Whats wrong with my room?

[skankymonkey23]

Hello Folks,

I have been growing in this room for 2 years now and seem to be having similar problems arise. I will go a few weeks into flower and the plants will look great. Then leaves start to yellow and die around week 4. by week 6 - 8 i have plants going hermi (very little light leak, not enough to effect the plants). Any idea what it might be? It is a closed room with a wall AC. CO2 is fed through a tube into a fan that oscillates. My PH runoff is at 6.5 and everything should be going well. I have a yellowing problems that is attacking the middle of the plant, not the top or lower leaves. They will start to yellow and then get a giant rust spot similar to what a P deficiency looks like in Jorge Cervantes's Growers Bible. If you have any insight or can point me into a good direction on what might be causing this problem please let me know. Here is a breakdown for more info.


Skywalker OG and Super Skunk
Started growing from clone.
Plants are 6 weeks into flower and 4 feet tall
worm castings, perlite # 3, fox farm in 10 gallon pots
I water once every 5 days when pots feel light with RO water
PH of water varies from 6.3 - 7.0
I make my own teas using worm castings, bat guano, seabird guano, kelp, fishbone meal, oyster shells, molasses and Silica for PH up (on another note, is the silica killing the bacteria in my teas?)
no foliar after week 2
I have 4 horizontal 600W HPS and 1 vertical 1000 W HPS in the middle
Plants are 24 inches away from lights
15x15 grow space
65 night, 75 -80 Degrees day, RH between 30 - 70 fluctuation throughout the day/night
PH of the soil is right around 6.5, PPM at 1100
a few fungas gnats
decent experience in growing

 

[Snowblind]

Check for Broad Mites.

Pull any new growth and look at the tips of the leaves under a scope. Look for microscopic white mites and their rounded egg pods. If you dont see any scratch broad mites off your list.

 

[skankymonkey23]

no insects in sight. I used to have fungus gnats but they seem to be gone now. I also had thrips for a minute but was able to get rid of those. Any other suggestions farmers?

 

[cctt]

It may be helpful to post pictures of whole plants so the damage is shown in context.

 

[FireWithin]

Aside from what undiagnosed problems u r having , the statement about even small light leaks not causing issues with flowering plants is dead wrong. While u r fixing the other issues , do yourself a favor and go into the flowering area, lights off , wait a min or two to let your eyes adjust, note light leaks and fix asap. As stated above, a few shots of the entire plant/plants usually reveals much more.

 

[LexLuthor]

FWIW, I had a small light leak from the side of my door and it never caused any hermies or revegged. One time my girlfriend walked in when lights were out and left the door open for a few minutes and that caused them to reveg, but not hermie.

 

[Bruce Fever]

i would use tap water left to stand for 24hrs to let the fluoride evaporate and use that with out adjusting the ph i promise if you do that fromthe start you wont have those problems m8. I have watered like this for years with great results and as soon as i introduced a ph kit i had the exact same leaf issues as you. not sure about the hermie although i would try the water bit out am sure it will halt anymore new developments but anything on the turn will continue to degrade

 

[LexLuthor]

I don't think he has pH issues because he said its around 6.5, which is exactly the range it should be for soil.

His EC doesn't seem too high, but if he uses nutes in every watering it could be a build up of certain nutes which will lockout others, or cause deficiencies. Check out the mulder chart. Just tossing that out there.

Hey skankymonkey, what ferts are you using?? because I think K deficiency starts around the middle of your plants. They may be lacking certain nutrients, what NPK rating is on your nute bottles and how much do you use??

 

[Bruce Fever]

I don't think he has pH issues because he said its around 6.5, which is exactly the range it should be for soil.

His EC doesn't seem too high, but if he uses nutes in every watering it could be a build up of certain nutes which will lockout others, or cause deficiencies. Check out the mulder chart. Just tossing that out there

Fair point and I shall check this chart out :)

 

[Phillthy]

whats the temp of your water. in the winter when watering from a hose i have freaked some strains out.

 

[MonsterRobot]

If you had fungus gnats you might have actually had root aphids... They will cause damage like that and they are a bitch! I thought I had gnats once and they turned out to be root aphids...

 

[We Solidarity]

a couple ideas...

1) If you have root aphids, you might not see fliers for weeks. sometimes, if their environment is hospitable enough, you'll never even see the winged variation. They can always be around - i've had a completely clean grow and just had an outbreak in week 7 after starting a pretty heavy molasses regimen. No fliers- but the pots were just about to start crawling. Using a heavy dose of OGBIOWAR foliar pack in a feeding will help curb the aphids, if they're present. I know you said you're bug free, but other than phosphorus def. the only time i've seen leaves look like that was when they were under attack.

2) Your soil is getting too wet and too dry - When soil dries out, it damages plant roots and can make some nutrient salts and dense organic materials dry out - and when this happens they might not dissolve back into water in the soil. If you water too heavy, you'll block out oxygen in the soil which will mess with your root's cation abilities and can also cause nutrient lockout - most notably phosphorus. If you're sure there aren't any bugs in your dirt than try altering your water cycle. From what I understand you want to water to keep your pots at a consistent weight - and to NOT let them dry out. I'm almost positive that a stressful watering cycle could also contribute to herming plants.

