[catherder]

Plant is in 12/12 for budding but 2-3 weeks before, this beautiful bush every stem started losing leaves staring from the bottom of the stem then moving up to the tops. It's mostly the smaller side stems that have been growing since the beginning. I read that over watering can cause this. It's slowly moving through the entire plant. I've only watered it once since I read up on the symptoms (once in 2 weeks and making sure the soil has almost dried out). They're not wilting, really, just curling up and dying off. No browning.
It's in the 3rd week of bud stage lighting and everything else appears to be healthy and normal. No leaf color changes, no drooping, no chlorophyll loss, no curling. Just the lower smaller leaves dying off.

 

[Galgrows]

We can't help you unless you post photos in natural light.

 

[Ninjadogma]

Really hard to tell what we are looking at under that purple light but I suspect nitrogen toxicity. The leaves crinkling up and dying look like they're dark and if they are, likely a high N problem. If you have an EC pen maybe you can take a runoff reading and tell us where it's sitting. If it is N-tox, flip the lights back to 18 until you fix it because you'll be very disappointed if you keep going.

 

[WinJr63]

I suspect you might have a nitrogen deficiency.
If the plant lacks enough of it, it will cannibalize its own lower older leaves to feed newer growing at the top. This starts as a general yellowing and progresses to the leaves drying and falling off.
Also check runoff, ur EC and yes we need clearly pictures. Whats ur growing medium? What are u feeding her? You might half to flip lights back.

 

[evan_brooks]

Some lower leaf loss during flowering can be normal, especially on shaded smaller branches. But going two weeks without watering sounds a bit extreme. I’d check the root zone, drainage, pH, and whether the plant is actually drying evenly rather than assuming it’s still overwatering.

 

[gullywompr]

The detail that should steer this: you said no yellowing and no color change anywhere else — just the small inner/lower leaves curling off while the rest of the plant looks healthy. That argues against a true nitrogen deficiency (that yellows the lower leaves first, then dries them). On a 5-month bush in week 3 of flower, it points more at normal senescence of the shaded interior leaves - the popcorn stuff down inside that isn't getting light gets dropped once she puts everything into the tops. Usually nothing to fix.

Two checks before assuming it's a feeding problem:
- Runoff EC/PPM *and pH*. One reading settles the debate above: high EC = over-fed / N-tox (what Ninjadogma's seeing), on-target EC with pH creeping up = lockout, low EC on only the shaded leaves = it's just senescence. On well water especially, watch the pH — well water is often hard and drifts the root zone up over a few weeks, which locks nutrients out even when EC looks fine.
- The watering timeline. The leaf drop started *before* you cut back, so overwatering wasn't really the trigger — but letting a big flowering plant sit ~2 weeks bone dry can add a second problem (drought stress) on top of the first. Water to ~20% runoff when the top inch is dry, and catch that runoff for the EC/pH read above. Two birds.

Cheers,
Curtis Olson
Hamilton VA

 

[Ninjadogma]

Even if the lights were making it look wonky, that's not what senescence or fade looks like. That more closelyg resembles glyphosate exposure. Not suspecting that, just pointing out how it looks.

 

[WinJr63]

We need clear pics