well, Whats wrong with my Plants!

Hey look another plant in distress. Just hoping to get some input constructive input to keep these girls on the right track. They are listed at 85 days and I got a bit of time left.

Firstly! YES, these girls are a tad drier than I like. I don't typically let them show me how thirsty they are but accidents happen.

So anyway, These plants are similar, one is a HULKBERRY Plus and the other is a cross I was having fun with (hulkberry plus male / Lava cake female).

• Indoors- Duh!
• Sitting under a FC6500 from MarsHydro
• Lights on - 80deg, 40% humidity
• Lights off - 70 deg, 60% humidity (will decrease as mass builds)
• Medium - 10 gallon fabric pots - FFOF, topped dressed with coast of Maine.
• feed (short version)- mixed in FF dry ferts and liquid supplements rarely
• water PH is about right - low out of the tap, increasing PH with( oh shoot I forget, its chalky) ( i learned over the last few grows how to dial that in pretty good)
• water frequency- about every 2 or 3 days i give them 2 to 4 litters. depending. Things have started to shift as they settle into flower.
• Switched to 12/12 Feb 28th. They were slow to make the transition. expecting them to finish about mid may.

I wasn't going to give them any liquid nutes but a week into flower I noticed one of them starting to yellow around the edges towards the bottom, I threw the kitchen sink at them and that actually stopped it or delayed it. Kitchen sink - cal/mag, grow big, tiger bloom, recharge, big bud.

My typical feeding is once a week - FF big bud, very small amounts of and FF bud trio (which ever is right at the time, now using beastie), mosquito dunk tea(stupid gnats), and PH up stuff. Every few weeks I will toss in some more recharge and cal/mag.

I learned very early on to use the minimal amounts of FF liquid nutes - There is no way I am over doing it- at least thats the idea.

I previously (like 4 weeks ago) topped dressed with FF dry flower fertz. I just added another cup today. - first time using dry so..

Could this be from fungus gnats? could this be just right given the flower timing? I'm just a tad nervous given they have 8 weeks or so to go..

The leaf pic is from the first sign of this discoloration and was taken March 2nd.

thanks!

other plant

Looks like maybe potassium deficiency

Throwing the sink is never good imo

Looks like your watering habbits are off. I think this plant should be watered much more and more frequently. If there are gnats you would definitely noticed them…

I would try increasing humidity a little, your vpd is high.
Decrease nitrogen in your feed. The leaves are showing signs of nitrogen toxicity.
potassium seems to be lacking as well. Here’s a good 5 min read.

calmag in soil is unnecessary, it will only cause problems for you due to excess calcium building up in soil

looks overfed and magnesium is low or locked out

let the pot dry out, dont give just a little water every couple days. need proper wet/dry cycles. when its dry, and pot is light, drench it with water and epsom salt only, aiming for about 25% runoff.

let the pot dry out again, and then feed your bloom formula with epsom salt, again with 25% runoff. the runoff flushes the excess salts left behind and ensures balanced feed throughout the medium. should be fine to feed every cycle with occasional water cycle mixed in

also, chill on the top dressing for now, thats a different style of gardening. need to master drain to waste concept first

Thanks for the input.

I think in general lately I have been going really light on my feeding schedules as the first grow I burned everyone following the directions. And I was working towards dry. Thinking about it, I'm probably less than quarter recommended - likely even less.

How can I safely pump a bit more Potassium in there?


I have been reading/hearing that a more stable soil moisture is better for the plant as opposed to the wet dry cycle - I haven't been able to adapt my habits yet fully. Still working on that.

VPD- Oh man I have been thinking about humidity and temps a lot lately as the climate shifts mid grow and causing me some issues. In general with these somewhat larger plants, I'm finding humidity is through the roof at night and low during day BUT the room the tent is sitting in Humidity is at 60% ALWAYS. I don't see anyway to increase day humidity except to keeping the plants moist vs wet/dry. I have removed the LED drivers from the tent to help keep temps lower to help run day fans less. I could easily adjust my high humidity fan control point to allow for higher night humidity but I would be concerned that may be too high in general.

visajoe1 said:

calmag in soil is unnecessary, it will only cause problems for you due to excess calcium building up in soil

looks overfed and magnesium is low or locked out

let the pot dry out, dont give just a little water every couple days. need proper wet/dry cycles. when its dry, and pot is light, drench it with water and epsom salt only, aiming for about 25% runoff.

let the pot dry out again, and then feed your bloom formula with epsom salt, again with 25% runoff. the runoff flushes the excess salts left behind and ensures balanced feed throughout the medium. should be fine to feed every cycle with occasional water cycle mixed in

also, chill on the top dressing for now, thats a different style of gardening. need to master drain to waste concept first

Click to expand...

Help me understand what epsom salts will do for the plants/soil? I read mixed info.

Its a source of magnesium

( short answer ) yes you can topdress FFOF

But want to know what other nutes you are throwing in ( list )

K deficiency ( as noted by yellowing of leaf margins - early sign ) correctable issue. Plants want more so it is pulling from leaf. As it advances , tip will brown , more yellow edges .

You can also control humidity by defoliation of some those large fans ( below ) - allow air to move thru plants.

Budzbuddha said:

( short answer ) yes you can topdress FFOF

But want to know what other nutes you are throwing in ( list )

K deficiency ( as noted by yellowing of leaf margins - early sign ) correctable issue. Plants want more so it is pulling from leaf. As it advances , tip will brown , more yellow edges .

You can also control humidity by defoliation of some those large fans ( below ) - allow air to move thru plants.

Click to expand...

10 Gallon Pots Soil Mix on FEB 11th FFOF base with

• 2 cups of FF Happy Frog Dry All Purpose
• 1 cup earth worm(local supply)
• 2 Tablespoons of RECHARGE.

