Advice

[DingusKhan]

I am quite capable of overwatering, even in smart pots and air pot! You can watch me do it on my thread.

[Woodsman67]

When I first started indoors I was using 5 gal buckets with drainage holes, and still managed to overwater. Airpots made it almost impossible to over saturate, I still have to keep myself in check. It's all a learning curve,

[SoOrbudgal]

You got this golfnrl I had to overcome my fear of overwater did that a couple times, now I wait an feel the soil lift the pot. Sometimes indoor with mine takes longer to dry with my LEDs.

[golfnrl]

I see what ya mean...I noticed my plants drooping a bit before the last watering...given my recent learning experience, I wanted to make sure they were actually needing some water. So, now it's finger in to the first knuckle, lift the pot to check the weight, and...watch the leaves for a slight sag.

[Woodsman67]

When I water, I wait until plants literally start asking. I'll show you what I mean. Pictures below just before water and an hour or so after. I have 5 in this grow, I wait for the first signs of being dry then water. You can see before and after what I mean

[SoOrbudgal]

This happens to the best of us, boy you sure have some nice buds though great job in recovery of plants.

[golfnrl]

After a lot of worry, watching, and work my conclusion is my problems were caused by over watering. Thx Obiwan and others for steering me in the right direction. I tried a few things but eventually harvested one of my plants early because she was just in such poor shape. all but just a few of the leaves were yellow with brown spots. The trichomes were cloudy with some amber on the biggest buds but I thought she wasn't going to finish so I did the chop. In my quest to solve/determine the source of my problem I used Real Growers Recharge, Boomerrang, Tiger Bloom, and Cal Mag after letting my pots dry out completely. I was so unsure about the over watering that I wanted to see if my plants were rootbound, so I did what isn't recommended and transplanted into bigger pots, and you guessed it, plants weren't rootbound. I over watered. Two of my girls bounced back nicely. It's a hard lesson to learn, but was a real life example of how over watering can cause your plant to look like there's nute problems. I won't make that mistake again. Here's a couple of pics...won't be long now.

[DingusKhan]

But still, I'm pretty sure no one will fly off the handle if you disagree. There are still a few growers here who grow good pot and keep ALL their leaves as a rule.

[golfnrl]

Me thinks you might be on to something...I may have made a rookie mistake. I'll know more in a day or so.

[golfnrl]

Thx Obi-Wan. After DingusKhan's comment and yours I did a thorough review of my watering schedule. I use the finger dip/pot lift method to determine when to water all of my plants, but I was only lifting the one with easiest access. I think I made a rookie mistake. I assumed since they are all relatively the same size that they would be using approximately the same amount of water. All three plants feel dry when I stick my finger in the dirt, but two of them feel too heavy even though today would be a water day. I'm going to let them dry another day and see what they feel like. I hope I can save them.

[Gingerbeard]

I have to defoliate or I will have a tent full of leaves blocking LED light from getting to lower buds. I get more buds/colas. It opens the plant to get circulation. It's easier to handle a plant that has some good defoliation going on. It's easier to train. The one plant I was able to get several hours of sunlight too took zero defoliation because there was plenty of light.

[DingusKhan]

Defoliating has been debated on this board for at least 3 years. @mr.green was one of the first to start posting journals showing that if you take SOME leaves off, not too many, he'd gotten bigger yields, healthier plants nicely trained. Some of us have tried it and got similar results and posted them. For those of us who have participated, we get the solar panels/nutrient storage points, but most of those who have chimed in have been convinced that plants make more leaves than they need for optimal bud production. Have you read any grow journals of defolators?

Also,. especially for wpm, she needs better ventilation in her canopy and physically removing mold is easier than killing it in place.

[alwaystoned]

Why is everyone so obsessed with defoliation, plants (in general, not just weed) store nutes in their leaves... you remove the juiciest leaves so early on & your plant is going to suck what little are left dry

[Obi-Wan]

Based on your signature and description it looks like the plants are at week 5 of flower in 3 gal. pots of fox farm ocean forest and you are supplementing with molasses and Fox Farm Big Bloom. If this is correct I would suspect that the soil is exhausted of its nutrients and you will need to supplement with something that has a bit more nitrogen than the Big Bloom. If you want to keep it organic look for a flowering stage compost tea. If organic isn’t a must I would suggest picking up a bottle of Tiger Bloom as it will also contain trace minerals. Tiger Bloom will provide enough nitrogen to bring the color back to your leaves but not enough to over do it.

[golfnrl]

I last watered these plants on the 13th. The PH has been a consistent 6.3-6.4 every time they get water.