Need help - Yellowing leaves with brown spotting - Coco grow

[Cleanly]

This is my first indoor coco grow, The strain is Jelly Johnson (indica dominant hybrid) from a dispensary bag.

Im using GWE nutrient schedule and General Hydroponics nutrients with 2 LED light units, 1 humidifier, two fans and a charcoal inline filter in a 36x36x72 tent.


The grow is at Mid bloom, about to enter week 8. Ive been chasing my tail with past leaf damage and new issues.


Going back a few weeks to when the issues began:


My plant got spider mites at week xxx and I treated them with Grow safe applied via spray. The mites were taken care of but the leaf damage remained.

After this I noticed brown/copper spots and yellowing leaf edges, It was hard to tell if it was leftover mite damage or not. But the browning/yellowing spots persisted.

I read some information on GWE and made the determination that I had some calcium nute lock due to low PH, I had been feeding around 5.8-6.0. So I flushed and got a digital PH pen instead of the liquid dropper set I had been using. Since then I have fed 2 times at 6.2 PH and used PH'd plain water with some added CalMag in between feeding.

I also thought they could be getting some light burn so raised my lights as high as possible and reduced intensity by turning off half of the lights. (was using both veg and bloom lights, turned off the veg spectrum)

I am using tap water distilled for a few days prior to watering. The starting PH of my tap is around 8.5-9.0 before adjusting. I don't have a TDS meter (its on the way).

I cant really tell if the same issue is persisting or if a new problem is occurring.

My buds currently pretty smell dank and look healthy and unaffected (to my untrained eye). However I feel that they haven't fattened up or progressed much in the last couple weeks. Im afraid my yield will be affected if I don't figure this out.

The leaf tips are starting to curl up and yellow more and the leaves at the top of the plant are getting a little claw going.


Please look through the pics at the link here:

https://imgur.com/a/xqL6CkO

And thanks in advance to anyone trying to help.

[Blowdout2269]

Without a good picture, I would have to say you should go back to your pH for reevaluation and maybe up the CaMg. Sorry, but some of us, like myself, are pretty hesitant about clicking links(especially from a new poster).
Can you upload some pics to this post?

[Cleanly]

Added some photos below, thanks for your input.

[Mr.furley]

I also will not click on external link, sorry.

leave damage will not repair so if it is still happening on new grow then it is still a problem you haven't solved.

If you sparyed the plants with lights on then damage could have occurred. double check the spider mites are really gone, not called the borg for no reason.

[Cleanly]

Just posted some photos in this thread. Sorry I didn’t know about the link hesitancy.

[ChubbNugg]

this website encourages you to upload photos to "imgur" if the process fails here. it's like a pop up thingy. I never worry about strange links anymore, I got my security wound up too tight. Has anyone here clicked a bad link then lost all their data or something?

[Cleanly]

Hey sorry about the link, the site suggested Imgur for hosting photos. I assure you the link only contains photos of the plant from November to its current state.

please see below for some images

id love to get your feedback based on photos.

In order from recent to a couple weeks ago.

[ChubbNugg]

Does anyone else see light burn and or heat stress and Ph? Here's a black-belt tip for any diagnostics. Start at the root. Making triple friple ripple sure of the PH at the root zone run off water, Is the first step in a process of elimination. One tiny little run off check will not do. This evaluation is variable! Once you are super duper fruper ruper sure the PH is no longer the problem, then half the battle is solved. A PH problem CAUSES Almost every symptom. Chasing a calcium deficiency in my opinion, before PH testing, could be a waste. Then, There is recovery time. Usually damage will not undo itself. there should be very little vegetating in the bloom mode, so chances are the plants gonna look like that til the end. P.S. I only looked at the first two photos on the row under the main photo.

[Cleanly]

Thanks for the input, i honestly overlooked the roots/run off ph because I couldn’t get a clear answer about it being useful or not. This is something I’ll monitor from the start next time.

[Gingerbeard]

How about it just being late-stage flowering? Whatever problems there are or have been, number two happens at the end.

[ChubbNugg]

Late stage flowering huh? I never thought of that. Very interesting!

[90Gizmo]

I think you're both right. In my newbie woobie frapaloobie experience every wild-ass changing symptom I've chased was fixed if not solved with a flush and a restart. Cleanly did that. Then whatever is left is what you got. Leaves don't normally get better but buds don't get worse. I'm pretty sure plants can live on their sugar leaves and the buds will just get fatter.

