Starting my second battle soon. Questions + tips? advice?

[Gingerbeard]

Is that the same plant from your last post? You haven't changed your pants, so I guess it is.
If you are talking about that light colored stripe in picture 4, don't worry about it.
You did not ask about the purple stems. Probably because you intuitively know not to worry about purple stems.

I'll ask again. What are you growing?

[realhuuuman420]

This is Afghan Kush (auto). Purple stems I did not ask about, because I had that on the last one, and it seems in most cases it is simply genetics.
This one is supposed to be purple too, and according to the seeds seller website, it should be bushy and should theoretically go from seed to harvest in 2 months.

And yes I was talking about that stripe, and you can see the same kind of light-ish color on the other leaf, just.. not as visible.

[Rootsruler]

The only thing that will happen is that your plant will get 8 hrs less of photosynthesis. As Gingerbeard mentioned, they're autos so they don't signal for flower in the same way as photos.

Also, as Bluey said try and set your lights on and off to coincide with the ambient temperatures outside. If your tent is running hot on lights on then have them come on during the coolest part of the day. Usually at night. This will help you to be able to keep them within a temp range that you want.

[realhuuuman420]

So that power outage actually helped with syncing the light with the temps - now they're on during the night.

I took the advice and got some relaxing stuff to help with the anxiety. Taking it slow and steady. Here's some fresh porn - I don't see any issues, just sharing. So beautiful. Little over 2 weeks and already more than double in size compared to my Speedy Rambo Gonzales

Are the leaves slightly touching my pants a problem? I could try and stretch them a bit with some strings, but it's impractical for when I might need to move the pants.
EDIT: I meant stretch the pants, not the leaves. Lol

[Gingerbeard]

No problems with pant leaves. They'll grow. Just keep them off the soil.
Aside from the harvest frequency, my biggest advantage to growing autos is I don't have to worry about 100% darkness. I zip my tent up for their six hours, but that's more tradition than anything else.

[Rootsruler]

Looks good

[realhuuuman420]

Hello, I am back with some fresh porn. The plant is now 23 days old.

Two questions:

1. Are the drooping leaves + slight discoloration becoming an issue? The drooping just happened last night, and I'm not sure why. Temps and rH are acceptable (23-25C and 44-55%) and so far I've watered around every 3 days, using a scale to determine if it needs water or not yet. At first I only gave it around 350ml, now increased to 550ml. Should I now begin to give it a really good watering until I get some good runoff?
   The discoloration is barely visible on the photos, but it is much more pronounced in real life. You can see it best on the lowest fan leaves on pic 4.
2. Watering concern: so if you look at my pants, the opening is smaller than the rest of them. I am not sure if when I water, does the water get everywhere, or only in the middle where the opening is? Should I be pouring water all over my pants so it goes through the textile? Is that a thing?

Otherwise, looks okay, growing rather rapidly. I am starting to worry a bit also about needing to cut some of the big leaves/branches, since they are starting to block the lower ones from receiving light. I did not want to do any LST as it would just add another layer of difficulty and didn't want to worry about that too, and if possible, I wouldn't like to cut anything either. But I'll follow whatever advice I get here.

Also, like one or two of the upper branches are having some reddening in the stems - seems to be coming from the leaves and towards the main stem. Cause for concern?

[Bluey]

Your plants look perfectly fine. Really good.

Droopy leaves during this stage is not unusual. Sure they may be a fraction overwatered (minor mottling, well thats what I call it anyway)but I wouldn't go changing anything because it won't be long until they burst forward and pick up.

This is the period I think plants show growing pains of this type and everything I am seeing is consistent with a plant at this stage. You could add a small amount of calmag (seeing a fraction pigment loss) but it is so minimal I would just keep monitoring.

Good job.

Edit. The mottling is where you tend to see like elongated bubbles or blisters on the leaf surface, a raised area. I'm pretty sure it is related to watering but it could also be genetics or just growing pains during this period.. I often get it growing in coco but it doesn't seem to cause any problems and it only seems to happen when they are drooping.

[realhuuuman420]

Gotcha, thanks, Bluey! Super happy it's nothing to worry about too much. I'll keep up the... patience

[Gingerbeard]

You must have found a good Indica, realhuuuman420. Been four days since your last post!
When you say you think something is happening too fast or too slow, buddy, you do not yet know what too fast or too slow is. This is coming along to be your first successful grow. This is your litmus test.
Figure cannabis has been doing its thing, naturally, for a few years. It knows what it likes for leaf spread. We only move and remove things to help the plant do what it already knows what to do. Worry more about leaves blocking flowers, less about leaves blocking leaves. There's a lot of science in what we do, but there is also a lot of philosophy.

