Barney's Farm Vanilla Kush strain specific issue

Hi. I have 2 rounds or VK going right now.

First round is on day 46 from seed, about 2 weeks in veg, and I just topped the 2 of them.

It's my first experience growing, so when the issue began only with the VK, I knew it wasn't bugs (checked thoroughly), and once I got everything else in check, I was able to isolate that the issue comes from the specific strain. Have a Critical + and Cali Hash going with the same crop, they don't share the issues. Originally, I wrote it off as a reaction to a few different noob problems like higher ph, brown slime, humidity, etc. Now, with my second round of Vanilla Kush which are showing the exact same issues at nearly the identical timing, I'm realizing that it is completely strain specific. Before I go and screw up my balance of things, thought I would post details and pics about my VK issues and see how other VK growers did with theirs. What needs they saw their VK requiring.

The first issue that pops is round yellow dots on the older leaves (around week 3), looks like I've sprayed and the water acted as a magnifying glass, burning holes in them. Not the case. I now believe this to be a calcium deficiency and was hoping to hear from other VK growers that they too have found the strain to be sensitive to calcium.

Second is brown necrotic spots happening on mid growth, mid leaf. I'm thinking this may be calcium as well. This is fairly recent.

Third, and the newest development in my first crop (day 46) is that some of the leaves are disappearing at the edges. Not dying, looks like a pest issue, but I can find no pests and again, only on my VK. I have Pineapple Chunk, Critical +, and Cali Hash that are not sharing this trait. Fungus? Pest?

Fourth, tiny black necrotic spots on the leaf margins toward the tip, very tiny. Not moving, no pests to be found. Larger spot looks as if it is about to cause hole. Very small.

Fifth, on the lower, older growth, previously yellowing between the veins starting at the tips, then slowly deadening. The pic is current, but I believe the result of a problem that was taken care of with the switch to DG 9-3-6. Just figured I'd throw it in, curious to see what other VK growers experienced.

My stats -
Supercloset Trinity
Superponics (hydro & aero blend)
400 hps
18/6
15 gallons in rez
1/4 strength Dyna-gro Foliage Pro (9-3-6) my girls loved the switch to this simple and effective nute, better response than Technaflora and other expensive crap.
1/4 strength Aquashield and Sensizyme
small amount of MagiCal just added with raise of ph

80.2'
ph 6.0 (for the last week 5.6, but I raised it because I believe the higher ph will aid in proper nute intake of P and calcium)
27%
220 ppm
79' h2o

I live in AZ, humidity and temps are an issue that are about to turn for the cooler in the next 2 weeks. So yes, I realize that the h20 temps should be lower, I do what I can using ice bottles in the rez, it isn't something that has results all day. However, when we had a cool week 2 weeks ago, I was happy to see that it helped along my rez temps quite a bit even though the ambient temp is usually 76'-78'. I'll be happy when the temp change is permanent for the season.

I did just top all my girls in crop 1, not sure if topping causes other issues to come to light.

My apologies on the pics, they are under hps and my camera can't seem to get true color. Enjoy the yellow tinge.

Would love to hear from anyone about sick plant issues. My hope was to hear from other VK growers about their experiences with the strain.

I tried to put the pics in order, never works. Would love to know how to add captions to them if anyone knows. Thanks.

Can tell much from them pics. Yo ppms are kind of low for a plant thats 6.5 weeks from seed!
I'm flowering 28 days from seeds. 1 week flo' and 3 weeks MH lighting!

Every time I bump up the nutes, they show nute burn. I'm just about to move them to the flowering chamber, but keeping them in veg. At that point, I'll bump up the nutes again, probably using a 20-20-20.

Yeah, I'll be posting better pics later, trying to hook up a better lighting situation.

Thanks.

Vanilla Kush are definitely sensitive to calcium, requiring more than all of my other plants. On all of my VK, their spots first appeared differently than most calcium deficiency pics. Happy to know for sure.

Whats the overall nute ppm in your res tank and whats the NPK of final solution??

Did you say 220ppm? Thats too low, low ppms lead to poor calcium uptake. Calcium is a passive nutrient and is passively absorbed through the xylem the same way water is absorbed. If the plant dosent transpire much it dosent drink much water, if it dosent drink much water it dosent uptake much calcium no matter how much is in the medium plus calcium and magnesium need to balance off at a 3:1 ratio for all grows i think.

