Specific problem, specific solution?

Hi there all RIU users,

first of all, a huge THANKYOU to the many members of this site who have provided me with so much useful information over the past few years. This site is just great and today I decided it's time to become a member

So, like any new member ofc the main reason I'm here is to hopefully get a solution to an issue with my grow. For you experienced growers out there who prefer to offer up your diagnosis after seeing pictures, I would ask you to kindly return in 12 hours when my dark cycle is finished and I can take and upload some pics.

Anyhow now I've started, for the time being, here is the rundown on my grow and my issue:

- 250W HPS indoor with soil (a mix of different soils from "Plagron") in a small grow tent
- currently 4 weeks into flowering, counted from start of 12/12
- 6plants in my grow space, 3 Northern Lights, 3 "the ultimate", all clones I acquired from a friend (who i trust)
- i water a small amount daily, so far no extra nutrients used
- ventilation is good, humidity is rather low (25-35%) temps between 21 and 25°c (in the room, so in the tent temps are about 25-29°c)
- plants are in 6 liter pots (approx. 1.6 gal) which should be more than sufficient for clones - i put them in those pots right at the start of 12/12 after about 1 week of vegging.

The 3 NL plants and 1 of the Ultimate plants are doing just fine. However 2 Ultimate plants are not doing so well. These 2 have grown considerably taller than all the other plants in my room and about a week ago the buds stopped swelling, in fact they seemed to lose density and have become rather shriveled and crappy-looking. As of today, these 2 plants have about 20% brown/orange hairs and the fan leaves are starting to deteriorate at quite an upsetting rate. None of the other plants have any brown/orange hairs at all, they are all still pushing out white hairs and the buds are gradually swelling and fan leaves are not wilting. So what is going on with these 2 ultimate plants i wonder?

I seem to remember reading somewhere that the ultimate strain can handle/needs quite a lot of nutes (can anyone confirm?) and my primary diagnosis would be that it's time to start adding extra nutes to these 2 plants and maybe i can turn them around into something special. Secondary diagnosis is that these 2 plants are quite simply stressed out by something and are showing hermaphrodite tendencies (hence the bud shriveling, they have pollinated themselves!) in which case i would prefer to remove them from my grow room.

Is it possible that predominantly female plants will pollinate themselves at 3-4 weeks into flowering if stressed? I did not spot any pollen sacs.

So there you go, quite a specific problem and I hope to find a specific solution. Apologies for not providing pics, but as i said its the dark cycle right now. Unfortunate timing for my first post (sorry) but pics will be added in about 11 hours.

Any preliminary comments or thoughts would be much appreciated.
Peace!

Ok here come the pics. Please bear in mind all these plants have the same conditions. Same size pots, same earth, same stage of flowering (a little over 4 weeks in). The pictures with "ok" in them are the good plants. The pictures with "sad" in them are the aforementioned 2 plants that just don't look right at all.

So please let me know what u guys think.

Have you fed them yet at all? Little early to start paling like that imo

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I'll take a stab at it..... the one thing you've left out that is probably the single most important thing...

What is your P.H.?

PH is locking out nitrogen.

You now know what a plant looks like when it is truly hungry. This is a good thing to know and will serve you well in future grows.

You won't be able to bring back the faded leaves. Once the plant starts robbing nutrients from them in flowering, they are generally done. I would toss down some fertilizer but I would go with something mellow like a TBS of 5-5-5 at next watering. They need nitrogen but you want them to consume most of their nitrogen by harvest, so it is a little tricky at this point.

The good news is that your buds should smoke wonderfully.

Thanks a lot for the responses!

No I have not fed them yet at all, I was assuming there would be enough nutes in the soil since it was fresh soil at the start of flowering. My bad I guess lesson learned.

Sadly I don't have any devices to measure PH, except for those little papers you can get and they are showing a PH of about 7, maybe slightly under but its hard to tell accurately.

What is TBS?

I have some fertiliser here which is 2-2-4 (Canna Terra Flores), it's all i've got atm so I will start using that right away! Thanks a lot you guys! I will report back in a few days, hopefully can still get a halfway decent grow!

TBS = tablespoon, sorry.

AH ok. Tks Bugeye, do you mean actually putting a TBS of concentrated fertilizer straight into the pot? Isn't that overkill?

I'm assuming you mean a TBS into the water One other thing u said, Quote "Once the plant starts robbing nutrients from them in flowering, they are generally done." Does this mean that once a plant has eaten away all it's own large leaves, I might as well harvest, since the buds will not be getting any bigger or better, even if its weeks before normal harvest time?

Grow4myfriends said:

I'm assuming you mean a TBS into the water One other thing u said, Quote "Once the plant starts robbing nutrients from them in flowering, they are generally done." Does this mean that once a plant has eaten away all it's own large leaves, I might as well harvest, since the buds will not be getting any bigger or better?

Click to expand...

Sorry for the misunderstanding. Do not harvest based on the fan leaves, keep them growing! I meant that you won't be able to get the leaves that have yellowed to go green again. The plant has plenty of sugar leaves around the bud that will keep it maturing.

Just go with whatever your directions are on your fertilizer for dosage. I usually do one tablespoon of 5-5-5 in mid flowering if they look like they need it. Mine is a powdered/granular form so I just top dress with it and then water it in.

Ok gotcha. Just toying with ideas about how to proceed with this crop. I don't have much experience with fertilizers, it has never really been a big issue up until now, but i guess i will go with the full dosage as described on the bottle for a few days to get a bunch of nutes into the soil and then ease off to half-dosage or less after that and then observe.

If the lack of nutrients was indeed the problem, and provided the nutrients I add are the correct ones, roughly how long do you think it might take to see some positive changes?

I would expect them to perk up in first 24 hours for sure. Rate of fade should also start decreasing.

So my gals have now been receiving nutes for 5 days. The changes are clearly noticeable. Rate of decay has slowed considerably. Leaves are not falling off anymore. Even the paler fan leaves are holding steady and not losing any more colour. The buds are gradually starting to swell again. The 4 healthier plants are also looking very perky now that they are receiving some nutes. However these 4 now have yellowing leaf tips (just a tiny bit of yellow at the very tips of leaves) and some of the fan leaves are looking a bit papery and curling up so i guess they are not as nute-hungry as the 2 unhealthy ones. I will stop feeding them and continue feeding the 2 Ultimates.

Pretty much exactly as you predicted Bugeye

I am one happy camper right now.
Looks like I gonna get a good harvest after all. TYVM guys I got a couple hours before dark cycle so I'll post some pics in just a little while.

coming up to 5 weeks of flowering. All is well I think, at least much better than when I started this thread.

Any comments on the yellowing tips and the curled-up, papery leaf?

dam i took too many pics, won't let me upload any more. Got 5 more pics to show incl. the one with the papery, curled-up leaf. Maybe tomorrow

ah there it is 1050724