[realhuuuman420]

IT IS GETTING OUT OF CONTROL!

Jeesus. Look at this monstrosity. Help. Soon it will start consuming the house.

Jokes aside, it seems REALLY dense to me. Most of the plant is in shadow because the top leaves are blocking out the light.

So, should I cut anything? If the only danger here is smaller yield, I don't mind that, I think it will be decent either way, right?

But there are a lot of those 'suckers' or whatdoyoucallthem. They grow from the 'armpits' of already established stems. Should I cut those?

It's still growing, both vertically and horizontally. Oh god. I need a garden for this, not a tent.

The discoloration seems to not exist on the latest leaves - but I will be g iving it a little bit of calmag with next watering (probably today or tomorrow, will see how heavy my ass is)

Also the plant seems to droop a lot, and springs back up whenever I water, not sure if that's normal? Am I giving too little water? Last watering was only around 500 ml, but the plant was half its current size omg.

Gingerbeard , I did get a really good indica, that's exactly what happened Instead of checking on it every 2 hours, I just check once a day and am always blasted away at how much it has grown.

This is now 3 and a half weeks from sprout. Rh at 45-55%, temps hovering at 23-25C, gentle breeze on the plant from one fan + a pretty strong exhaust. Have not fed anything so far, only filtered tap water, around 500 ml per watering, every 3-4 days.

[Rootsruler]

Try not to water in measured amounts just water until you start to see water come out the bottom. Don't water too fast either. Water in 1/4 liter at a time.

[realhuuuman420]

Got it, Bluey , will take a look at the tutorials. Thanks!
Rootsruler - I was indeed wondering about when do I start watering till runoff. Could have probably started much earlier, as it does feel like I am not giving it enough water. Thanks, noted!
Gingerbeard - I suppose your advice is in line with what Bluey says, I'll look into the tutorials section and see what I can do. But intuitively I know you're right, those fan leaves are absolutely gigantic. Will start checking pH of the runoff as well.

Many thanks all of you. If I don't post within a week, it means the plant has consumed me and we are now one.

[Gingerbeard]

That would be the Audrey syndrome.

[Gingerbeard]

D'ang! That's getting to be quite a bush you got going in your pants!
Me, personally, what I do but do not recommend for fear of taking the blame for killing your plant is get rid of the major fan leaves except the top two sets. If you do it, your garage might fall down and your car will get a radiator leak so don't do it, get me? Then take a look at LST jut to keep your main cola in line with the sides.
As far as removing anything that produces a flower, leave it. This is on course to be your first successful grow. Use it to see what grows where and what grows and what they give. Next grow worry about suckers.
Your soil is cooling. Whatever pH buffers were in your soil are flushing out along with all the veg nutrients. Start watching your pH. That might be part of the problem with your lower leaves. Although it is normal for lowers to discolor, yours are a bit young to do so without help.

[realhuuuman420]

Hey, just a quick question. I am all ready to do some mainlining and take off some of the major fan leaves as you guys suggested.

But the plant has now reached the beginning of flowering stage, I can see pistils on the tops. Previously I've been advised to not mess with it anymore when it starts flower.

So what do I do? Should I still get rid of most of the big fan leaves, and maybe do some very light LST - tie some strings and open up the canopy a little bit?

Last thing I want to do is kill it via cutting too much.

[realhuuuman420]

Shitshitshit. What's going on? I didn't do anything yet!

Two days ago I watered with plenty of water, as advised, until I got some runoff. This just appeared kinda overnight.

unstable pH?? calcium deficiency?

Giving it calmag with next watering (1 or 2 days). Should I give some nutes as well?

Can this be light burn?

[Bluey]

Yes! You've washed out nitrates giving it runoff in a soil grow. Nitrates arent just N either, it's everything that is part of that, eg. Magnesium Nitrate, Calcium Nitrate, and on & on it goes.

The loss of pigment is most likely as a result of a lack of most nutrients, the beginning of rust spots is a lack of trace elements, the blotchy patches lack of same and can be also be inficative of widely varying pH.

Yes you'll need a quality pH meter and some decent nutes to bring it back on track. Do not over feed. Best start with half strength nutes.

All is not lost.

[realhuuuman420]

So according to the manuals, the nutes in the soil should have lasted approx. 5 weeks-ish, so I did not feed it anything yet.

I have greatly underestimated the amount of nutes a plant of this size needs. Damn! night and day difference from the previous tiny one.

[Bluey]

As I said before, if you give a soil grow runoff it washes out the nutes and also the pH buffers and you will end up having to feed it sooner than later

[Rootsruler]

This is one of the reasons as to why I don't like to use powdered ferts or time release ferts.

