New Forum Poster - Having Trouble Into Flower. Need Some Help.

[Green Mtn]

I should preface this all with I'm a complete novice and this is my second cycle ever. My first came out ok but starting running into this same issue much later in flower and managed to finish a pretty decent harvest.

I'm having trouble with my plants 2-3 weeks into flower. I put them in veg for maybe a 1.5 months and transplanted in 10G smart pots. They did well during transition and I gave them at least a week or so before going into flower. I let them adjust and then scrogged them (thinning and lollipopping). They've never really bounced back and are starting to yellowing badly. I originally thought this was a phosphorus or potassium issue but now I'm leaning more towards magnesium. I gave them a good feeding (1000ppm) of Roots Organic HPK (0-4-3) when I thought it was phosphorus. I also gave them some epsum salts (1t/gal.) after deciding it was more likely magnesium. I've got these super skunk in Foxfarm Ocean harvest and promix. Mostly promix. I've added Great white mycorrhizae into the pots (10gal soft pots) when transplanting before flower. I gave them a week + before moving to flower. They were doing well but have since starting looking worse and worse. Hoping I'm on the right track with magnesium. I also think I'm watering too heavy and maybe contributing to the mag issue? Its been taking a good 5days maybe more between watering.

 

[rootexcess]

You are doing a lot of guessing. Trying to correct by guessing is never a good idea. They look generally underfed and it sounds like you are primarily giving them a bloom booster. Where is the N? That overall pale color is begging for nitrogen.

 

[rootexcess]

And your soil must be lacking in aeration if you're going 5 days between waterings. I water every single day. If it's consistently oversaturated it's going to struggle with nutrient uptake.

 

[Green Mtn]

Thanks for the thoughts. I will fold some more N into the mix on the next feeding and cut the volume of water down by at least half. How much should I be watering in the 10g pots? If you water everyday it can't be much more that a quart or so of water? Also the purple stems? It looks like Magnesium deficient but that could be because they are too wet as well I guess?

 

[rootexcess]

Thanks for the thoughts. I will fold some more N into the mix on the next feeding and cut the volume of water down by at least half. How much should I be watering in the 10g pots? If you water everyday it can't be much more that a quart or so of water? Also the purple stems? It looks like Magnesium deficient but that could be because they are too wet as well I guess?

Can't really see the stems, but they usually indicate a P or K deficiency, but more often than not that is due to over saturation of the soil. The purple petioles aren't overly concerning, however, if that's what you are referring to. I don't use 10gal pots for most grows. 5 gals is often sufficient for most standard sized flowering plants. Having too much soil volume can be problematic for watering because the roots take a good bit of time to fill the pot leading to soil that remains saturated for extended periods of time.

 

[CaliRooted]

Their just hungry bro

 

[Mrmidtown]

Only a week after transplant your started to flower in 10 gallon pots. Bad idea in my eyes. I agree with they other guys hungry and over saturated. Some N can help. Check your PH runoff purple stems are notorious for PH problems in soil.

 

[Green Mtn]

All good thoughts thanks! That being said I'm a little unclear of the best course of action.
1. I will test runoff next time I water but that may be a few days since I just watered. Since it seems everyone is of consensus that they seem wet, I'd like to wait until they are much more dry before watering again. Another issue I suppose is that since I'd like to cut my water volume for watering down significantly. I'm not sure I'll see any runoff through the pot?
2. Flushing would involve me taking them out of scrog to put plants outside to run enough water through to flush? How much water is needed to flush these 10g smartpots if it seems my PH is out of whack?
3. How long should I wait from transplant to flower? I'm probably underestimating the amount of time between. More realistically it was 12days? (Another point - I need to keep much tighter records)
4. Should I go ahead with the next watering in a few days and bump the nitrogen up? How many PPM N should I be giving them 2-3 weeks into flower.
5. My mix is Is (1)one 3.8cubic foot HP promix and (6) 1.5cubic foot Fox Farm Ocean Harvest. It really seems to be mostly promix when all said and done and mixed well. Does this sound like a acceptable medium or I am missing something that would make my PH way out of whack? I tested the mix and seemed neutral with the basic soil tester.

Thanks again for the help, keep you posted.

 

[MissBotany]

The first few weeks of flower the plants will stretch/grow very rapidly so they will still need a decent amount of N along with P & K. Once they are done stretching you can usually eliminate or drastically reduce your N and continue with your P & K. If you are having issues with your soil drying out, add a fan blowing across the pots.