Trying to go all organic, having some issues week 4 of flowering

Hey all. I have some plant problems right now that I'm unable to diagnose and wondered if I could get some input from the more experienced growers.

This is my second grow right now and my first grow wasn't without problems but they were different and I was able to figure them out and correct them. I'm not able to figure out the problem with this one.

I have a 4'x4'x6.5' tent with a 600W HPS. The light has a hood and is being vented by a scrubber with fan attached and another inline duct fan.

Temps inside the tent range from 65F at night to roughly 85F during the day. Humidity ranges between 45 and 60 depending on watering schedule.

I have four Sativa's growing in it. They've just finished their 4th week in flower and have grown incredibly up until recently.

Up until about 10 days ago these were the healthiest and most agreesive plants I could imagine. I was very happy. But some yellowing has occurred lately and they are getting pretty extreme yellow on some of the leaves.

They are growing all organically in 5 gallon buckets in a soil I mixed myself.

The soil was mixed by hand containing Black Gold soil with EWC, Perlite, vermiculite, Azomite, High P bat guano, Humic Acid, Lime, Kelp Meal, Alfalfa meal, and an organic 3-7-4 fert.

I let them live off of just the soil and water for some time and they did extremely well on just that. However I noticed the yellowing starting and am now giving them an AACT tea containing the following once per week: EWC, high P guano, kelp meal, Alfalfa meal, humic acid, Molasses and epsom salts.

The yellowing is not starting at the bottom and looking like pale yellow as in a Nitrogen deficiency. Instead, the yellowing is very bright yellow except for the veiny parts of the leaves which remain fairly green. And it is the tops and middle portions of the colas that are yellowing.

I am really at a loss and wondered if anyone who has grown sativas in a similar method to the one I'm trying can provide any insight.

Attached are two pics for reference.

I need to keep these plants going and keep them from getting any more yellow for the next 6 to 7 weeks.
Any insight would be helpful. Thanks.

hey everything in your pics looks orange from your hps light running. is there any way you could get a picture of your plants under normal light? the colors will come through more and diagnosing your issue will be ten times easier!

until then, check out this link
http://www.ganjaguerrilla.net/index.htm
it has great pictures of just about everything that can possibly happen to your plants, as well as a description on how to fix the problems. i have yet to ever have a problem that wasnt diagnosed by this.

Thanks for the reply. I will try to get a picture in normal light. I tried to get some healthy looking leaves in the plants next to the bleached out ones so you could tell from the contrast between them but i'll see if I can get a better one.

Also, thanks for the link to that other page. I found the iron defficiency photos to be the closest to how they look to me. Where is the description on how to fix that problem on that page? I don't see it there.

Thanks again. Anyone else with insight would be more than welcome to tell me what I've done wrong. I have no ego about growing these girls. I just want them to get better.

Sound like a deficiency of some sort. A compost should work. From the sounds of it, your tea is diverse enouhg to cover all the bases. Just be easy on the epsom salt and the will recover.

so you have a pre loaded soil mix and are feeding them nutes???...so hows the ph in medium now..bet its low making them defficient. i see alot of that at the 4 to 5 weeks erea for bad ph and lock outs

Medi 1 said:

so oyu have a pre loaded soil mix and are feeding them nutes???...so hows the ph in medium now..bet its low making them defficient. i see alot of that at the 4 to 5 weeks erea for bad ph and lock outs

Click to expand...

Well I loaded the soil (pretty close to sub cool super soil) and thought I'd just give them water and molasses until they showed a sign of deficiency and then supplement with Tea and that's what I'm doing. They grew like crazy after switching to 12/12 and about 3 and a half weeks into that they started this yellowing.

I don't know the medium PH. I have read so many people on these forums saying if you grow organically and include lime in your soil mix PH shouldn't be something you have to monitor. Maybe that's not correct and I have to check the soil ph.

I'm frustrated to see all the beautiful green plants on these pages and while mine were doing great all through veg and the first few weeks of flowering, they now are half yellow.

If I find out my soil PH is out of whack, how do I fix it? It's already got lime in the soil.

Iron def starts in the newer leaves and looks like a Mg def except for the location.

Sure looks like a MG def, but you should have plenty in there.

The only thing I can think of is, something is locking it out. I would try 1tsp/qt foiliary and see if that helps. I'll research a bit more to see what could be locking it out. Your mix and nute schedule appears to have plenty MG.