If your tank is too small for the plants it is supplying, the ppm will rise as the water is used up; in this case, the plants are using the water faster than it is using up the nutes. If this is your case, do top up with plain water often.

If your tank is too large for the plants it is feeding, water level, ppm & pH won't move far from your mixing day targets. Good for plants but hard on the wallet as you'll be dumping out nutes that the plants have not been able to eat come the end of the 14 day life of your tank of sauce.

If your tank size is ideally matched to the plants it is supplying, the plants use up the water and nutes in the same proportion. The nute strength ppm will stay very close to what it was on mixing day, even as the water level drops. If you find that your ppm stays close to the same (within 10%) while the water level drops, your tank size is perfect and you don't need to top up with plain water between mixing a fresh tank of nutes.

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Al-B-Fuct

Also maybe worth switching the aquashield to some trusty hydrogen peroxide, most hydro growers go down this route. Wouldnt you prefer using Canna Aqua nutes for hydro being from AZ instead of Dyna gro foliage pro which to me dosent seem like the best nutes for hydro but i never used the stuff so i dont know there. Hope this helps, Peace

I'll put another vote in for the calcium deficiency, and maybe even magnesium, to a degree.(those yellowing veins, could be an indicator)

Kingrow1 said:

Whats the overall nute ppm in your res tank and whats the NPK of final solution??

Did you say 220ppm? Thats too low, low ppms lead to poor calcium uptake. Calcium is a passive nutrient and is passively absorbed through the xylem the same way water is absorbed. If the plant dosent transpire much it dosent drink much water, if it dosent drink much water it dosent uptake much calcium no matter how much is in the medium plus calcium and magnesium need to balance off at a 3:1 ratio for all grows i think.

Al-B-Fuct

Also maybe worth switching the aquashield to some trusty hydrogen peroxide, most hydro growers go down this route. Wouldnt you prefer using Canna Aqua nutes for hydro being from AZ instead of Dyna gro foliage pro which to me dosent seem like the best nutes for hydro but i never used the stuff so i dont know there. Hope this helps, Peace

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I appreciate the info. I think I have it under control now. I've added 1/4 MagiCal and plan on foliar feeding just before lights on in the AM. I'm sticking with the Dyna-gro Foliage Pro (9-3-6) per Uncle Ben's advice. So far, they are loving it and have responded well. I also used his 4 cola technique, looking forward to watching that.

Like I said, I couldn't increase my nutes, the plants responded with nute burn even at a low level. Gotta listen to the plants. However, after switching from the Technaflora to Dyna-gro, they are no longer getting nute burn at low levels. I'm at 530 ppm today, which increases a bit every other day as I add in a teaspoon.

My ppm doesn't seem to fluctuate too much. All the water I take out gets recycled to my houseplants and orange tree. Reduce, reuse, recycle

Curious, why would someone from AZ appreciate Canna Aqua more than DG?

Thanks again for your input. I'm just beginning to read up on plant botany which I've been told will help me more than the cannabis specific books.

jawbrodt said:

I'll put another vote in for the calcium deficiency, and maybe even magnesium, to a degree.(those yellowing veins, could be an indicator)

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Had thought the same. Happy to report that the yellow is gone and the calcium def is being swiftly addressed. Thank you!

Sweet, best of luck to ya. I'm also another fan of Dynagro nutes, and don't recommend switching, if you like the results. I've never tried their Foliage Pro, but use their 'Grow' and 'Bloom' ferts, with great results. I also use their Protekt(a silica supplement), and Calmag Plus, along with the first two, and am quite happy. I'm not sure if the Protekt is all it's cracked up to be(as per their advertising.lol), but I still use it because it's a great 'PH up', and I don't have to buy adjustment solution anymore. I'm in soil though, you'd probably have to use PH Down, for hydro. The way I mix my ferts, it always comes out approx 6.7, which works great, for my girls.

jawbrodt said:

Sweet, best of luck to ya. I'm also another fan of Dynagro nutes, and don't recommend switching, if you like the results. I've never tried their Foliage Pro, but use their 'Grow' and 'Bloom' ferts, with great results. I also use their Protekt(a silica supplement), and Calmag Plus, along with the first two, and am quite happy. I'm not sure if the Protekt is all it's cracked up to be(as per their advertising.lol), but I still use it because it's a great 'PH up', and I don't have to buy adjustment solution anymore. I'm in soil though, you'd probably have to use PH Down, for hydro. The way I mix my ferts, it always comes out approx 6.7, which works great, for my girls.

