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Sigh. I guess I'm the exception that proves the rule... lol
So my girl has looked like hell pretty much from the start. I'm still convinced my soil never cooked properly, even though it sat for 40 days, and was moved off the kitchen tiles after 18 days for fear that despite the 80f temps the tiles might be too cold. I've been following the MaxYields regimen. I'm under LEDs in a tiny 2'x2.5'x6' tent (thus, only ONE plant lol) and everything tends to dry out VERY slowly which has made it really difficult to get feedings in while trying not to overwater. Temps are between 75-78f with lights on, and 73-74 with them off. Humidity has proven impossible to maintain, I was keeping a 1" pool of standing water (with a splash of hydrogen peroxide) in the floor of the tent, a wet towel and two 9x13 baking pans full of water and could barely get 30-40%. Now I've had to abandon those techniques as the plant has gotten larger and will need the space, so I'm at 15%.
I've got one sickly landrace Kerala. It never had that waxy fake look I've heard about, just this sort of green construction paper look. When it was a seedling, the leaves were really kinda rough looking, like almost krinkled, but still green and turgid, not burnt or dry or crispy at all. Just... "edgy" like it was angry. lol
In short, what I'm seeing looks to my untrained eye to be Mag def and overwatering. Leaves are green and curling down and the fan leaves have been dying from the bottom up, edges yellowing first, green veins until last then they turn brown and fall off. (Though I've also seen a couple turn uniformly yellow like N def and a few have gotten that blotchy brown necrosis like P def. It's kinda random.) At this point she is sans-fans to more than halfway up the stalk and the little fans on the lower branches are now starting to go as well.
I've made a concerted effort from the start to not overwater. I'm currently going a week between waterings, waiting until the pot actually feels completely empty. If anything, I don't think I'm watering enough! But it doesn't ever fully wilt, it just gets droopy and sad looking (is this non-wilting a high brix thing that is tricking me into underwatering?), but it looks like that MOST the time anyway. The stems are so purple they look almost black.
These symptoms have basically been present since the start, they're just accelerating over time. I've tried not to panic, telling myself to stick to the schedule and she'll sort herself out. And pretty much every time I feed her, it almost looks like she HAS, for a day or two, before slumping right back into droopy leaf death sadness. I suspect the MaxYields numbers are too low, or I'm misunderstanding something. I've upped the amount of drench/tea on the last couple waterings and it really seemed to help... the re-slump hasn't been as severe this time, anyway.
The only deviation from the MaxYields is that I dissolved a pinch of epsoms in the waterings and sprays for a few times, but it didn't help and maybe made things worse, so I stopped.
I'm ready to transplant into the final 5gal smartie, and I'm wondering if there's anything extra I should do to the soil to improve her chances of pulling out of the death spiral? I've got some Langbeinite, Gypsum and rock phosphate lying around, and some Oregonism XL. Would any of that help? Or should I just grit my teeth and trust the soil to pull through in the end?
This is at 8 weeks since it first sprouted, 22" tall in a (I'm guessing) 1.6 gallon. (note that the pics make her look better than she really looks. The ongoing yellowing on the upper fan leaves is much more obvious in person) note that this is the "improved" state after giving her a growth/tea drench at 3ml/1.5ml in two quarts of distilled water:
Yuck. What kind of pot is that in?
