Hempy Bucket Help

[THUNDER7]

First allow me to apologize in advance if I am posting in the wrong area. I am flowering in 5 gal. Hempy buckets using a 95%- 5% Perlite/Coco fiber mix. I have finished flowering a few cycles and I am losing a lot of color the last 3 weeks of flower. Taste and Potency are fair, but I am familiar with the strains and know they can be substantially better. This is the second time growing for me, I shut down for health reasons and now am back at it with 2 patients and would like to provide a higher quality product for the 3 of us, my concern isn't in regard to weight, it actually seemed to be right where I had predicted, 160g average per lady.
I am using BC Boost/Bloom 4x/wk. per directions. Up to week 7
CalMag and Silica Blast 3x/wk. up to week 4.
Open Sesame(2x/wk. sparingly) weeks 2,3 and 4. and then
Beastie Bloomz(2/wk. again sparingly) weeks5-6

Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated, thank you in advance.

 

[THUNDER7]

The lack of any response is somewhat disconcerting, perhaps my post was confusing or in the wrong venue. Either way the absolute lack of response speaks volumes, apologies to those having to waste their time viewing it.

 

[lexort420]

What exactly is the problem sounds like your doing well enough 160g is nothing to sneeze at you say potency and taste are decent and typically plants look rough towards the end of their life. Pictures help us help you as well.

 

[Weaselcracker]

I read this post when it and up but wasn't really sure how to respond. If your plants are healthy throughout the grow, but you're not satisfied with the outcome- I would look at different strains perhaps, and make sure the lighting situation is all it should be. But you've said the weight is good, taste and potency are fair. Things sound fairly positive in the grow (?).

 

[THUNDER7]

Appreciate the feedback, the color loss at end of cycle is substantial, one I believe died in the bucket while flushing still. I am flushing for 6-7 days, 1st day is 5gal. over a few hours, and then 3 gal. day (1 1/2 gal. at a time) for next 5 or 6 days. Last 2 days no Ph . Everything in grow is hand watered daily. They all look lush and green up until that week just before flush, then it seems like they just start turning overnight, yellowing/browning of larger leafs, ends of sugar leafs look brown and ends burnt, triches even seem to lose stability, they go to more oily than sticky, they are on a 65 day cycle. Apologies no pictures, hard to believe anyone would take, keep, or send pix of this stuff, seems a lot like testifying against yourself. Strains are Gorilla Grape, Grape Ape, and Evel Kneivel(FIRE OG/Nev.Trainwreck), thank you all again for time and consideration.

 

[lexort420]

The reason we ask for pictures is so we have a visual on what is going on and ya it sucks admitting and showing how rough your girls are however its just part of the process of getting help. Now to address your problem it would help to know whether your feeding full strength up until the flush or if your cutting back before the flush. I still think its just because your plant is coming to the end of its life and im not really certain why you would want green plants at the end since all that chlorophyll is gonna affect the taste of your product. When you have made it through 65 days of flowering you have to keep in mind that your plant is going to pull the stored nutes from the leaves and use it for bud production and when you flush its gonna pull even more nutes from your leaves since your essentially starving your plant. Im willing to bet that if you take a look around at some grow journals on this site you will notice that everyones plants look rough at the end and that is ok they have run their course and the food stored in the leaves serves no purpose anymore since your gonna harvest so the plants don't need the food anymore. No offense to weaselcracker but his leaves look rough as shit near harvest mine do as well but we as growers don't care about leaves just the bud. There is only so much potential your plant can achieve its all up to the genetics and your not gonna make a strain all of a sudden more potent then its capable of. It might help to get some more strains going so you can have one for each occasion plus im sure you have noticed that when your smoking on the same strain continuously it just gets a bit old and the high just isn't the same after awhile. I do hope i have been of some help here.

 

[MickFoster]

Why would you want to withhold food at the time that your plants need nutrition the most. Flushing is a myth and not necessary. Bad tasting weed is caused by poor drying and curing skills. Ever heard of flushing hydroponic vegetables? Or anything else for that matter? Assuming you don't have salt buildup from over feeding - you don't need to flush. If you keep them fed they'll stay green throughout your grow. I never have a discolored leaf and my weed tastes great.

 

[Weaselcracker]

Flushing is just for the purpose of washing out your growing medium-especially if it's been over fed. It's a handy tool when your plant is having problems from over feeding, or because you accidentally screwed up in some other way (ph problems, etc). I don't flush at the end of flowering, just reduce feeding to low levels or water only. I can't see perlite retaining nutrients well, if at all, and a hempy pot is going to be extremely easy to flush by running some water through it and pushing out whatever nutrient is left in the bottom. It's only natural that the leaves will die off at the end of flowering if you leave them to flower extra long (as I do) or if you starve the plant at the end. It's not necessarily a bad thing. It's about timing the process so the buds are at their best. Usually for me this involves yellowing and dying leaves but it depends on the strain and the circumstances. Most of my plants flower for around 100 days. The bottom two pics are of a plant (Malawi gold -sativa) which flowered for 110 days. A bit too long but I didn't have time to get to it.

 

[lexort420]

Flushing is just for the purpose of washing out your growing medium-especially if it's been over fed. It's a handy tool when your plant is having problems from over feeding, or because you accidentally screwed up in some other way (ph problems, etc). I don't flush at the end of flowering, just reduce feeding to low levels or water only. I can't see perlite retaining nutrients well, if at all, and a hempy pot is going to be extremely easy to flush by running some water through it and pushing out whatever nutrient is left in the bottom. It's only natural that the leaves will die off at the end of flowering if you leave them to flower extra long (as I do) or if you starve the plant at the end. It's not necessarily a bad thing. It's about timing the process so the buds are at their best. Usually for me this involves yellowing and dying leaves but it depends on the strain and the circumstances. Most of my plants flower for around 100 days. The bottom two pics are of a plant (Malawi gold -sativa) which flowered for 110 days. A bit too long but I didn't have time to get to it.

This is all i meant by my comment about your girls and mine end up pretty much the same way lol