My females are sick?? Pls Help!

Hi,

This is my first indoors grow. I have three female lowriders (autoflowering), 9 wks old being grown in a box 2x1.5x4high. They showed sex at 6 wks. They are between 14-17 inches tall. In the past couple of weeks they are starting to look bad...loosing alot of fan leaves. One plant has the leaves drooping a little w/ a cupping back and another has the leaves curling up. I keep the box between 78-84 degrees and only water about 2-3 times per week. They are in gallon containers. Their color has gotten lighter too. I fed them w/ liquid nutients about a a week ago 17-35-19 @ 1/4 strength. They have female pistals at all the branches but haven't started to bud. I switched to warm CFLs (280 true watts) about 2 weeks ago.

What could be wrong? Is it normal for them to not bud 3 wks after showing sex? Is the loosing of the fan leaves normal? They just look weak...help pls!
Thanks for any assistance you can offer.I

Those plants look like they need to be fed pretty badly. After three weeks you should have decent bud growth, nothing epic just hinting as to what is yet to come.

How old are they?
What mix are they in?

My best guess by the shot is a need of nitrogen and probably some phosphate would be good.

That is not normal.

Those plants look very bad.

How long have they looked sick?

Do you ph your water??

You water only 2 or 3 times a week? How do you determine it is time to water?

Have you flushed yet? Salts build up and at 9 weeks they could be rootbound as well.

Explain your lighting more?

I would guess its a nute lockout caused by ph being off.

They have been getting increasingly ill for the past couple of weeks, although they haven't looked great for about a month. I don't ph the water...but I have been told it is only slightly hard. They were repotted when they showed sex 3 1/2 weeks ago. They are still growing taller. I water when ther soil is completely dry. I haven't flushed yet. They are in potting soil. I have 1 - 65 watt CFL and 8 - 27 watt CFLs about 1-3 inches above the plants. What suggestions do you have for saving them...THANKS!!

How do you determine the soil is completely dry?

When did you start feeding her nutes?

You don't ph after you add the nutes to the water?

tommypd said:

They have been getting increasingly ill for the past couple of weeks, although they haven't looked great for about a month. I don't ph the water...but I have been told it is only slightly hard. They were repotted when they showed sex 3 1/2 weeks ago. They are still growing taller. I water when ther soil is completely dry. I haven't flushed yet. They are in potting soil. I have 1 - 65 watt CFL and 8 - 27 watt CFLs about 1-3 inches above the plants. What suggestions do you have for saving them...THANKS!!

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I think the best treatment for them would be some worm castings and some water (every two days). Put them on 12/12 light cycle even though thier auto flowering. This should cure them, worm castings will strengthen thier immune systems and provide everything they need. They will be fine.

Leftyy2k4 said:

How do you determine the soil is completely dry?

When did you start feeding her nutes?

You don't ph after you add the nutes to the water?

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Once the top layer of soil looks dry stick your finger an inch or so and feel if its moist if its dry 1 to 2 inches down it needs to be watered. I used fox farm soil that has nutes in it, i fed after 3 weeks. And yes you should only ph after you add the nutes. Nutrients usualy make your water more acidic. If you ph water then add nutes the water will most likely be to acidic.

I do not have a ph meter. I have only grown outdoors where the philosophy was "plant the sprouts, make sure they have lots of water and let them grow like the weed that they are". Obviously, this doesn't work indoors. I determine the soil is dry when the pot is really light and I can stick my finger in the soil a few inches and it's dry. I have only added nutrients the one time a week ago when I added the 17-35-19 at 1/4 recommended strength.
Do you think they can be salvaged??

tommypd said:

I do not have a ph meter. I have only grown outdoors where the philosophy was "plant the sprouts, make sure they have lots of water and let them grow like the weed that they are". Obviously, this doesn't work indoors. I determine the soil is dry when the pot is really light and I can stick my finger in the soil a few inches and it's dry. I have only added nutrients the one time a week ago when I added the 17-35-19 at 1/4 recommended strength.
Do you think they can be salvaged??

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I think she just needs to be fed some nutes. The 17-35-19 should work.

If it has only been a week it will take time to see results.

You need to get some way of testing the ph. Strips or what ever. You also need to make sure you ph after you add the nutes to the water.

I would flush with phed water and feed again the next watering.

It is probably some form of nute lock out from ph as was already mentioned.

You got to ph the water. Some people can have some really bad water.

They can always be saved. Just how long it takes for them to bud and final amount of bud might be hurt. They are a auto flower so that might be a problem.

Yes feed them bitches!

and buy some cheap ass ph meter or testing device.

I would dose them with a proper organic compost tea for a full array.

They are starving dude, in nature they have unlimited root space to deal with nutrients if you plant in the ground. In a pot you need to feed fairly regularly to replace what they take.

It isn't salt build up probably because you haven't been dosing em the whole time with fucked up ph water and a shit ton of nutes. salts build up due to improper FEEDING generally not watering because tap water has to be in a regulated range because our body system is actually pretty intolerant to PH fluctuations.

I would recommend you just go buy a proper fertilizer. She can probably late atleast a 2/3 strength mix at her size atleast. If you can get a compost tea that would be better.

I would probably feed it twice a week apart from eachother with near full strength and then leave it be for the rest of the season and hope for the best.

Or if you get a chem purpose designed fertilizer you should do 1/3 strength feeding a week of 2/3 strength and then back it back off.

Flushing at this point would only starve the plant further and probably harm yield that much more.

You probably have fucked up your yield already because your plant should have been storing starches in its roots to build fat buds at the end but you starved it. Still will have dank bud just not as much.

Thanks for all your assistance....I am going out to find a ph meter or strips. I will feed them with my 17-35-19 at full strength and see what happens. I think i will also set them to 12/12 to try to goose themm to flower.

Thanks for all your assistance !!!!!!

I would not feed them full strength. Not right away.

Start slow. 1/4th or 1/2th strength.

You do not want to be back here with nute burn or dead plants.

tommypd said:

Thanks for all your assistance....I am going out to find a ph meter or strips. I will feed them with my 17-35-19 at full strength and see what happens. I think i will also set them to 12/12 to try to goose themm to flower.

Thanks for all your assistance !!!!!!

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I would not recommend jumping the nutes like that, build into it and back off when you are three weeks from harvesting until you are giving them no nutes for the last week at which point flush heavily with ph adjusted water.

Like if you straight feed them they might stress from the difference in situations changing fast.

Like for instance it is much healthier for you to gradually knock off light hours on your girls then do it all at once throwing them into flowering.

Ok...thanks..I'll ease them into fertilizer slowly. peace.

tommypd said:

Ok...thanks..I'll ease them into fertilizer slowly. peace.

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PS...i hit you both w/ reps...

Feel free to ask any more questions bro.

Also the reason I said begin backing off at three weeks and taper it down evenly every feeding til one week before harvest is that it might give you back some of you end weight.

Good luck and thanks.