[Gingerbeard]

Why does using a hash tag, followed by a number, give me a link to the Forum?

[Mr.furley]

Cleanly

I'd agree, whatever happened (light, ph, nutr burn, take your pick) it is at the end of really care for this plant. Time to give it plan water, no calmag, no nutrition and watch for your perfect harvest window. I'd like to say that's some sweet frost you've got going on..

[Mr.furley]

From what I can see in the pictures your plants have light burn which with the shine on the leaves indicates a nutrient toxicity (light burn is intensified with toxicity) so my best guess is they have had enough nutrients. Nothing you give them will make them look better and only close up trichome pictures in natural light can tell the true harvest date.

[SoOrbudgal]

I use my old vipars both bloom an veg during flowering all the way through that's the full spectrum they talk about. Anyway don't worry too much about leaf now, i'd just plan water and unsulferated molasses when you see amber stop and allow the plant to dry up on it's own in the pot.

[Cleanly]

SoOrbudgal based off of what you and everyone else is recommending I’ll be using plain water until harvest. I’ll read up on adding the molasses too.

I haven’t heard of letting the plant dry in the pot before. What’s the benefit of doing it?

[Blowdout2269]

Thanks for the pictures. Beautiful plants!
I'd have to agree with the others. She's so far along that a correction is not warranted. Though I would continue to be on the look out for bugs. The leaves will not correct themselves. Just water, watch, wait, and then harvest.
Congrats on making it to the home stretch!

[Cleanly]

Thank you they came along great until the leaf damage. So you agree with Mr.furley about no more nutrients? Just water and wait for harvest time?

[Cleanly]

Mr.furley here are a couple shots of the trichomes. Can you estimate time until harvest? At my current size I think the yield will be pretty low.

[Mr.furley]

I can not under colored light, got any natural white light pictures?

[Mr.furley]

Cleanly

Best why to get a good shot is to
1) cut a chuck of bud or small mid bud, middle of the plant is best.
2) place the bud inside a mason jar
3) balance your phone on the jar rim and zoom.
Or can tape your loupe to the phone and use a pencil like a kickstand.

[90Gizmo]

That's a great tip Mr.furley thank you

[Cleanly]

Mr.furley that’s a great tip, thank you. That also answers my question about how you’re getting such good natural light. 😃

[SoOrbudgal]

Oh that's just the old grower in me way Cleanly i let the pots go dry when i harvest allow the plant to cannibalize itself keep checking the trichs with your scope.

[Cleanly]

Cool thanks for the information.

[ChubbNugg]

Cleanly, Look on your cameras setting for a "Tungsten" filter. It may cut out the colors and correct it to white. Oh yeah, use a flash helps too

[Cleanly]

ChubbNugg yes the light color is the hardest part. I’ll give that a try thank you.

[Cleanly]

General update

I watered with plain water at 5.8 ph. Checked my runoff and it tested at 5.8 ph. Does this mean I no longer have a high concentration of salt/nute buildup in the coco?

I still plan to use plain water from here on out but I’d like to do everything I can to fatten these buds up and get a decent yield. Does anyone think I can turn the other half of my lights back on and not worry about light burn? Since my plant shouldn’t be suffering from nutrient burn anymore?

Also I took a couple more trichome shots but the color is way off. Gonna try your method out Mr.furley

[Mr.furley]

Could you rell us about you light, model? height ? True watts?
If you out water is the same as your in water then your Root Zone is pH'ed balanced. Don't look at it as lack of nutes.
Personally for me in coco 6.2 to 6.3 is the magic number as calmag will not uptake at 5.8. The problem you were chasing in your grow earlier in the grow and throwing more Calmag at was most likely low pH.
I'm assuming she's an autoflower? What is the targeted harvest time according the the breeder?

[Cleanly]

Mr.furley I have two 1000w led lights in the tent (Giixer 1000W LED, Dual Switch & Dual Chips Full Spectrum LED) from Amazon.

The lights are at maximum height and are 14” away from the highest bud.

I switched off half of the led’s when the leaves looked to be suffering from burn. The lights have veg and bloom spectrum switches.

it’s so hard to read info online and determine the “best” ph for coco. I read conflicting advice and don’t know where to start. Guess that knowledge comes along with more experience.

