Are my plants too far gone? Thanks in advance

Magus90

Member
Hey There,

Had a great first 4 weeks. Plants looked amazing. Week 6 now.

I let them go a week or two longer than i should have to add the nutes and they got lime green and rust spots. Probably Nitro and Cal deficiency. Should have added at week 4.

I went to feed them 4 days ago to rectify it, but i had to borrow some cal mag from my brother who didn't tell me he already added other nutes to the mix, so i also added nutes and they got double dosed for Big Grow and Big Bloom!!!

I gave them a day or two to see how they responded and nothing happened. No worsening of the original symptoms. But i did at that point flush them with a few bottles of water just in case, so they are now droopy from overwatering.

They are still overwatered right now, but are these plants salvageable? My brother is telling me to start over......I am so bummed.


 

coreywebster

Well-Known Member
Hmm, they don't look too burned from nutrients, I would carry on. You could give them a foliar spray with calmag every day until you feel they are not overwatered. The CalMag will have Nitrogen in it so you could get more N in them without worsening the over watering.

Its a bit hard to diagnose under the lighting, I would make sure you don't have a zinc deficiency too though.
 

Magus90

Member
Hmm, they don't look too burned from nutrients, I would carry on. You could give them a foliar spray with calmag every day until you feel they are not overwatered. The CalMag will have Nitrogen in it so you could get more N in them without worsening the over watering.

Its a bit hard to diagnose under the lighting, I would make sure you don't have a zinc deficiency too though.
Thanks. Yeah the lighting is tough. They are basically a lime green, which could be zinc or Nitrogen. The rust spots is def. cal/mag, but those have stopped and have not gotten worse.

How do you supplement with Zinc?

My PH is always between 6 and 6.5 but i use bottled water not tap if that makes a difference.
 

coreywebster

Well-Known Member
Bottled water should contain zinc, Tap is better if your lucky to have good tap water. Maybe keep the PH at that lower end.
You can get micronutrient solution but I believe you can also use kelp as a foliar spray too which should contain a whole world of goodness. Its worth adding liquid kelp to your normal waterings too when you next water.
I don't want you to assume I'm right on the zinc def though, like I say its hard to judge from those pictures.

If its N the plants should be feeding off the lowest leaves and they will die off and then feed from a few more.

Have a good look at them.

Don't abort the grow though, I have seen many many plants in a lot worst state still produce the goods and your early enough to fix things easy enough.
 

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
Zinc deficiency is fairly common but they don't need a lot. That being said I grind up a couple tabs of zinc and give it to the plants once in a blue moon because I think it helps. Doesn't hurt but I take it for my health so it should be good for the plants too eh. :)

Low Zn affects younger leaves first with interveinal chlorosis, (yellowing), similar to low Mg. Leaf tips darken and die back and new leaves become thin and wispy then contort. All growth slows and new buds and leaf growth stops. To much Zn leads to iron deficiency so go easy. A couple of 50mg Zn tabs ground up and added to 5gal of water is lots once a month. Good nutes with chelated minerals should have enough Zn. Some epsom salts for Mg and S at a tsp/gal every few waterings is good too.

I have never seen zinc mentioned on any bottle of water so I doubt very much that there is any in it. If by bottled water you mean RO water then for sure there is no zinc or anything else in it if it's any good. I use RO water exclusively for my plants with very little CalMag and never see Ca or Mg deficiencies even in DWC. I'm growing in a soil/soilless mix now, feeding AN nutes and rarely reach for the CalMag. When I do it's a quarter dose at most.

Those plants don't look bad so I'd just let them dry out then water with half strength nutes once they really need water. Maybe don't listen to your brother so much. ;)

Good luck!
 

tpc_mikey

Well-Known Member
I agree with all that has been said, the plants dont look that bad and are salvageable lol. I would recommend if your growing organically as well to order some recharge and add that to your next watering, it is amazing what the bennnies will do to help with deficiencies.
 

Magus90

Member
Thanks everyone. Seriously i really appreciate the help. This has been both fun and nerve racking since i am still a newbie.

After another full dose of nutes, they are definitely looking better. One plant is still having the yellow though worse than the others(Last picture on left). The other 3 definitely got much greener, and all 4 have nice lush new growth. They are sucking up water like crazy. Just a few days.

1- Do these look well enough to put into flower? I am trying to flower them ASAP because they are getting so big.

I was thinking i can always supplement with some Big Grow during flowering to keep the nitrogen deficiency in check?


2- And lastly is there anything i can do to clean these up and give more space for the colas? Like pruning or something of the bottom leaves? I have all the supplies, floral string, etc. to tie them down as well.


 

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
Might be a good idea to flower them if they seem to be back on track.

I would clean out a lot of that lower growth. I'm seeing some sick leaves down there and there are so many leaves that they are blocking air flow around the base of the plants. That can lead to mildew, fungal infections or even stem rot.

