I think I may have stopped nutes too soon as my plants are not ready to harvest, but fan leaves are turning purple. Trichomes are milky but no sign of amber yet, do I need to do anything but wait for Trichomes to be 20% amber? Should I Nute a little bit? Would appreciate any input. Plant is sour tangie (Sativa dominant) and I’m at week 8 (June 24 lights flipped to 12/12).
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Fan leaves in flower are going to change color and drop off. That’s just the way it works with cannabis. Without knowing what your specifics are it’s hard to say one way or another.
@Myfriendis410 thank you for the response, I am hoping that is just the case and probably I should let it go with just pH adjusted watering until it’s ready for harvest. Particulars are:
- Sour Tangie
- 12/12 lighting schedule since 6/24/18
- Fox Farms Ocean Forest soil in cloth pot
- BioThrive Bloom 2-4-4 plant food, last feeding was 3 weeks ago
- Indoor grow under Phantom CMh 3150 light
- My first plant.
Is there anything else I should tell you?
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Let me grab a Support Ticket. You can copy and paste as needed. Pictures are great too; the more the merrier. How are you measuring PH and what water are you using? And how do you water; frequency and amount.
Have you flushed your plant? What kind of training if any? LST?
COPY/PASTE the below list into your forum post.
Answer these simple questions the best you can.
If you do not know, or do not use something; Just say so = NA
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Strain; Type, Bag seed, or NA
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Soil in pots, Hydroponic, or Coco?
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System type?
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PH of runoff or solution in reservoir?
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What is strength of nutrient mix? EC, or TDS
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Indoor or Outdoor
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Light system, size?
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Temps; Day, Night
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Humidity; Day, Night
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Ventilation system; Yes, No, Size
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AC, Humidifier, De-humidifier,
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Co2; Yes, No
If you can, upload a picture of your plant. It helps the diagnosis, if needed.
Add anything else you feel would help us give you a most informed answer. Feel free to elaborate, but short, to the point questions and facts will help us help you 
@Myfriendis410 thanks for getting back to me, here are my responses:
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Strain; sour tangie - clone
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Soil in pots, soil - FFOF in a ten gallon cloth pot
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System type: Indoor, soil
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PH of runoff or solution in reservoir? 6.0
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What is strength of nutrient mix? EC, or TDS: No idea - average
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Indoor or Outdoor: Indoor
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Light system, size?: CMh 315W
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Temps; Day, Night: 70/60
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Humidity; Day, Night 46/50
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Ventilation system; Yes, No, Size Yes, small fan
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AC, Humidifier, De-humidifier, None
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Co2; Yes, No No
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I am not training it in any way,
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I have flushed the plant starting 3 weeks ago (to me this means just watering without nutrients. I am measuring pH using a liquid testing kit
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I water when the soil tells me I should: surface is dry, moisture about a half inch below. Usually water two gallons
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Excellent! Thank you; that’s very helpful.
In general I would say you are doing okay but it appears the bud development is somewhat behind, and some stretching. You may want to start a regimen of flowering nutrients like the FF trio, although Open Sesame and Cha Ching are the most used. At your point a can of Cha Ching and follow the recommended amounts will add some P and K to the plant for flowering. General Hydroponics has a product called “Bloom” as well: both are good as are many others.
I would strongly advise purchasing a decent digital PH meter, PH up and down, and a TDS meter. I like the Apera PH20 which is a bit more pricey at around $49 but it is the single most used implement you will own, growing cannabis. 6.0 runoff is fine but it is wise to PH your input liquid (6.3 to 6.8 in soil).
You didn’t mention what kind of water you are using. If tap water do you let it stand for 24 hours?
The best method for watering (and you want the plant to go completely wet to dry: almost to wilting) is to pick up the pot to “feel” how much moisture is still present. With a bit of experience you’ll be able to judge. Remember that cannabis likes fluffy soil with lots of drainage and needs to adsorb oxygen from the roots; too wet and they can’t do that. This also promotes root growth through your medium. You should always water to about 10% runoff.
FF recommends flushing of the soil at certain points during the grow and if you were using additional nutes in quantity I would say you probably should; but you’ve been conservative about adding anything to this point so it may not be necessary.
Your temps are a little low; 78 to 84 is perfection. That should be your target. Humidity during late flower should be below 50% or you risk bud rot. It is a problem for a lot of people around the country right now.
@Countryboyjvd1971, @Donaldj, @garrigan62 any thoughts?
