Hey guys, thank you in advance for your time. I am on my first grow and am having trouble identifying the cause of a certain deficiency/deficiencies that started occurring after I switched into flowering. I am currently on the 4th week of bloom. The plants are hybrids, mostly indica. The problem affects old and new leaves, so I think it is a mobile element.
I am using a hydroponic setup: sprayers inside of a tote: 1m on 15m off. I have had stable PH between 5.5 and 6.5, and have stayed strict to the simple general hydroponics recirculating feed chart: +CalMag +Hydro Guard charts. I do notuse rapidstart. I use hardwater Micro because I brought a water sample into a grow shop and they advised me on it, but said I was only a mildly high PPM case(I use well water). I swap my reservoir (10gal) every 2 weeks, and top it off during the week. I do NOT know my PPM, perhaps that is an/the issue? I seem to use more PH down as the grow continues: I use about 75-100ml of PH down to bring down the PH every time I swap nutes. I have the tent well ventiliated, and keep temps between 67-75F, and humidity around 20~50%.
Background: I am running a scrog setup and planned to veg the plants for 4~5 weeks. I did this, but encountered spider mites, so I used a few products over a few weeks to vanquish the usurpers: (Hot shot No Pest Strip, Azamax, and Mighty Wash) I have read around and decided against using the NPS in flowering so I extended the veg time even further to 6 total weeks. (small spider mite note: Mighty Wash worked the best hands down, and the NPS did not get all of them, cant speak for azamax: but I think it slowed them down)
During veg 2 plants were a bit shorter than the rest, but I had healthy leaves and most plants had quick growth at least. Things seemed to be going well beyond the spider mites and 2 short plants.
Once I switched into flowering though, I noticed an ever growing yellowing on the leaves. Brown spots would form near the edges and turn into dead parts of the leaves. Yellowing would surround the brown spots. Currently at week 4 in bloom, the brown spots have gone down in frequency, but they are still forming.
Additionally: A week or so into flowering one of my plants wilted, and I took her out for fear her roots would die and leave necrotic plant matter in the reservoir. I have no idea why it wilted, I checked the roots and some were a bit brown, but not slimy like what I'd expect from root rot. I also have 2 air stones in the reservoir. The sprayers were working fine, and the root system was as wet as any other plant. Not sure if the plant was simply a poor clone, or what happened, but the rest of the girls have not shown signs of wilting, but I felt this could be relevant.
Here are some pictures of the poor deficient plants/leaves. The brown/yellow spots I experienced between bloom weeks 1-3 seemed similar to a potassium deficiency. But the super yellow fading I'm seeing now appears more like a Nitrogen deficiency. This confuses me because I have read that the GH nutrient feeding charts are generally more than enough for plants to thrive, and I have been vigilant as heimdall about my PH.
Maybe it has to do with how long I kept the plants in veg?
Again, thanks in advance for any help!
I am using a hydroponic setup: sprayers inside of a tote: 1m on 15m off. I have had stable PH between 5.5 and 6.5, and have stayed strict to the simple general hydroponics recirculating feed chart: +CalMag +Hydro Guard charts. I do notuse rapidstart. I use hardwater Micro because I brought a water sample into a grow shop and they advised me on it, but said I was only a mildly high PPM case(I use well water). I swap my reservoir (10gal) every 2 weeks, and top it off during the week. I do NOT know my PPM, perhaps that is an/the issue? I seem to use more PH down as the grow continues: I use about 75-100ml of PH down to bring down the PH every time I swap nutes. I have the tent well ventiliated, and keep temps between 67-75F, and humidity around 20~50%.
Background: I am running a scrog setup and planned to veg the plants for 4~5 weeks. I did this, but encountered spider mites, so I used a few products over a few weeks to vanquish the usurpers: (Hot shot No Pest Strip, Azamax, and Mighty Wash) I have read around and decided against using the NPS in flowering so I extended the veg time even further to 6 total weeks. (small spider mite note: Mighty Wash worked the best hands down, and the NPS did not get all of them, cant speak for azamax: but I think it slowed them down)
During veg 2 plants were a bit shorter than the rest, but I had healthy leaves and most plants had quick growth at least. Things seemed to be going well beyond the spider mites and 2 short plants.
Once I switched into flowering though, I noticed an ever growing yellowing on the leaves. Brown spots would form near the edges and turn into dead parts of the leaves. Yellowing would surround the brown spots. Currently at week 4 in bloom, the brown spots have gone down in frequency, but they are still forming.
Additionally: A week or so into flowering one of my plants wilted, and I took her out for fear her roots would die and leave necrotic plant matter in the reservoir. I have no idea why it wilted, I checked the roots and some were a bit brown, but not slimy like what I'd expect from root rot. I also have 2 air stones in the reservoir. The sprayers were working fine, and the root system was as wet as any other plant. Not sure if the plant was simply a poor clone, or what happened, but the rest of the girls have not shown signs of wilting, but I felt this could be relevant.
Here are some pictures of the poor deficient plants/leaves. The brown/yellow spots I experienced between bloom weeks 1-3 seemed similar to a potassium deficiency. But the super yellow fading I'm seeing now appears more like a Nitrogen deficiency. This confuses me because I have read that the GH nutrient feeding charts are generally more than enough for plants to thrive, and I have been vigilant as heimdall about my PH.
Maybe it has to do with how long I kept the plants in veg?
Again, thanks in advance for any help!
