LED light bleach before flower - how long should i wait?

Boston710

Member
Hey guys, messed up pretty bad the other day.. I didn't notice my plants had grown so much, and when i noticed the slight bleaching/yellowing between the veins on the leaves i thought they might've just been hungry so I fed them. Took about 4 or 5 days for me to realize my light was just too close! Anyways, im really tight on space in my tent and i think I'll be real tight on height aswell after I flip to flower.. was just wondering how stressful something like this is, and how long I should wait before I flip them. I also lollipopped and defoliated a bunch around the day before I noticed the bleaching. I noticed it about a 8 days ago, and pulled the light up about 4 days ago. Also they are grown from regular seeds, and the strain is MOB x Grapestomper. Thanks!20171231_060350.jpg20171231_060231.jpg20171231_060224.jpg
PS: sorry for the purple hue, forgot to turn my lights on whites.. I'll take better pics tomorrow
 

chemphlegm

Well-Known Member
you wish it was that easy.
your plants are showing NO signs of light bleaching-
thought they were hungry, so you fed more
thought it was the light, you raised the light.
both could cause more issues beware.

but they do show ill nutritional/watering habits

be better if you described your space, temps, rh, ph, substrate, fertilizer, watering habits...then we could get to the bottom of the real issue.

light bleaching:

upload_2017-12-31_7-16-48.jpeg
 

Boston710

Member
you wish it was that easy.
your plants are showing NO signs of light bleaching-
thought they were hungry, so you fed more
thought it was the light, you raised the light.
both could cause more issues beware.

but they do show ill nutritional/watering habits

be better if you described your space, temps, rh, ph, substrate, fertilizer, watering habits...then we could get to the bottom of the real issue.

light bleaching:

View attachment 4065837
Hey thanks, yeah I also kinda thought it was nitrogen toxicity, but I noticed my light is rated from 22-26 inches in veg, and my light was at 14 inches! Lol that's why I thought that.. anyways, i feed with a modified lucas formula, with the general hydro florabloom line. 6ml micro, 9ml bloom, and 1 gram of the kool bloom powder per Gallon, and i ph to 6.8. Also, I feed with 2 waterings between, it usually ends up being about 8 days between feedings, and I let My pots dry out pretty good between waterings, takes about 2-3 days. My rh has been super low, reading "LL" to 25% and temps have been 74-80
 

Boston710

Member
I always had issues with that lucas formula, good luck.
Its a little different than the original formula, haven't had many problems till now, might switch to veg+bloom next time.. for the time being though i need to get this figured out asap, I really need to put them into flower before space gets even more tight. Should I try flushing, then waiting for them to look better, then flip?
 

MichiganMedGrower

Well-Known Member
Bump - It's almost time to water, should I flush? Or is that too stessful?

No need to flush if you mean pouring 5x the pot volume through. That just messes up the cation exchange and washes out stuff.

Just give water to runoff and examine it. Is it dark murky smelly? Is it light yellow and smells ok?

Is the ph very low from salt buildup and the ec high?

If it is bad. Pour more water through til it looks clearer. Then feed with half or so of what you had been and wait and watch for improvement.

Never flower a plant that may have problems before recovery is good advice. Things go much faster in bloom.
 

Boston710

Member
No need to flush if you mean pouring 5x the pot volume through. That just messes up the cation exchange and washes out stuff.

Just give water to runoff and examine it. Is it dark murky smelly? Is it light yellow and smells ok?

Is the ph very low from salt buildup and the ec high?

If it is bad. Pour more water through til it looks clearer. Then feed with half or so of what you had been and wait and watch for improvement.

Never flower a plant that may have problems before recovery is good advice. Things go much faster in bloom.
Okay thanks a bunch, I'll do that next time I water.. My main goal is to just get them healthy asap so I can flip to flower because they are are touching the walls of my tent and I'm worried they're gonna stretch too far when i flip them. Definately not going to flip until they look healthy but I'm going to be challenging my space tent.
 