Wet

Could be zinc deficiency. take a look at this http://www.icmag.com/modules/Tutorials/PlantTrouble/Merged.htm

Mg deficiency.... Hmm. That's possible.

So when you said 1 tsp/qt foliar you were referring to Epsom Salts, correct? I will try that.

Thanks, Wet. (and everyone else, too).

My first grow went well so I thought I knew what i was doing. Now I feel dumb because these plants look worse and worse every day.

Just read your first post for the third time.

I see very little mention of a N source in your mix. Do you think ?????????

How much alfalfa meal did you use? I'm using that now, instead of blood meal, but you need more of it.

My mix is VERY similar to yours, and getting the N dialed in ............

Wet

more food and you say hes locked out...wow. wrong. a lock out is already to loaded..foliar is for deff and not a loaded medium
anyone telling you we dont need to ph for any medium dont know shit.; a true organic like what i use drops ph down to 3 ro 4..you want to feed like that you wont get 2 days in and will be locked out. we need to ph everytthing we use...that is if you want the plant to maximize its uptake...and bud sizes and yields

and most the deffs the other have mentioned are so rare i highly doubt it. those are onl;y needed in such small amounts its next to impossible to get deff in those ereas without seeing the main ones first.



small steps here to fix it...first is check the ruin off for ph and ec/ppm.
also what was the ph you have been using...or have you. if not then this is why right there

Herry2 said:

Mg deficiency.... Hmm. That's possible.

So when you said 1 tsp/qt foliar you were referring to Epsom Salts, correct? I will try that.

Thanks, Wet. (and everyone else, too).

My first grow went well so I thought I knew what i was doing. Now I feel dumb because these plants look worse and worse every day.

Click to expand...

Yes, the epsom salts. If that is it, it will show pretty quick, for organics.

Don't feel bad, I've been growing 'stuff' since the early 70's and with the switch to organics, I feel like a maroone.

Wet

to late for organics now to be used...they tale weeks to break down to a useable food for them. most dont even get to use it cause they add to late. worm poo is about the onloy faster releasing organic...or if the others are used as a tea and not a top dress or in the mix

Thanks for all the replies, everyone.

Yes, it's possible that my original flowering mix didn't include enough alfalfa meal and if that's the case then my teas are likely not high enough in N either.

I'll give them a quick watering of a bit more highly concentrated alfalfa, epsom and a bit of high N guano. Then I'll wait and see how they react.

can i place bets on reaction...lock out.

you know ph run off????...dont know to feed or water till you do. there may be tons of food in medium but a low ph will make it deff...or it may be to little food and does need more. all a guess till you check the numbers. why guess.

Medi, thanks for the info. I have read your comment that everything we use needs to be PH'd and I understand you feel everyone who says otherwise doesn't know shit. I am not one to argue with you because I've only been working at this since march of this year and I apparently don't know shit, myself. I just get sideways trying to interpret all the different opinions on these forums. For everyone who believes what you said, there is someone else who says its nonsense. But I will take your advice and check my PH. Thank you for taking the time to offer your opinion. It's much appreciated.

My only PH system is left over from my first grow which was partially done with chemicals. I have the PH Up / Down and I've read that if I add that to my water it will kill off my microbes. So i added Lime to my soil during mixing and was under the assumption that would address PH issues.

im not saying they know shit..not like that as an insult. they just dont know any better cause thats what they been told is usualy why. im not here to insult anyone. only to help understand it better.

lime in the mix is only to buffer the soil...not food. food os lower than the soil so needs to be held up to the higher levels. you dont add up and down together or they fight each other. and no this dosnt kill the microbes off. bakin soda does and the chlorine and chloramine in the water does.

they cant say bs all they want...we test this,..more than smoke a doob and i say so....lol

Ok, thank you. I didn't mean I'd add Up and Down at the same time. I meant I heard adding whichever one was needed at any watering would have bad effects on the microbes.

Thanks for clearing that up for me though. I'll make sure I PH next and adjust my water/food appropriately.

By the way, do you mind me asking what PH control you use (and what everyone else uses for that matter)? I have the General Hydro PH Up/Down.

ya i was elaborating cause i know lots do use both when they go to far with one ph solution.

i use my folvic acids to adjust ph. or potassium bi-carbonate...its natural

What is folvic acid?

Do you mean fulvic acid?

Wet