Underfed or pH issue 🤔

[No3odiesShad0w]

I'm not sure if this is a pH issue or if this is just beginning signs of them being hungry. It's affecting the lower leaves. It's been a month into bloom. It's normally around this time that I top dress if I see they need it. I'm just not sure what I'm seeing here. Most of her looks really happy and healthy. She's praying most of the time too.

[9fingerleafs]

It looks like a classic magnesium deficiency. But I don't do organics so I don't know how you fix that in a system like yours. I would just give some epsom salt because I grow in coco. Maybe look for a organic nutrient high in magnesium?

[bdeegan]

Have/can you take a slurry test with a ph meter? It’ll give you what’s going on in the soil. I’m actually doing that tonight on my T20 run, got the meter all ready last night.

[No3odiesShad0w]

I have not. I honestly haven't checked soil or water pH in a while. Sometimes I'll check it to make sure everything is the same but my tap water is pretty stable. The silica makes the pH go up a little but I just add vinegar to lower it. I doubt it's pH related because her potmate is doing just fine. The grape balls has been the most finicky of the bunch.

[Bluey]

A month onto bloom I'd be giving it a bit more potassium and phosphorus.

Growing hydro style under full spectrum LEDs at high intensity is tough getting all in balance without showing a problem in the leaves re nute issues, and VPD plays into this also. Hydro in cococ etc. will result in about 20% higher yield than soil and in a full hydro system another 20% on that. Adjust light levels to suit.

Yours are praying so you are in that space in soil. The beginning of pigment loss may be a magnesium deficiency but it may also be showing the limitations of a soil grow with light levels better suited to a full hydro grow.

I'd back off the lights.

[No3odiesShad0w]

In a few weeks I'm gonna be starting my "in between grows" grow. Gonna try with bottled nutrients again. 5 gallon 70/30 Coco mix and GH trio. Apparently you can just fill the bases with the nutrient water and the salt build up will happen up top. Makes me a bit more interested in trying it again.

[No3odiesShad0w]

I'm only at like 38DLI. Around 900ppfd that's on the lower side of what I normally do. I was even concerned it was too low and that's why the leaves were turning but they could be eating up the nutrition. It's been a month since a fairly light top dress.

[Bluey]

Go with your bloom top dress.

I have hit mine with 1350PPFD with a perfect environment in hydro and had problems all over the place with leaf symptoms, still got great buds though, but even at a 1000 PPFD I am on the edge of leaf symptoms at times, all for chasing big colas.

Soil would be even more difficult chasing those light numbers I'm guessing.

Edit. I think in soil without nute additions 750 PPFD is about a safe h8gh but it's going to vary heaps of course re strain and environment

[No3odiesShad0w]

Okay cool
I was thinking it was a magnesium deficiency and I had upped the cal mag that I was giving them in the water. I noticed it got significantly better but they probably need a little more. I just wanted to double check. They're putting on weight like crazy so it wouldn't surprise me if they need some sort of extra nutrients.

[No3odiesShad0w]

Ended up putting 2.5ml TPS Cal-Mag per 1.5 gallons instead of 1.5ml and I also sprinkled some Epsom salt on the top of the soil around the GBoF not under the UG. She seems fine. I also added 2Tbsp of the NLS Flower Power for each plant. Hopefully that helps. She's blooming really nicely for now but you know how it goes with organics. If you don't catch it early enough, you'll be playing catch up.

Aside from that, the rest are doing well........ Except for the seedlings. I'm not liking these seeds from Hi-Elevation Genetics.
First off, 2x are Acai Freak.... BUT they're not "freak". They have normal leaves. Why call it freak if it's clearly not?

Second, the Freakshow seeds. The first 2; males. Planted 2x 12 days ago and only 1x germinated and it looks, meh. The second I resowed after 5 days. It took 5 more days for it to germinate. It's been 3 days now and it hasn't even opened its cotyledon leaves yet. It doesn't have a shell on it because I pulled it off but it's just not doing anything. I hope at least one is a female. These seeds suck! But man the weirdness would be camera worthy.

[Rwise]

Freakshow is not an easy grow! Nor are they easy to get started from my experience thus far. They also do not like temps below 60*F, 110* did not seem to bother them.
F1 genetics may not go freaky, an F1 Berryfreak I had only had saw-tooth leaves.
I see 2 pics with a Feakshow in them (same plant?). They do not like wet feet!
Consider them a challenge, they do clone well.

