Newbie progress - am I on track?

I'm hoping for some feedback on my progress. I started these from seed at the end of April. They're outdoor, in a greenhouse, and they've been showing sex for quite some time - must be close to two months now. They went through an explosive vertical growth spurt for a few weeks, and just recently started slowing down. I assumed this was the stretch I've read about. I continued feeding grow nutrients during this time.

About a week or so ago they started getting a lot more hairs in different places, calyxes started getting bigger, and a lot of new growth started appearing in places where there wasn't any before, so I thought this must be the start of flowering. They started looking more like flowering plants, just without the actual flowers. I switched to bloom nutrients, although now I'm wondering if I might have jumped the gun a little on that. I figured I'd see actual flowers start forming, but in the last week they haven't really done much of anything. Since they're outdoor I don't know for sure when they started flowering, or if they have in fact actually started at all. I'm kinda confused here as to what's going on with them. Shouldn't they be showing more obvious flowers by now? We've had a brutally hot summer here so far, and there is definitely a bit of a heat issue which I'm trying to keep under control the best I can. But I look at pictures of other people's plants in the first couple weeks of flower and it seems like they all at least look like they're growing flowers. Mine don't. Does it look like things are on track, or is this abnormally slow progress?

There's also a problem with leaves turning yellow and dying off. It started with just older, lower leaves, but seems to be moving up. All new growth looks good and seems healthy, but I'm losing a lot of older leaves. The yellowing started long before I switched to bloom nutes, so I don't know what's going on. The only other thing I've used besides the two-part nutrients is about a teaspoon of epsom salt dissolved in the water, and I've only done this once. Should I keep going with the bloom nutrients or should I switch back to grow?

I'd appreciate any feedback and/or advice anyone can share with me. This is my first grow, so I really don't know how things are going.

Bloom nutrients are lower in nitrogen and higher in phosphorus followed by potassium. When your plant goes into flowering, it takes mobile nutrients stored at the first branch site leaves and moves up the branch as it is needed. The lack of nitrogen and other essential nutrients in your bloom mix is causing the chlorosis (yellowing).

Increasing nitrogen, calcium and magnesium, will slow down/stop the chlorosis. ***also Iron***

Also re-reading your post: You do look early in giving bloom nutrients. Revert back to veg nutrients, but do it slowly.

Coby hit the bud on the head. A bit of yellowing is normal, but this is beyond normal. "Revert back to veg nutrients, but do it slowly."


You posted lots of node pics, which show that these are indeed about to pop and are all females. Next set please post some pics from above, so we can see leaves, budsites and/or new growth. It's much easier to judge "where she is" flowering-wise from that POV

Good luck

Thanks guys. Looks like I'll be switching back next time I feed. I guess I was just too over-anxious to see some buds, trying to hurry something that couldn't be hurried. Lesson learned.

The advice is very much appreciated.

Rold2Tight said:

Coby hit the bud on the head. A bit of yellowing is normal, but this is beyond normal. "Revert back to veg nutrients, but do it slowly."


You posted lots of node pics, which show that these are indeed about to pop and are all females. Next set please post some pics from above, so we can see leaves, budsites and/or new growth. It's much easier to judge "where she is" flowering-wise from that POV

Good luck

Click to expand...

I would have posted pics from above, except these ladies are about eight feet tall and I can't even see the tops without standing on a chair and bending them down.

I hope you're right about them being ready to pop soon. I'm normally a pretty patient person, but I'm really excited for the fun stuff to start. The suspense is killing me!

What no step ladder? I didn't necessarily mean from above. I meant pics showing more of the outside of the plant, rather than just the inside the plant. Sort of like the last pic, but closer and clearer. Just noticed, that's a big ass stem As in honey does this pot make my stem look big?....LOL

These are about the best pictures I can get of the whole things. Inside the greenhouse is just too bushy to see anything. The one outside the greenhouse is out there because I ran out of room inside and had to kind of hide it in a little corner behind the greenhouse. It's tied down mercilessly, but I couldn't think of any other solution.

To me they look decent, but again, this is my first time, so I don't know. I guess it could be like the parents of hideous little troll children...to me they look beautiful, but to everyone else, maybe not so much.