Does anyone know what might be going on here? I don’t know why I come out every day and there are new yellow leaves at the bottom of my plants. On my 6 plants, I literally find one or two new yellow leaves each day. I pluck them off but they keep showing up (some come off with very little effort). I can some start to yellow and the next day they’ll be totally yellow. They are individual leaves attached directly to the stalk rather than branches.
Details:
Strain: 4 white Widow and 2 gold leaf
Age: they all sprouted by 4/5-4/6, so they’re about 9 weeks old
Type: feminized and purchased from ILGM
Climate: outdoor
Medium: soil in pots - Fox Farms Ocean Forest
pH: haven’t tested runoff but I use an electronic tester in the soil. It’s pretty regularly 6.8-6.9, and I just started using pH down to try to help adjust it. Last I checked it was higher—more explanation to follow
Light type: sun
Temperature: a few weeks ago we had cold and rain but since then it’s been bright, sunny, and warm. Lows have been in the low-mid 60’s and the highs are mid 80’s. This week it’s been in the 100’s
I know that I’m dealing with thrips—but could they be doing ALL this? And so quickly? I just got some neem oil that I made into a solution but I sprayed it in a small spot and am waiting the 24 hours to make sure it doesn’t hurt my plants. We’re a little over 12 hours in and that branch looks fine, though. I also know I’m dealing with some caterpillars—my leaves are chewed up and I’ve picked off several of them.
I’m kinda worried about Nute Burn on some of them. I feel it’s worth mentioning that about a month ago I was just giving them water. When I posted on the forum and mentioned they’re growing in Fox Farms Ocean Forest, many people said that the soil is so nutrient rich that I shouldn’t need to add extra nutrients, so I got nervous and didn’t. But after two weeks they started showing unhealthy signs. A calcium deficiency is believed to be part of the problem. So we started giving them ILGM’s growtime again and within a week the SMALLEST amount of growth was 8 1/2”, literally doubling the growth that each plant had each previous week. This last Saturday or Sunday we gave them calmag via foliar feeding and they seemed to LOVE it. It really seemed to help a lot.
But we’ve also realized that our pH is pretty consistently 6.8-6.9, so we got pH down to help with that. (Depending on what blog I read on ilgm, it’s supposed to be either between 5.8-6.3 or 6-7 lol). So this last week I started giving them lower pH’d water—closer to 6.2–to try to help bring it down. I gave them each a gallon a couple days during the week. While the girls love it, it’s also been in the 100’s here in Southern California. When we checked their pH on Saturday (like we always do) the pH came up varying from 7.2-7.6! We freaked out a little. We gave them their weekly nutrients but the soil was so dry that the water drained out a little too quickly. (It only occurred to me later that we may have had such a high reading BECAUSE the soil was so dry). We let that dry overnight (and it DID dry overnight) and the next day we gave them another gallon of water with less than a third of the regular dosage of nutrients, in addition to a half gallon of neutrally pH’d water. And now here we are.
I’ve been finding some leaves with “burnt-looking” edges that I had originally attributed to thrips. But that was BEFORE all of this and those leaves were still a nice green color. SINCE this, I found this leaf like in the first picture which I’m feeling is more Nute Burn, namely because of the yellowing that’s coming along with it (it’s on one of the gold leafs). I gave them neutrally pH’d water yesterday. So, after that long explanation, does anyone have an opinion on what’s going on? Nute Burn? Are thrips just wreaking havoc? Is there a deficiency? What does anyone suggest my next steps should be to help my ladies? Please help! Thank you!
These first two are the same leaf from one day to the next—this is the gold leaf I fear is Nute Burn.
These are the yellow leaves that I’ve found today
These leaves are yellowing and will probably be yellow tomorrow:
These are all the leaves I picked off this morning after taking pictures:
And now I’ve noticed my little autoflower is doing this! My autoflower seedlings are just in some regular miracle-grow with an appropriate NPK:
And is this a pest’s work coupled with wind or just a pest?
Sorry, I know it’s a lot but I figured as much detail as possible will help get the right solution. Thank you anyone and everyone! I’m anxiously awaiting your help!