The Diesel's on my desk

[DeskGrower]

Hi, let start off by saying how great this forum is, I've been lurking here for months learning more about autoflowers. This is absolutely by far the best my forum I have found so far.

This is my my first grow:

Strain: Diesel Ryder
Number of plants: 5 females (got 5 males) from 10 regular seeds
Light: 420 total watts of CFL. One red 125W envirolite and a bunch of mixed lower watt CFL's
Temps: 80F lights on 60'ish lights off
Humidity: Dry... I don't have a meter. Will buy one soon.
Nutes: Schultz plant food plus NPK 10-15-10 and MaxiCrop seaweed extract, I dont use them together.
Planted: 18 november (no pre germination)

It has been really trouble free grow until recently I started to see some brown spots on the lower fan leaves on 3 of my plants, I noticed that the day after I fed them some Schultz plant food plus mixed 8 drops to 5 quarts water, the instruction said to use 7 drop per quart so I'm not sure this is nute burn, more like PH problem I think but I would really like you guys opinion on this.

This is my biggest one going 12" today and growing an inch a day or so. If you look on the lower fan leaves on the left you will see what I am talking about.

Here is a zoomed photo of the leaf.

I flushed the plants and it seemed to have stopped, not working it's way upwards although it may be to soon to say.

Here is another one, I don't think you can see the leaves on that one but I just wanted to show you guys.

A good flush with PH balanced water seems to have taken care of it, at least it's not progressing.

Will update pictures soon

Any tips or comments more than welcome

 

[cyber echo]

I'd say low pH.

 

[DeskGrower]

I balanced some water to PH 6 and flushed them the other day, the runoff on the bigger one was around 7 the other one (on the last photo) was around 6.5.
Only the 3 biggest ones are acting up on me, the 2 smaller ones (no picture yet) are nice and healthy.

 

[IceColdCrickets]

they look a bit dried out,, how often do you water?

 

[DeskGrower]

Thanks for dropping in ICC, I must admit I have a little overwatering phobia.
But I water them about two times a week, do you think I should water more often or just give them a little more every time I water?

 

[ChynaRyder]

Hey Desk Grower, nice work...is all of that stuff really on your desk? Hard to say how often you should water, it is so dependant on so many factors. That said, when you water, soak them. Water until you get some runoff out of the drain holes. You want to wet the whole soil mass, or you will encourage roots to remain only in the little pocket you wet each time you water. I judge when to water on the weight of the pots, and dont wait to see any wilt in the plant...just uneeded stress, and I am seeing a Lot of drought stress in pic #3. Try to remember the weight of the pot when you first filled it with dry potting soil, and this will tell you when your gettin low.

Have you added additional Ca and Mg? Could be causing the lesions. Good luck man, and welcome to IC mag.

 

[DeskGrower]

Hey ChynaRyder thanks for the welcome. Yeah the plants are really on my desk well, it's a closet but when you open it it's a desk, and since I am growing autos I didn't gut it so I can sit and watch my plants from a good angle (don't have to kneel just pull up a chair ) so it's a closet, but a desk also, and I have drawers for my nutes and my watering can so I can keep everything out of sight. ClosetGrower was taken so I just pulled the next name out of my ass

I have been watering them with some MaxiCrop seaweed extract once in a while and that's suppose to have some Mg in it at least, not much but some, I have also thought about getting some epsom salt but I wanted to be sure.
Thanks for the tip about watering, they've been in the same pots from seed so I have been working my way up with the amount of water but I clearly haven't kept up with the growth of my plants, they grow so fast!
I will give them a good soak in the morning with some PH balanced water.

 

[DeskGrower]

Whoah! The 12" monster is now a 14" monster! 2 inches in one day, me like
She's growing really fast and the buds are swelling up on all of them

I've got one more question though, should I prune the damaged bottom leaves or just let them stay?

 

[Bighill]

let them stay, once the are totaly yellow and dry pull them off. You want to see some yellow late/in flower, it means the plant is using stored energy in leaves to make bud flowers. Which means a better smokable product.

I am also with the above on the PH issue, you are getting a lock out for sure, do you water with tap water or RO water? Before you do any trouble shooting, get some RO water. Or rain water... Then if yellowing and issue continue you can nail it down from there. Hard water often messes with nutrient uptake.

It must be noted they do look allright! Minor issue on the scale of things.

 

[DeskGrower]

Hi Bighill, I use tap water because where I'm from the tap water is soft with no additives whatsoever, no chlorine or fluoride and no calcium or magnesium ions. (minimal traces if any)
So it's hard to get distilled water here. We drink our tap water.

I think they're going alright since I flushed them the other day but I'm still keeping my eye on them, they're looking better except the lowest fan leaves.

One of them (the branchy one on the pic) is growing much faster then the other ones, possibly the "tall" pheno that was stated you might get, she is 16" now, my next biggest one is almost 12".

Will update soon with pics and probably edit my first post to be a bit more readable and add more info.