Yellowing leaves

[straightup77]

Hey guys, I noticed this past week; which is the 3rd week of flowering, that a lot of leaves have turned yellow on this fella. I have upped nutrients in hopes that this is just an issue with nutrient deficiencies, but I thought I had better reach out for some advice before this gets any worse. Can anyone give me some information on what could be causing the leaves to yellow on this plant, and does it seem a little short for 4 weeks veg and on its 3rd week flowering?

Thank you!!

 

[straightup77]

A close up of the main cola on this same plant

 

[Emilya Green]

Definitely something going on with nutrients... tell us more about the nutrient line you are using, the medium you are growing in, and any pH adjustments you make as you water and feed the plant.

 

[irie lion]

Hey StraightUp77

From my experience you are too early in flowering stage to experience yellowing on your lower fan leaves being a good thing.

In my opinion your plant is lacking something and is now sacrificing the lower fan leaves to keep it going.

You mentioned you have upped your nutes - so see how it goes the next 2 days.

Did all the yellowing appear within 2 days, or slowly over the past week?

 

[straightup77]

Hey guys, the yellowing came on over night and then kind of slowed down over the past few days. I use FF potting soil, FF Grow Big, FF Tiger Bloom, and keep the PH between 6.5-7.0 (usually closer to 6.5 though). To be honest, I was only adding nutrients once a week at half strength, so I'm thinking about doing it every other feeding. My plants generally need watered every 1 1/2 - 2 days, which seems kind pretty often, but who knows? lol! Any information you guys can give would be greatly appreciated

 

[irie lion]

Cool bro - my suggestion would be upping nutes to full dosage and seeing how it goes a couple days after that.

 

[straightup77]

Hey thanks for the advice, should I cut those leaves off, or just let them fall off? Thanks!

 

[irie lion]

From my experience - when there is a problem with a leaf and you cut that leaf off, the problem will spread or take over another leaf.

Leave it for now - it is still working for you.

 

[Emilya Green]

Hi Straightup, and before I get going, welcome to the forum.

It makes sense that you are having problems with your FF grow because of two things that you have shown us in your descriptions. First, your pH is not being adjusted correctly. You are adjusting to the upper end of the usable pH range whereas especially in FF soils, you really need to adjust to the low side of 6.5... I strongly suggest 6.3 at the highest.

The second thing I notice in your description is the total lack of FF Big Bloom. The FF nutrient line is at minimum a 3 part system, and trying to get by with just 2 of the 3 is going to give you some problems. It also occurs to me that if you are not using the 3rd part of the trio, you probably are not using the other two parts correctly either.

At this point in the grow, you should barely be using any of the Grow Big and Tiger Bloom is just being ramped up. Big Boom should be consistently given at this point in large amounts. So if you are not following the suggested feeding amounts in FF soil, no wonder you are seeing deficiencies.

The pH being adjusted so high however has more to do with your problem than anything else. FF soil has a strong upward drift. IF you are adjusting to 6.5-7, your pH is only going to be in the usable range of 6.2-6.8 for a very short time... certainly not long enough for the plant to get the nutes it needs. You will find by coming in at a lower pH, the amount of time the plant has to uptake the nutrients will be increased, and it will seem like you gave them a lot more. My suggestion is to do what you need to do to be able to accurately measure a nutrient colored fluid to 6.3 pH, before adjusting anything else. Well that, and get the third part, Big Bloom. I also strongly recommend downloading the official feeding chart for FF, and follow it to the letter.

 

[straightup77]

Hey Emilya, thanks for the in depth response; it's appreciated! I will be picking up big bloom today, when I head out grocery shopping lol. As for the PH level, I use both a calibrator and liquid test kit to try and get it as accurate as possible, and will definitely try keeping it at around 6.3. I have a real quick question about FF nutrient guidelines; I had read that it is better to use nutrients at half recommended dosages, is this something I should do, or should I just feed my plants the recommended doses? Thank you!!

 

[Emilya Green]

Hey Emilya, thanks for the in depth response; it's appreciated! I will be picking up big bloom today, when I head out grocery shopping lol. As for the PH level, I use both a calibrator and liquid test kit to try and get it as accurate as possible, and will definitely try keeping it at around 6.3. I have a real quick question about FF nutrient guidelines; I had read that it is better to use nutrients at half recommended dosages, is this something I should do, or should I just feed my plants the recommended doses? Thank you!!

If you are going to believe everything you read or everything some guy tells you, you are going to have a lot of troubles. Trust nothing. Verify what you can. Most people online have no idea what your growing conditions are like and depending on the strength of your lights and your plants, no one can make a blanket declaration like that, that you should only give half dosages.
Start off with what the manufacturer suggests. Why would it be in their best interest to recommend feeding at levels that were going to harm your plant? Having followed such directions, would you ever use their product again? I would trust them way before I would trust something you read on an online forum, no matter how well it was presented.
I say this to you in complete confidence after being a FF Ocean Forest and FF Trio and 3 solubles consumer for many years. If there is such a thing as an expert cannabis grower in FF stuff, I would be it. I am recommending that you follow the directions, based on my experience. It worked well for me, and I think it will for you too... despite the recommendations from others out there who very likely are running a completely different nutrient line. Also please consider... the person giving you this recommendation is the same person who told you that you didn't need Big Bloom? Now look at your plant and the yellowing you are experiencing. Consider your sources.