The top growth looks pretty robust and you should get some nice colas off of them barring future complications. Might want to get some bamboo stakes or something installed so you can tie up any tops that will want to fall over later.

If you remove some small lower branches it would be a good time to have a go at cloning if you haven't already. As long as you have a clone off each plant you won't miss out if one should be the bomb and you want to grow more of the same.

I found a great spot to download FREE POT BOOKS. I downloaded a grow bible first and got lots more. Books look great and complete like the real ones I have here. No web site but just a page of links. Just right click on what you want and then "Save Link As" to download so they don't open first as some are 50+ megs. They got lots. Enjoy.

:peace:
 

Magus90

Member
Might be a good idea to flower them if they seem to be back on track.

I would clean out a lot of that lower growth. I'm seeing some sick leaves down there and there are so many leaves that they are blocking air flow around the base of the plants. That can lead to mildew, fungal infections or even stem rot.

The top growth looks pretty robust and you should get some nice colas off of them barring future complications. Might want to get some bamboo stakes or something installed so you can tie up any tops that will want to fall over later.

If you remove some small lower branches it would be a good time to have a go at cloning if you haven't already. As long as you have a clone off each plant you won't miss out if one should be the bomb and you want to grow more of the same.

I found a great spot to download FREE POT BOOKS. I downloaded a grow bible first and got lots more. Books look great and complete like the real ones I have here. No web site but just a page of links. Just right click on what you want and then "Save Link As" to download so they don't open first as some are 50+ megs. They got lots. Enjoy.

:peace:
Thanks a bunch dude.

How would i go about cleaning up the lower growth though? Just prune the leaves and branches right off? I am so scared of hurting the plants lol
 

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
Thanks a bunch dude.

How would i go about cleaning up the lower growth though? Just prune the leaves and branches right off? I am so scared of hurting the plants lol
That's how you do it. Use clean scissors and cut any branches leaving a short stub. 1/4" or 0.5cm. Never rip them off as they can tear the stem all the way down leaving it open to infections. Same with leaves attached to any stem. Either snip off or pinch with your thumbnail and tug upwards so it doesn't tear the stem.

A lot of newer growers are freaking out because they have lower leaves that are showing necrotic spots or yellowing and getting all sorts of well meaning but often wrong advice. Like toss buckets of CalMag at it, flush the hell out of it or rip it out and start over when most of the time it's something like a damp and enclosed space around the base making ideal conditions for molds and fungi to take hold. Once things get opened up so it can breathe things almost always go fine.

If the soil level is more than a couple inches below the rim of the pot then lift the plant out and toss in some more media to raise the level. When I repot I make sure to fill the bottom enough to have the rootball a bit higher than the rim. After the first watering the media packs down a bit and it's usually perfect for watering. Just pour it in the center and it pools in a ring around the center to soak in. Keeps the stem up so it's not always wet and less prone to any rot.

Cannabis is well adapted to damage to branches and leaves. You can hack them back to nothing but little nodes up the main stem and in a week or so it's a bushy plant again if it has good growing conditions. When I used to work out of town a lot in camps I'd do that to keep the plants smaller so the wife didn't have to water so often or worry about raising lights and shit. I'd raise the lights and feed less so they wouldn't grow so fast while I was gone for weeks sometimes. Came home after 45 days out once to a grow room tented over with spider mites and had to wipe everything out and start over from seed. The new wife . . . ;)

:peace:
 

tpc_mikey

Well-Known Member
OMU has given some great advice, and i will add to it when you goto flower keep your N regiment going for the first 2 to 3 weeks do a feeding of normal veg, then water then feeding with 75% N 25% P and K then water then 50% N 50 % P K then water then go into full bloom food, your plant will double in size in the first 3 weeks of 12/12 i will show you an example, i put a scrog net on mine at the 12 / 12 flip i will show a pick of it the day i did it and where im at now 42 days into flower.IMG_1177.JPG
Few days laterIMG_1182.JPG
few more days later
IMG_1195.JPG
and a few moreIMG_1239.JPG
and againIMG_1261.JPG
IMG_1275.JPG 42nd day of flower

IMG_1573.JPG
 

tpc_mikey

Well-Known Member
I bet in the 115days this plants been alive i have stripped 300 leaves off it, so it is ok to thin them out i did a defoliation around the 30th day of flower as an experiment, lots of big comercial grows swear it increase the buds density and growth, I think they are accurate has not affected the plant at all, also this plants being grown organically has never had any chemicals only water and recharge. It gets all its nutrients from the soil.
and i apologize this is the 42nd day pic of flower
IMG_1625.JPG
 

Magus90

Member
Thanks for the info, much appreciated.

So these are my stems. So i just start hacking off branches at the bottom? Of course favoring going after the yellow and dying leaves?

And once i do that, can i also clean up leaves/branches on the middle and top of the plant to give the cola sites more space?

And is this done before entering flower, during, or does it not matter?

Sorry for all the questions, i just am 6 weeks in, and really want to do this right.


 
Top