Boston710

Member
I suggest just lowering the concentration of fertilizer and or watering frequency.
Okay thanks, my schedule is 2 waterings, then a feed. Usually around 8 days between feedings.. Also I feed with general hydro florabloom line. 6ml micro, 9ml bloom and 1 gram of kool bloom powder per gallon. Maybe I should cut down on the kool bloom if my runoff ph is okay? That's the really strong stuff in my formula
 

MichiganMedGrower

Well-Known Member
Okay thanks, my schedule is 2 waterings, then a feed. Usually around 8 days between feedings.. Also I feed with general hydro florabloom line. 6ml micro, 9ml bloom and 1 gram of kool bloom powder per gallon. Maybe I should cut down on the kool bloom if my runoff ph is okay? That's the really strong stuff in my formula

You don’t need the bloom booster. Learn to use the base nutes first.

I only use ocean forest with added large perlite and well water as I transplant up through veg and then pure Blend Pro Grow only in flower when the nutrients are depleted.

I bend my plants in half and tie down the main stem about a week to 10 days in flower to control height and create a bush with good side branching up to the top.

Here is a pic. I keep my plants about 30” tall and 18” away from the 600w lights. I use stands and keep the lights fixed in place. And i LST, supercrop and soft tie branches to stakes as needed through flower to keep control.

The plants are staggared for harvests every week or two.

Hope this helps. :-). Happy new year!
0ED8E00E-39B5-4574-81D2-338B9103B85A.jpeg
 

Boston710

Member
You don’t need the bloom booster. Learn to use the base nutes first.

I only use ocean forest with added large perlite and well water as I transplant up through veg and then pure Blend Pro Grow only in flower when the nutrients are depleted.

I bend my plants in half and tie down the main stem about a week to 10 days in flower to control height and create a bush with good side branching up to the top.

Here is a pic. I keep my plants about 30” tall and 18” away from the 600w lights. I use stands and keep the lights fixed in place. And i LST, supercrop and soft tie branches to stakes as needed through flower to keep control.

The plants are staggared for harvests every week or two.

Hope this helps. :-). Happy new year!
View attachment 4066162
Okay so should I just use the regular lucas formula? It doesn't use the kool bloom powder. And this was a formula a dude gave me, he called it a modified lucas formula i think he just based it off the lucas formula but added some of the kool bloom in to get it more exact, rather than just using micro and bloom.. he said he'd been using it for a bit with no problems so I figured I'd try it out. They seemed like they were loving it before this happened, kinda weird that it would show this far in. Also I'll try to bend the tops down during flower, I'm just really tight on room everywhere. One of the pictures I posted shows what I'm talking about, that's why I really wanted to get them into flower asap
 

chemphlegm

Well-Known Member
Choosing a quality nutrient system and following the package directions has always worked well for me in hydro and pro mix.
trim up your plants if you're tight on room. Your vegging plants should be healthy and also manicured to an appropriate size suitable for your flowering space/your ability to provide needed resources to them in that cycle.
 

MichiganMedGrower

Well-Known Member
Okay so should I just use the regular lucas formula? It doesn't use the kool bloom powder. And this was a formula a dude gave me, he called it a modified lucas formula i think he just based it off the lucas formula but added some of the kool bloom in to get it more exact, rather than just using micro and bloom.. he said he'd been using it for a bit with no problems so I figured I'd try it out. They seemed like they were loving it before this happened, kinda weird that it would show this far in. Also I'll try to bend the tops down during flower, I'm just really tight on room everywhere. One of the pictures I posted shows what I'm talking about, that's why I really wanted to get them into flower asap


I don’t use “Lucas formula” or any other tricks. I suggest following the directions on the bottles at about 50% of directions if you don’t know how to fertilize.

Managing plants gets easier with practice. Just leave one out if they are too crowded.
 

Boston710

Member
No need to flush if you mean pouring 5x the pot volume through. That just messes up the cation exchange and washes out stuff.

Just give water to runoff and examine it. Is it dark murky smelly? Is it light yellow and smells ok?

Is the ph very low from salt buildup and the ec high?

If it is bad. Pour more water through til it looks clearer. Then feed with half or so of what you had been and wait and watch for improvement.