I raised it to 6.2 while adding the extra Cal mag to help with uptake. But just recently dropped it to 5.8 because of an article I read 😅.

This is not an auto flower strain, it’s an indica dominant hybrid called Jelly Johnson. I got it out of a dispensary bag. Unfortunately I have no information from a breeder and have had no luck researching strain information.

I’m in week 9 of the total grow and was expecting to harvest around week 12. This is only based off of the grow/nute schedule I’m using from GWE website.

loving all the info I’m getting, thank you.

[Mr.furley]

........ And ........ Hook, line, and sinker.

This is that old story of someone who says maybe I can grow JUST a little bit on the cheap, then next thing you know......YOU ARE JUST LIKE ME! A Grow-a-holic. You have done an excellent job with theses lights, pls don't take anything I say as disrespect, I'm just going to be truthful from experience.

The light you have is a generic version that has been rebranded by multiple companies, they GET you with the 1000w thing for 59.99$ in reality those light's do not produce what they clam. On there ad, on Amazon it states "while only using 110w" this is the "True wattage" so with two you are only running 220w at max power, from the manufacturer clam you can have it at 12 inch for flower, Not really a good set of advice. led lIght is all about the PAR, Ppfd, uMol/m² and Dli and so on...I know TMI for now but you said " loving the info" so something to chew on before move up in light later on.😉 I'll get back to what you should do about full power soon....

Coco is a very versatile grow medium and that is why you are finding all kinds of different conflicting information about it. What one person does works because of the system that they use not because it's an all-around guarantee, let me explain with a couple examples.
1) some say water every time the pot are light when lifted, some say water 3 times a day, which one is right? The answer is both! Which is right for your schedule and environment is the better question.
2) depending on the environment, pot size, plant size, watering system, can impact your choices and the need for frequency of watering.
If you have 10 gallon pot with 20% perlite to coco 70°f and a R/H of 70% and a 5 week old plant you will kill the plants with overwater going with 3x a day, put that same plant in a 1 gallon pot and it will grow like a champ.
2b) exactly the opposite, 1 gallon pot, 20% perlite, 86f/30% R/h 12 week old plant in full bloom will have heat/light/underwater issues wouldn't be able to keep up unless you water multiple times a day. See what I'm getting at?

The tutorial on this website is a really good one, read it 17 times. My best advice is to pick a YOU style and need then stick with it. don't try to bounce around, which is hard to do on your first grow because you want to do your best and that is most like the cause of your problem, try to do to much.

Back to it.....
Jelly Johnson is some dudes Creation in a dispensary, remember most dispense are trying to get a faster turn around. Most likely its coming from the jelly line so Google HELLA JELLY or even JELLY STRAIN and you with find that most of that lineage, which comes from cookies is usually done in 50 to 70 days. Personally I'm thinking 77 day from the day you went 12/12 is going to hit it, this is why you look at Trichomes.

Sorry about the long post you said you love the info and I have nothing to do ATM 🤣🤣🤣. Short answer- If you can keep the light at 18 to 20 inchs id say go for it, from memory that's the distance that worked with them (850ppfd), If your trichomes look, under a loupe cloudy with amber then it's time to harvest no mater if you can get a clear picture to upload for us.

BTW welcome it the forum.

[Blowdout2269]

Great advice right here. ^
And yes, Cleanly, welcome!

[Cleanly]

Wow Mr.furley thanks so much for the long information dense reply! I appreciate the time you’ve taken to help me out. I have a lot of reading and learning to do and I’m excited to do it. I already want to start another grow. Also you’re spot on with me trying to do to much.

I was aware these were pretty cheap lights when I got them and I’ll be doing some good research before investing in a more proper light system. Lol the acronyms you tossed out should give me plenty of reading material.

I totally understand what you’re saying about the pot size, RH, water frequency and temp. Based on this grow I already have a host of things I’d like to do differently to make the grow more suitable for my schedule and style of care. Great reminder for me to focus on my grow and not everyone else’s. 👍

77 days huh….I hope you’re right, that means I’m close!

Again thanks for the insight, I do love the information.

This community has been great so far and I’m happy to be
here.

[Blowdout2269]

We look forward to you sharing your progress in the future.

[Cleanly]

Hey thanks for your advice as well Blowdout2269 .
You reminded me about checking for bugs, I was due for a spider mite spray.

I’ll definitely be around.