[Rwise]

The Freakshow leaves changed as they went into flower, I did not expect that but that is something they do as well.
I wonder if Humboldt dropped them because you buy 10 seed you dont get 10 plants.

[No3odiesShad0w]

And I think getting this particular anomaly into feminized seeds is probably very difficult work since even regular seeds seem to have issues

[Rwise]

I have seen Feminized seed for sale mostly with "sold out" in the add. So did they really have them?

[No3odiesShad0w]

It's been a few days I'm still waiting for this one to open up It took 5 days to pop and it looks like it's going to take 5 days for the cotyledon leaves to open.

The Acai freak look great on the other hand. Just gonna have to see. If they're female then I think it's going to be worth my time to keep some clones around so I don't have to redo this again. Such a drag. I might have to do this as an in-between grow because it might mess up my EarthBox workflow.

[No3odiesShad0w]

I think the magnesium did the trick. It hasn't progressed since then and she actually been growing even crazier. Those buds are huge and this is just stage one of growth. Still gotta go through the thickening and ripening.

Thanks to everyone that chimed in. Much appreciated ❤️

[No3odiesShad0w]

Check this one out. The plant literally came out of the soil did a loop-de-loop and then continued growing straight up 🤣🤣. You can't make this up. Nature's crazy. I have the 3rd seeding FINALLY popping out of the soil. The 2nd seed is starting to grow something after 10 days of doing nothing.

[No3odiesShad0w]

Bluey honestly dude I've had bag seeds that have grown with more resilience and enthusiasm than these freak show seedlings 🤣🤣. It feels like these things are deciding if they want to even live or bother with living much less growing. 🤣. Look I'll persevere. I'm really dead set on getting some really cool time lapse of this plant. I still have 7 more seeds just in case but hopefully I won't need them. I need Black Friday to roll around already so I could order those seedling domes. My seedlings are always in such terrible conditions. I'm sure that didn't help things along. Then the other half of the day I'm just chasing the sunlight with the window sills so that they don't go into flower on me. It's way less than ideal situation.

[Rwise]

Yep they are slow to get started, give them another week or 3.

[Bluey]

From what I have seen just on this forum #3 is that freakshow can be a very difficult grow, are terribly slow to grow from germination through most of veg and it's not unusual to lose one

[No3odiesShad0w]

I have until Christmas-ish to figure out if they're male/female and if they'll make it. 🤞 Hopefully by then, I'll know otherwise I'm just going to have to plant something different. It's already messing up my in-between grow. IDK if I should plant something or not. I don't have 100 days before the new year/Christmas. I rather just skip it then have it mess up the whole grow schedules. I really REALLY want to skip the summer months this year but in order for that to happen, I need about 6 months worth of flower, which is realistic but unlikely.... Unless I start getting 4oz + plants.

The Acai Freak, in going to top tomorrow morning so that they can start side branching. They're 20 days old, they need to start branching so I can get clones to sex test. All the freak shows need more time. Ugh I really wish black Friday could roll around already. I want to get that seedling dome with the LEDs from AC Infinity. Would make my life so much easier and the seedlings/clones could get a proper environment not 12 hours of light and then 4 hours of me chasing the tiny bit of sun on the windowsills. Less then ideal situations...... As always...... For my seedlings because flowering plants get priority. It's also why growth overall has been slow and poor.

The BD x MAC1 cross clones are looking healthy. I think I'm going to be re growing her. I kid you not. Straight glass of lemonade 🍋. Smells like southern sugary lemonade. It's crazy because the leaf rub still smells like straight up pepper. Black ground pepper. I'm certainly going to grow her again. I'm glad I took clones because man look at those buds!! She's days away from being ready

[No3odiesShad0w]

Bluey. I considered it after I saw the success you had with yours, but I need it to be mobile. All the water and pumps and everything is just much. I just want an easy to move box where I can put some small 3-4 in pots to hold stuff over or get a head start. It's not going to be in commission all the time... I just didn't have the space.

[No3odiesShad0w]

It's only going to get crazy when I have to take 2 clones of all 4 plants. Then I'll have 8 to deal with plus the original 4. It's turning into way more work then I care for for these reg seeds. But I really want those pictures so I'll let at it.

[Bluey]

Only the airpump sits outsider the cloner, and the cords and tubes of course.

I had good success flipping flowered clones back to veg. Moving it around in my basement was easy enough.

A 20 ltr bucket and lid can hold a dozen clones but if keeping them for many months and if reversing them etc I'd go haf that.