3) The last thing that you could be seeing, and the most probable, is light toxicity - 24 inches from a barebulb 1000 sounds insane - even with a barebulb 600 that's pushing it. If you're seeing foxtails on top of your buds as well as hermies, you could be blasting your plants with too much light. I've seen this happen LOTS of times - i'm always trying to run my lights too close. Top fan and sugar leaves get lime green and then middle leaves start twisting and burning and dying. If you leave the lights down the brown spots will move onto the sugar and top fan leaves and eventually the bud starts to yellow. Either raise your lights, use deflectors on them, or just leave the 1000 watt on for a few hours a day.


also - is your soil PPM getting higher or are you keeping it at 1100? In soil I usually don't feed nutes until I notice the PPM drop by at least 200 points.

 

[Sailfishdan]

^ real talk

 

[Capulator]

FWIW, I had a small light leak from the side of my door and it never caused any hermies or revegged. One time my girlfriend walked in when lights were out and left the door open for a few minutes and that caused them to reveg, but not hermie.

In all of my experience plants arent that sensitive. A few minutes once is not going to hermie a plant.

 

[LexLuthor]

In all of my experience plants arent that sensitive. A few minutes once is not going to hermie a plant.

Thats what I said, it revegged but did not hermie.

 

[SodaLicious]

a couple ideas...

1) If you have root aphids, you might not see fliers for weeks. sometimes, if their environment is hospitable enough, you'll never even see the winged variation. They can always be around - i've had a completely clean grow and just had an outbreak in week 7 after starting a pretty heavy molasses regimen. No fliers- but the pots were just about to start crawling. Using a heavy dose of OGBIOWAR foliar pack in a feeding will help curb the aphids, if they're present. I know you said you're bug free, but other than phosphorus def. the only time i've seen leaves look like that was when they were under attack.

2) Your soil is getting too wet and too dry - When soil dries out, it damages plant roots and can make some nutrient salts and dense organic materials dry out - and when this happens they might not dissolve back into water in the soil. If you water too heavy, you'll block out oxygen in the soil which will mess with your root's cation abilities and can also cause nutrient lockout - most notably phosphorus. If you're sure there aren't any bugs in your dirt than try altering your water cycle. From what I understand you want to water to keep your pots at a consistent weight - and to NOT let them dry out. I'm almost positive that a stressful watering cycle could also contribute to herming plants.

3) The last thing that you could be seeing, and the most probable, is light toxicity - 24 inches from a barebulb 1000 sounds insane - even with a barebulb 600 that's pushing it. If you're seeing foxtails on top of your buds as well as hermies, you could be blasting your plants with too much light. I've seen this happen LOTS of times - i'm always trying to run my lights too close. Top fan and sugar leaves get lime green and then middle leaves start twisting and burning and dying. If you leave the lights down the brown spots will move onto the sugar and top fan leaves and eventually the bud starts to yellow. Either raise your lights, use deflectors on them, or just leave the 1000 watt on for a few hours a day.


also - is your soil PPM getting higher or are you keeping it at 1100? In soil I usually don't feed nutes until I notice the PPM drop by at least 200 points.

24 inches away from a 600?? I've had my 600's bare bulb and 10 inches away with no adverse affect on the buds, except gooo

 

[Capulator]

Thats what I said, it revegged but did not hermie.

revegged? from openign the door once for a few minutes? It takes plants a long time to reveg lex... I'm not calling you a liar, but there may have been other factors at play other than the girlfriend.

 

[LexLuthor]

revegged? from openign the door once for a few minutes? It takes plants a long time to reveg lex... I'm not calling you a liar, but there may have been other factors at play other than the girlfriend.

At week 5 of flower I noticed stems growing from the top of my buds. It was a couple days after she left the light on when the closet door was open.

How long do you think it takes for them to reveg?? From my knowledge if you interrupt there dark cycle with enough light for a few minutes, they will reveg.

Its the only thing that changed during my grow cycle and it happened at the same time she did that, and she only did it once because thats the only time I accidentally left the door open. There are no other factors I can think of that would of done that. It could not have been the minor light leaks because I grew other crops in the same closet with no negative effects.

 

[MonsterRobot]

I have tripped my timers to "on" all the time on accident during wk 4 of flower and they were like that for 2 days... 48 hours of constant light (1k bulbs too) and they didn't herm or reveg... I wish a few minutes of light would make a plant reveg... I would still have some of the girls I lost!

It takes at least a week from my experience... It depends on the plant though

 

[LexLuthor]

I have tripped my timers to "on" all the time on accident during wk 4 of flower and they were like that for 2 days... 48 hours of constant light (1k bulbs too) and they didn't herm or reveg... I wish a few minutes of light would make a plant reveg... I would still have some of the girls I lost!

It takes at least a week from my experience... It depends on the plant though

Constant light is way different then interrupting there dark cycle.

Like I said, I never had an issue in that closet until I passed out drunk on the couch and forgot to close the closet door, girlfriend came home and put the light on in the bedroom, revegged. There were no other factors that changed during that time period.

If you don't think so, then turn on your light for 10 minutes 6 hours into there dark period, let me know how it goes.