 

[straightup77]

haha, well said! Thank you very much for your time and knowledge; It's truly appreciated, and I am going to start applying it today

 

[straightup77]

If you are going to believe everything you read or everything some guy tells you, you are going to have a lot of troubles. Trust nothing. Verify what you can. Most people online have no idea what your growing conditions are like and depending on the strength of your lights and your plants, no one can make a blanket declaration like that, that you should only give half dosages.
Start off with what the manufacturer suggests. Why would it be in their best interest to recommend feeding at levels that were going to harm your plant? Having followed such directions, would you ever use their product again? I would trust them way before I would trust something you read on an online forum, no matter how well it was presented.
I say this to you in complete confidence after being a FF Ocean Forest and FF Trio and 3 solubles consumer for many years. If there is such a thing as an expert cannabis grower in FF stuff, I would be it. I am recommending that you follow the directions, based on my experience. It worked well for me, and I think it will for you too... despite the recommendations from others out there who very likely are running a completely different nutrient line. Also please consider... the person giving you this recommendation is the same person who told you that you didn't need Big Bloom? Now look at your plant and the yellowing you are experiencing. Consider your sources.

Emily, thank you very much for the detailed information. I applied everything you said, and wow these babies are looking amazing today! I see a noticeable height increase on my gold leaf and a blue dream that I started a few weeks late. I also see a big difference in bud size on the other two blue dreams I have growing. Thank you very much for taking the time to educate me, its very much appreciated!

 

[HutchBenedict]

If you are going to believe everything you read or everything some guy tells you, you are going to have a lot of troubles. Trust nothing. Verify what you can. Most people online have no idea what your growing conditions are like and depending on the strength of your lights and your plants, no one can make a blanket declaration like that, that you should only give half dosages.
Start off with what the manufacturer suggests. Why would it be in their best interest to recommend feeding at levels that were going to harm your plant? Having followed such directions, would you ever use their product again? I would trust them way before I would trust something you read on an online forum, no matter how well it was presented.
I say this to you in complete confidence after being a FF Ocean Forest and FF Trio and 3 solubles consumer for many years. If there is such a thing as an expert cannabis grower in FF stuff, I would be it. I am recommending that you follow the directions, based on my experience. It worked well for me, and I think it will for you too... despite the recommendations from others out there who very likely are running a completely different nutrient line. Also please consider... the person giving you this recommendation is the same person who told you that you didn't need Big Bloom? Now look at your plant and the yellowing you are experiencing. Consider your sources.

@Emilya thanks for providing a definitive and very useful answer to @straightup77's question. Hope you don't mind if I ask if the same advice would apply to autoflowers? Specifically, should autos be fed FF products at 100% as well or should the feeding be at 50% as some people say about other nutrient lines?

 

[Emilya Green]

@Emilya thanks for providing a definitive and very useful answer to @straightup77's question. Hope you don't mind if I ask if the same advice would apply to autoflowers? Specifically, should autos be fed FF products at 100% as well or should the feeding be at 50% as some people say about other nutrient lines?

I like this question and thank you for asking it! There is a lot of confusion out there regarding this and it does deserve a little bit of thought.
We have to consider what an auto is and what potential it could possibly achieve in its short and accelerated lifespan. Compare and contrast this with a photo plant that has been held in veg for 3 months to make it huge. The number of budsites and sheer size of the plant compared to a scrawny little Auto that genetically was only able to veg for 5 weeks would provide a huge contrast. The huge (fully developed) plant would logically be able to take a lot more nutes than a small Auto.
So the answer has to do with the size and the robustness of your plant. If you are running an Auto, unless you are extremely talented, you are not going to get as much out of it as a larger photo plant. Illustrative is that you never hear of people growing Autos in 10 and 15 gallon containers... the Auto simply does not have time to take advantage of all of that soil. I would think that 1/4 nutes would also be appropriate for such a disabled plant.

Another thing to consider is the quality of your light. If you have managed to duplicate the Sun, your plants will need a lot more water and nutrients than a plant under lesser lights. Most nutrient systems are estimated on a 1000w HID, If you are running less than that, adjust down. If you are running outside, adjust up.

So yes, I believe that as a general rule, unless you grow monster plants under monster lights, you should adjust your nutes down from the recommendations. Most of us these days are able to easily reach optimum PAR in our grow rooms however, so you will hear me telling people many times to "follow the directions" and use the recommended amounts. Auto's and struggling plants are the exceptions to this rule. Please read the last few lines of my signature for more on this.

 

[HutchBenedict]

Thank you so much @Emilya! I think I finally get it. No wonder I have been struggling so much with nutrients. I'm so glad I asked you.

 

[HermanMonster]

I’m having the same problem with what I consider early and excessive yellowing of not only fan leaves but sugar leaves.
Girls are Afghan autos, seed on 2-14 been flowering nicely for 4-5 weeks. Colas are nice and getting bigger every day. Starting to see Trichromes. Growing in a commercial soil w worm casings layered on the top 12” below HLG 260w. Was using ff Grow Big, Tiger Bloom, but had to dry out the soil because of an infestation of gnats. Didn’t water for 5 days and gnats are scarce but leaves are dying fast. Should I restart my ff nutes? And resume watering normally being that they are close to hop?