Sorry not an outdoor question, but can’t figure out how to move it!!8 weeks flower....did I mess up the ph?

Now that my outdoor girls have finished up, I’m focusing attention inside....probably should have done so sooner. Ahh well, first run in a long time and while yield isn’t quite there I think quality will be if I don’t mess up dry and cure.
So I’m looking for input on what I’ve done here and have a feeling I messed up ph a few weeks back and now really seeing the fallout. Disclaimer* I haven’t gotten any ph testing stuff yet (everything was fine for the whole grow up till now). Also, photos under led and hps and edited to get closer to natural lighting.
Pretty sure this is a Lemon Walker starting 9 week in flower. Has been grown under a 600w hps and 2 shitty led boards since flower (just the leds during veg), in a mix of organic miracle grow plus an amended pro mix soil (both bails from Costco) with some slow release bone and blood meal, worm castings and a little feather meal. All plants fed on biocanna Flores, unsulphured blackstrap, liquid seaweed (2-4-7 I think) and 2 types of hen pellets (will have to check in numbers for those) as top dressing (and the initial soil amendments). I had 1 little plant in an old baking powder bucket that I was guessing was too high ph (again no testing, but shouting yellow between the veins and other symptoms) so I added about a tsp of apple cider vinegar to a gallon of water to bring it down. But then I watered all my girls with that. Couple weeks later this one started with leaf spots and curling and then progressed to what you see here. Guessing my n was too heavy during flower for this strain cause It’s had a bit of clawing happening for a while now. The spots and yellowing and crispiness are within the last couple weeks - while I’ve been distracted with outdoor harvest.
fans so crispy they crumble at a touch. Almost looks like the most extreme cal mag def ever, but thinking it may be due to a ph issue. The chicken pellets have calcium and the biocanna has mag, so they should be there, but if Ph is too low then they are unavailable, correct? The other possibilities I’m considering are burn (unlikely cause all organic, but possible cause I experimented with dissolving some of the chicken pellets for a liquid feed), and light burn (also feel unlikely cause light distance hasn’t changed). Here’s some more photos....


this last photo is natural light. Leaf is getting crispy to the touch like the other. Also, feel it worth noting that it’s primarily the top leaves doing this. Bottoms are yellowing as they should at this stage in flower.
Sadly there is so little time left before cutting (she looks pretty much ready to me - no amber yet, but all cloudy) I don’t think I have the time to fix it. That is assuming the trichomes will ripen when she is this unhappy, which could be an incorrect assumption.

Happy growing!

ps...
Sugar leaves starting to curl and crisp on this one. Also starting 9 weeks flower. Haven’t been able to find much info on sugar leaves doing this so tossed in as an extra.
thanks again all!

Man mistakes were definitely made. I would say switch to a good organic soil blend thats more "hands off". Just add water and maybe some top dress bloom nutrients a couple times in flower. Roots organic, fox farms, etc.

JoeBlow5823 said:

Man mistakes were definitely made. I would say switch to a good organic soil blend thats more "hands off". Just add water and maybe some top dress bloom nutrients a couple times in flower. Roots organic, fox farms, etc.

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Not as much fun, but probably sound advice. Are you on board with the vinegar water being the biggest mistake? Again, all seemed pretty good except for a bit of clawing before this started.

TimewasterOG said:

Not as much fun, but probably sound advice. Are you on board with the vinegar water being the biggest mistake? Again, all seemed pretty good except for a bit of clawing before this started.

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I dont think i would ever add vinegar to my water. I dont know a ton about the specifics of what amendments or nutrients to use. Bagged soil gets you through veg no problem. They get a little hungry in flower so add a bloom top dress that someone who gets paid to know what the plants need has blended for you. If your running a large scale grow then it would be worth it to learn how to mix your own soil to save money and dial in specific blends for different strains/phenos; but for the hobbyist, just buy pre mixed. And make sure it drains good. Some of them hold a TON of water and need to be mixed like 50/50 with perlite. Mixing a couple different brands of bagged soil can work well too. Some drain to well some dont drain enough.

JoeBlow5823 said:

I dont think i would ever add vinegar to my water. I dont know a ton about the specifics of what amendments or nutrients to use. Bagged soil gets you through veg no problem. They get a little hungry in flower so add a bloom top dress that someone who gets paid to know what the plants need has blended for you. If your running a large scale grow then it would be worth it to learn how to mix your own soil to save money and dial in specific blends for different strains/phenos; but for the hobbyist, just buy pre mixed. And make sure it drains good. Some of them hold a TON of water and need to be mixed like 50/50 with perlite. Mixing a couple different brands of bagged soil can work well too. Some drain to well some dont drain enough.

