SOIL Help: Yellow leafs w/ brown spots on autoflowering AK-47 & WW

[Vanweed]

Hi there,

we have a couple of autoflowering feminized plants, that we planted in late April on fresh potting soil. They are planted in 3 gallon pots and get about a gallon of water (just enough for some spill out at the bottom holes) with a little bit of fertilizer (MiracleGo 20-20-20, about 1/4 of the recommended amount) every time the pots are getting light (I checked the ph level a couple of times, its about 6.5-7 with the fertilizer). A few weeks ago the biggest plant started to develop yellow leafs with brown spots. It seem to affect mostly the large sails and not so much the smaller leafs. Now the tow other plants start having the same issue. The 4th one, which is the smallest of the bunch does not have any issues yet. Generally, it seem that the bigger the plants the worse the problem.

I looked online to figure out what it might, be but I possible issues ranged from too little to too many nutrients, to deficiencies of some rather rare elements. Mayby some of you might have an idea?

Growing: outdoors

[crucialbunny]

Larger pots are clearly indicated due to that tight root ball. When you transplant, trim those yellow spent leaves and I suggest you stop using Miracle Grow for your fertilizer. They use time released nutrients that can wreak havoc on the plant's feeding needs.

[Vanweed]

Thanks for your input crucialbunny! They are about 3-4 feet high and I was told/read online that 3 gallon pots should be enough for autoflowering plants. What fertilizer would you recommend? Considering they should be ready for harvest in a 3-4 weeks.

[crucialbunny]

Vanweed, any kind of natural compost mixed with sand, peat, and perlite will work just fine. If you don't want to hassle making it then a product like Dr. Earth that Smerft85 recommended is fine. I'm weird about fertilizers and make my own so I can't really say what's best on the market.

[Smerft85]

I use Dr. Earth for my outdoor grow, all organic and much safer than any miracle grow product IMHO. Found my bags of Dr. Earth at the local home depot and I use a full bag over 2 weeks for my entire garden. I also add in molasses, and I have a red wiggler farm that I use the leachette from even though a lot of folks advise against it I'm a believer, watched my plants put on 6-12" of growth in 48 hours so I'll use it. I mix my nutes into a 55 gallon aeration tank of water and give each girl 5 gallons once a week, you might scale it down a bit to fit your needs. I also have bat guano and organic blood meal that I'm starting to add into the mix, two more weeks of veg nutes then I'll be starting organic Dr. Earth bloom booster till flush time. I've heard autos can be fragile when it comes to feeding, I might recommend you consider a flush from here on out and get all the dead and dying foliage off her, 3 gallon pot should be fine for her.

[crucialbunny]

I also have two red wiggler bins going. I use one for high nitrogen content compost and the other I use for high potassium foods. I have been using chicken shit instead of bat shit. I use the compost mix as a top dressing in my containers and water through it. Its not nearly strong as straight tea. The main thing I have noticed since I went to this method is I have had virtually no PH issues.