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yellowing leaves too early , dagnabit

  • Thread starter Thread starter carlosescobar
  • Start date Start date Mar 29, 2026
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yellowing leaves too early , dagnabit

carlosescobar Mar 29, 2026 13 Replies 666 Views
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carlosescobar

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#1
Ive got these gorilla zkittles photos which were doing great until the last few days when the older leaves started yellowing all over. theres about 5-6 at the moment, ive got no tip burn so its not overfed , i think it might be the opposite. I have been feeding with an organic houseplant food as it has an ideal NPK and flipped it 2 weeks ago to flower, moved over to a orchid feed with slightly less N, about 2-3ml every 3rd watering, ive also given it a couple of foliar feeds in veg. Its in soil with perlite, michorizea, and worm castings. soil temp is around 20-23 oC, humidity around 60%. ive also given it one or two feeds with seaweed based micronutrients like zinc, copper, sulpher , etc.
I am thinking that i have been too light on the nutrients , it was probably ok for veg but now they are demanding more perhaps ? should i double the amounts i am giving to about 6-8ml per litre OR i have some proper atami A+B for soil, should i switch over to that ? or would that be too much of a shock to the plant in bud? I dont think my soil is particularly 'living', although i definately have good root growth as they are coming out the bottom this time . ive seen one or two brown spots which look like the start of calmag deficiency so ive given some of that as well.
my light is close about 14inch and at 70% thats because last time i had it at 24 inch and didnt get the most of of it . it did stretch a lot when i flipped it , does this deplete the plant ?
 

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imgrowing

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#2
what exactly is the NPK numbers?
1st glance at orchid feed online is 20-20-20
 
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carlosescobar

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#3
imgrowing said:
what exactly is the NPK numbers?
1st glance at orchid feed online is 20-20-20
Click to expand...
my veg feed was 2-1-3.5 and the orchid one is 1.1-1.5-2.4 and they have calcium zinc etc...what i cant quite work out is the 1 litre bottle had NPK of 2-3-5 but the smaller bottle is half that , so ive been giving about 4mls in 1 litre . i think i need to triple it or give it some proper nutrients, im worried about switching from feeding the soil to feeding the plant more directly ?
the white hairs are looking great and the stretching is over, but it looks like nutrients are not getting through, or they are too weak ...
 
Last edited: Mar 29, 2026
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trygrowup

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#4
As i understand it orchids is living on other plants.
I'm not an orchid expert but those type of plants are normally low feeders and i also think their ph range is different.
So I don't know if the fertilizer for orchids can change your ph?
I'm just guessing here.
 
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Ninjadogma

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#5
carlosescobar said:
Ive got these gorilla zkittles photos which were doing great until the last few days when the older leaves started yellowing all over. theres about 5-6 at the moment, ive got no tip burn so its not overfed , i think it might be the opposite. I have been feeding with an organic houseplant food as it has an ideal NPK and flipped it 2 weeks ago to flower, moved over to a orchid feed with slightly less N, about 2-3ml every 3rd watering, ive also given it a couple of foliar feeds in veg. Its in soil with perlite, michorizea, and worm castings. soil temp is around 20-23 oC, humidity around 60%. ive also given it one or two feeds with seaweed based micronutrients like zinc, copper, sulpher , etc.
I am thinking that i have been too light on the nutrients , it was probably ok for veg but now they are demanding more perhaps ? should i double the amounts i am giving to about 6-8ml per litre OR i have some proper atami A+B for soil, should i switch over to that ? or would that be too much of a shock to the plant in bud? I dont think my soil is particularly 'living', although i definately have good root growth as they are coming out the bottom this time . ive seen one or two brown spots which look like the start of calmag deficiency so ive given some of that as well.
my light is close about 14inch and at 70% thats because last time i had it at 24 inch and didnt get the most of of it . it did stretch a lot when i flipped it , does this deplete the plant ?
Click to expand...

There's some strains it doesn't matter how dialed you feed them, they still prefer to snack on their fans when they do their changeup. A common sign it's not a deficiency is it'll select a leaf to suck dry and leave others intact and a deficiency tends to be a regional fade across multiple leaves.
 
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carlosescobar

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#6
trygrowup said:
As i understand it orchids is living on other plants.
I'm not an orchid expert but those type of plants are normally low feeders and i also think their ph range is different.
So I don't know if the fertilizer for orchids can change your ph?
I'm just guessing here.
Click to expand...
yeah . ive been guessing the dosage, 2-4mls is what i would give with my atami feeds which makes me think this stuff is too weak, the regular feeds have probably kept it going through veg but now it needs much more. I think ive got to switch over to atami A+B.
 
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carlosescobar

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#7
Ninjadogma said:
There's some strains it doesn't matter how dialed you feed them, they still prefer to snack on their fans when they do their changeup. A common sign it's not a deficiency is it'll select a leaf to suck dry and leave others intact and a deficiency tends to be a regional fade across multiple leaves.
Click to expand...
i think you're right, ive just had a look and each branch just has one leaf its devouring.!
can i switch to salt based nutrients after just feeding organic nutes, can i go from feeding the soil to feeding the plant, ive got 2 litres of cannabis nutrients for soil sitting here...i only didnt use them because ive killed 2 grows by overfeeding so i was trying to be a bit more gentle with 'em.
 
