes. Not sure how that happened, I guess over feeding. My water is good. The soil should have been awesome. Will test it when I get the bag back out.

Thanks for the help! I didn't have this issue on previous grows. Biggest change was the ff soils. Previously I was growing in an organic non fertilized soil.

Mr. Bakerton said:

How do I get pH water? Is this distilled water at the store or do I add something to my water to move it up or down?


Thanks. I'm going to do this asap.

Click to expand...

I'm moving towards more inert soil in my next grow. More control over what happens with it without as much guesswork about how hot it is and what that means. I guess that slowly steps my towards hydro eventually, but there's a pleasing nature to having seeds in soil.

Wanted to give an update. Almost a month later. That was rough,.

I was able to PH flush. My incoming water source varies wildly (like +-2.0) and I have yet to figure that out. I have been using my dehumidifier water when possible as it has very little TDS (40) and easily adjusts to PH up. My well water can take a bit more solution at times to bring it up( its pretty hard and has a lot of particles, dirt and iron).

My plants continued to loose a ton of leaves. However they did appear to start to put on bud growth. Actually its almost a tad concerning as the lower buds appear to be wrapping up and the top ones are packing it on like they just started. The timeline says this plant should be ready for harvest in a week or two, it looks weeks away from that, at least the top buds.

Oh I did purchase the ReCharge, cal/mag and as stated PH+. I'm still feeding but at much less intervals.

Not a great run. Not a bad run for the first time in my new house/setup I guess. I was very lucky before, never had any of these troubles. Now I need an adjustment plan going forward.

Thanks for the help!

Just realized those pics have a tad more age on them than I thought. These are fresh. Look at that amazing fall color.