Need Help - First time grower

[Strydaris]

Hey everyone,

Looking to get some experienced grower advice here.
This is my first time growing and I seem to be running into issues with the leaves turning colour and dying on me.
I am doing an outdoor grow in my vegetable garden which is in a raised garden bed. The area gets direct sunlight from morning to about 5 pm right now, after which its in the shade due to trees.
I have been watering it maybe every other day or if the top 2 inches of soil is drying out.
The plant itself seems to be a sativia strain, not sure what kind as a work buddy gave it to me. For the first month of growth it seemed to be doing fine with the occasional pruning but not too much as I didn't want to stress it out. For the past 2 weeks things have been going a bit down hill. The plant is about 5'-6" tall right now and it has been losing fan leaves almost daily from the bottom to mid section. Right now the bottom is nearly bare of all leaves.
I just started feeding it General Hydroponics Floragro in the recommended doses for drain to waste. This doesn't seem to be helping. I checked the Ph level of my soil and it seems to be sitting at around 7.5-8 which I know I should try to drop it to around 6.5 which I am trying to do. I read that a PH level too high or low can cause nutrient lockout.

I am going to try to use aluminum sulphate to drop it. Has anyone had any success using that or does anyone have any recommendations?

The plant has also switched from producing 5 fingers on its leaves to now only 3 fingers. I am not sure what is happening but would appreciate the help.
See pics below.

 

[Strydaris]

Was hoping someone could of helped me out by now. Is my plant looking normal for a sativa strain? All the lower leaves are dying and it seems like all the new growth is doing fine until they get a certain size then same thing is happening.

Is there anything I can do to help it out? Or is it too far gone to recover?

 

[LittleDabbie]

Can you get me some closer shots between the nodes, It looks like you might have a male there.

 

[Strydaris]

Sure!
Almost positive its a female buy I could be wrong.

 

[LittleDabbie]

yep shes female :D I was mistaken :D

 

[Strydaris]

yep shes female :D I was mistaken :D

Any ideas on whats going on with her? Is she worth saving at this point?

 

[LittleDabbie]

Over all she looks pretty healthy, I think you do have a lil bug damage tho, you might wanna spray her down wiht something like neem or spinosad..

Past that I'd need more info like soil, nutes ph ect ect.

 

[Beachwalker]

Hey everyone,

Looking to get some experienced grower advice here.
This is my first time growing and I seem to be running into issues with the leaves turning colour and dying on me.
I am doing an outdoor grow in my vegetable garden which is in a raised garden bed. The area gets direct sunlight from morning to about 5 pm right now, after which its in the shade due to trees.
I have been watering it maybe every other day or if the top 2 inches of soil is drying out.
The plant itself seems to be a sativia strain, not sure what kind as a work buddy gave it to me. For the first month of growth it seemed to be doing fine with the occasional pruning but not too much as I didn't want to stress it out. For the past 2 weeks things have been going a bit down hill. The plant is about 5'-6" tall right now and it has been losing fan leaves almost daily from the bottom to mid section. Right now the bottom is nearly bare of all leaves.
I just started feeding it General Hydroponics Floragro in the recommended doses for drain to waste. This doesn't seem to be helping. I checked the Ph level of my soil and it seems to be sitting at around 7.5-8 which I know I should try to drop it to around 6.5 which I am trying to do. I read that a PH level too high or low can cause nutrient lockout.

I am going to try to use aluminum sulphate to drop it. Has anyone had any success using that or does anyone have any recommendations?

The plant has also switched from producing 5 fingers on its leaves to now only 3 fingers. I am not sure what is happening but would appreciate the help.
See pics below.

View attachment 1000760View attachment 1000761View attachment 1000762

Just for clarification you're only feeding it the floragro just the green liquid?

 

[Strydaris]

Over all she looks pretty healthy, I think you do have a lil bug damage tho, you might wanna spray her down with something like neem or spinosad..