As Bluey mentioned, you've probably used up whatever soil nutrition you had. My opinion is you need to get on a regular feeding program along with having the right tools to make sure everything is on track.

Invest in a quality meter so that you aren't guessing as to whether the readings are valid or not. Bluelab or Apera. I wouldn't trust any of the cheap import pens you find on Amazon.

If you want to feed them organic or salt based nutes, it doesn't matter, but I would go with a liquid based fertilizer to have better control of what your plants are uptaking. Once you get a grasp of grow basics then you can start playing with powdered ferts but before that, again, I would stick with liquid nutes so you can vary your feeds dependent on what the plant wants or needs.

Personally, I would go with salt based for now as they are immediately available to the plant. Also, if you've washed out the nutrient profile in your soil you've most likely washed out most of the microbial life in your soil so organic fertilizers are going to take a minute to break down and become available.

[realhuuuman420]

Rootsruler so it seems that there is so far no new damage happening, but those affected leaves are getting worse - I think they are pretty much dead at this point. It seems that it is only the bigger fan leaves that have 3 fingers.

At what point should I cut them?

Plus, the leaves are kind of drooping down. Is this also a defficiency symptom? When should I start seeing some improvement?

Usually they kind of spring up after I water, and they did as well (watered and fed 2 days ago), but they drop back down after a day.

[Rootsruler]

3 fingered leaves mean something is off. You need to go over all the parameters in your grow and find out what is stressing the plants. I would point to environment, but it might be a combination of things.

[realhuuuman420]

Keeping a close eye on it, leaves are not droopy anymore. Still growing a bit and buds started to form. Will post pics tomorrow as I water and feed again. There has been some more damage on some of the upper leaves, but not enough to have me any more worried than before - seems like those leaves were already affected and it is now just finishing them off.

The fact that the damage seems to be contained to where it was keeps me relatively calm. Really hoping it was 'only' nutrient deficiency. That can be fixed.

[realhuuuman420]

I'm back with some more porn. As you can see, the leaves which were affected are now almost dead.

I am seeing some new damage, I think on the upper leaves, but it's totally possible it was there before already and now it just spread a bit more. Watering and feeding it again today, this time with a bit above 50% of recommended dosage. I will give it only BioBizz Bloom and CalMag today.

Also seeing really rapid bud growth right now. Only yesterday, the buds were like 30% smaller. At least I got that going on...

PS: Sorry for the weird color/lightning. Really not sure why this happens. There's only one photo with normal light...

[Bluey]

Auto white balance on the camera struggles with grow lights. Manually set

[Rootsruler]

They look underwatered to me.

[realhuuuman420]

You are right. Although I have been increasing the amounts of water I give it, I have not increased the frequency enough. I am still in the seedling mindset... every 3-4 days is not enough.

It's the goddamn PTSD from overwatering the previous one.

Underwatered + nutrient deficiency explains everything, doesn't it? The discoloration/brown/yellow spots, the slight curling on some leaves, and also the drooping.

How complicated can it be to grow a plant?

I will up the frequency as well as the amount of water, while feeding with every watering.

Some of the leaves are almost dead - when should I snip them off? Is it better to wait until they are basically falling off by themselves, or better to get rid of them as soon as possible?

Bluey thanks for the tip. I'll post some more porn tonight with correct white balance.

[Bluey]

It doesn't matter if you leave the dead leaves on. I get sick of removing them so don't any more. There down the bottom anyway.

[Gingerbeard]

Are you watering your whole pants? Hips and ass, not just waist.

[Bluey]

Think zi saw a mobile phone and cash in the pocket

[realhuuuman420]

Yea that's a good point. Yesterday I did. I really stretched them out to be able to fit in there and water on the sides.

But until yesterday's watering, there was maybe 20% that probably did not get water due to gravity and my ass being shaped like a UFO. It seems that the pants are a little more waterproof than I thought and water never really seeped through well enough. I checked and that area was indeed more dry than the waist...

[realhuuuman420]

Back with some fresh porn as promised - looks to me like we're back on track. No more droopy leaves, no damage has progressed, not even on the affected leaves. Big improvement from yesterday.

So.. deficiencies and underwatering seems to have been the correct answer. Hopefully that's it - and if yes, at least it's that, and not toxicity and overwatering, I reckon that would've been much worse

[Bluey]

Nice save

[Gingerbeard]

Dang it! Your pictures are doing that thing where the screen grays out and the picture doesn't show up. This isn't on you realhuuuman420. Might only be me.
Did you resize those images?