Never flower a plant that may have problems before recovery is good advice. Things go much faster in bloom.
Okay, so I just tested my runoff, it was pretty light colored, no bad smell just smelled like soil. But the ph was 7.16, could this be a zinc deficiency? It looks like the pictures I've seen, and they say it comes from high ph.. I just gave my plant 3 gallons of water at 6.5ph. Now the runoff is at 6.85. Also the runoff ppm was 640. Should I just keep trying to lower my ph?
 

MichiganMedGrower

Well-Known Member
Okay, so I just tested my runoff, it was pretty light colored, no bad smell just smelled like soil. But the ph was 7.16, could this be a zinc deficiency? It looks like the pictures I've seen, and they say it comes from high ph.. I just gave my plant 3 gallons of water at 6.5ph. Now the runoff is at 6.85. Also the runoff ppm was 640. Should I just keep trying to lower my ph?
No. I just thought they needed a little clean out and a bit less nutes. I would leave it with the info you are providing.

Takes a couple to three days to be sure of improvement. Time to hurry up and wait! :-)
 

Boston710

Member
No. I just thought they needed a little clean out and a bit less nutes. I would leave it with the info you are providing.

Takes a couple to three days to be sure of improvement. Time to hurry up and wait! :-)
Okay thanks. Is 640ppm too high? That was from the first bit of runoff that started coming from the bottom, not after the 3 gal went thru. Also the water I used was about 160ppm
 

MichiganMedGrower

Well-Known Member
Okay thanks. Is 640ppm too high? That was from the first bit of runoff that started coming from the bottom, not after the 3 gal went thru. Also the water I used was about 160ppm

Well I was saying not to run that much water through if you didn’t have to but only the final runoff will tell you how to proceed.

If you poured 3 gallons of water through the nutes were washed out more.

I don’t know now if they are hungry or overfed.

Runoff is not exactly accurate. I keep notes to see trends over time. If you keep overfeeding the ppm will rise and the ph will fall. Over time.

And there are too many variables to know how much to feed. Everything is a just a guideline. Each Grow is different. Each room is different. Each plant is......

Well you get the point. How to feed and water is the “art” part. You will learn to know what they need with practice.

I rarely feed above 1.0 ec or 500 ppm but I feed every watering each 2 or 3 days for a mature flowering plant in a 3-5 gallon pot. and the average is probably only .8ec.

I also slowly taper the strength up as they stretch and bloom and back down as they ripen.

And I again don’t use any bloom nutes. Boosters or additives. Just a balanced complete Grow nute.

If you err on the side of light feeding you will always have better results than over feeding was the best tip I ever got.

Second best tip was let the pots dry out more.

:-)
 

Boston710

Member
Well I was saying not to run that much water through if you didn’t have to but only the final runoff will tell you how to proceed.

If you poured 3 gallons of water through the nutes were washed out more.

I don’t know now if they are hungry or overfed.

Runoff is not exactly accurate. I keep notes to see trends over time. If you keep overfeeding the ppm will rise and the ph will fall. Over time.

And there are too many variables to know how much to feed. Everything is a just a guideline. Each Grow is different. Each room is different. Each plant is......

Well you get the point. How to feed and water is the “art” part. You will learn to know what they need with practice.

I rarely feed above 1.0 ec or 500 ppm but I feed every watering each 2 or 3 days for a mature flowering plant in a 3-5 gallon pot. and the average is probably only .8ec.

I also slowly taper the strength up as they stretch and bloom and back down as they ripen.

And I again don’t use any bloom nutes. Boosters or additives. Just a balanced complete Grow nute.

If you err on the side of light feeding you will always have better results than over feeding was the best tip I ever got.

Second best tip was let the pots dry out more.

:-)
Okay, so i opened my tent today and it looks much worse. Some leaves are curled much more drastically on one, and on the other they are tacoing and fading more. Should I try feeding them next time the pots dry up? I think they may just be hungry, its been 2 waterings since ive fed them. Also a few more things I forgot to say.. they're about 70 days in veg, and they're in 7 gallon fabric pots. Also I'm a single space grower so I don't really have anywhere else I can put them if they outgrow the tent. Thats why this is kindof urgent for me so I can flip them asap.
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