[No3odiesShad0w]

She's still showing some kind of deficiency. Not sure what it is but with only 3 -4 weeks left... Not sure what I can do. It's starting to look like she needs nitrogen too but I'll be damned if I'm gonna add more.

The both of them are growing like crazy. The UG isn't showing any deficiencies and are stacking flowers like nobody's business. They are 2x as big as the earth box nutrients side. She's happy I'm just not sure what the GBoF wants. She looks like she wants maybe more but I'm scared to add anything more. Maybe a little bat guano. 7-3-1 I added langbienite so I don't want to go crazy with the potassium.

I think it's still a bit too early to start fading but I also don't want to over fertilize the UG. She's doing so well .... Frankly both are doing very well..... It's just the GBoF is losing a leaf a week but it's effecting more leaves. Maybe it's a toxicity? Not deficiency 🤔

[Bluey]

You're confusing me.

Did you say you added a 7.3.1 to her? How? That's a lot of N for a flowering plant. Too much.

Your deficiencies look two fold. One pic looks like it's showing regular fade, another calmag deficiency.

I'd stick to just giving her liquid bloom nutes at around an EC of 1.4 to 1.6. pH it around 6.8

Bat guano is the world's best fertiliser IMHO but it is really high in N for flowering cannabis. It dies work great on many flowering species though. Kelp/seaweed extract may be a better choice, also high in N but not as high as guano. pH it around 6.8 again.

pH all your inputs. You soil is likely completely stuffed now, out of nutes and pH buffers, so input 6.5 to 6.8

[No3odiesShad0w]

Bluey. I didn't add anything besides Epsom salt and langbienite. I was debating about the guano but I didn't add it because nitrogen. After watering yesterday I'm pretty sure it's just the pH of the water. I don't need to bring it down to 6.8. I should probably just put in at 7.3 as it comes out. Might be getting on the acidic side if the calcium buffer is used up in the soil itself.

[No3odiesShad0w]

Don't worry I'll be giving the liquid nutrients a go again. I feel I have better info now about it then I did. We'll see how it goes.

[No3odiesShad0w]

Well it got worse so I'm like 90% sure it's the pH. Pretty sure the plants used up the calcium buffer I had in the soil. Pretty sure the magnesium is in there but it's too acidic for the plants to uptake it. I've been lowering my waters pH from 7.3 to 6.8..... Nothing crazy they probably don't need it. It's probably doing more harm now than it's doing good.

Like for a fact I know there's no deficiency. The UG next to her looks perfect. Not a single blemish. It's just this Grape Balls of Fire that's being finicky. The buds look awesome but I'm just worried that this deficiency is coming on a little too fast. She's got 3 weeks to go.

[No3odiesShad0w]

The flowers look stupid amazing! I can see where all the nutrients are going 🤣🤣. I just wish I could give her what she needs. I added half gallon of water to the reservoir with 1tsp of Epsom salt. I don't want to mess up the UG at the expense of the GBoF. They all look amazing none the less.

[Bluey]

If you have all the nutes in the mix at close to the right ratios and you still have a deficiency, barring watering problems, root rot etc, then it really has to be an issue with pH.

Don't rely on soil grows in anything but huge pots or your garden to pH buffer into flower.

Given the stage you are at you might have a potassium issue. I cannot tell with some of my plants under LEDs what is going on sometimes, so I reduce the light till I work it out or harvest.

[Bluey]

My sativas produce what appears to be a mag deficiency mid flower under strong LED's but never in 30 years of growing outdoors in soil have they shown those issues.

I'm pretty sure it's not a mag deficiency as I have done all I can to fix it with pH and suppliments but still get the same problem with them. Luckily it doesn't appear to effect the buds and just the top fans getting the light. I've also treated them for potassium and phosphorus issues to no avail.

I've grown 6 different strains now and it only hits my sativas, no sign of those issues with the other strains under LED's so not going to worry about it much.

[No3odiesShad0w]

Bluey trust and believe, if I could grow outdoors, I would. As an addition to my indoor stuff. Outdoor grown just tastes and hits so differently.

And by the looks of it the Great Balls of Fire definitely look like a sativa leaning cultivar compared to the Uncle Grandpa which is definitely a more indigo leaning just by the structure

[No3odiesShad0w]

At the end of the day she's like 3 weeks away from being done so I just wanted to slow down the nutrient deficiency I didn't want to fix it because then I might add too much. I just wanted to slow the stuff down so that it's not losing color as quickly as it is over a 3-day period. In about another week or two I'm going to want it to start fading