General advice please. GSK autoflower approx 8.5 weeks old.

[GCandy]

Hey all ... Im after a bit of general advice.

Im currently growing a GSK autoflower under a 100w qboard in a 2x2 tent using the Bio-Bizz light mix and am approx 8.5 weeks into the grow (64 days I think).

Here are a few pics that I have taken tonight just before I gave her a watering, I was wondering if you could take a peek n advise if u see any issues. I have quite a lot of leaves with brown spots on them which I think was from under watering & not feeding enough nutes imo, but if you feel different - please say



I also still see a bit of "clawing" on some of the colas on the left hand side and wouldn't mind trying to figure out what is causing that too.


Ive read conflicting reports on when to defoliate (or whether to do it at all) .. Ive been removing the odd fan leaves that shaded parts of my lower plant, but the last thing I read was not to defoliate it at all as the plant will use the leaves to get the nutrients it thinks it needs from them .. So now im just confused

Another thing I am not sure about is .. Should I follow this DLI guide and turn down the light towards the end of the grow?? .. I assume this is done to replicate the shift of angle that the sun sits in the sky around the autumn time n to signal to the plant that the "growing season" is nearly over?

Im asking this as my friends have just kept their grows @ 100% until they harvested and they got some good results (they have a similar q-board to me (100w)



Thx for reading

 

[GCandy]

Anyone ... I could really do with an answer on whether or not to defoliate or just leave her be

Is there any point in trying to lolipop a plant thats sideways cos of my LST?

 

[Wastei]

Need more info like what they're being fed and how often to better help.

Stop focusing on DLI starting out. Newcomers use it in the wrong context believing it's some sort of optimal you should aim at when there's to many variables to tell you if it's even usable or optimal for the plant to use.

Ppfd readings and conversion to DLI should optimally be used to copy environmental measures on a already dialed in strain. Some chart can never tell you what the plant optimally needs for progress, only the plant itself can show you that through their own responses to stress.

 

[Wastei]

Anyone ... I could really do with an answer on whether or not to defoliate or just leave her be

Is there any point in trying to lolipop a plant thats sideways cos of my LST?

You don't have enough leaves or shoots to make lollipop a positive. Save everything you possible can.

Leaves are food and armor for the plant and the main part for photosynthesis and growth and they're better left alone if you don't have very much overlapping of leaves and a thick canopy.

 

[Farmer's Hat]

Its looking pretty good. I wouldn't bother with defoliating. Your plant doesn't look crammed or compact. I would bend those tops down and outwars, if the branches still have any flex in them. Otherwise, just let the plant do its thing.

Only thing I notice is that your soil might need a soft flush. There might be some salt build ups.
Are you correcting ph when you water/feed?

 

[GCandy]

Its looking pretty good. I wouldn't bother with defoliating. Your plant doesn't look crammed or compact. I would bend those tops down and outwars, if the branches still have any flex in them. Otherwise, just let the plant do its thing.

Only thing I notice is that your soil might need a soft flush. There might be some salt build ups.
Are you correcting ph when you water/feed?

Hey there and thx for replying

Im not correcting my ph apart from what the added nutes are doing ... My tap water is about 7.5 n after I add some Epsom salts + all the nutes its takes it down to about 6.5.

Im a little confused about this PH changing stuff cos I thought if you were using active soil you shouldn't do that and just allow the micro organisms in the soil to balance it out? The last time I did a run off reading it was about 6.2 (but that was about a month ago)

Do you think that could be why Ive got so many dark spots on some of my leaves or is that just cos of under-watering as I suspected originally?

 

[GreenGenez421]

Agree with everything said. Don't strip anything off that plant, not even shitty looking leafs. However I'm seeing a K deficiency. The spots are the final indicator, but before they show up the plant will get a dull paper appearance to the fans accompanied by a burnt tip that turns upward.

 

[GreenGenez421]

6.2 is a bit low for the stage of flower your in, that's a better value for the first half of life. The lower the pH, the more readily uptaken Nitrogen is. You should welcome a bit higher pH at this current point. 6.5 is ideal, but you could comfortably go as high as 7.