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Just for contrast.....pretty well same treatment for this lady and none of the issues. Right next to each other. And I don’t disagree. Will definitely be making an upgrade in the soil department next time. I do have fun trying different things though, so probably won’t be able to help but experiment a bit. I’m also neglecting my other main question: should I just go ahead and cut before any other problems come up?

this one I’m letting go til I see amber. Main cola is a good 8-9”. Not 100% on this strain-mixed up all my tags when repotting. Pretty sure it’s either death bubba or gorilla bubba (but sooo different from the ones I put outside).

Looks overfed. Blood and feather meal are very high in nitrogen and blood meal is pretty fast acting. I think you used too much not enough. I wouldn't add anything at this point. Just run it until it's done and don't do the same thing with your next grow.

I would probably wait a bit to harvest.

Your pics have some pretty crazy lighting so its hard to tell.

It probably wasn't the vinegar. It can and has been used as a PH down. The chicken pellets dissolved in water would be my guess. Chicken manure is a very hot fertilizer, meant to be slow releasing. Dissolving it into water and applying it after it was already in there in the first place can hurt of kill a plant.

JimmiP said:

It probably wasn't the vinegar. It can and has been used as a PH down. The chicken pellets dissolved in water would be my guess. Chicken manure is a very hot fertilizer, meant to be slow releasing. Dissolving it into water and applying it after it was already in there in the first place can hurt of kill a plant.

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I'm with @JimmiP . Chicken poop is for acid lovers like rhododendron. After a year burning off on a compost pile. Wicked hot from my use. Organic? soil guy here. Soil is my choice after too many issues and not needed work.

Looks like ph induced lockout and some light or heat. Best advice is buy $6 PH pen. Fish store litmus strips if needed. PH is the control method in soil as well. Best of luck.

Thanks for the feedback folks! I finally managed to pick up some ph testing liquid. Haven’t managed to do a slurry test yet, but I tested runoff that’s been sitting since yesterday and it sure looked to be between 6-6.5. Not sure if the ph would equalize from sitting overnight or possibly runoff is not a very accurate means of testing. Will do some more investigating and let you know.
And I’m feeling like you’re right about my initial concerns about the dissolved hen pellets. I should’ve taken better notes...but I think this plant got the bottom of that jug, with some sediment, which probably = most acidic and nutrient heavy part of it. Could be why she’s having issues that the others are not (all been treated the same for the most part), and looking a little N heavy (both kinds of pellets were 4-10-? And 4-5-7 if I recall).
Would it be worth trying an Epsom salt foliar spray this late in the game to see if it has any affect on the leaf deterioration? Or just flush for another week or so and call it a day?
One final thing, I thought to check the humidity in there, which was surprisingly low at 36% (kind of shocking since they’re in my basement). Would that be low enough to cause any trouble with excessive transpiration?

TimewasterOG said:

Thanks for the feedback folks! I finally managed to pick up some ph testing liquid. Haven’t managed to do a slurry test yet, but I tested runoff that’s been sitting since yesterday and it sure looked to be between 6-6.5. Not sure if the ph would equalize from sitting overnight or possibly runoff is not a very accurate means of testing. Will do some more investigating and let you know.
And I’m feeling like you’re right about my initial concerns about the dissolved hen pellets. I should’ve taken better notes...but I think this plant got the bottom of that jug, with some sediment, which probably = most acidic and nutrient heavy part of it. Could be why she’s having issues that the others are not (all been treated the same for the most part), and looking a little N heavy (both kinds of pellets were 4-10-? And 4-5-7 if I recall).
Would it be worth trying an Epsom salt foliar spray this late in the game to see if it has any affect on the leaf deterioration? Or just flush for another week or so and call it a day?
One final thing, I thought to check the humidity in there, which was surprisingly low at 36% (kind of shocking since they’re in my basement). Would that be low enough to cause any trouble with excessive transpiration?

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Yes, with humidity that low it could. And at the same time its drawing up the excess nutrients like gangbusters. I would try to bump the humidity up a bit and just water her for a while.

Really a nice one....

Really a nice one....

JoeBlow5823 said:

I dont think i would ever add vinegar to my water. I dont know a ton about the specifics of what amendments or nutrients to use. Bagged soil gets you through veg no problem. They get a little hungry in flower so add a bloom top dress that someone who gets paid to know what the plants need has blended for you. If your running a large scale grow then it would be worth it to learn how to mix your own soil to save money and dial in specific blends for different strains/phenos; but for the hobbyist, just buy pre mixed. And make sure it drains good. Some of them hold a TON of water and need to be mixed like 50/50 with perlite. Mixing a couple different brands of bagged soil can work well too. Some drain to well some dont drain enough.

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well said