4 * Sticky Beast auto, LED (first grow)

This week, there were a number of problems I had to deal with, but all in all, the girls progressed nicely: buds are swelling up and despite a few dying leaves, everything looks quite healthy. The buds are looking more frosty every day and smell increases. Vertically, they only grew a few centimeters. They fully switched from growth to flower. I started the week on day 43 with some defoliation and a water & feeding session. Since I already removed most leaves that were in the way of things in week 6, I didn’t defoliate too much. Just a leave here and there. I gave them plain pH’ed (to pH 7) water until 20% runoff. The pH of the first runoff was at 6, while 7 was going in. After that, I gave them 2 liters of nutrients mix, which was still very light at 0,1 ml/l Gro, 0,5 ml/l micro and 0,5 ml/l bloom. The next day, day 44, when I opened the tent, it was clear there were problems. All the leaves from the top 1/3th of the plant that were exposed to light, were looking pale, more lime green. Some leaves in the bottom were also showing (interveinal) chlorosis. A few leaves had some small brown speckles on them. Like half the leaves had red stems (although, this was already the case for several weeks, even as a seedling some of the plants had a red stem), but also some complete side stems were turning red. The edges of Benthes leaves, were also turning red (like a very narrow red line on the edge of the leaves). My first reaction was to raise the lights. It seemed the only logical thing to do immediately, since the symptoms were the heaviest at all the exposed parts of the plants. I also noticed the temperature of the soil was only 14 degrees Celsius, while it was 24 degrees in the tent on canopy level, but only 20 on the floor. It had been a very cold night after watering. The floor got really cold that night: the wet fabric pots filled with 25L of soil, just didn’t warm up. Hence, I isolated the floor with some left over isolation material. I took the rest of the day to study the symptoms and do some research. The next day, day 45, the affected leaves at the middle and bottom of the plant, looked worse, but the paling and chlorosis at the top of the canopy didn’t look worse. After some research, it became clear for me the plants were seriously underfed. Because of the N excess in week 3 and 4, I drained them with plain pH’ed water every time before adding limited amounts of nutrients; I was flushing all the buffers away and not adding enough to the mix. The cold soil didn’t help and probably impeded intake of the already barely available nutrients. Because of this, the plants were no longer able to cope with the bright light. There were calmag issues showing, maybe a little shortage of N and probably also a phosphorus issue (because a few leaves at the bottom were turning dark and some fingers of the leaves got brown and died). Basically, there was a shortage of all macro and meso nutrients. I’ve added some pictures of removed leaves that show the progress of the deficiency. Since pH was in check, it just had to be underfeeding, with the cold root zone and the bright light as catalysts. Hence, I gave them all 2 liters mixed with 0,2 ml/l gro, 0,7 ml/l micro and 1 ml/l bloom. I made sure the mix was a little warmer than normal (25 degrees Celsius instead of 20) Since then, the temperature of the rootzone has been at about 18 degrees Celsius, they just needed that temperature boost after a very cold night. The next day, day 46, progress of the problems was definitely slowed, but not completely halted. On day 47 I gave them another 2 liters of the same mix. After that, I was out of town for a few days. When I returned on day 49, things looked ok: the already affected leaves had deteriorate further, but new growth (some sugar leaves) looked good and the problems hadn’t spread to other leaves. The pots were already light and the top soil dry, meaning they drink a lot. About 1,5 to 2 liter every day. Today, day 50, I gave them a full water and feeding. I didn’t water with plain pH’ed water, but instead gave them all about 7 liters of nutrients mix (0,2 ml/l gro, 0,7 ml/l micro and 1 ml/l bloom, which is 50% of recommended quantity, except for gro, which is even less, because I don’t want to add too much N in this phase), which resulted in 1 to 2 liters of drain. pH of the run off was a little on the acid side (5,5), but the nutrients mix I added was close to 7. The next days will be important: are the problems effectively dealt with, or do I have to take more measures? If the symptoms do not spread any further, I can slowly move the lights a little closer. Hopefully, the girls will reward all my efforts and use their last few weeks to swell those buds.