Strawberry Haze grow in lock out trouble...please help!

[cael69]

Hello fellow farmers,

I am currently doing a soil grow of Strawberry Haze, from Green House Seed Co., and have been having some nerve racking pH trouble since week four of flowering, the ladies are currently finishing week six. They are potted in a mix of 33% perlite, 33% peat moss, 33% perlite and 1% hidralong. The plants have developed fairly uniform in terms of height, I am using BioBizz Organic nutrients (Grow & Bloom) and Botanicare Cal-Mg Plus. I have been seeing signs of defficiency in these last couple of weeks and have tried to solve the issue but have not had much luck...Here are some pic´s which hopefully are descriptive enough to shed some light on the essential problem...

 

[brownstormy]

I do not worry about my girls losing a bit of green after halfway through flowering.
Why do you think it's a pH issue? What is the initial runoff reading at?
Also, what are the temperatures during light and dark?
I recall the SH getting weird at either end.

 

[Gene Bean]

Well...

at 6 weeks into flower they are pretty far to expect anything you do to help much. The best you can do is hope we can help figure out what the issue is and feed them correctly from here on out.

The first thing I would do is pick out the worst looking plant and flush it with a gallon or so of water (the closer to 7ph and 0EC and 0000PPM the better, I use rain water, distilled or spring is OK) then check the run-off with your meter. If you do not have a meter that tests for Ph/EC/PPM you need one yesterday. Either the meter will have high EC/PPM readings meaning you should keep flushing until the levels are normal or they will be lowish to normal which means that the plants did not get the proper nutrients during their inital transition phase into flowering(a VERY important part of a plants life cycle adn one you don't want to mess up). If they are lowish, give them a dose of that bloom formula. Sativa dominate plants often need extra veg nutes going into flower due to the longer flowering period they require and the size they get, and they usually like a higher Ph the longer into flower they get. Greenhouse (say what you will) does have a great website and I think they even have adobe flash videos of alot of thier strains being grown with explanations from Franco about the plants likes and dislikes. That is another place to get info... I also do not like that soil mix you described and prefer a 3:2:1 blend of FF soil conditioner(3), Botanicare ReadyGro-'aeration blend'(2), and Worm castings(1). That and being aware of the type of plant you are growing and how it makes its transistion into flowering, whther it is a heavy or light feeder, prefers a higher or lower Ph, ect...will all make life alot easier. Problems that pop up late into flower like this can drive you absolutely nuts! I know how much you have invested to this point and how it feels to know they are not happy despite all your hard work.

Good luck

GB:smiley_joint:

 

[cael69]

Thanx GB, all very useful tips. I live in Chile and unfortunately indoor growing is something of a new phenomenon in this country. There is a limited (very limited) supply of specialized indoor growing tools and choices in terms of soil brands or nutrients and additives. I have been trying my hand at using Bio Bizz nutrients and ordered some Cal-Mag through ebay, but essentially when it comes to soil there is a limited offer...I can purchase peat moss, humus (worm castings), perlite and vermiculite. Lately I{ve been adding worm castings to the mix for the clones which are in 150 W HPS preflower cabinet waiting to move into the 400 W flowering cabinet. I will post some pics now so you can take a gander on the current state of these ladies...I have read that organic nutrients can be tricky because they can acidify soil pretty quick but lately I´ve been very careful to water the plants with pH of 6,5 to 7,0 with aprox, 1,3 - 1,5 E.C. I have been collecting rainwater which has a ph normally within this range and aprox. 10-20 ppms. They have not halted there growth but do show signs of yellowing and crackly leaves, anyway here are some pics which speak louder than words...

 

[acubus]

Look pretty good to me, just a little under fed.