• Top dressed twice now with the Happy Frog Fruit and Flower, each time about a 3/4 cup mixed in along with more FFOF.

My typical feeding is once a week - FF big bloom, very small amounts(about a 1/2 teaspoon shared between 4 plants) of and FF bud trio (which ever is right at the time, now using beastie), mosquito dunk tea(stupid gnats), and PH adjuster ( Nector for the Gods Olympus UP). Three times now I have added more recharge and cal/mag.




And for the humidity, wouldn't pulling Fan leaves decrease further? I have learned to keep those fan leaves for times like this when I mess up and my plants cannibalize to fix my mistakes.

underwatering causing your medium ec to spike. Dont start worrying about VPD until you learn how to water properly.

Forget the supplemental trio - open sesame/ beastie and chaching - all they do is pull money from your pocket.

The Happy frog fruit and flower is sufficient- however be aeare that it dies not have to be applied “ weekly “ …. Allow amount you applied time to breakdown and become available to plant . Big Bloom is not what you think its for - it does nothing for bloom - it is an organic source for microbial support in your medium , a job EWC / Recharge already does.

Simplify your feed.

waterproof808 said:

underwatering causing your medium ec to spike. Dont start worrying about VPD until you learn how to water properly.

Click to expand...

And by properly watering, you are hitting at keeping a more constant moisture, not wet but not dry, Is that correct? Less swing between the two.

Budzbuddha said:

Forget the supplemental trio - open sesame/ beastie and chaching - all they do is pull money from your pocket.

The Happy frog fruit and flower is sufficient- however be aeare that it dies not have to be applied “ weekly “ …. Allow amount you applied time to breakdown and become available to plant . Big Bloom is not what you think its for - it does nothing for bloom - it is an organic source for microbial support in your medium , a job EWC / Recharge already does.

Simplify your feed.

Click to expand...

Noted, will do. I had plans of switching up once these ran out.

How can I get these plants on the path of recovery? They have a long way to go yet and are otherwise looking promising. Last thing i want is for them to finally succumb to my wrong doings in the last weeks of flower.

Budzbuddha said:

Forget the supplemental trio - open sesame/ beastie and chaching - all they do is pull money from your pocket.

The Happy frog fruit and flower is sufficient- however be aeare that it dies not have to be applied “ weekly “ …. Allow amount you applied time to breakdown and become available to plant . Big Bloom is not what you think its for - it does nothing for bloom - it is an organic source for microbial support in your medium , a job EWC / Recharge already does.

Simplify your feed.

Click to expand...

Is Tiger Bloom enough to deal with flower on its own?
I was only using TB, but added a feeding of Big Bloom this past feed, can I cut out the Big Bloom and just give more TB if needed?

Tiger Bloom is the main bloom nutrient out of Trio.

Think 2 part with Big Bloom being a light micronutrient feed for medium. Big Bloom will not carry bloom alone. Introduce Tiger at about 1/4 strength to guage plant response.

Gro Big - Veg
Tiger Bloom - Bloom
Big Bloom - Micronutrients

Or ….. You can simply Top Dress more FFOF - water in. Not only does it “ recharge “ your host medium it introduces the same feed its already accustomed to from the beginning. Matter of fact , you can put FFOF in cheesecloth bag - bubble it like a tea and soil drench.

Budzbuddha said:

Tiger Bloom is the main bloom nutrient out of Trio.

Think 2 part with Big Bloom being a light micronutrient feed for medium. Big Bloom will not carry bloom alone. Introduce Tiger at about 1/4 strength to guage plant response.

Gro Big - Veg
Tiger Bloom - Bloom
Big Bloom - Micronutrients

Or ….. You can simply Top Dress more FFOF - water in. Not only does it “ recharge “ your host medium it introduces the same feed its already accustomed to from the beginning. Matter of fact , you can put FFOF in cheesecloth bag - bubble it like a tea and soil drench.

Click to expand...

Next cycle I was going to try the top dress method. I used FFOF/FFHF this cycle and didn’t have to give any nutes until a week or so into flower. I started feeding with the low end of their suggestion (10ml) TB per gal. That was too much so I dialed that back by half. Started slowly bringing it back up, next feed should be back to 10ml and now the addition of Big Bloom. I have 2 plants going, one I think will be done in about 4 weeks, the other maybe 6. So hopefully I reach the finish line with no major issues

waterproof808 said:

underwatering causing your medium ec to spike. Dont start worrying about VPD until you learn how to water properly.

Click to expand...

I was thinking about this. While I agree, I also disagree. Having the next steps in mind while planning and executing a plan is critical to complete success. I may be reading into your words to strongly and agree that VPD is more of a finesse than a keeping plants alive. When my watering is in sync it would be fantastic if the environment and controls were tuned and understood. I've been working on the room the tent sits in as well as tent fans and the exhaust. Periodically adjusting, changing, adding all typically with good results. Due to a new room exhaust fan the Night time VPD last night was hitting just right at about 1.20.

I'm still running very low humidity and high temps with lights on.
2 tweaks come to mind. I'm going to do both and work from there.

• backing my light down a bit might keep temps lower and less high speed exhaust fans
• reduce my circulation fans to low or turn them off all together with lights out. (still running tent exhaust 24/7)

Without even opening the doors and shortly after lights on and I'm at 36% & 84 degrees. While the outside room is 55% and 71. Its getting warmer here and that is bringing the ambient temps of the room up to 70, previously it was hanging around 65 and that was the magic number for tent temps during lights on.


I am beginning to think my issue here is not so much a lack of nutrient but rather an environment and watering.