Royal AK Auto RQS (First Grow)

Day 36 (30/06): The AK is growing super healthy so far, I do not see any big problems with it except for the two first leaves that are going a bit yellow but I think those leaves could just fall off soon because the plant does not need them. Other than that, it is still growing the small budlets at the base of the stem but I am not sure how big they are going to grow in the end. We have also noticed that the pistils are getting more orange which means that it should it be in the mid-flower stage. Can’t wait! Day 37 (01/07): Not that many updates today, the temperatures are still just under 30C but there is a small fan constantly blowing on the plants so hopefully they are not too hot. The AK is definitely still doing the best although there are trichomes forming on the Green Gelatos already and I don’t see any on the AK yet but I think that it just the difference between the strains since trichomes should really be showing towards the end of flower. But it is growing really well. Day 38 (02/07): Today I actually noticed that there are two more fan leaves which are starting to turn yellow, they are below the canopy so they might not be getting enough light but one of the Green Gelatos is having quite a few yellow leaves which got me thinking that this could either be stress from the relatively high temperatures, could be that the leaves are below and just not getting enough light or another thought that I had is I could be underwatering them per feeding. I give them 1L each and it lasts 2-3 days (2.5 days realistically because I feed them at different times and just check for the soil being dry enough at a few inches deep). What this could be doing is maybe there are roots all the way at the bottom which are not receiving enough water with the nutrients (because I do not see run off when I water them) and it could be just not absorbing all of the nutrients that it is being fed (or absorbing only a fraction). So today I will increase the feeding to 1.5L per plant with the same nutrients (although I still did not see runoff but I don’t want to drown them). I will see if this helps in stopping the yellowing and judge from there. Day 39 (03/07): Today I noticed that there some leaves on the AK that are turning light green in a patchy way. There are also some leaves that are drying a bit more now. From what I can tell it could be a nitrogen deficiency as I have been feeding it just 1 ml/L of BioBloom but according to the chart I should have increased it to 2-3ml/L by now so maybe it is not getting enough nutrients. I was worried to feed it too much so that’s why I haven’t increased it according to the chart. I do want to ask the community through what they think about what deficiency it could be. Day 40 (04/07): Today we noticed that there was mould on the big fan leaves that were yellowing and drying so we have just cut them off to prevent the mould from spreading to other leaves and so the plant does not waste its energy on the leaves. My partner had also rearranged some of the stems to give more space to the buds so that they all get enough light. We also put some of the fan leaves on top (but not covering buds) to see whether it will stop turning green if it gets enough light. Day 41 (05/07): The temperatures were still staying at 30 degrees throughout the past week for all of the girls in the tent and although the frozen bottles help reduce it by a few degrees, it wasn’t really working well at keeping it below 28C. So we have decided to decrease the intensity of the light to about 80% because at the moment it seemed like it was doing more harm than good at 100% intensity and putting the girls through stress. We’ll see if this helps throughout the next week but I’m hoping to keep temperatures below 28C while they are in flower. I have also the AK today with 1.5 litres of water as usual but I have increased the BioBloom to 2ml per 1.5 L and BioHeaven to 3ml per 1.5 L so it is still less than recommended but didn’t want to drastically increase. I did also see run off after I watered so that is a good sign that the nutrients are reaching all of the roots at the bottom as well so I will see whether the colour of the leaves will darken and improve over the next week. Day 42 (06/07): The temperatures today have already been better and it was at 28C when I woke up which means that turning the lights down a bit to 80% intensity is definitely helping. While the lights were on, the temperatures have been between 26-28C and 23-24C during lights off. In terms of the yellow leaves, I don’t think they have gotten more yellow compared to yesterday but I will be asking this as a grow question today to see if anyone has any ideas why the leaves are yellow since they should be getting plenty of nutrients. Maybe it is self-defoliating like the others too. I was actually looking at the bud pictures from last week and you don’t realise the change as it’s growing but the main bud has definitely thickened up a lot now!