Need help please. F-13, 3 weeks and 3 days flowering...

[speedracer-x]

The lower fan leaves have all fallen off, or are crispy. The fan leaves in the top third (not the leaves coming out of the buds) are slightly twisted and bronzed with some spotting. I keep reading here that at three weeks flowering there should be more fan leaves still on the plant. I flushed her 5 days ago with about 4 gallons of water, let her dry out (~4 days), and then gave a 1/4tsp/gallon of FF TB and 1/2 tsp of FF BB yesterday. The pics are from this morning and this questionaire is from another site but is pretty comprehensive.
My question was about the fan leaves falling off, the condition of the remaining fan leaves, and my feeding schedule. Also, would it help to get rid of all the fluff at the bottom, or will there be something decent down there with 400w MH light hitting the buds?

1. Are you growing from seed or clones? Seed, DJ Short F-13

2. How old are your plants? ~10 Weeks

3. How tall are your plants? After LST, 20"

4. What size containers are they planted in? ~1Gall (8" round pots)

5. What is your soil mix? 50/50 MG organic potting soil/Perlite

6. How often do you water and what type of water do you use? R/O water every ~4 (give or take a day) days, when my rapi-meter says "2"

7. What is the pH of your water? Never checked, but after I switched to R/O from distilled, the leaves started twisting on all my plants though it has stopped from what I can tell.

8. What kind of fertilizer do you use and what is its NPK ratio? Fox Farms (1/2tsp per 1/2 gall GB and 1 tsp per 1/2 gall of BB, haven't gotten to TB yet) and one dose of Open Sesame about 2 weeks ago(1/8tsp per 1/2 gall). 2 out of 3 watering/feedings, I put 1/8 tsp of liquid silicone (GroTek 0,0,3.8?) into 1 qt of water(I will be stopping this as I have acquired Greensand and Kelp meal to add to the soil for the next round). Once a month (and at transplants) I put about 4-5 drops of Superthrive per gallon. 2tsp of moleasses once every 3 weeks, per gallon (usually added only when watering).

9. What kind of lights do you use and how many watts combined? (HPS, MH, fluorescent, halogen, incandescent "plant lights") 400W MH.

10. How close are your lights to the plants? at least 12" from the tops

11. What size is your grow space in square feet? 4sq.ft. for flowering

12. What is the temperature and humidity in your grow space? About 93f 4-5" away from light, ~86f at tops and ~81 at base. Humidity is normally around 30%.

13. What is the pH of the soil? never checked

14. Have you noticed any insect activity in your grow space? fungus gnats in veg area, I see about 5 per week.

15. How much experience do you have growing?This is my fourth grow, but the first time I got this far.

 

[stretchpup]

I wish I could help more,

When I installed my RO, my water pH came out in the low 5's, even high 4's, very bad for a plain feeding. I'm glad I checked before watering, as I assumed it would come out in the normal 6's to 7's.

Not to mention that soil, does it have dolomite lime to help stable pH? Did you add any?

You def. need to check pH. If you use spring water instead of RO the pH will be different and require adjustments or else your food mixes will be way off, for example.

At this point in the game I'd finish her out and start again. There is minimal vegetation and whatever is already burnt is not going to heal, it'l stay crisp.

Clip of the dead junk and leave the rest. You have little foliage so those tiny buds down there should get some light...

I had a bottle of super thrive go rancid on me and I threw it out and havent touched the shit in 2 years... and I think my plants thanked me for it many times over.
Smell it. Does it smell like vitamins/veggies or like poop?

 

[speedracer-x]

I wish I could help more,

When I installed my RO, my water pH came out in the low 5's, even high 4's, very bad for a plain feeding. I'm glad I checked before watering, as I assumed it would come out in the normal 6's to 7's.

Not to mention that soil, does it have dolomite lime to help stable pH? Did you add any?

You def. need to check pH. If you use spring water instead of RO the pH will be different and require adjustments or else your food mixes will be way off, for example.

At this point in the game I'd finish her out and start again. There is minimal vegetation and whatever is already burnt is not going to heal, it'l stay crisp.

Clip of the dead junk and leave the rest. You have little foliage so those tiny buds down there should get some light...

I had a bottle of super thrive go rancid on me and I threw it out and havent touched the shit in 2 years... and I think my plants thanked me for it many times over.
Smell it. Does it smell like vitamins/veggies or like poop?

Thanks for responding. I added about 2tsp as a top dressing on this plant. For the next round, I mixed in 1/2 cup garden lime in 15 gallons of soil, 1 cup greensand, and 1/2 cup kelp meal. Superthrive smells like vitamins and fish emulsion. Please let me know if I need to adjust anything.
Any recomendations on a quality ph/ppm meter that can work with soil growers in some way.

 

[CheeseNstomata]

looks like sulfur or manganese defficiency

 

[Blackvelvet]

Are you using garden lime with just calcium or dolomite lime with both calcium and magnesium? Check. How long ago did you surface apply the lime?

