Mary Jane Medic Needed!

First time grower but everything until now has been fairly smooth sailing (I over prepare for everything and have to attribute a good chunk of my success to you guys here at rollitup!).

My closet grow setup:
Light - 400w HPS (ballast turbo'd) w/ glass enclosed reflector hood.
Soil - FOFF
Nutes - Soul Sythetics
5 plants each in 2 gallon pots

Alright so on to my issues.. My girls have been in flower for 23 days now and have been in very good health until about 2 days ago when I started noticing some spots and slight yellowing on one of the plants. I don't have any first hand experience, it being my first grow, and can only go by diagrams/descriptions online. I have an idea what it may be but wanted your opinions.

Things to note when trying to diagnose:
The Soul Synthetics feeding guide has just recently told me to stop giving them their Veg nutes (they call it "Grow" NPK of 3/1.25/1.25 along with a slurry of other helpful stuff including Mg, Fe, Ca, Phosphates) so I weened them off of it around 5 days ago.

I have been using baking soda as pH up for the entire grow (about 1/4 tsp per feeding usually gets me there and I use phosphoric acid for pH down when just watering). I am getting general hydro. pH up on Thursday in case the baking soda has caused salt buildup and thus creating these issues.

I'm not saying I think either of these things caused my deficiencies but just things to note.


Read the descriptions below each picture to get more info. All pictures have been edited with Photoshop to balance to true colors -- DAMN YOU HPS LIGHTING!

http://imgur.com/a/kM6Um <----------PICTURES
(Sorry for link to pictures instead of embedding them into my post, but I'm not sure of the security of doing that. Imgur scrubs info from photos and their albums are fairly convenient.)

Thanks for taking the time to read this and look through the pictures. Cheers and happy growing!

would be helpful if you turned off the hps and used regular light to take the pics, easier to diagnose true colors

Yeah I don't have any other lights in that closet unfortunately. If no one can diagnose it from these pictures I'll grab a lamp or something and see what I can do.

One more thing that I forgot to mention in my original post is that the same plant's new growth is clawing quite a bit in the last few days, but only the new growth. You can see what I'm talking about in the first picture showing the whole grow.

It would not only be good to put a lamp in with them but also upload them from riu instead of photoshop. What are your temps? rh? soil mix ratio or is it straight FFOF? when was the last transplant if any? how much and how often are you watering?

Picture only way to get answer 100 % right

Claude Bawls said:

It would not only be good to put a lamp in with them but also upload them from riu instead of photoshop. What are your temps? rh? soil mix ratio or is it straight FFOF? when was the last transplant if any? how much and how often are you watering?

Click to expand...

I'm using straight FFOF. The last time I transplanted was March 1st. Thinking about increasing into 3 gallon pots, but not sure yet. My temps are 74-78 when the lights are on 70ish when off. I water them every other day about half a gallon between all 5 plants. Feeding them every other time I water (So Monday - H20, Tues - Nothing, Wed - Nutes, Thurs - Nothing, Fri - H20.. etc). I always adjust my ph to about 6.6. Also I always make sure that the pots are dry before watering.

yes you have a deficiency...you need a bloom nutrient with higher P-K than N.

you only use 2 liters for 5 plants in 2 gal pots? seems like you are not watering enough, when you water or feed, do you water until you have a good amount of runoff out of bottom of pots?

( a 2 gal pot should take 1/2 gal... all by itself)

I am using bloom nutes. The Soul Synthetics program I'm using suggests I use their "Bloom", "Amino-Aide", "Grow-N", "Infinity", and "Big Swell" during this stage of flowering, and I have been following their guide since day 1 with good results. I was simply saying that I had cut out one of their nutrient concoctions in the last 5 days and my issues could be a result of that.

Yeah you're probably right about the watering. I have noticed compared to others I do use a lot less water, but in contrast water more frequently than most. I probably get less than half a centimeter of runoff every time I water. I will try using more water and just cut down on my frequency. Maybe it'll help saturate my soil better/flush it more thoroughly between feeds.

I guess I should also point out that the average size of my plants is about 20". They aren't very large.

Like I said earlier though I haven't really had any problems up until now so I'm trying not to change too many variables so I can pinpoint exactly what is going wrong.

I agree with lime and the watering. I am also thinking you may have a root bound issue. I think I would repot into at least 3 gallon. A good rule of thumb is to have 1 gal per foot of plant. Your girls are nearly 2 feet in 1 gallon pots. Plus the amount you are watering is forcing the roots to grow out in search of moisture. So you likely have a hell of a root system there. The big issue is doing a transplant during flowering, may shock the shit out of them. If you have anything like super-thrive I would suggest adding some to the first watering and probably the 2nd as well at 1/2 recommended strength. I would also reduce all the nutes to 1/2 dose for next 2 feedings to give them time to adjust. Remember though if you add 2 gallons of FFOF you are also adding an additional 3 weeks at least of nutes that are in the soil. So be careful with any additional feeding. Hope that helps.

HMM, I did not look at the pics last night because I was unsure of clicking a link here. But, I saw them and they are beautiful for the most part +rep. I would still consider transplanting though look at the drain holes are there roots sticking out? The one with the issue looks like an MG deficiency too me. So if you have access to a store for Cal/mag or Magi-Cal or something like either, you can try that, start small dosage, too little won't hurt, too much will devestate. Good Luck!