My first marijuana grow. Questions, concerns, and updates

This is my first grow and I just have a few questions and would really appreciate some feedback. I'm currently growing an autofem northern lights seed in a 5 gallon space bucket system I made. My first question being does the first picture look like it is starting to flower and if it is starting to flower how much and how often should I be watering? My second question being does the second picture of the bottom set of leaves look normal or ok? And if not what do you guys think I need to do in order to correct it? Thank you in advance for all of your feedback/help

420gageit said:

View attachment 4931773this is my first grow and I just have a few questions and would really appreciate some feedback. I'm currently growing an autofem northern lights seed in a 5 gallon space bucket system I made. My first question being does the first picture look like it is starting to flower and if it is starting to flower how much and how often should I be watering? My second questions being does the second picture of the bottom set of leaves look notmal or ok? And if not what do you guys think I need to do in order to correct it? Thank you in advance for all of your feedback/helpView attachment 4931776

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Really need pictures from the side and top under normal light.

curious2garden said:

Really need pictures from the side and top under normal light.

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Wym? I can post vids of the whole plant if you would like. I also have pics of the plant in normal light. I'm just mainly trying to figure out if the bottom leaf looks ok and if the top in the first picture looks like it is starting to flower.

Heh - looks like you're in a bind and no one else has responded…

First pix isn't very clear but it does look like you're in flower. Hit up a search engine and check out "cannabis growth stages". Things change significantly between veg and flower.

Pix on bottom
You have an issue that's killing//killed that leaf. The dark brown is dead, the yellow is next in line but the rest of the leaf is a very light green vs a dark or medium green, depending on the strain.

I get that there's a sense of urgency and I'm surprised to see that others haven't responded. Maybe change the keywords/tags? My only experience has been in RDWC so I don't know squat about soil. Having said that, whatever is working on that leaf is pretty nasty.

While waiting for someone else to chime in, what about using a search engine for "plant abuse chart" or "cannabis nutrient deficiency"? Something like that should start to get to an answer.

I agree with c2g, pics of the entire plant will help with an assessment of its condition.
Also, try to include some info on your grow-age, lighting, feeding regimen.

I haven't been paying attention to how long its been growing but I would say about a month maybe a month and a week

Yes, the plant has started to flower, but the plant is tiny and will hardly produce anything to smoke. The issue with the leaf is probably some kind of deficiency, hard to say without knowing what you are feeding. This should be a good opportunity to learn something to do better next time, kind of too late now for this plant to produce much dried buds. What are you trying to accomplish here?

I was just hoping for an ounce maybe more. This is my first time after all. And I haven't been feeding it anything except for ph'd water at 6.5. I've been watering every other day and it is in fox farms strawberry fields soil. I was looking into deficiencies last night and was thinking it could possibly be nitrogen deficiency since it started from the initial leaves on the bottom of the plant. But then I noticed the very first leaf it started on is brown now so I'm not exactly sure what is going on with it.

420gageit said:

I was just hoping for an ounce maybe more. This is my first time after all. And I haven't been feeding it anything except for ph'd water at 6.5. I've been watering every other day and it is in fox farms strawberry fields soil. I was looking into deficiencies last night and was thinking it could possibly be nitrogen deficiency since it started from the initial leaves on the bottom of the plant. But then I noticed the very first leaf it started on is brown now so I'm not exactly sure what is going on with it.

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You are watering too much I would say. How big are the pots and how much water are you giving at a time?
A good tip is to lift the pot when it’s completely dry to feel weight, and do the same again after a good watering, don’t water again until the pot feels light-I’m in 10 gal fabric pots and I give 2 gal of water every 5-6 days.
You want a good soaking when watering and then nothing until light and dry

I am in a 5 gallon fabric pot that sits inside of the 5 gallon plastic space bucket. I water about a quarter gallon maybe a little more every other day or so and I've been using the finger method to see if the soil is still wet before watering again. Does the soil have to be completely dry before watering again or slightly damp?

420gageit said:

I am in a 5 gallon fabric pot that sits inside of the 5 gallon plastic space bucket. I water about a quarter gallon maybe a little more every other day or so and I've been using the finger method to see if the soil is still wet before watering again. Does the soil have to be completely dry before watering again or slightly damp?

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If it were me and in a 5 gal bucket, I’d try to water about a gallon every 4-5 days, assuming that’s how long it would take to dry out. Leaving the soil damp a finger tip or two down can lead to fungus gnats. You want to try and let it dry to the point where the pot is light to lift. Hard to give you an exact timeframe because it will change with your environment, but every other day is not a good practice.

