The yellow leaves keep coming

I have 3 Power Plant going and all of them have had yellowing and burnt leaves for a while. Sometimes the burning occurs near edges or tips, but often the whole leaf turns yellow from outside margin in wards. Problem has been occurring on lower-inner fan leaves, young and old, and has jus progressed to middle-inner leaves.

I have checked my PH of water (adjusted tap water to 6.2 [with PH down]), soil (7.0) and soil run off (6.2) and it's all between 6-7.

I have done soil tests and it is showing inadequate in nitrogen and phosphorus, with a slight surplus of potassium. I have been adding 2 tablespoons of fox farms grow big to 1 gallon water and feeding that to plants every other watering. I have also done a couple foliar sprays with .5 tablespoons grow big/1 liter water. Leaves continue to yellow after 1 week of applying.

Growing outdoors in 7 gallon smart pots with fox farms ocean soil. Having to water at least twice per day as summer temps are currently 90-105F daily. A couple weekends back, plants went 1.5 days without water and were severely under watered. Yellowing of leaves increased as a result and has slowed down since then, but is still happening more frequent than before. Plants are getting around 10hrs of direct sunlight.

At this point I am wondering if my plants are root-bound (in veg for 4 months), the sun is too hot and I need to create shade for my gals or I need to add much more N and P. Some tips are burnt, but not many.

Advice?

Thanks!

PDiddyDank

overall, they look healthy. a couple of inner leaves yellowing are not a big deal. if they were mine, i'd hold off on the nutes for a week or two and observe.

Ok, thanks for the input Zero. I notice the soil is pretty much completely colonized with roots. Just the top .5-1" is loose dirt. I am having to water at least twice a day for 7 gallon pots. I know the hot weather is to blame, at least partly, for the frequent watering, but do you think the yellowing could also be because plants roots are root bound? The dirt is rather compacted too (I try to minimize compacted soil by loosing up top dirt). Thanks!

That looks normal.

PDiddyDank said:

The dirt is rather compacted too (I try to minimize compacted soil by loosing up top dirt)

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That soil isn't compacted, it's full of roots. If you throw down some mulch in the pot, the plant will colonize the top inch too.

Those plants look very healthy. I wouldn't worry too much. Just let those couple yellow leaves on the bottom die, they will fall off. Or if you must, just snip them off.

Thanks everyone for your replies. Much appreciated. It's my first time, so I wasn't sure if yellowing leaves were normal when not in flowering. What are some worsening signs I should be on the lookout for?

Just wondering... any way you could repot them into the ground? To veg for 4 months and be that large, you have some real potential to grow some fucking trees!

7 gallon pot is pretty large, but you're going to have a pretty large plant. Even if you can repot into a 10 or 15 gallon pot, it would help a lot.

I've considered planting into the ground, but we have clay soil. I like the fact that I can move the plants if necessary. I've thought about transplanting into larger pots, but I'm afraid I will stress the plants out too much this close to flowering and with the intense heat. The plants always seemed most happy though after getting into a new pot. I've done a bit of HST (super cropping multiple times and topping to one plant) and LST (tying down limbs so no apical bud) on the plants...if it wasn't for that, these gals would be very tall!

TheDifferenceX said:

...7 gallon pot is pretty large, but you're going to have a pretty large plant. Even if you can repot into a 10 or 15 gallon pot, it would help a lot.

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This. Given that its just about flowering season, you might consider transplanting to bigger pots to take you through the stretch and concurrently gear up for some teas afterwards.

You guys are convincing me to go bigger. That said, I'm not sure I want much bigger if plants haven't really stretched yet. As is now, they are around 3ft and my back yard fence is 6ft, haha.

Lets see a CHRISTMAS TREE!!!!

Haha, my 3rd gal would make a very interesting Christmas tree..that pheno sort of turned out more indica and skunky.

Ok, leaves continue to yellow, mainly staying to lower 1/3 of plant. I think I'm on the 3-4th week of flower.

I noticed this wierd phenomenon where leaves are yellowing on just one spot of the leaf (see pic).

Also, thrips came back en masse last week. I've sprayed with neem oil twice since their arrival, but now I think I should stop from applying via foilar administration, correct?

Let me know what y'all think

PDiddyDank said:

Ok, leaves continue to yellow, mainly staying to lower 1/3 of plant. I think I'm on the 3-4th week of flower.

I noticed this wierd phenomenon where leaves are yellowing on just one spot of the leaf (see pic).

