Light stress?? Please help diagnose my plant issues!

[Shimona]

Hey all, at my wits end with trying to figure out what is wrong with my ladies any help or advice would be massively appreciated

Im running Athena nutrients, two feeds a day in 3 gallon pots with 10-15% run off. Using Coco perlite mix 70/30

Ph is 6~ and 3 EC (as per Athena guidelines) while run off is coming out at 3.5-4.2 EC and ph is 5.7-6

LED lights are roughly a foot above the canopy

It started with the tips of the fan leaves going yellow and turning upwards and slowly progressing throughout the rest of the leaf. My environment is about spot on (I think) 25 degrees Celsius/ 77 F, with the humidity at 51~

They are at the start of week 3 and the yellowing is progressively getting worse

Cheers

​

 

[countryboy69]

mornin brother,imo..its your lights/heat..but you got the heat in check..looks like your slowly baking your uppers..look below the top fan leaves..everything good and green?..if so..lights!..your leaves are starting to "taco" a tad on some and getting lil sun burned/dry looking.alot of people mistake light burn for nute burn and go thru hell trying figure it out..imo,raise lights to min 18" ..id go 20" tbh and water only next time and give it a week and your leaves should be greener and vibrant.your good brother

 

[GlueGuru]

Hey all, at my wits end with trying to figure out what is wrong with my ladies any help or advice would be massively appreciated

Im running Athena nutrients, two feeds a day in 3 gallon pots with 10-15% run off. Using Coco perlite mix 70/30

Ph is 6~ and 3 EC (as per Athena guidelines) while run off is coming out at 3.5-4.2 EC and ph is 5.7-6

LED lights are roughly a foot above the canopy

It started with the tips of the fan leaves going yellow and turning upwards and slowly progressing throughout the rest of the leaf. My environment is about spot on (I think) 25 degrees Celsius/ 77 F, with the humidity at 51~

They are at the start of week 3 and the yellowing is progressively getting worse

Cheers

​

I agree with countryboy69, looks like light stress. I would raise it up at least double where you have it now and see how they respond, it's a common thing with led grows these days with the lights getting more and more powerful I done the same myself when I used led for the first time, had my lights at 16-18" and started getting stress when I went from 20-40% power in veg and even more stress when I went to 60% power for flowering... I read one of the captains posts on here about Leds and raised mine to 30" and the ladies loved me for it

 

[ArtfulCodger]

I agree that there are symptoms of light stress. You also have burned tips on your new growth, with the burn running down the edges. Your runoff is hotter than what you're feeding, so your plants aren't taking up nutes as fast as you're feeding them. I know Athena is all about stacking EC, but if those were mine I'd back off the feed strength a bit.

 

[Shimona]

mornin brother,imo..its your lights/heat..but you got the heat in check..looks like your slowly baking your uppers..look below the top fan leaves..everything good and green?..if so..lights!..your leaves are starting to "taco" a tad on some and getting lil sun burned/dry looking.alot of people mistake light burn for nute burn and go thru hell trying figure it out..imo,raise lights to min 18" ..id go 20" tbh and water only next time and give it a week and your leaves should be greener and vibrant.your good brother

Appreciate the response homie.
Some of the lower leaves are now showing signs of yellowing which i suppose would lead one to the conclusion that it's not light stress. Doesn't look like nute deficiency to you?

 

[Shimona]

I agree with countryboy69, looks like light stress. I would raise it up at least double where you have it now and see how they respond, it's a common thing with led grows these days with the lights getting more and more powerful I done the same myself when I used led for the first time, had my lights at 16-18" and started getting stress when I went from 20-40% power in veg and even more stress when I went to 60% power for flowering... I read one of the captains posts on here about Leds and raised mine to 30" and the ladies loved me for it

Move the lights up some. ill give that a try and see how the ladies respond

 

[Shimona]

I agree that there are symptoms of light stress. You also have burned tips on your new growth, with the burn running down the edges. Your runoff is hotter than what you're feeding, so your plants aren't taking up nutes as fast as you're feeding them. I know Athena is all about stacking EC, but if those were mine I'd back off the feed strength a bit.

Yep Athena pro line mix so they suggest 3.0 EC the whole way throughout Bloom. You think maybe go half strength and see how the ladies fair ?

 

[ArtfulCodger]

I'd probably cut it less than that...maybe to 75% strength?

 

[growmie]

Doesn't look like nute deficiency to you?

To me, yes, small Potassium deficiency.

 

[LoveGrowingIt]

I'm thinking that getting the nutrients dialed in might reduce the light stress.

 

[Shimona]

I'd probably cut it less than that...maybe to 75% strength?

Will give it a go, hopefully the ladies bounce back quickly

 

[BigF]

Don't measure light in inches from something, measure the light itself. Plants don't consume inches, they consume photons, so shouldn't we measure the photons? For about 30 bucks you can get a lux meter from Amazon. Or for free, download the Photone app on your phone. You will have to fiddle with the phone angle to the lights a bit, but it gets pretty close.

I grow mostly in coco, and have been running Athena since '21, love it! Looks to me like both Magnesium and Potassium deficiencies in progress to me. Your numbers are on target, input and runoff, and your environment is good too. Makes me think the way is going too be to push a bit more runoff, like 25 to 30 percent for a bit until the girls look better. At the same time, I would actually bump up the feed EC a bit for a few days. It may also be a Mag hungry strain. I have a little 15 plant pheno hunt going, and they are all mag deficient on 3.0, so it is posssible.

 

[BigF]

Don't measure light in inches from something, measure the light itself. Plants don't consume inches, they consume photons, so shouldn't we measure the photons? For about 30 bucks you can get a lux meter from Amazon. Or for free, download the Photone app on your phone. You will have to fiddle with the phone angle to the lights a bit, but it gets pretty close.

I grow mostly in coco, and have been running Athena since '21, love it! Looks to me like both Magnesium and Potassium deficiencies in progress to me. Your numbers are on target, input and runoff, and your environment is good too. Makes me think the way is going too be to push a bit more runoff, like 25 to 30 percent for a bit until the girls look better. At the same time, I would actually bump up the feed EC a bit for a few days. It may also be a Mag hungry strain. I have a little 15 plant pheno hunt going, and they are all mag deficient on 3.0, so it is posssible.

Don't measure light in inches from something, measure the light itself. Plants don't consume inches, they consume photons, so shouldn't we measure the photons? For about 30 bucks you can get a lux meter from Amazon. Or for free, download the Photone app on your phone. You will have to fiddle with the phone angle to the lights a bit, but it gets pretty close.

I grow mostly in coco, and have been running Athena since '21, love it! Looks to me like both Magnesium and Potassium deficiencies in progress to me. Your numbers are on target, input and runoff, and your environment is good too. Makes me think the way is going too be to push a bit more runoff, like 25 to 30 percent for a bit until the girls look better. At the same time, I would actually bump up the feed EC a bit for a few days. It may also be a Mag hungry strain. I have a little 15 plant pheno hunt going, and they are all mag deficient on 3.0, so it is posssible