Feedback needed - 4th week flowering

[CareStaker]

Thank you! I try not to over water them, usually I water them every second or third day, ~300 ml per pot, and the top soil was always dry. Could this be too much maybe?

Your welcome. Top soil will always dry out, and it's a great indicator. Typically, you want to cannabis plants to have frequent wet/dry cycles. When they are dry, they can really breath well...but they also need water. They looked like maybe the roots weren't big enough to drink all the water you were giving them, and then - they were, and they perked up. That's my guess. The current yellowing is from the bottom up, so older growth first. This might be strain specific, and might not be cause for alarm. I would help them along, though, and pull the all yellow ones. You should be finished on 6/20, or so - and if you feed/water for two more weeks, you can then stop all nutes, and just feed her water with molasses for the last week and a half to two weeks.

Frankly, they look great, I wouldn't go changing too much, just keep it steady (maybe give them one good feed), and let them get a bit dry, before you feed/water. A good rule of thumb, is to water with 1/3 the size of the pot, when it dry.

EDIT: I should have put the word "NOT" into the second sentence.
Top soil will always dry out, and it's "NOT" a great indicator.

 

[seth282]

Hi, I just recently harvested my very first grow of blue widow, and have a few other strains going now as well, in the process of still getting everything down to perfection myself so I have a pretty good idea of where your at. I'm no expert but the experience I do have is from reading online and one harvest under my belt so I have a lot to learn.

That said, your plants look fine (I know strains can vary in many ways) and the buds look to be pretty good sized for just a 250w light. The yellowing may be caused by lack of nutrients or lack of lights in my opinion. I trimmed off probably up to half of the fan leaves after four weeks of flowering or so, so those yellow leaves on your plants didn't even exist on my plant. However it seemed like I didn't have any yellowing on any of my flowering plants. If anything, after I began flowering the plants seemed to get a much more dark green color to them. I believe that yellowing on the lower leaves (if it is from lack of nutrients) would be okay shortly before harvest because that would show that the plants are flushed and cleared of excess nutrients in the buds/flowers.

Also, it looks as if a lot of the 'hairs' are already beginning to turn from white to orange, you may have a slightly shorter flowering period then anticipated possibly by a week or so. I know that happened to me with my blue widows. The BW was supposed to have a flower period of 65 days from what I researched, but they were ready around 55-60 days.

I like your setup by the way it looks well done, and I'd be curious to see the harvested product of this grow so I may compare it to my first grow (which is still curing at the moment). Hopefully I helped in some way and good luck!

 

[Cyberbong]

Those bottom leaves really don't look healthy. It is a bit concerning I think you need to investigate further and try get those bottom leaves green and healthy again.

Is it perhaps a lack of light? If those leaves aren't receiving enough light then they won't be able to photosynthesize, and eventually they will die. The plant isn't going to flower optimally if it is spending precious resources trying to rectify those leaves.

I would consider looking into defoliating some of the really yellow leaves, but best case scenario you identify and fix the problem within the next week. It might also be nitrogen deficiency, I think, but my first guess would be light as it is only the bottom leaves suffering.

By the way, your bud sites are looking good!!

As far as the amount of light goes, I have a 250 W HPS, about 25 cm above the plants, and I have the whole box including the bottom covered in diamond reflective foil, it should be enough, but I can add two CFL's to the bottom just too see if that would help.
And thanks a lot!

Your welcome. Top soil will always dry out, and it's a great indicator. Typically, you want to cannabis plants to have frequent wet/dry cycles. When they are dry, they can really breath well...but they also need water. They looked like maybe the roots weren't big enough to drink all the water you were giving them, and then - they were, and they perked up. That's my guess. The current yellowing is from the bottom up, so older growth first. This might be strain specific, and might not be cause for alarm. I would help them along, though, and pull the all yellow ones. You should be finished on 6/20, or so - and if you feed/water for two more weeks, you can then stop all nutes, and just feed her water with molasses for the last week and a half to two weeks.

