Is this underfed or overfed?

kronicking421 said:

You should never top water after the plant is established and system is started and has run for a while. The autopot manufacturer states that the salts build up at the top of the medium and watering from above will cause the salts to wash into the root zone.

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well, if you don't, the salts collect to a massive excess as displayed by your fried plants. It seems like you're going to need to figure something out if you are opposed to top watering. following the instruction manual literally killed your plants lol.

you need to either like halve the nutrient EC or preferably remove the plants from the autopot setup and run drain to waste for the remainder (like 5-600 ppm). That way you might be able to salvage at least something.

beefninja97 said:

well, if you don't, the salts collect to a massive excess as displayed by your fried plants. It seems like you're going to need to figure something out if you are opposed to top watering. following the instruction manual literally killed your plants lol.

you need to either like halve the nutrient EC or preferably remove the plants from the autopot setup and run drain to waste for the remainder (like 5-600 ppm). That way you might be able to salvage at least something.

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The problem is that I didn’t know what to follow. I think the plants will produce something as the buds are still fattening and the plants still seem to be growing. I believe that a bunch of salts built up at the top because i was feeding way too much. I will have to see if issues appear on my next run and try to diagnose and fix from there. At this point I don’t think that i will be able to truly find out what is the problem. Also I don’t think it is only one thing but multiple. I believe overfed, PH out of whack for a while, plant is touching side of the tent when closed, using promix hp instead of coco and probably more.

kronicking421 said:

The problem is that I didn’t know what to follow. I think the plants will produce something as the buds are still fattening and the plants still seem to be growing. I believe that a bunch of salts built up at the top because i was feeding way too much. I will have to see if issues appear on my next run and try to diagnose and fix from there. At this point I don’t think that i will be able to truly find out what is the problem. Also I don’t think it is only one thing but multiple. I believe overfed, PH out of whack for a while, plant is touching side of the tent when closed, using promix hp instead of coco and probably more.

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Makes sense. If you get rid of the salt buildup with a lower feed (and maybe an initial top feed if you can bear it), I think you will find that the PH and lockout will resolve themselves. I agree coco seems like the better option for this setup because it's easy to correct with a small amount of water, whereas peat can be a pain to flush if you end up with buildup, ime.

Autos. One mistake and you're done. There's not enough flexibility or resilliance for an inexperienced grower to learn how to keep things balanced.
Good luck.

Thought i would give an update. Removed some of the dead foliage a few days ago. I have not been checking the reservoir PH or PPM but looked in there and there is some foam on the top. I am thinking i am going to clean the reservoir. I would be taking better care of them but i hate how i put the reservoir at the back of the tent. It makes everything a pain. Will try to put the reservoir beside the tent next time if i can make room. The plants should be finished in another 20 days according to the night owl. They seem to be getting more burning at the top but i think that has to do with the light being too close as the smaller plant doesn’t seem to be having that problem. The light is already at the top of the tent and i cannot train them this late so i guess i will have to let it continue. They are forming some buds so i am hoping to get something okay from this harvest.

you can supercrop

dude..... you didn't lower the ppms?

Take one of your plants out of the autopot and water until run off comes out the pot and collect it and take an EC reading and post it.

Next time use coco and run 1/2 - 2/3rd of recommended nutrients

You 100% have salt built up and it’s frying the plants. Synthetic nutrients use salt as a carrier for the minerals, as the minerals get used by the plant the salt is left behind. This is why with synthetic nutrients we water to runoff to remove the waste and replenish a balance.

beefninja97 said:

dude..... you didn't lower the ppms?

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Nah. Was way too lazy for the last couple of days. I am just trying to see if i can find and fix all of my current issues for the next grow. Like i said in an earlier post i don’t think that i will even be able to tell at this point if the changes i make are going to change anything noticeably. For the next grow the current things i am going to change are get the reservoir beside the tent instead of inside at the back for easier access and so that I have more room inside the tent. Also lower PPM keep an eye on PH and look for any problems before they get out of control and try to correct them instead of leaving it. Another thing would be to LST. Also starting the plants in the autopot final container since they are autoflowers. Also i will probably have 1 autopot with the last of the Pro mix HP and using coco/perlite in the others. Can’t think of anything else at the moment. If anyone has any other suggestions let me know.

coreywebster said:

Take one of your plants out of the autopot and water until run off comes out the pot and collect it and take an EC reading and post it.

Next time use coco and run 1/2 - 2/3rd of recommended nutrients

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Thabks for the suggestion. I might try to take one out and see but kinda just want to let them go for the last bit with the least amount of work as they are 20 days from being finished. I am planning on emptying the reservoir and filling it with plain water or maybe water with barely any nutes.

Next time - put any autoflower in a basic bagged peat mix. It doesn’t need fancy systems as life span is around 100 days max ( most strains ) . Simple RTU ( ready to use ) soil will carry most feeding requirements upfront for weeks on watering alone.

Budzbuddha said:

Next time - put any autoflower in a basic bagged peat mix. It doesn’t need fancy systems as life span is around 100 days max ( most strains ) . Simple RTU ( ready to use ) soil will carry most feeding requirements upfront for weeks on watering alone.

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Yea I actually want to run some organic soil with the system as I believe it would be really easy plus it would be organic which is a huge plus for me. I have a bunch of dry amendments on hand and bokashi bran plus worm castings.

Those plants lost pretty much all pigmentation and is heavily necrotic. Whatever flowers pulled from that will be less than what they could have been.

You mentioned being lazy about things - thats where it failed.

Shit can happen - regroup / replant

Budzbuddha said:

Those plants lost pretty much all pigmentation and is heavily necrotic. Whatever flowers pulled from that will be less than what they could have been.

You mentioned being lazy about things - thats where it failed.

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My thoughts exactly. I need to just get the motivation to do the simple things. I would have taken better care of them if the reservoir wasn’t such a pain to get too and add anything. Hovering over the plants with ph down and wanting to add nutes is just a PITA.

Nothing to kick yourself over - luckily it was only 2 plants and not a full run.

Keeping things simple always win over trying to chase every hiccup - plus if you do ignore a plant for a day or two in soil , most likely it will not be a big deal.

This will gove you a chance to dial in other aspects like lighting / temps ( you can run it empty for while to monitor things ) then adjust before adding plants.

Good luck.

Thought i would post a picture of the reservoir as i finally had the energy to take it out. I sucked some of the water out with a shop vac before the picture it was a lot worse with more stuff floating. Also some froth at the top. I am thinking i might see about placing it beside the tent instead of the back. I am not going to take PPM and PH of the water in the reservoir as it is extremely dirty and don’t want anything sticking to my meters. Should have just taken the reservoir out earlier. ‍

Some pictures for an update.

Budzbuddha said:

Those plants lost pretty much all pigmentation and is heavily necrotic. Whatever flowers pulled from that will be less than what they could have been.

You mentioned being lazy about things - thats where it failed.

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Agreed. Growing these plants, optimally, to their full potential, takes discipline. OPs plants are proof of that.