Hello!
I have two fems growing since 4/20 germination. In my area they usually will go to harvest in about September, so I have couple months to go. Neither is in flower yet, just about to start I think.
These girls are in 12 gallon pots, and have reached the stage where the roots fill the pot and so they dry out much faster than when they were small. The also have begun to get mottled green/yellow, mainly on lower leaves. Photos attached.
I’ve seen this before, and suspect it’s just lack of nutrients since most have been pulled out of the soil at this point. I’ve started Bud Breakfast and will switch to Awesome Bud Bro soon.
Two questions.
–Would you agree that the mottling is just nutrient deficiency, probably correctable with nutes mentioned above and ph-ed water (I ph even though some say soil growers don’t need to–my ground water is about 7.9-8.0).
–Would I be insane to transplant these into the ground now? I have a bed in the greenhouse that’s big and would give them room to stretch out.
By the way, you’ll seem some nute burn on some leaf tips–that was a mistake last week but I’ve already corrected/flushed it out and it’s not getting worse.
Thank you as ever!
bmc
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don’t mess with planting in ground now. I would however transplant to a new 20 fabric pot with some fresh soil to get more growth. You have some room to fill her out so give her the root space to get big and hold those buds up. You’re close to the top so you may want to top her as I’m not sure how much she will stretch once flower starts. Keep the control of the environment through flower as well less chance for something to go wrong. You got this far don’t want a freak storm or animals to shred it. Play it safe imho.
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Yerp, pot up if you can and feel free to yank those huge yellowing fans 
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P.S. Rookie question, but are grow bags superior to plastic pots? Why? They seem like they’d be easy to move around in any case. Do they tend to dry faster?
Fabric pots allow the roots to breathe better essentially and always perform better imho especially into flowering where drainage/root problems are amplified
And yea if that wasn’t enough they come w/ handles lol 4TW
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Potted up to 20 gal bags a few days ago, pulled the large yellow fans, and topped while I was at it. The girls are super-happy now it would seem. Also found a couple of cabbage loopers on them, so will look for BT or similar. But I did manage to find the ones that in the midst of their damage so I don’t think I have a bunch. Thanks again for the tips!
b
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“Are you not enterTAINED???” 
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Well, back again. Not sure how to describe this, but my girls seem very healthy other than the fact that they continue to yellow all over. They’ve started buds now, and I soooo would like to figure this out. I’ve faced this with pretty much every grow and for once would like to see green leaves all the way until they yellow right before harvest! In any case, I believe I’ve eliminated the following: pH, nutrients, over/under watering. My only thoughts are still fungus gnats, and possibly root bound? I did pot up to 20 gallon fabric pots quite a while ago, so doubt the root-bound is the problem. Will try treating with BT for fungus gnats–my yellow cards are pretty covered–and see from there. Here is a current photo, any and all thoughts always more than welcome. Thank you all, this is frustration of several years by now! As an aside, I do have to water every 2-3 days, and am using Bud Breakfast every watering, and Righteous Bud Bro once weekly.
You probably have nutrient lock out. You need a flush from the sound of it. If all those other things aren’t the issue that’s probably the issue. What R u using for water ? What kind of nutrients and soil? Cut those yellow leaves for sure.
Hey, thanks for the note. What exactly is nutrient lockout? Water is just my house water, ph-ed to 6-7. It did totally fine for my auto flowers, without even ph-ing it. Nutrients are: Bud Breakfast once weekly (have discussed dosing with the mfr on a couple occasions) and Righteous Bud Bro once weekly since flowering started. Soil is 50% garden soil, 50% fish compost (also worked great for autos). Yellow leaves appear basically daily, and I pull them off when they start to wilt.
As I think it through, I’m more and more wondering about root problems. The auto flowers did really well with identical conditions, so I’m thinking about “what is different”? The autos never had a chance to become root bound or have root gnats attack the spider roots. It’s all I can come up with. I did pot up to 20 gallon fabric pots; supposedly those “air prune” and don’t become root bound, so maybe it’s just the gnats. I did water in neem oil yesterday and hope that will help too. Frustrating. If this continues for another week or so I’ll basically have lost all leaves and will lose the plants.
Are you letting that water sit for 24 hrs? If not it probably has chlorine or chloramine. It will basically kill your plants. You’ll get yellow leaves. it won’t allow the plant to take up nutrients efficiently and will kill your root zone. The plant could of been root bound in the last pot if you weren’t using a fabric pot. Nutrient lock out is when the ph level becomes to high or low. The plant can’t take up nutes your feeding and will eventually die. When you use nutes are you ph ing water first or after you add your nutes?
OK, good points, thanks. I have not let the water sit, but it’s very low in chlorine. I can start letting it sit. I can’t recall whether it made autos yellow too soon or not–I always just thought they were close to harvest. If root bound in the last pot wouldn’t it spread out once in the new pot? When doing nutes I do it all at once, i.e. ph the water and add the powder to that water to mix it up, then water the plants. I know how much vinegar I need and don’t use the ph meter anymore. I’ve ordered sledgehammer to do a flush and will start letting the water sit to off-gas the chlorine. Maybe I’ll see if I can test soil ph too but not sure my meter will read that. Perhaps put soil in ph7 water and see what happens? Thank you again! Hoping I can still save them!
Hi again with an update. I ph-ed some water to 7.0, then added a bunch of soil from the pots and stirred for a while. It settled on pH 6.8, so that looks ok to me. We had a rainstorm last night by chance, so I had a bunch of rainwater sitting in a bucket–I watered all of it through the two plants as a sort of “pre-flush” and will let tap water sit from now on before using it. I would be soooooo stoked if it was that simple! It would make sense though–the plants are very healthy otherwise, just the ongoing yellowing, and this has been a problem for me since my first grow.
OK, will keep you posted and thanks again!
b
The ph should be 6.5 for the water. 7 is high for soil. Plus you need to add your nutrients to the water then ph the water. That’s probably the issue as those nutrients can throw ph off big time. If the plant is root bound the roots won’t grow.
OK! Thanks again. When I mentioned 7, that was just for testing the soil. Normally I have aimed for “6 to 7” but will shoot for 6.5 more specifically. I’ll be curious to see what the nutes do to the water ph as well! Regarding root-bound–if I buy a start at the nursery, they’re always root-bound. I’ve always heard to slightly cut or squeeze the roots and then they grow again. I don’t think I did that with these girls (too big and heavy) so perhaps… Anyway, next time I start in fabric pots from the get-go. Thanks again for the help, very much appreciated!
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