Frankly, they look great, I wouldn't go changing too much, just keep it steady (maybe give them one good feed), and let them get a bit dry, before you feed/water. A good rule of thumb, is to water with 1/3 the size of the pot, when it dry.

Thanks for the really great explanation. I hope it is strain specific, since I fed them guano, and epsom salts and nothing seems to change. I should point out the yellowing started in early veg. I measured pH with indicator papers and it showed the pH to be around 6,5. I contacted the seed bank today and I will see if they know of this strain doing something like this. The strain is La Reina de Africa - Marijuana seeds | Kannabia Seed Company if you are interested.

I will remove the leaves, but I already removed a lot of them during the whole grow sadly.. Could it be that the soil is just complete shit and its somehow restricting root grow or anything like that?

Thank you all!

 

[rillos]

You have a problem. Yellowing from the bottom up in 4th week of flower like yours is a sign your are having a problem. What is the PH of your feed water and runoff. And what kind of water are using.

 

[seth282]

Thanks for the really great explanation. I hope it is strain specific, since I fed them guano, and epsom salts and nothing seems to change. I should point out the yellowing started in early veg. I measured pH with indicator papers and it showed the pH to be around 6,5. I contacted the seed bank today and I will see if they know of this strain doing something like this. The strain is La Reina de Africa - Marijuana seeds | Kannabia Seed Company if you are interested.

I will remove the leaves, but I already removed a lot of them during the whole grow sadly.. Could it be that the soil is just complete shit and its somehow restricting root grow or anything like that?

Thank you all!

It isn't a sad thing to remove a lot of leaves, the plant likes being pruned (even though it may slow growth slightly, it in the end promotes more healthy and full growth). I remember when I first got mine set up I was cutting leaves off every day just to keep it all clean and neat looking. What kind of soil do you use? I use the Roots Organic 707 blend for my indoor and the plants love it, plenty of airflow in the soil. I do know poor soil can cause poor growth/quality.

Also now that I'm looking at the leaves in your picture it seems less like a nutrient deficiency, but something else (I don't know what exactly). Water, light, temperature, air quality, and food are the big factors in your grow. It seems like since it isn't the food, it could be lack of air flow resulting in not enough Co2, temperature is to high or to low, or watering may be inconsistent as the guy above me talked about. How hot is it in there?

 

[Cyberbong]

Hi, I just recently harvested my very first grow of blue widow, and have a few other strains going now as well, in the process of still getting everything down to perfection myself so I have a pretty good idea of where your at. I'm no expert but the experience I do have is from reading online and one harvest under my belt so I have a lot to learn.

That said, your plants look fine (I know strains can vary in many ways) and the buds look to be pretty good sized for just a 250w light. The yellowing may be caused by lack of nutrients or lack of lights in my opinion. I trimmed off probably up to half of the fan leaves after four weeks of flowering or so, so those yellow leaves on your plants didn't even exist on my plant. However it seemed like I didn't have any yellowing on any of my flowering plants. If anything, after I began flowering the plants seemed to get a much more dark green color to them. I believe that yellowing on the lower leaves (if it is from lack of nutrients) would be okay shortly before harvest because that would show that the plants are flushed and cleared of excess nutrients in the buds/flowers.

Also, it looks as if a lot of the 'hairs' are already beginning to turn from white to orange, you may have a slightly shorter flowering period then anticipated possibly by a week or so. I know that happened to me with my blue widows. The BW was supposed to have a flower period of 65 days from what I researched, but they were ready around 55-60 days.

I like your setup by the way it looks well done, and I'd be curious to see the harvested product of this grow so I may compare it to my first grow (which is still curing at the moment). Hopefully I helped in some way and good luck!

Hey Seth, congrats on the Blue Widow, do you have a thread somewhere, Id love to see them!

I feed them a lot of guano tea, so I'm not sure if nitrogen def is the problem. but it could be if there is something wrong with the soil or roots that I don't know about. You are the second person to say it could be the lack of lighting. Ill defiantly try to add two cfl's to the bottom of the cabinet. You are correct on the yellowing at the end of harvest, its natural. Your darkening of the leaves might actually be from too much nitrogen.