Ph is very important. Adjusting your fert water ph after mixing prevents surprises.

How to test soil ph easily: After you have watered/ferted well, wait 30 minutes. Then apply a small amount of distilled water like 2 ounces till runoff occurs. Catch this runoff and test ph. At least get ph test strips from the aquarium section of a petstore or even better a brew your own beer/wine store. A good digital ph meter than can test liquids would be ideal. It should be able to be calibrated. The ability to store the meter dry and a replaceble probe are premium features. Cheap ph meters you insert a probe into the soil are unreliable.

Cheeseandstomata, both manganese and sulfur def would show on the very top foliage while this plant suffers at the bottom.

Choices for deficiency are nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium or magnesium. A macronutrient problem. 9/10 of these deficienies are caused by a bad ph rather than lack of the nutrient in the soil.

 

[speedracer-x]

Are you using garden lime with just calcium or dolomite lime with both calcium and magnesium? Check. How long ago did you surface apply the lime?

Ph is very important. Adjusting your fert water ph after mixing prevents surprises.

How to test soil ph easily: After you have watered/ferted well, wait 30 minutes. Then apply a small amount of distilled water like 2 ounces till runoff occurs. Catch this runoff and test ph. At least get ph test strips from the aquarium section of a petstore or even better a brew your own beer/wine store. A good digital ph meter than can test liquids would be ideal. It should be able to be calibrated. The ability to store the meter dry and a replaceble probe are premium features. Cheap ph meters you insert a probe into the soil are unreliable.

Cheeseandstomata, both manganese and sulfur def would show on the very top foliage while this plant suffers at the bottom.

Choices for deficiency are nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium or magnesium. A macronutrient problem. 9/10 of these deficienies are caused by a bad ph rather than lack of the nutrient in the soil.

Waa waa wee wa ! Thank you so much! I am a quality guy, not a cheapy get me by kind of guy so I would go with a quality meter,...any recomendations?

I used garden lime (which I thought was the same as dolomite lime) about 2-2 1/2 weeks ago. If you are referring to what constitutes the garden lime, it is Epsoma brand garden lime, I don't have it on me at the moment and I couldn't even try to tell you off the top of my head. I will look when I get home though.

 

[Blackvelvet]

I checked the web and found new and improved espoma garden lime = dolomite lime. Check your bag and see what you got.

I could not quite understand what your feeding your plants. Grow big is for vegetative growth because its high in nitrogen. Tiger bloom works well for most of flowering. Big bloom could be used towards the end because it contains almost no nitrogen and this would not really be important anymore. The plants are finishing.

You want 75 to 100 ppm nitrogen during flower to prevent the leaves from falling off but not enough to cause alot of new leafy growth. Try using the tiger bloom 2-8-4 by itself to obtain this. You would use 14.42 ml per gallon of water. 1 teaspoon = 5 ml so about 3 teaspoons. Remember to adjust the ph after mixing for best results.

Tiger bloom has quite a bit of phophorus. So much that after repeated use, it builds up to too high a level. Ideally, you should use a low or no phosphorus fert every 3rd or 4th watering to give your soil a break. Examples are peters or masterblend 13-2-13 and 15-0-15. A mixture of calcium nitrate and potassium nitrate also would work.

Fox farm ferts contain little or no calcium and magnesium. Even with dol. lime in the soil, you may find it beneficial to boost levels by adding cal mag in the water maybe every third or fourth watering along with the regular npk ferts. 1/4 teaspoon of both powdered gypsum or calcium nitrate and epsom salts per gallon of water can provide this. Store bought 1 1/2 teaspoon cal mag plus per gallon also can be used instead. 13-2-13 above contains quite a bit of cal mag.

 

[speedracer-x]

BlackVelvet, thanks again. I used the Grow Big up until 2 weeks into flower. I read that extra N in the beginning of flower gives a bit more umph to the growth. I have stopped since. Big Bloom directs use with pretty much every watering, I think due to the micronutrients in it and beneficials. I believe I do have the new and improved version of Epsoma lime.

I checked on her this morning and the burnt, crispy leaves have a blueish-gray hue to them. Also, the problem is still working its way up the plant. I noticed that the leaves are burning from the ends towards the inside where they all connect to the fan leaf stem.

Any recommendations on a quality PH/PPM meter?

 

[speedracer-x]

Bought a soil PH kit from Lowes. I flushed with 3 gallons and finished with a gallon of distilled and 1/2tsp of dolomite lime (shaken vigorously for about 5 min, 60-70% disolved). Anyway here are the before-flush-result pics. I saturated the soil, waited a couple min then watered some more. I took that runoff and used that for the tests. The kit says to wait a few minutes, I waited about 10-15 (I was flushing the plant). Did I do the test right, wait too long? Will she be ok? 1st close up is the left bud, 2nd is the right.