Requesting Confirmation of Diagnosis...and Solutions

Hello and thanks for coming by. I believe my plant has developed a potassium (and possibly nitrogen) lockout due to pH imbalance (too high, I think). Let's start with a brief background.

I'm 32 days into flowering, and she is looking good. About 5 days ago, I began to develop some "clawing" of my leaves and decided it was a good time for a thorough flush, as they had yet to receive one at all. I used brita filtered tap water, of which I learned the pH was at least 7.4 (I've been using a cheap aquarium water tester that doesn't go beyond this, so it could have been higher). I've been using it for feeding with Fox Farm big bloom and tiger bloom, and seems to have been doing fine as the tiger bloom tends to lower pH a little.

So after my flush with this water, I gave a normal nutrient feeding 2 days later, noticing this condition today...



So, I think my water had too high of a pH, triggering this recent lockout of potassium and maybe nitrogen.

What should I do now? Adding soluble potash or something won't help because they are locked out right? So I need to fix the pH...by flushing again with pH corrected water? What pH is ideal then to "unlock" the nutrients? I just received my digital pH pen purchased from ebay, so I will be able to more readily control it from here on out.

Here's what the rest of the plant looks like, just for reference.


Thanks in advance for any help!

The pot size looks a little meager, for a plant that size.

They're 7" square and ~12" deep. I'm constricted on space so these are really my best option. I like them though, they're good and deep.

Any input on the problem area?

regarding your issue, I am a California Certified Nurseryman and so my knowledge extends far beyond cultivation of a single genus of plants, I say this not to Boast, but to establish credibility.
First off, Nice Job, she is healthy and happy. A few leaves at the base of the plant turning yellow/burn look will not hurt your baby, but it is a possible indication of what you suspect and failing to correct can be harmful. Get a cheap soil test kit available at any Nursery or Garden supply outlet and start testing soil. There are guys here who can also tell you in more detail the exact resolution as that color and location are indicative of something but also remeber that as the plants approach maturity, lower leaves will yellow but will be a paling out of green to ylw, not the harsh look of these lower leaves. A good flush or two and test your soil, you should be fine by then. You are the only one who can confirm the diagnosis by testing the soil but understand the need to save money. It will be well worth it.

Well put old man.

diemdepyro said:

Well put old man.

Click to expand...

That sounds condescending even though I know it's not. Ha ha.

Old Man of the Sea said:

regarding your issue, I am a California Certified Nurseryman and so my knowledge extends far beyond cultivation of a single genus of plants, I say this not to Boast, but to establish credibility.
First off, Nice Job, she is healthy and happy. A few leaves at the base of the plant turning yellow/burn look will not hurt your baby, but it is a possible indication of what you suspect and failing to correct can be harmful. Get a cheap soil test kit available at any Nursery or Garden supply outlet and start testing soil. There are guys here who can also tell you in more detail the exact resolution as that color and location are indicative of something but also remeber that as the plants approach maturity, lower leaves will yellow but will be a paling out of green to ylw, not the harsh look of these lower leaves. A good flush or two and test your soil, you should be fine by then. You are the only one who can confirm the diagnosis by testing the soil but understand the need to save money. It will be well worth it.

Click to expand...

Thanks old man. I haven't been getting too worked up over the lower leaves, I just think this issue may have come on pretty quick, and I want to ensure it doesn't spread past those lower leaves.

Regarding a soil pH test, I'll look around, but I'm not wasting $5 on a questionable one from Lowes, as they seem about as accurate as an educated guess. I've got the digital pen now, so I'll test both the pH of the nutrient solution going in and the runoff. If I can find a cheap soil test I'll go for it though. Just haven't found one yet.

Thanks for the info, and we'll see how she looks tonight. I'll post some pics if it gets worse.

Jerry Garcia said:

That sounds condescending even though I know it's not. Ha ha.



Thanks old man. I haven't been getting too worked up over the lower leaves, I just think this issue may have come on pretty quick, and I want to ensure it doesn't spread past those lower leaves.

Regarding a soil pH test, I'll look around, but I'm not wasting $5 on a questionable one from Lowes, as they seem about as accurate as an educated guess. I've got the digital pen now, so I'll test both the pH of the nutrient solution going in and the runoff. If I can find a cheap soil test I'll go for it though. Just haven't found one yet.

Thanks for the info, and we'll see how she looks tonight. I'll post some pics if it gets worse.

Click to expand...

Those nifty chemical soil test kits work.

diemdepyro said:

Those nifty chemical soil test kits work.

Click to expand...

I'll definitely look into them.

Thanks diem!

So the condition of the plants is considerably worse now than before. I've managed to correct my pH, but they still aren't improving.