Past that I'd need more info like soil, nutes ph ect ect.

Ya I did notice the bug damage, but that right now is the least of my concerns.
My first post states everything as best as I can already other than soil composition. Its your typical top soil used for vegetables. Nothing special.

Is it normal for a sativa strain to loose that meany leaves though? its looking pretty bare naked to me.

 

[Strydaris]

Just for clarification you're only feeding it the floragro just the green liquid?

No I am doing the 3 bottle mix and using the charts I found for drain to waste. So FloraMicro, FloraGro and a little bit of FloraBloom right now.
Pardon the confusion. I figured people would know what I meant by just saying FloraGro

 

[Beachwalker]

Most people say floragro Trio; haven't use that in a while but I recall you mix the micro 1st, are you mixing it in any certain order?

 

[LittleDabbie]

Ya I did notice the bug damage, but that right now is the least of my concerns.
My first post states everything as best as I can already other than soil composition. Its your typical top soil used for vegetables. Nothing special.

Is it normal for a sativa strain to loose that meany leaves though? its looking pretty bare naked to me.

Sorry missed the paragraph ya wrote lol

so yeah the PH at root zone is too high, as far as being so bare It is sativa, depending on the strain/genetics it can be very lanky like that.

 

[Strydaris]

Most people say floragro Trio; haven't use that in a while but I recall you mix the micro 1st, are you mixing it in any certain order?

Yes, Micro first, Gro second and bloom last as recommended and stirring between each.

 

[Strydaris]

Sorry missed the paragraph ya wrote lol

so yeah the PH at root zone is too high, as far as being so bare It is sativa, depending on the strain/genetics it can be very lanky like that.

It just seem like I am losing fan leaves daily. Is it normal to be losing lots of leaves like that. Also what would cause the leaves to switch from having 5 fingers to only 3? I read its because it went back into Veg state. How does that happen?

 

[LittleDabbie]

It just seem like I am losing fan leaves daily. Is it normal to be losing lots of leaves like that. Also what would cause the leaves to switch from having 5 fingers to only 3? I read its because it went back into Veg state. How does that happen?

No not normal, It does look a lil crowded in there im wondering if you got some root bound issues going on as well..

The switch is usually caused from stress, again likely root issues at this point cause its super crowded in there.

And usually its 1 finger leaf not 3 that plant don't look like its re-vegging to me, and that usually happens when the light changes from long days to short days back to long days.

 

[Strydaris]

Its not too crowded. I made sure I had a foot all around the plant and I planted short root veggies near it. Tomatoe plant is a good few feet away. Just the branches are starting to spread towards her. I can pull the flower and the celery that are close no problem.

I think I fixed the Ph level of the soil last night. I had to use a little bit of aluminum sulphate to do so. Going to do a slurry test in a few days to see if it helped.
I was afraid of root rot, but the soil drains well and every year I turn the soil so it wont compress.

We did have a pretty good heat spell a week or two ago in Ontario. This was around the time when it started having issues. I know I didnt over water because I tested the soil for my other plants as well.

Not sure what else to do for her. Thats why I came here to this forum.

 

[Strydaris]

No not normal, It does look a lil crowded in there im wondering if you got some root bound issues going on as well..

The switch is usually caused from stress, again likely root issues at this point cause its super crowded in there.

And usually its 1 finger leaf not 3 that plant don't look like its re-vegging to me, and that usually happens when the light changes from long days to short days back to long days.

So it took me a little while to finally figure out what was, going on with my plant and it seems I have Fusarium fungus in my soil. Finally figured it out because the Fusarium finally showed its final symptom of wilted, but not dry leaves.

What a huge let down but partial relief. First time growing and the first month it was going good. Now it's basically done for. From my reading there is no recovering from this pathegen and eventually its going to cause the plant to collapse.

Well I guess there is always next year or set up a hydroponics or grow tent in my basement.