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I've looked at their full line, and I'll definitely keep small bottles of all in stock for fine tuning of my hydro grow. They are kinda hard to find around me. Uncle Ben says that you can use the 9-3-6 Foliage Pro through the entire grow, so for the rest of this one, I plan on keeping it that simple unless problems arise. This calcium problem began pretty quick, 3 weeks from seed, but didn't look clearly like such until 3 days ago. I had always suspected, but feared compensating in the wrong way. Since I've been using the DG, my plants have done real well. Bumping up my lights to 600 has increased vigor, now if I could get my rez temps under control without huge cost or hassle, I think I'll be on easy street for a bit. I'm amazed how much I'm loving gardening.

Thanks for your input, I'll have to read up more on the protek, it's a name I've been hearing quite a bit. Keep hearing soil is so much easier, might switch after a few rounds.

Just my two cents but I just finished growing out some VK and am 3 weeks into vegging some more and I had and am starting to have all kinds of leaf problems ,yellowing, dying, curling but after 100 days from seed all was forgiven. I hope that's the case again.

Isisyogi said:

I appreciate the info. I think I have it under control now. I've added 1/4 MagiCal and plan on foliar feeding just before lights on in the AM. I'm sticking with the Dyna-gro Foliage Pro (9-3-6) per Uncle Ben's advice. So far, they are loving it and have responded well. I also used his 4 cola technique, looking forward to watching that.

Like I said, I couldn't increase my nutes, the plants responded with nute burn even at a low level. Gotta listen to the plants. However, after switching from the Technaflora to Dyna-gro, they are no longer getting nute burn at low levels. I'm at 530 ppm today, which increases a bit every other day as I add in a teaspoon.

Click to expand...

I think the problem was with the dynagrow, although it claims to be a very complete hydro fert i reckon the nutes your on now are allowing better conditions and growth. 530ppm sounds much better dude. Without proper growth and uptake calcium will always be deficient no matter how much you add, get the plant to be healthy and drink and calcium will be a thing of the past. Congrats. Personally growers like Uncle ben an Al b are much better, what they say pretty much goes.

My ppm doesn't seem to fluctuate too much. All the water I take out gets recycled to my houseplants and orange tree. Reduce, reuse, recycle

Curious, why would someone from AZ appreciate Canna Aqua more than DG?

Click to expand...

Simply because others use it to great effect in hydro, they dont even feel the need for a seperate P/K booster plus simply the grow and bloom and H2O2 gets very comendable results. I think the Aquasheild is similar to H2O2 in what it dose. AZ dose some kick as nutes, am i thinking Australia and your thinking Arizona? Stoners eh! Anyway they are certainly doing a lot of nutes and hydro systems, my bad dude.

Thanks again for your input. I'm just beginning to read up on plant botany which I've been told will help me more than the cannabis specific books.

eace

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I always have problems with canabis specific books and info, it is good dont get me wrong and the deficiency charts work but you need to look into and learn a lot of general plant botany first to be able to understand and decsiphere them. Good luck dude. Peace

bullwinkle60 said:

Just my two cents but I just finished growing out some VK and am 3 weeks into vegging some more and I had and am starting to have all kinds of leaf problems ,yellowing, dying, curling but after 100 days from seed all was forgiven. I hope that's the case again.

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Were you growing other strains? Everything else has looked and responded great, or had mild issues. Have 5 VKs rolling in different stages, all show the same issue at around the same time. By week 3 I had spots, couldn't tell if it was nute lockout or calcium because they looked different than most pics. Soon as I change something for them, the other plants show something else. If it ain't one thing its another.

What ppm were you running your VKs at? What issues did you have? How did you address them? Any advice you can pass along on the strain would be greatly appreciated.

