Is this nutrient burn or a nutrient deficiency?

[barney_b]

I've used defoliation quite a bit to slow down autos. If I want to slow a branch down though or some branches down I'll just soften them up and get them real limp. They recover quick and you have to keep working them and then in the end they get much bigger flowers cuz the size of the branch gets so much larger from all the softening and bending.

J

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It's the little gems. Thanks for this one, J.

Cheers
B

[Triptich]

Here's an update on this same plant, one month later. Things are not going well.

Reminders: this is my first plant, an autoflower that was planted into soil October 1st. It's taken WAY longer than I thought it would, I think my mistakes have stunted it somehow, the main mistake being that I used distilled water for the first month. It's in a 5 gallon pot with Fox Farm Ocean Soil which is mostly used up now, I don't think there is much nutrients left in the soil. It's getting approx 4L of water every two days, it gets soaked till it leaks, then it dries out fast. With each watering I am giving 1/4th of a dose of Advanced Nutrients pH Perfect: grow + micro + 1/2 dose bloom + 1/2 dose of CalMag. pH of the water is usually between 6.0 and 6.5

In the past month, ever since I put in the trellis netting and started trying to keep an even canopy, most of the leaves on the bottom of the plant turned yellow and were removed. Every 2nd day for the past few weeks I've been removing at least 10 dead yellow leaves from the bottom of the plant. It's now super-lollipopped. Initially I thought this was normal because the canopy at the top got thick and not much light was getting to the bottom, but now I am not so sure. At this point I've probably defoliated 40-50% of the leaves because they went yellow - it was a very large bushy plant. It's under a Viparspectra P1000 and the buds are maybe 8 inches from the light and they seem ok that close - if I put my hand in the same spot it doesn't hurt, etc etc.

Here's the thing: In the past 2-3 weeks the size of my buds has not changed, they are very thin and wispy, and I am starting to get yellow leaves on the top in the canopy now. I also note the leaves on the top are very small and thin (compared to my 2nd plant). I'm starting to worry this plant is dying and and is going to yield 0 grams after 3 months of work. It just keeps going and going... 4 pics are below... Any thoughts?