Severe yellowing @ day 32 of flower...pics

First off: 186 watts of CFL in a rubbermaid container lined with reflective tape. I'm using FFOF soil with GH flora series nutes. Temps are 71-79 every day with night being coldest.

So about 20 days ago I noticed some clawing of my leaves.
8/11
This was when I switched to some pretty heavy nutes. I use the GH flora series and this watering fed with 2 teaspoons of grow/micro/bloom.

Now at this point the clawing has also started some yellowing.
8/13
I flushed with 3 gallons of tap water.


A few days later I watered again with RO distilled water treated with 2 teaspoons of epsom salt. All this time I have been using a digital meter (cheapo piece of shit) that said 6.7-6.9 pH for all of my water. I have since switched to strips which read about 2 points lower than my meter.
8/14
So it starts getting worse and at this point I am puzzled. I treat it like a nitrogen def and water with half strength bloom nutes/micro nutes.

Which doesnt seem to help. I flush again with 4 gallons of RO distilled water. pHed with my new strips at a 6.7.
8/17
The sugar leaves are starting to yellow which makes me really nervous. These are only on day 32 and definitely not finished so whats with this yellowing. I was hoping to at least stop it but it continues up the buds.

IF this is untreatable, what point should I harvest to at least make some hash or cure it into something smokable before it gets to far gone?? The latest row of pictures is from 8/17. It seems to just be working its way up the buds. However I have just moved from the rubbermaid to a 4x2 Secret Jardin. I'm hoping the increase in space and air flow will help but any comments/suggestions would be appreciated.

Looks ok to me. Mine yellow up at the end of their life usually. Trim the totally dead leaves.

Ok so at first glance it reminds me of a ph problem. If you did flush properly and are using GH nutes and FFOF, you may have washed all of the food of of your medium. If you didnt wash it clean, you have a ph problem. I say you add nutes just a bit less than you usually do. If you arent burning the plants as is, up the dosage

If they are not responding to your nutrients it is a PH lockout.

I have pHed the water with the strips I bought at right around 6.8. The runoff was a bit lower at 6.5 so there is still some substance in the soil lowering it. I know at first glance this looks normal but this is day 32. I would expect this more around 55-60 right?

right, This is not normal. At all. I would imagine that your runoff would be less than that... You may wanna try a new ph testing method. I may be wrong but its worth a shot right?

Also you may not be feeding enough if your ph is that on point

I'm not familar with GH flora series so perhaps someone else will get in here. Looks to me like A-typical N starvation brought on by an abundance of bloom food. FFOF soil nutes should be about depleted and without additional N during flower your going to loose a lot of lower leaves.

I guarantee you are rootbound. Exact same issues I had for my first two grows; healthy until mid-late flower and then bam, nasty leaf rot. Dug up the root balls and they were all gross looking and spirally. Theyre supposed to be white. Looking at your 'pots', they look like cans. You need to transplant them to bigger potsor all of the sugar leaves are going to start dying on you, FAST.

More dirt, bigger pots. There you go =)

They are in 2 gallon smart pots. Air pruning should eliminate the possibility of rooutbinding correct?

And the next feeding I'm doing full strength veg nutes since they are high in nitrogen.

if the plant is continuing to produce flower.........ignore it. whatever it is, to correct it now, may be the wrong move. only water, when really dry, from here on out. 2 gallon pots.....any pots......are small. root-binding may be in the equation. you'll find out after harvest.

probably a smart move. they eat the mg in flower.

Bigger pots, if you want to save them do this. First get a bigger pot, ie ten gallon or five either or. Than get some good soil, i suggest happy frog, avail lowes and home depot. Next fill you pot water down etc. Let it sit and let te water drain out. Now dig a hole in the new pot so you can slide your old pots in and out like an ice cube in a tray. Now dry out your plant and tap the sides of the exisiting pot and slide the hole thing out and place it down in your new hole you dug in your new pot.

Water with water only the next few days, you plant will not stress if you do it this way, will take a few days for her to expand her roots and another few days to cure the problem. I dont mind that the fan leaves are getting yellow, that is natural, I do not like the sugar leaves looking like this at this time in flower.

It seems like there is a whole lot going on. Your flushing all the time, you are fertilizing inconsistently, and you are not sure about your PH. It's so hard to pinpoint the problem, is it underfertilization or possible PH issues? Maybe it's a watering problem, it looks like overwatering (probably from flushing) but at the same time, the soil looks dry in all those pictures. Also, you mentioned you are using RO water, the epsom is for the MG right, so they are not receiving Calcium from that right? I just use the cal-mag so I'm not too sure. Get some calibrating solution for your meter so you can be sure about the reading. I would recommend that you just use a light feeding regime and stick with it for a while.

i consider my 10gal tote small.................for a good root-ball

I think you had the ph out for too long ,blocking N and now the damage is done. Next time get a reliable meter and make sure very feed/watering is 6.5 .

Honestly i dont think pH is your problem... A lot of people blame pH imbalance when they don't know what's going on...

I'd suggest you transplant, and start feeding a small amount of veg nutes. not full strength.

Couple of things:

PH
I have ordered the GH ph control kit. I have seen hundreds of grow journals where it is used and everything was peaches so that should help.

Soil
I have some 3 gallon pots around that I could transplant into to give the roots a bit more room. The smaller pots were because I was using a very small cab but now with the tent I have a lot more space. The only problem with this is that I use smartpots and the roots sort of cling to the sides. I trashed a male about 3 weeks ago and when I pulled him out a lot of the roots were kind of velcro'd so the sides of the pot and they had to be ripped off. I wont be using these pots in the future becasue they are a bitch to move around. I will most likely use 4 or 5 gallon pots.



If this seems inconsistent it's because it is. I have flushed twice because the first time I pHed the runoff with the same cheapo meter I was using before and it didnt help. I flushed again once I got strips and it still didnt do anything. And if it hasnt been mentioned, this is my first grow and I really appreciate the responses.

EDIT: My nutes get alternated every time. ie nutes/water/nutes/water

looks like it could need nitrogen

I like the veg nutes idea. That should put your N where it should be