I purchased some Cha Ching 9-50-30 today so hopefully that helps.

Any other ideas/thoughts?

This pic is a couple days old. It looks way worse. I'll take some tonight @ 8pm (EST) when they wake up.

Have you grown this strain before? It might just be normal flowering. You want to avoid doing to much. If you flush with plain ph water and than plain water the next watering. Than start nutes back in and make sure you ph the solution after you add nutes.

Tiger bloom should be fine for normal flowering. If ph is correct , 6.3-6.8 is what fox farms suggests i go 6.5 personally, it should be fine.

Good luck

No, this is bag seed, and I have never grown anything before. While it may be normal flowering, there are going to be ZERO fan leaves remaining in about a week if it continues progressing at its current pace, and I'm only on day 36 or 37 of flower. I'm thinking it has at least 3 weeks left, and it may not have fan leaves for 2 of them.

There are, however, lots of leaves around the stem that aren't suffering from the deficiency, so I don't think it will just die.

More pics coming later.

Jerry Garcia said:

No, this is bag seed, and I have never grown anything before. While it may be normal flowering, there are going to be ZERO fan leaves remaining in about a week if it continues progressing at its current pace, and I'm only on day 36 or 37 of flower. I'm thinking it has at least 3 weeks left, and it may not have fan leaves for 2 of them.

There are, however, lots of leaves around the stem that aren't suffering from the deficiency, so I don't think it will just die.

More pics coming later.

Click to expand...

Naw. It will take longer than a week for the fan leaves to yellow and its what will happen. When done most fan leaves will be gone. At least from my limited knowledge.

Regardless like i said what you do is flush and water with plain water the next watering than start flower nutes back slowly. And get to the point where you start to get excited the shittier they look

Let them fan leaves go to hell lol And relax. its startling when they first go from lush green to yellow and spotty. But its like the leaves on a tree changing colors for the fall. Its what you want and doing to much to prevent it will cause more issues. Fuck the fan leaves. Its those bud leaves. If they show signs of issues than you have a problem.

Your plants look great. Smoke a bowl relax and dream about your harvest in 2 or 3 weeks

Swine Flu?

diemdepyro said:

Swine Flu?

Click to expand...

Damn! I knew I shouldn't have taken my plants to Mexico for the weekend...

Jerry Garcia said:

Damn! I knew I shouldn't have taken my plants to Mexico for the weekend...

Click to expand...

Lol. Any new pics. Would love to see how they are doing

I was just getting ready to throw them up...

As you can see the situation is a quite worse than the last pics.


Here's one of the whole plant. You can't tell from the pics, but the spots are starting to hit the smaller bud leaves.


This pic is from a different plant of (presumably) different genetics. I'm far less worries about these leaves.


Here's a full view of that one.


Here's the last girl. Quite different from the other two (she's only 12" tall). She has some weird spotting going on too, but again I'm not concerned.


So its really just the first plant that is having the biggest problem. I am starting to think maybe my nutrients are lacking enough phosphorous and nitrogen--I'm using Fox Farm Big Bloom and Tiger Bloom, High-P guano, molasses and occasionally some superthrive. I purchased some Cha Ching yesterday that is 9-50-30, and I'll probably give that to them tonight when they wake up. It can't hurt at this point.

So any further opinions/thoughts would be most helpful. Thanks!

They look fine to me. I also use fox farms. Its great. Each plant will eat its leaves slightly differently. But that looks like a healthy mature female pushing herself. She will be dank.


Remove the dead leaves. Let the buds shine. They look healthy man. Don't go all wild trying to stop the yellowing and mess them up. Just remove those dead leaves. Look at that dark green inner growth. Very healthy congrats

Some of my plants. I have removed alot of those nasty leaves.

from my experience (25 years), I'd say.rootbound,way to much chemicals, for small plant(causing yellowing).Browning spots are from excessive moisture, or lack of venting. More fresh air ,less heat,root triming, nitrogen, taken out of intence light for 3 days ,thier should be major improvement

Brianjox said:

from my experience (25 years), I'd say.rootbound,way to much chemicals, for small plant(causing yellowing).Browning spots are from excessive moisture, or lack of venting. More fresh air ,less heat,root triming, nitrogen, taken out of intence light for 3 days ,thier should be major improvement

Click to expand...

There is no way those are rootbound. Yes they are lacking nitrogen cause its flowering.


http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=11688

Towards the middle to end of flowering stages, the plant will show a nitrogen deficiency almost always. This process is completely normal and just let the plant naturally yellow out as it uses it's stored nutrients. This actually helps you by getting ready for final flushing and then harvesting. At this point DO NOT not use nitrogen to fix the problem. The yellowing leaves will then eventually drop off after the plant is done with them.