Plants In Trouble- Bloom Phase Going Bad!

**Anau Jiram** · 01-02-14, 06:27 PM

A couple days ago I noticed yellowing starting to appear on upper leaves of plants. Plant growth has slowed to almost nil at this point. Plants are in week three of bloom and had been growing fine to this point. Three weeks ago I did a complete reservoir change and put in nutes with a proportion for entering bloom phase(GH Gro 2 part- Micro 2 parts - Bloom 2 parts); this gave me a ppm of around 1300 (.5 factor). Since then I had been adding water/nutes to the nute reservoir w/ a 1-2-3 ratio (Gro-Micro-Bloom) and keeping ppm around 1200-1300. I had been having a problem keeping pH level UP and it hovered around 5.3 to 5.4 for 4-5 days before I received GH's pH UP and adjusted pH to 5.8 - 5.9 level.

Yesterday I dumped 75% of the reservoir and replaced with new water and added a vigorous grow concentration of nutes (Gro 3 parts - Micro 2 parts - Bloom 1 part); ppm around 1000 (EC 2.0) and a pH adjusted to 5.8. I thought maybe the plants were suffering from a nitrogen deficiency hence the 3 parts Gro. Since reading up on nute deficiencies it looks like several things could be causing leaf yellowing and some downward curl. Shortage of potassium being one of them. Is there a possibility that the plants were depleting the potassium as they went into full bloom?

attached are two pics of the plants and the yellowing is obvious. The sodium vapor lite did cause some yellowing in the coloration of the pics but the leaves are definitely yellowed.

I am now wondering if I should boost the potassium at this point to see if the plants respond favorably or go the other way and drop the EC down to 1.6 or less.

Dejected by this development,

Anau

**Grandad** · 01-02-14, 07:42 PM

i wouldn't be using veg ratio 3 weeks into flower. i'd say the prolonged low ph has caused your problems. lower the e'c and give it proper flowering ratio nutes and see if it starts feeding again.

**Goodbuddy** · 01-02-14, 09:17 PM

I'd also think about totally replacing you res weekly as opposed to not being changed for the last 3 weeks! and just topped up.

Are those pics the same plant btw. The first 1 looks a bit suspect to me, a bit boyish, but a better pic might help (although I need some new glasses

)

**Anau Jiram** · 01-02-14, 09:52 PM

Grandad,

At the lower pH the plants definitely are limited to certain nutes like phosphorus and magnesium. I will amend the reservoir back to more potassium and less nitrogen. If your suspicions are correct this incident is truly an example of what an out of range pH can do. Live & learn.

**Anau Jiram** · 01-02-14, 09:55 PM

Originally Posted by goodbuddy

The first 1 looks a bit suspect to me, a bit boyish, but a better pic might help (although I need some new glasses

)

You're correct about the "boyish" pic. I have some males in this grow as I have no current resource for future seed and needed to let pollination occur. That has it's downside quality wise.

**Anau Jiram** · 01-02-14, 10:03 PM

@ Grandad

If I am able to get plants healthy again what is the time delay I can expect on harvest- a week?

**Anau Jiram** · 09-02-14, 03:49 AM

Update:

Been about a week now since trying to correct problem w/ plants. The plants seem to have stabilized but the yellow discoloration of the leaves persists. What is odd is that a couple of the plants have normal looking bud/leave color. The grow is in three parallel 6" diameter plastic pipes that are interconnected with crossover lines and they all receive the same nutes and same soak/drain times. If it is a nute deficiency or burn then I would expect to see all plants suffering equally. If it is a root connected ailment I cannot determine that right now since everything is locked in with the scrogg.
EC is set and stable around 1.7; pH is currently 6.2. Here for the past few days the pH has been stable or slightly rising, which is contrary to what it has done (drop) the rest of the grow. Another odd observation is that the nute reservoir, which has about 42 gallons of nutes, has air bubbles that are forming on top the solution. A serpentine air stone is being used to keep the solution moving but these larger than normal bubbles have never been seen before now. ???
During the first two weeks of bloom the plants grew vigorously and to the point that I was having to bend/crimp some growth for lack of head room. They're about 5 to 5 1/2 feet tall but since developing the yellow discoloration new growth has stopped. In a healthy grow do the buds continue to grow all the way to harvest? This is my first grow so the learning curve is whipping my ass right now.

**galt** · 09-02-14, 08:13 AM

It is very normal to get the stretch for the first two weeks of flowering. Then it mostly stops. So just let that go. The buds should continue to get denser, but not significantly longer.

And as all the smarter guys said, just get nutes and the pH right (LISTEN to their suggestions) and let them do their thing. Any damage to the leaves is NOT gonna reverse itself, The damage is done on those. You have indeed had your ass whipped by the learning curve. pH is all-important in hydro.

In general, the reservoir should not be foaming. I would change it and clean it out really well.

You can have a nute issue that affect one plant more than another. They are alive, not machines. Just like donuts do not kill us all equally fast.

Other than all that, I would just get the nutes right and let the plants do their thing. Don't try to compensate for past issues. That is the road to unhappiness.

**Anau Jiram** · 14-02-14, 05:25 PM

Thanks for the information Galt.

Originally Posted by galt

It is very normal to get the stretch for the first two weeks of flowering. Then it mostly stops. So just let that go. The buds should continue to get denser, but not significantly longer.

And as all the smarter guys said, just get nutes and the pH right (LISTEN to their suggestions) and let them do their thing. Any damage to the leaves is NOT gonna reverse itself, The damage is done on those. You have indeed had your ass whipped by the learning curve. pH is all-important in hydro.

In general, the reservoir should not be foaming. I would change it and clean it out really well.

You can have a nute issue that affect one plant more than another. They are alive, not machines. Just like donuts do not kill us all equally fast.

Other than all that, I would just get the nutes right and let the plants do their thing. Don't try to compensate for past issues. That is the road to unhappiness.

**Anau Jiram** · 14-02-14, 05:48 PM

It has been 12 days since the yellowing problem was first addressed. The plants have not responded to new nutes, less solution concentration, and pH elevation. There are some that still look OK but the majority have yellowing of leaves, primarily on the buds. Unfortunately the plants don't seem to be growing/maturing at this point. Yield will be severely impacted. All that phuckin' work down the drain.

What I did today was look into a spare opening on one of the grow tubes and check out the root system. I believe there is a high likelihood the roots are the source of the yellowing problem. Why? I had been using wood ash filtered through a double cotton cloth to keep the pH up. This worked fine for the first couple months but then the pH got to the point where it would not come up much with the ash and would quickly fall off afterwards. This is when I decided to purchase some pH UP. The root mass is a grey color and limp. It appears to be coated with the residue of the wood ash. This coating probably has a serious impact on the ability of the roots to absorb nutes and oxygen. They grew fine the first two months but the accumulation of residue on the root system over time has reached the point where growth is being inhibited and even damaging the plants.
With the plants "grow-locked" into the scrogg I cannot remove them for cleaning of the root systems. Flushing is not effective as the flow rate is too slow too dislocate the ash residue. Basically I'm screwed.

Does my observation seem reasonable?