Ok note taken. I literally just finished watering as you were typing that. I have noted that I watered about a quarter gallon on July 4th. I will now wait until the pot is dry a finger tip or two down before I water again. Whether that means 2-3 days doesn't matter I will wait. Also do the pictures above look like deficiencies or nute burn to you? They started yellowing at the tips at the original leaves and then the original ones started turning brown and now the rest are starting to turn yellow at the tips. The bottom of the leafs still look pretty healthy though as you can tell by this pic

420gageit said:

Ok note taken. I literally just finished watering as you were typing that. I have noted that I watered about a quarter gallon on July 4th. I will now wait until the pot is dry a finger tip or two down before I water again. Whether that means 2-3 days doesn't matter I will wait. Also do the pictures above look like deficiencies or nute burn to you? They started yellowing at the tips at the original leaves and then the original ones started turning brown and now the rest are starting to turn yellow at the tips. The bottom of the leafs still look pretty healthy though as you can tell by this pic

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What kind of soil are you using, are you feeding nutes, if so how much and how often, how old is the plant.
I don’t have quite enough knowledge to speak 100% to the leaves yellowing, but it could be from too many nutes. Depending on the soil and how long plant has been in the soil, the soil comes loaded with nutrients, which can last the plant about a month. Meaning you don’t want to feed any nutes for about a month in unless the plant looks hungry sooner.
The cotyledons die off early once the plant has used it what it needs from them so I wouldn’t worry about that.
Hoping a more seasoned member can chime in with more assistance with the leaves.
So the problem with yellow leaves started at the top and is affecting new growth, and the lower leaves still look good?
If that’s the case I can tell you it’s an issue with an immobile nutrient-what specifically I couldn’t say

The yellowing of the leaves started with the cotyledons which have now turned yellowish and brown and the lower leaves are brown on the tips. The new leaves look great besides the fact that the tips on them are slightly yellow. That could just be new growth but I'm honestly not sure. It is in fox farms strawberry fields soil and I have not been feeding it any nutrients. I have been watering since flower about a quarter gallon of water every other day or so and I've been using the finger method to see if the soil is damp before I water again. At first I would wait until it was completely dry before I watered again because I was scared of overwatering but then I was told that that was a bad idea so I started watering every other day when the soil was just barely damp and definitely not soaked. So in long story short the problem started at the bottom leaves aka the cotyledeons and stopped for a while and is now slowly starting to turn the other lower leaves slightly yellowish brown on the tips

Okay so ignore the statement about immobile nutrients being the issue. I would start by fine tuning your watering technique and depending on age of the plant start feeding some nutes. Whatever line you’re going with I would start at 1/4 strength and then build your way up. Maybe start with water, water, feed, schedule and see how it responds.
Again I hope a more seasoned grower can chime in and either reinforce what I’ve said or give you better advice. Good luck!

Ok so by fine tuning the watering technique you basically mean just figure out how much to water and how often correct? Also what do you mean by "whatever line you're going with i would start at 1/4 strength"? This is my first time growing and I honestly know nothing about adding nutrients or how to do so. Also this is my first time growing any plant in general if im being honest

420gageit said:

Ok so by fine tuning the watering technique you basically mean just figure out how much to water and how often correct? Also what do you mean by "whatever line you're going with i would start at 1/4 strength"?

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"line" — many nutrient manufacturers sell different "sets" or "families" of nutrients. General Hydro, as an example, has about half a dozen lines of nutes - Flora, FloraPro, FloraNova, etc.
The amount of nutes that they recommend is so high that growers typically start with ¼ the recommended strength and adjust it up or down after seeing how the plants react.

420gageit said:

This is my first time growing and I honestly know nothing about adding nutrients or how to do so. Also this is my first time growing any plant in general if im being honest

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Same here. The only thing I ever grew before my previous grow (in 2017) was a beard. Fortunately, are tons of "how to" guides, both on this site and in other sites, that detail both the basics as well as more advanced topics of growing cannabis. And experienced growers are willing to share their expertise so there's lots of opportunities to learn.

420gageit said:

Ok so by fine tuning the watering technique you basically mean just figure out how much to water and how often correct? Also what do you mean by "whatever line you're going with i would start at 1/4 strength"? This is my first time growing and I honestly know nothing about adding nutrients or how to do so. Also this is my first time growing any plant in general if im being honest

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Yeah by fine tuning I mean how often you are having to water based on your pot being light to lift.
So there are entire nutrient lines by different companies-they will have a nutrient you feed during each stage of the plants life. I’m no expert on nutrients and which works best, I was using Fox Farm trio, quick google will tell you about that brand. Each bottle in the line will tell you how much to mix per gallon of water-you want to start with 1/4 of their suggested mixture-so if they say 1tbsp, you want to give 1/4 tbsp and work your way up from there.
You also don’t want to feed nutrients with each watering, want more along the lines of a water, water, feed schedule