Growing Gurus: what in hell is wrong with my plants?

[BakedARea]

Long post...my apologies and thank you in advance for your time and wisdom.

Synopsis...I feel like I have been playing catchup this entire growing season. From trying to keep clones happy, trying to keep plants from going into flower, fighting pests, and dealing with deficiencies. URGH!

I am growing outdoors. Some from clones and some from seeds. I have a variety of issues happening. I am going to post them all here.

All plants are in DIY organic living soil. I put some basic amendments when I made the soil, top dressed, nutrient rich drenches, foliar feedings, and compost teas. I feel like I should not be having deficiencies at this point. I also have not been able to keep track of how many weeks in flower they all are. So now that means having to watch the trichome development for the next few months.

Issue #1: Purple Punch - The first to go into flower was the purple punch and over the past month has been struggling the most out of all of them. She was the best looking plant for quite a while and has since turned into the ugliest and least healthy. First was very stiff leaves and growth and then continual leaf discoloration. I have tried multiple feedings, foliar sprays, and teas. Nothing has snapped her out of this funk. Then I started seeing a few caterpillars so I started treating that using BT foliar sprays. Then I had to cull some buds because of bud rot. Initially I thought it was caterpillars causing it. After doing more research and understanding what I was looking at, it seems I caused it with the evening foliar sprays which caused the buds to stay too wet throughout the night. We have coastal breezes that come in and cause the humidity to rise in the evening and then heavy mist in the morning. Wonderful environment for mold... Recently applied some hydrogen peroxide in an attempt to slow the spread of the mold spores. We have a heat wave that started today that will be going through until next week! Hopefully that will help. I am wondering if there are any other issues you can see from these pics.

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• BakedARea
• Aug 14, 2020
• purple punch

Purple Punch

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• BakedARea
• Aug 14, 2020
• gg4 gorilla glue #4

Gorilla Glue #4

Issue #2: Loco Cleaner #2 ( created by @Jackalope )
Grown from seed and initially was struggling quite a bit. If you are curious what it looked like, take a look at my journal. After its final transplant, it turned around with a good feeding and newly ammended soil. It became a beautiful plant! The past couple weeks, I started seeing more of this leaf discoloration occurring. The new growth seems to be fine though. Should I attempt to correct this or is this just signs from a previous deficiency? I tried looking at deficiency charts and the problem thread here in the forum. Still not sure what I'm seeing to be honest.

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• BakedARea
• Aug 14, 2020
• loco cleaner

Loco Cleaner #2

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• BakedARea
• Aug 14, 2020
• loco cleaner

Loco Cleaner #2

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• BakedARea
• Aug 14, 2020
• loco cleaner

Loco Cleaner #2

Issue #3: Do-Sa-Do
It has had some very stiff leaves for the past couple months but recently I started seeing dark leaf tips. I have 2 of these clones and only one is showing this issue.

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• BakedARea
• Aug 14, 2020
• do-sa-do

Do-Sa-Do #2

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• BakedARea
• Aug 14, 2020
• do-sa-do

Do-Sa-Do #2

Issue #4: Strawberry Banana
I believe this is simply a natural nitrogen deficiency as it progresses through the flowering stage. Any other thoughts?

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• BakedARea
• Aug 14, 2020
• strawberry banana

Strawberry Banana

Issue #5: Romulan
I am in love with this plant! I have really enjoyed its growth pattern and overall happiness in the garden. It is so sticky and the buds are dense! I have done some defoliating but I still feel like it is too thick and bushy. Here are a couple pics of the canopy from above and a profile shot. I am afraid of the bud rot mold and lack of airflow so I believe I need to do some heavy clearing out. Is it bad to remove a bunch of the sugar leaves from the buds when they are in flower? How much removal is too much? If this was your plant, what would you do?

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• BakedARea
• Aug 14, 2020
• romulan

Romulan

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• BakedARea
• Aug 14, 2020
• romulan

Romulan

Issue #6: Gorilla Glue
Just started showing signs of stress last weekend. I'm not sure why to be honest. It has been growing so nicely and everything seemed fine. This plant is the closest to the purple punch but I have done some heavy defoliation and there is a lot of air flow. Could it be stress from defoliating? Or deficiency? If the latter, what do you think it is?

