First grow, purple petioles, and in a bind.

[Thelbsnowman]

I was told these purple petioles were a sign of nutrient deficiency. I am asking the help of veterans or others who have had this happen to them to please give me a couple minutes of your time and help determine if i have a problem or not.
12/12 cycle, water between 5.5-6.5 Ph, 3 ladies in a single pot (given to me this way), organic soil. Maxi Bloom (3 tsp), super thrive (3/4 tsp), and supernova (1.5 tsp) nutrients in current mix in 5 gallon bucket with no air stone. last batch was seabird guano tea in 5 gallon bucket with 5 tsp of dry guano in a cheese cloth that i took out after 48 hours. Current mix in Ph of around 6. soil was super dry so i soaked in a tote overnight on 9/30/2013 with hose water. Purple petioles are only on the new growth which I've had since 9/24/2013 (top 1/4 of plant). and these leaves are just single blade. Do i have a problem or is it just the strain? BTW i don't know what strain it is either. Any thing i forgot please ask. I would like to know if i have a problem so i can do what i need to do to fix it. Thank you for reading.

 

[Seamaiden]

Ooohh... boy, where to start? Ok, let's start with the petioles, even though I feel those are the least of your concerns at this point. You can try pushing phosphorous, but I think that will cause you more problems for the rest of this run. I would keep

You've made no mention of light, and I feel that plays just as big a role in nutrient utilization as anything else. No temps or relative humidity parameters are mentioned either, and those are good to know because they'll tell us if the plant is transpiring as it should, which is part of how it moves nutrients through its tissues. Look up vapor pressure deficit to help get an idea of what I'm talking about.

Personally, I would not have put that in flowering, I would have vegged it til it began throwing out proper leaves. Single blades are a sign of hormonal confusion that relates directly to photoperiod (vegging vs regenerative/flowering). But, that doesn't matter now, you're flowering her out.

The pH range you report is out of parameters for soil growing. For soil grown cannabis, you want it in the range of 6.5-6.8, allowing slight ranging outside of those parameters. 5.5 is far too low, so is 6.0. The pH of your feeds and waterings needs to come up, IMO.

And... looking at your ferts and use rates (I have some Maxibloom downstairs, have never used it), it really seems to me that you're providing sufficient amounts and decent ratios of nutrients. That leaves me with the nutes being unavailable for utilization, and that leads me to your pH parameters. Get it up, let's see what happens.

 

[Thelbsnowman]

I knew I was forgetting something sea!! Lights are 2 CFL 27w (100w equivalent) 2700k and an LED that claims its 600w. The cfl are hanging a couple of inches away from the colas and the Led is about a foot away from the top of my higest cola. My terms range between 75-90 and RH is 20-50%. At night I get the 75 degree and the 40+ humidity. I place soaked towels on the bottom of my tent that my box fan blows on to increase humidity. I have a 3x3x7 tent. 280cfm fan, rotating fan on the top box fan on the bottom next to an open vent in the tent. Oh yea I've had that's ladies about three months already give or take a few weeks.

 

[Seamaiden]

Wow, that's a HUGE swing in both temps and RH. Are you able to get those parameters a little tighter? Don't let temps get so hot, and don't let RH get quite so low if you can help it at all.

I suggest, if you have the room for it, a cool mist humidifier to help keep RH up. Or, place the plant on top of a shallow tray filled with pebbles and water, just below the tops of the pebbles.

Also, consider an extraction fan or fans of some sort to help keep temps lower. Letting it hit 90F is going to make growing more difficult for you. But, mostly, I think you need to get the pH back into a good range for nutrient uptake and utilization.

 

[Thelbsnowman]

Wow, that's a HUGE swing in both temps and RH. Are you able to get those parameters a little tighter? Don't let temps get so hot, and don't let RH get quite so low if you can help it at all.

I suggest, if you have the room for it, a cool mist humidifier to help keep RH up. Or, place the plant on top of a shallow tray filled with pebbles and water, just below the tops of the pebbles.

Also, consider an extraction fan or fans of some sort to help keep temps lower. Letting it hit 90F is going to make growing more difficult for you. But, mostly, I think you need to get the pH back into a good range for nutrient uptake and utilization.

Ok I will adjust the Ph of my nutrients when I get home. I have a 280 cfm fan extracting the old air out. Temps is my issue cause I work all day so the only thing I can do is crack open the closet and let the cool outside air in. Ill look into humidifier.

 

[Seamaiden]

So you're using passive intake? You'll either want to enlarge that, or make it an active intake (add a fan pushing air in, matched to the fan pulling it out). Most important right now IMO is the pH of the soil and nutrients.

 

[Thelbsnowman]

I have a 20 inch box fan that I leave on high on the bottom of my tent. It's backed up to an open vent on the bottom so the fan sucks in air from the outside to the inside. I don't know the cfm on the box fan.

 

[Seamaiden]

That's ok, it's a start. Since you do have that, if you go the route of cool mist humidifier, I would simply place it as close to the intake vent as possible, and the fan should pull plenty of moisture in. Don't forget my 70s trick of a shallow tray of pebbles with water in it. The pebbles will keep the plants out of the water and also help it evaporate, raising humidity. It may need to be filled more than once a day, but it's better than nothing at all. :)