Last year I wanted to rip my hair out because of Barney's Tang Dream finicky nature. This season, after nurturing 12 or 13 different types (incl: 2 white widows, pine express, nebula, AK auto, fuzzy dragon, super lemon haze, and purple haze) of my babies with utmost care and perfection, I have concluded that Barney's Farm has issues-at least with last years seed stock. The three seeds from Barney's: Tang Dream, Vanilla Kush, and an LSD freebie from Attitude are all finicky to say the least. EVERY other girl in the same identical grow still are and have been perfectly healthy. I would not have even posted today if I had not just discovered that my only three problematic girls were all Barney's. I knew the Tang and LSD were but the VK was a surprise discovery this morning when looking through my order history. It seems much too coincidental that only the three plants from Barney's Farm exhibit the EXACT same problems while all of the others are perfectly fine. Grant it all three may be on the nute/pest/environmentally-sensitive side. However, even if that's the case, I feel that Barney should still be accountable for this currently poor stock of seeds and that caveat emptor. BTW, all are in 3rd week of flowering except for the auto AK of course (almost done :>).

you guys meaning its tricky to grow... or the smokes bad?

Isisyogi said:

Hi. I have 2 rounds or VK going right now.

First round is on day 46 from seed, about 2 weeks in veg, and I just topped the 2 of them.

It's my first experience growing, so when the issue began only with the VK, I knew it wasn't bugs (checked thoroughly), and once I got everything else in check, I was able to isolate that the issue comes from the specific strain. Have a Critical + and Cali Hash going with the same crop, they don't share the issues. Originally, I wrote it off as a reaction to a few different noob problems like higher ph, brown slime, humidity, etc. Now, with my second round of Vanilla Kush which are showing the exact same issues at nearly the identical timing, I'm realizing that it is completely strain specific. Before I go and screw up my balance of things, thought I would post details and pics about my VK issues and see how other VK growers did with theirs. What needs they saw their VK requiring.

The first issue that pops is round yellow dots on the older leaves (around week 3), looks like I've sprayed and the water acted as a magnifying glass, burning holes in them. Not the case. I now believe this to be a calcium deficiency and was hoping to hear from other VK growers that they too have found the strain to be sensitive to calcium.

Second is brown necrotic spots happening on mid growth, mid leaf. I'm thinking this may be calcium as well. This is fairly recent.

Third, and the newest development in my first crop (day 46) is that some of the leaves are disappearing at the edges. Not dying, looks like a pest issue, but I can find no pests and again, only on my VK. I have Pineapple Chunk, Critical +, and Cali Hash that are not sharing this trait. Fungus? Pest?

Fourth, tiny black necrotic spots on the leaf margins toward the tip, very tiny. Not moving, no pests to be found. Larger spot looks as if it is about to cause hole. Very small.

Fifth, on the lower, older growth, previously yellowing between the veins starting at the tips, then slowly deadening. The pic is current, but I believe the result of a problem that was taken care of with the switch to DG 9-3-6. Just figured I'd throw it in, curious to see what other VK growers experienced.

My stats -
Supercloset Trinity
Superponics (hydro & aero blend)
400 hps
18/6
15 gallons in rez
1/4 strength Dyna-gro Foliage Pro (9-3-6) my girls loved the switch to this simple and effective nute, better response than Technaflora and other expensive crap.
1/4 strength Aquashield and Sensizyme
small amount of MagiCal just added with raise of ph

80.2'
ph 6.0 (for the last week 5.6, but I raised it because I believe the higher ph will aid in proper nute intake of P and calcium)
27%
220 ppm
79' h2o

I live in AZ, humidity and temps are an issue that are about to turn for the cooler in the next 2 weeks. So yes, I realize that the h20 temps should be lower, I do what I can using ice bottles in the rez, it isn't something that has results all day. However, when we had a cool week 2 weeks ago, I was happy to see that it helped along my rez temps quite a bit even though the ambient temp is usually 76'-78'. I'll be happy when the temp change is permanent for the season.

I did just top all my girls in crop 1, not sure if topping causes other issues to come to light.

My apologies on the pics, they are under hps and my camera can't seem to get true color. Enjoy the yellow tinge.

Would love to hear from anyone about sick plant issues. My hope was to hear from other VK growers about their experiences with the strain.

I tried to put the pics in order, never works. Would love to know how to add captions to them if anyone knows. Thanks.

Click to expand...

I registered for an account on this website just so that i can say thank you!

I’m currently growing Vanilla Kush and observing the same problems. Been googling for days for answers with no luck until i found your post.

Thanks! I wish i could give you a cookie.