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• BakedARea
• Aug 14, 2020
• gg4 gorilla glue #4

Gorilla Glue 4

 

[Justin Goody]

Sometimes in the past I had similar problems from giving water/nutrients that were pH’d and then also watering with the hose. The pH fluctuations (probably leaning toward way too high) caused a lockout of something. And Cal/mag can only take care of so much if the plant isn’t accepting nutrients at all. The discolored leaves here and there are just the plant stealing from itself so there’s definitely a deficiency of some sort. All I am suggesting is finding out if it’s a matter of fixing the nutrients, or fixing the water/soil. Your food may be fine, just make sure it’s able to eat it.

 

[BakedARea]

All I am suggesting is finding out if it’s a matter of fixing the nutrients, or fixing the water/soil. Your food may be fine, just make sure it’s able to eat it.

Yeah, I have used filtered tap water which typically ranges from pH 7.2-7.6. When I add nutrients it drops down into the 6.2-6.8 range. I typically add silica, liquid fish fertilizer, liquid kelp, and molasses. The kelp drops the pH quite a bit. I honestly have not got a pH reading of the soil. Since it is a living soil mix, I have not been too concerned about the pH because of the buffer it is supposed to allow. Just odd that for the most part, all the plants have got the same nutes throughout the season. Some look great (not pictured) and some well...look unhappy. Hmmm...

 

[Justin Goody]

Yeah, I have used filtered tap water which typically ranges from pH 7.2-7.6. When I add nutrients it drops down into the 6.2-6.8 range. I typically add silica, liquid fish fertilizer, liquid kelp, and molasses. The kelp drops the pH quite a bit. I honestly have not got a pH reading of the soil. Since it is a living soil mix, I have not been too concerned about the pH because of the buffer it is supposed to allow. Just odd that for the most part, all the plants have got the same nutes throughout the season. Some look great (not pictured) and some well...look unhappy. Hmmm...

So many of my problems in the past were due to improper pH, and once the plant is weak, the bugs attack like the shield went down. I don't use molasses anymore because I had problems with it helping bacteria grow in the roots. I was only using it during flower, but that's another thing to consider, especially if it's been warm.

 

[BakedARea]

So many of my problems in the past were due to improper pH

Yeah, I have seen that be an issue for a lot of growers. I didn't think that would have been an issue for me honestly because of the soil. I will definitely check it later after it cools off. 5 minutes outside and the sweat starts dripping. Haaa haaaa

I don't use molasses anymore because I had problems with it helping bacteria grow in the roots.

I add it to help feed the microbes. Haaa haaa.

 

[Fuzzy Duck]

In all my years on seeing plant problems every body jumps on the PH band wagon this is really in grained into cannabis cultivation.

When it could just be a strain related issue as the purple punch could just be heavy feeder it really may be that simple, I'd personally do some research on that particular strain, oh ye the bud on that girl is far more developed than the others.

A part from yellowing of fan leafs which is pretty normal & it is not that uncommon to get a def whilst in flowering.

 

[Jackalope]

PH was going to be one of my suggestions. Maybe it was locking out nutrients. Sounds like your PH is ok. It would be a good idea to check the PH of some of the water that flows through your pot after watering. Going in it may be fine. What it is like in the pot may be different.

Cal/Mag is the other suggestion. 2 reasons I say this. 1st because it is always my first choice for unknown leaf problems. 2nd because it looks like the problems are in the middle of the plant. That tends to be a Cal/Mag sign. I use Lilly Miller B-1 plant starter fro my Cal/Mag.

If you have living soil. It can produce lots of stuff the plant needs. I am pretty sure Cal/Mag can only be taken from the soil. I don't think the soil can produce more of it itself. Especially with so many strains doing similar stuff.

 

[BakedARea]

When it could just be a strain related issue as the purple punch could just be heavy feeder it really may be that simple, I'd personally do some research on that particular strain

True! I don't have a firm grasp on which variety prefers more food compared to the others. For the most part, my feedings have been the same for all the plants.

Cal/Mag is the other suggestion. 2 reasons I say this. 1st because it is always my first choice for unknown leaf problems. 2nd because it looks like the problems are in the middle of the plant. That tends to be a Cal/Mag sign. I use Lilly Miller B-1 plant starter fro my Cal/Mag.

I have been using Cal/Mag with every feeding for the past few weeks. I've been going with a diluted amount compared to the recommended amount since I'm using it so often. I'll give it a full dose during the next drench. Thanks