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Typically you start the flowering count from the day you see flowering pistols, not the day you flip to 12/12. So you’re probably at around week 5.
While you’ve got some leaf discoloration, you’ve also got a lot of deep green leaves. You could up your nutes for a week, but you could also just let it ride. If you do up the nutes be sure to flush heavily before harvest. Flushing is running 3x-5x your pot size of properly pH’d h2o through your soil.
From the look of your plant I’d say future grows could use more light. How far from the plant is your light?
@Myfriendis410 Thank you for the detailed response, this is great information. I started with a wimpy 60W LED light system which is probably why the plant looks so stringy. After buds appeared, I switched to the current system but have been a bit timid on how close I lowered the lights above the plant, so it is positioned about 20" above the tallest branch. As I said, this is my first plant so I am learning a lot from you gurus on ILGM (kneel, bow, kowtow, etc…)
I am using reverse osmosis water at a pH of 6.5 directly without waiting for 24 hours. My watering technique isn’t as extreme as what you suggest above, but probably not too far off. I don’t obsess over watering as I read about that before. For example, the last two times I watered the plant was beginning to wilt.
I’m not sure how far off I am from harvest as the trichomes are beginning to appear cloudy when I inspect them with my jeweler’s loupe, but still don’t see any amber ones yet. My plan is to cut the top tier down once it gets to 20% amber trichomes and then let the buds at the lower branch level (which I should have probably trimmed off) mature and then harvest them.
I don’t think I’ll make any nutrient additions at this point and let it ride as is. In spite of its scrawny appearance, I think it is close to being done.
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@Drinkslinger Thank you for the feedback. I noticed white pistols appearing about a week after switching the light schedule to 12/12, so I guess I’m closer to 7 weeks. Since it’s a Sativa strain, I suppose I have another 3 - 4 weeks left then, right?
I think you are probably right about the state of the leaves and to let it ride without adding nutes now since I’m relatively close to the end. Totally agree with your remarks on future lighting, as I mentioned to @Myfriendis410 above, I only secured decent lighting once the plant was solidly in the flowering phase.
I created some clones from her when in the vegetation stage which are growing in cloth pots outside and they are super bushy out there with a LOT of flowers starting as of about 3 days ago. This will likely be the superior crop I was hoping for even though the plants are only about 2ft tall.
Thanks again for your help, I really appreciate it!!
– Burle.
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@Drinkslinger @Myfriendis410 here are some updated images from the ones I shared about three weeks ago. Using my jeweler’s loupe, I am starting to see some amber trichomes on the buds at the very top of the plant, but still not close to 20% which is the point at which I understand I should begin harvesting. Thought I’d float the pix your way to see if you have any opinions.
I flipped the lights to 12/12 on June 24 and flowering started about a week later so I should be in the middle of week #11 now. I am supporting a number of branches with green tape because they are starting to fold and droop over.
Should I just sit tight until I see 20% amber trichomes, or should I be taking different action?
Here are the images:
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Well; to make things even more difficult, some plants have a hard time getting to 20% amber. When that happens it’s good to look at the overall aspect of the plant to determine where it’s at.
Your plant looks mature, but there’s still some very green leaves which tell me that there is still a lot of N being released (or delivered). You may want to go to water only soon and see if that helps finish the plant.
If you haven’t already, I would flush the soil with 3x-5x the pot size of pH’d water. Then prepare to harvest in the next 7-14 days. No nutes, just pH’d water from now on.
Amber trichs are very subjective. It depends on the high you want. Less amber = more energetic head high, more amber = body high-narcotic effect.
I don’t like too much amber, just a touch.
Thank you for getting back to me. I cut off nutrients in week #3 so I think she has been flushed out at this point, right? Yeah, I was suspecting that the plant might finish up without 20% amber trichomes as well. I’ll do a progressive harvesting since the tops are ahead of the lower level branches. maybe another week +/- a couple of days.
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I agree with you on the timeline, harvest in the next week or two. I do enjoy both types of high, depending on the situation, so maybe I should harvest the whole thing at once since there are more amber trichomes at the top and far less in the lower branches. That way I’ll get some of each effect. 
Do you know your current runoff ppms?
I don’t have the equipment to test that. What do I need?
A tds meter/pen. It can tell you how much nutes/solids are in your water. You can use it to monitor how strong your feed is, and by measuring the runoff, how much your plant is eating. It’s helpful before harvest to see what’s left in the soil and how much more you need to flush.
I have this, but it’s not necessary to spend that much. Amazon.com