Last edited: Mar 29, 2026
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Grownsince95

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#8
carlosescobar said:
i think you're right, ive just had a look and each branch just has one leaf its devouring.!
can i switch to salt based nutrients after just feeding organic nutes, can i go from feeding the soil to feeding the plant, ive got 2 litres of cannabis nutrients for soil sitting here...i only didnt use them because ive killed 2 grows by overfeeding so i was trying to be a bit more gentle with 'em.
Click to expand...
The plant looks really good let the bottom stragglers go! You just said you killed 2 grows over feeding but you're here looking for someone to tell you it's ok to feed more.

If you are like me and like to constantly tinker and adjust, switch to coco!
 
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Ninjadogma

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#9
carlosescobar said:
i think you're right, ive just had a look and each branch just has one leaf its devouring.!
can i switch to salt based nutrients after just feeding organic nutes, can i go from feeding the soil to feeding the plant, ive got 2 litres of cannabis nutrients for soil sitting here...i only didnt use them because ive killed 2 grows by overfeeding so i was trying to be a bit more gentle with 'em.
Click to expand...

You can switch it up or you can do a hybrid of both... Put some extra mild feed into the dirt to guarantee the plant never bottoms out, then push a little more and/or steer the ratio even tighter with liquids. But be careful, if you go this route you really want to be keeping an eye on your EC because what they eat from the dirt is your blind spot. And I'd suggest only doing it if you're pretty good at reading a plant because you're no longer following a system... you're taking control and you are the one in the driver's seat.
 
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carlosescobar

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#10
Grownsince95 said:
The plant looks really good let the bottom stragglers go! You just said you killed 2 grows over feeding but you're here looking for someone to tell you it's ok to feed more.

If you are like me and like to constantly tinker and adjust, switch to coco!
Click to expand...
I tried coco , thats why i killed 2 grows , i treated one like soil , and the salts built up, and the other i let dry out too much, then i went back to soil .
 
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Brother_Antioch

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#11
Ninjadogma said:
You can switch it up or you can do a hybrid of both... Put some extra mild feed into the dirt to guarantee the plant never bottoms out, then push a little more and/or steer the ratio even tighter with liquids. But be careful, if you go this route you really want to be keeping an eye on your EC because what they eat from the dirt is your blind spot. And I'd suggest only doing it if you're pretty good at reading a plant because you're no longer following a system... you're taking control and you are the one in the driver's seat.
Click to expand...
I think that's why I am loving the DWC hydro grow. Complete control so nothing comes down to guess work or reacting to issues instead of seeing them as they start from the testing.
 
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LoveGrowingIt

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#12
When a plant starts budding, its nutrient needs change. Acknowledging that there are multiple possible causes of yellowing lower leaves, my first guess is the plant is pulling mobile nutrients from the lower leaves. At this stage of plant growth, additional Calcium and Magnesium are commonly needed, but this doesn't look like Ca or Mg deficiency to me. When budding begins is a good time to add CalMag, though. Nitrogen deficiency can cause yellowing like that because the plant needs N for stretching growth. Knowing the water pH after the nutrients are added would be helpful. A pH that's out of range can cause the appearance of nutrient deficiencies.

Also... What is the light intensity? The plant looks slightly stressed, so excess light could be a possibility. Lower leaves, being older leaves, can show excess light symptoms because they've been exposed to the light longest.
 
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carlosescobar

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#13
LoveGrowingIt said:
When a plant starts budding, its nutrient needs change. Acknowledging that there are multiple possible causes of yellowing lower leaves, my first guess is the plant is pulling mobile nutrients from the lower leaves. At this stage of plant growth, additional Calcium and Magnesium are commonly needed, but this doesn't look like Ca or Mg deficiency to me. When budding begins is a good time to add CalMag, though. Nitrogen deficiency can cause yellowing like that because the plant needs N for stretching growth. Knowing the water pH after the nutrients are added would be helpful. A pH that's out of range can cause the appearance of nutrient deficiencies.

Also... What is the light intensity? The plant looks slightly stressed, so excess light could be a possibility. Lower leaves, being older leaves, can show excess light symptoms because they've been exposed to the light longest.
Click to expand...
i think youre right. i think its just scraped through veg on minimal nutrients, now its demanding more...Im going to feed it proper cannabis nutes from now...
i did have the plant trained and spread out low but the middle 4 offshoot branches went a bit mad and stretched a lot , so they are now about 14 inches from the light and the rest of the plant is at about 20.
 

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carlosescobar

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#14
checked on it tonight and ive now got brown spots appearing, mostly on those yellowing leaves but also on a new one near the top? Im thinking thats calcium def, I think what i have done is feed too often with my NPK and the potassium has locked out the calcium magnesium. if yellowing leaves is a magnesium deficiency that would make sense...i did also give it a microbe tea just before all this , i dont know if that could have upset things?
ive given it a watering with proper atami nutrients and silica
 

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Started Mar 29, 2026
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