Day 63, First Day of week 4 Flower:
The ladies look good, buds are starting to form. I have two leafes that are yellowing on one plant (una). At the same timw the other leafs are darker than on the other plant.
I think its too early to be natural fading, so i checked everything. I had 2-3 fungus gnats in the tent, so put in some yellow stickies. But i doubt that they are the cause of the yellowing. But something to keep an eye on.
I think they can't be over- or underwatered. No Light or Heatstress, feeding was at 80% of the recommended schedule (so no nuteburn), windburn could not be possible, so the next easy guess is the ph is way off. The low leaf yellow indicates problems with N or P (mobile macros), so it has to be pests or ph. I don't think i underfed them with 80% of the recommended dose.
I didn't want to test the runoff, because i just discovered a few gnats and didn't want to increase that problem. But checked the ph of my tapwater and it was around 8, which is way higher than the last testing i did (6.9).
With nutes added the ph was 7.2. But because of the slight nuteburn last week, i watered partially just with plain water. I think there could be the issue and its good fixing that anyway.
So i watered them today with ph controlled nute water with a 6.2 PH and we'll see what it does. Fingers crossed. Best case scenario would be that it is an early fading and no more leafs show yellowing (and i identified two potential problems along the way). Good lessons to learn.
Day 65: The problems seem not to be getting worse, so thats nice. But i'm still sceptical. Going back to the full feeding schedule with the next watering and set PH at 6.0. Hope they'll like it.
Day 67: Okay it is getting worse... Well Shit. Waited 4 Days to water again, to fight the gnats. Feeding day with 2l nutewater for each plant. Full on schedule with 6.3 PH. I'm kinda lost right now. The Gnats have not been spotted anymore, the stickies remain clean. PH is on, feeding should be sufficient. Guess i'll just wait 2-3 Days and watch how she takes it. Hmmm... It looks like a potassium deficiency (according to google). So with the full feed today, it should get better i hope (and pray).
Day 69: Oh boy! They really look fucked up... So... the discoloring doesn't seem to get worse, but they developed rusty leaves over night. So new theory:
As long as the water had fully added nutes, the ph was just enough to let them absorb some of the nutrients. But my caution about nuteburn led to watering with tapwater (without checking the ph) what led to a nutrient lockout which is now. So they absorb all of the nutes the could not uptake the last two weeks and now they got severe nuteburn.
So i try to flush them with a lot of (ph adjusted!) tapwater and see if they get better. God i feel like such a moron. 🙈
@Herbie101, je comprends totalement c'est stressant on ne veut pas faire de bêtises 🤗
J'ai lu que faire une défoliation le jour 21 de floraison était une bonne idée. Apparemment c'est le moment idéal car la plante n'est pas impacté dans sa croissance de début de floraison et la défoliation permet d'éviter la perte d'énergie inutile pour des feuilles en dessous. Et ensuite il suffit d'attendre quelques jours le temps que la plante ne soit plus stressé. (Ceci n'est pas un conseil je suis débutant. Simplement une piste pour aller se renseigner pour les prochaine fois 😉).
Tu as bien fais de couper des feuilles de temps en temps. Ça se stresse pas trop la plante et ça permet de ne pas perdre d'énergie 😄
@Togoutouseg, Yeah, i think thats a good strategy! Just to get enough room to get through this grow. I did some defoliation on the bottom, but just the things that did not get full sunlight at all. And for the first 3 Weeks of Flower i picked 1-2 leafs on every plant per day. But i'm hesitant to go full on defoliation, but next run i try to be braver :P But flowering phase just feels like i'm waiting until i fuck up and ruin it😂
@Herbie101, je comprends totalement j'ai le même problème 😅🤣
Mais comme tu dis c'est une bonne leçon. Personnellement je ferai une défoliation du bas de mes plantes 1 semaines avant de lancer la floraison la prochaine fois. Ça sera moins dur de passer avec mon arrosoir 😅
Aujourd'hui j'ai coupé le bas pour que ça soit plus évident et j'ai enlever le filet 😅
En tout cas tes têtes ont bien grossis ça annonce que du bon 😄
@Browncoatgrows, Thank you! I got very lucky because i had no idea what i was doing or what the plants were trying to tell me. 😂 RQS just provided unkillable genetics. Can't wait to grow GCP again with more experience under my belt. I love the taste profile of this strain (maybe because the first homegrown strain always has a special place).
Very nice job for your first grow, she looks green, happy and healthy! I would recommend waiting a week or two to top her until she has a stronger root system, but very nice job and good luck the rest of the way brother!
@Herbie101, it is totally up to you, I typically top just below the 5th node, but I wait for her to be pushing her 7th node before topping to allow the roots a little more time to develop before topping. Good luck!
@Tweezer, Thank you so much for the kind words and the good tip! They are working on their fifth node, i planned to top when they are at 6-7 nodes. How do you know when it is the time to top? I only read about counting nodes and answers ranged from third to sixth. That is my approach at the moment.
Excellent notes. I like the detail. When you performed the maintenance flush, did you feed with regular strength nutrients afterwards? With the exception of the final harvest flush, the plants need to be fed again since that flush washes away all available minerals.
The rust colored spots might be a Calcium deficiency. Gnat damage typically makes the plant look staved and droopy, which I am not seeing in your photos.
I prevent gnats by adding a solution that has Bti cakes (Bacillus Thuringiensis subspecies Israelensis - brand name is Mosquito Dunks) floating in it. Bti is a bacteria that kills gnat larvae, which eat the tips of the roots.
@NegotiatedBubble, Thank you so much! I really like to note my thought process so that i remember where i fucked up. 😋
I flushed them yesterday, during that my ph pen broke (water came in, wtf bluelab?) and now i need to get some ph strips tomorrow to feed them again with a safe ph. But at the moment they don't have any nutes.
It totally sucks, but i better let them be without food than eyeballing the feeding.
Thank you for the good tip with the Bti Cakes. I'll check if that is available! 🌱
Would you refeed with the full amount as provided in the biobizzchart or go slow and reintroduce slowly?
@Melacola, Thank you! Yeah i had some pretty bad mistakes, but thebamazing genetics carried it over. 😂 But still my favourite smoke so far. Thanks for checking out!
@ChronicNerve, Thanks alot buddy! I was very lucky for my first two grows and i was provided with genetics that were very hard to kill😂 But i appreciate it! happy growing buddy!