Potential problem

I'm new to the site and I've tried looking everywhere to post this to the correct sub, but I was unable to find a section to post problems with plants so I figured I'd just submit my problem here and hope for the best. Without further adieu:

Hello there, I'm currently growing two Autoflower plants. My larger plant, which has thrived for all of its life has begun showing signs of yellowing of her fan leaves. The leaves are the original fan leaves from early in its life. This Wednesday It'll be 49 days from seed. Every other watering I introduce GH nutrients. This week I stopped the veggie formula and increased bloom, but kept the Macro at 2ml's. For approximately the last two and a half weeks I've introduced nutrients and a slow pace, and now they're both at full strength. Is this yellowing a natural occurrence? I've read that this is the plants way of cannibalizing itself to introduce more nutrients to the bud sites. The water I give the plants varies between 6-6.8. The first pic is my second plant, which has started to show signs of the first plant. Here's my set-up: 2 300 watt LED's, 3 tiers of soil: Happy Frog, FFOF, Kind soil, 2 3-gallon smart pots. My light schedule is 18/6, and the lights are roughly 7 inches from the top of each plant. Both of the plants are a hybrid of Blue Dream and Berry Ryder and are an Autoflower. Any help whatsoever would be greatly appreciated.

The last pic is the plant that has begun to show signs of yellowing.

- Cheers

Very common mistake. You don't need to give much in the way of extra ferts with Happy Frog and Ocean Forest. These soils already have fert in them. Your plant has the classic sign of too much fert - dark green leaves with yellowing starting at the tips which spreads to the rest of the leaf. You probably should be in a 5 gallon bucket at a minimum now and hope for the best, meaning, I'd probably transplant to large container with more Happy Frog, and don't give anything. You've loaded the current soil with so much fert now and there isn't much you can do. People will say "flush it with pH adjusted water," but this won't help because you can't really flush soil well. However, I think I would flush it once until you get a fair amount of runoff just to try to save the plant, then transplant, water the new soil, and hope the best. You've given too much fert.

you'll be fine, they look great. continue tapering your feed as she finishes. when you stopped the grow and started the bloom food, the nitrogen is reduced, and thats what you see. I'd cut the bad leaves off and start building your drying space

polishpollack said:

Very common mistake. You don't need to give much in the way of extra ferts with Happy Frog and Ocean Forest. These soils already have fert in them. Your plant has the classic sign of too much fert - dark green leaves with yellowing starting at the tips which spreads to the rest of the leaf. You probably should be in a 5 gallon bucket at a minimum now and hope for the best, meaning, I'd probably transplant to large container with more Happy Frog, and don't give anything. You've loaded the current soil with so much fert now and there isn't much you can do. People will say "flush it with pH adjusted water," but this won't help because you can't really flush soil well. However, I think I would flush it once until you get a fair amount of runoff just to try to save the plant, then transplant, water the new soil, and hope the best. You've given too much fert.

Click to expand...

From what I've read, polishpollock, at least with autoflowers you should never transplant them. Is that not the case in your experience?

chemphlegm said:

you'll be fine, they look great. continue tapering your feed as she finishes. when you stopped the grow and started the bloom food, the nitrogen is reduced, and thats what you see. I'd cut the bad leaves off and start building your drying space

Click to expand...

That's what I had thought, Chemp, but this is my first grow and I wanted to make sure before I started drastic measures.

Your plants will die prematurely and produce very little useful product. You've added too much fert. You'll see.

Pollack, they are autoflowers with a life expectancy of 10 weeks. They are almost 7 weeks old. I don't think I'm going to have to worry about longevity.

polishpollack said:

Your plants will die prematurely and produce very little useful product. You've added too much fert. You'll see.

Click to expand...

I also want to say Pollack, that you are the ONLY person that has said this on all of websites I've posted this. If you know something others don't you may want to publish something.

Go ahead and fert more if that's what you want. You'll see.

But I want FAT nuggets, Pollack!

Sgrey, you really don't get it do you? You completely missed my earlier point about over ferting your plants. If you want fat nuggets, move to Colorado and buy them.

Chem is right, they look fine and you're also right, you shouldn't transplant an auto that far along. And don't "flush" either. All that will accomplish is waterlogged roots and a ph dive. If anything, you have a bit of a K and/or Mag def/lockout. (keep an eye on the edges) I'm also against removing leaves unless they're ready to drop. No point in stressing a plant further or wasting needed energy. Just let them do their thing. They'll swell. You'll see.

I agree with everything said so far in this post just would like to see pollack be a tad more helpful, I think the yellowing you are seeing is normal in the late stages of flowering it looks like you over did it a tad bit with the N but not to the point you have killed the plant in my opinion they look great do what chem and Tangerine said leave them be and keep them going and in FFOF pollack is correct it is a very hot soil and you really have no need to add any vegging nutrients to that soil just water them in the future and BIG ROOTS = Big Buds, next time go in 5 or 7 gallon smart pots give your roots plenty of space to grow and you will get big buds. 3 gal in my opinion is way to small for a mature plant maybe for clones but not a plant from seed.

Sgrey, do you have an update as to the condition of your plants?

polishpollack said:

Sgrey, do you have an update as to the condition of your plants?

Click to expand...

I'd say I have 2 weeks until I harvest her.

Sgrey said:

I'd say I have 2 weeks until I harvest her.

Click to expand...

I dont mean to rain on your parade but im betting you got longer than 2 weeks your pistils havent even turned yet i cant find one that has faded to red in those pics lol relooked there are a few but im betting you still have at least 3 weeks maybe 4

Sgrey said:

I also want to say Pollack, that you are the ONLY person that has said this on all of websites I've posted this. If you know something others don't you may want to publish something.

Click to expand...

Pollack's go to diagnosis is overfert 99% of the time. And he's usually right. This looks deficient to me but I'm not sure.

Runbho said:

Pollack's go to diagnosis is overfert 99% of the time. And he's usually right. This looks deficient to me but I'm not sure.

Click to expand...

I'm new to the craft, but I'm not seeing the tell-tale signs of overfeeding. I had a buddy come over who's been growing for 30 years and he thinks it's because they're in late flower that they're leeching N.

It's relatively normal for your cannabis plant's leaves to start turning yellow towards the end of your flowering cycle as the plant becomes nitrogen deficient while creating buds.

This text was just below the pic provided

I should have done more research before posting my issue. So no, Pollack was wrong. HEY POLLACK, YA HEAR THAT?

In hindsight, Mikey was right too.