As far as the hairs go, only one of the buds (the second picture) has a lot of brown hairs while the others are mostly white, but a shorter flowering period would be nice in my situation

Thank you, I put a lot of work into it! ^^ I will defiantly post some pictures of the harvest and also a detailed analysis of the yield! here's a picture showing my setup:

Thanks a lot!

 

[rillos]

I say you have a PH problem. I looked at your pics again and you that is not a light issue. Check your PH. And what nutes are you using. They have a nute def caused either by your PH or your nutes not being flowering nutes.

 

[rillos]

Get a digital PH meter them paper strips will cause you problems just like you are having.

 

[Cyberbong]

I'd love one, but sadly I just don't have the money for it right now. Its about 45 € (70 $) here, and that is a lot of money for a student here. Im planing to buy one before the next grow. The only nutes I'm using are Bat Guano and recently Epsom salts.. I'd like to fix the pH but I guess I shouldn't try to correct it unless I have the exact value..

 

[rillos]

Well you need different nutes between veg and flower. Unless you get your PH and nutes it's gonna keep getting more and more yellow.

 

[CareStaker]

This strain is known to yellow up, it's even mentioned in the Seedbank's discription, just FYI.
It is also known to go from looking immature, to being ripe and ready - very quickly.
She's now at week 5, so there is one week left to feed, then two weeks of straight h2O flush, where there's no nutes, and then chop. If you're using organic nutes, like guano teas, and such, you might want to feed until the week before chop.

Anyway, that's what I meant by saying that it might be strain specific. I still don't think you have a problem.
Hope you stay the course.

 

[rillos]

It might be strain but i've never seen a strain like that. 4 weeks in flower looking like that. And you don't know what your PH is. All I can say is goodluck.

 

[CareStaker]

It might be strain but i've never seen a strain like that. 4 weeks in flower looking like that. And you don't know what your PH is. All I can say is goodluck.

A bit of luck would be helpful too.

 

[Cyberbong]

This strain is known to yellow up, it's even mentioned in the Seedbank's discription, just FYI.
It is also known to go from looking immature, to being ripe and ready - very quickly.
She's now at week 5, so there is one week left to feed, then two weeks of straight h2O flush, where there's no nutes, and then chop. If you're using organic nutes, like guano teas, and such, you might want to feed until the week before chop.

Anyway, that's what I meant by saying that it might be strain specific. I still don't think you have a problem.
Hope you stay the course.

Wow, I'm a bit ashamed now that I missed the "The leaves will start to turn noticeably yellow." in the description. Thanks for the heads up!

Ill follow your advice and we will see what happens, hopefully with a bit of that luck I get something out of em

 

[CareStaker]

Wow, I'm a bit ashamed now that I missed the "The leaves will start to turn noticeably yellow." in the description. Thanks for the heads up!

Ill follow your advice and we will see what happens, hopefully with a bit of that luck I get something out of em

I hope you do too! Don't rule anything out, it just looks natural.

 

[basoul]

Looks lush to me

 

[Cyberbong]

Thank you!

 

[GrowMyOwn]

get a cheapy from fleabay,just type ph meter in the search box they are around $10-15 bucks..just make sure it come with calibration powders/fluids

 

[CareStaker]

get a cheapy from fleabay,just type ph meter in the search box they are around $10-15 bucks..just make sure it come with calibration powders/fluids

Good idea. Or, just save for a BlueLab pen. The cheapies don't usually last longer than a couple/few months.

 

[Cyberbong]

get a cheapy from fleabay,just type ph meter in the search box they are around $10-15 bucks..just make sure it come with calibration powders/fluids

Thanks for the idea, but I think, if I'm going to buy one, Ill just save up for a semi-pro version, it'll be useful also if I go into making a bubbler one day.

The one they sell in my favourite shop is this one: PH Tester Waterproof