Also, thrips came back en masse last week. I've sprayed with neem oil twice since their arrival, but now I think I should stop from applying via foilar administration, correct?

Let me know what y'all think

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Take a long skewer or rod or whatever and run it repeatedly through roots. Repeatedly. A long butcher knife works too. Severed roots don't die. They regenerate like when you top a plant. Then mix a full strength feeding and feed until you get good runoff. Again aerate the hell out of the entire root zone including the huge hard mass under the plant. Make sure you add cal mag.

Plants still have yellowing leaves. Is this to be expected half way through flowering? (See pic).

Thanks!

PDiddyDank said:

Plants still have yellowing leaves. Is this to be expected half way through flowering? (See pic).

Thanks!

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No. By the looks of it your leaves are nice and green. I think there may be a lockout in your soil and the plant cannibalizes whatever deficiency it needs from the leaves. In this case its starting at the bottom with nitrogen being the nutrient it seems to need. Dont feed it too much N if you decide to feed it that. Too much N in flower retards flower formation and favors leaf production. I would flush media with pure water. Is that soil?

Thegermling said:

No. By the looks of it your leaves are nice and green. I think there may be a lockout in your soil and the plant cannibalizes whatever deficiency it needs from the leaves. In this case its starting at the bottom with nitrogen being the nutrient it seems to need. Dont feed it too much N if you decide to feed it that. Too much N in flower retards flower formation and favors leaf production. I would flush media with pure water. Is that soil?

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Yes, it's soil. I've Feeding plants the last two weeks:

FF grow big 6-4-4 (one tablespoon per gallon). Once per 5 waterings.

Bat Guano 0-5-0 (two tablespoons per gallon). Once per 4 waterings

Kelp seaweed powder 0-0-17 (1 tablespoon per gallon) Once per 5 waterings

Molasses, (two tablespoons per gallon). Once per 5-6 waterings.

Plants were attacked by thrips recently. Treated with spinosad twice in the last week. Neem oil+ 1 gallon water went into soil.

Last time I PH'd water runoff it was 6.5.

Also, is this bud formation normal?

PDiddyDank said:

Sometimes the burning occurs near edges or tips

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Thats the sign of overfeeding. Cut back your nutrients by 10%.

PDiddyDank said:

I have done soil tests and it is showing inadequate in nitrogen and phosphorus, with a slight surplus of potassium. I have been adding 2 tablespoons of fox farms grow big to 1 gallon water and feeding that to plants every other watering. I have also done a couple foliar sprays with .5 tablespoons grow big/1 liter water. Leaves continue to yellow after 1 week of applying.

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I just seen your feeding regimen and thats alot of stuff in that soil. I would flush with phd tap water. Check runoff EC, it should give you a clue as too how much salt there might be built up in that soil.

PDiddyDank said:

Having to water at least twice per day as summer temps are currently 90-105F daily. A couple weekends back, plants went 1.5 days without water and were severely under watered. Yellowing of leaves increased as a result and has slowed down since then, but is still happening more frequent than before. Plants are getting around 10hrs of direct sunlight.

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Yeah I feel you there buddy. I have plants outdoors that are in fabric pots as well. When the temps were that hot I chilled my water to 66 degrees farenheit. You dont want your roots getting hot. Your plants are getting way too stressed man. You need to cut back nutes by another 20% in those temps. The plants will use more water than nutes at this point (temperatures) to keep themselves cool. And they shut down their stomatas above 95 degrees. Try using some shade cloth too. If you dont have a dripper system then your in for some hard work. I had my plants watered every two hours in that type of weather. My temps were in the hundreds and the humidity well below 30% most of the time.

PDiddyDank said:

At this point I am wondering if my plants are root-bound (in veg for 4 months), the sun is too hot and I need to create shade for my gals or I need to add much more N and P. Some tips are burnt, but not many.

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Again, your plants are stressed and the insects know when to attack an unhealthy plant. In fabric pots plants dont get rootbound. Youre good there. At this point if you dont have the resources or the time to do what I did, then next outdoor grow plant them in the dirt. Im not saying its game over because I never gave up on mine I just read around on how to combat the heat and they are pulling through.
So to recap...
1.Flush with some phd water.
2.Check the EC of the runoff. If its an insane number (say over 1500ppm) than try to get it low to (700ppm) or in universal terms try to get it to 1.0 EC.
3. If your plants are still stretching then continue to use Nitrogen but cut most of it out (use bloom nutes) by week 3 of flower.
4. Try chilling your water to 66f and try some shade cloth.