Yellow buds: genetics or defeciency?

[0p0rat0r]

I've got a sativa dominant clone flowering at about 16 weeks now and it's really ugly. It's from unknown genetics taken from bag seed. Many of the buds are yellowish, with a hint of purple some green. There's alot of browning and yellow leaves too. I've got no fan leaves left just bud leaves.

I've been PH adjusting the water to between 6.5 and 7.0 and I'm growing in some really cheap soil. I've also been using cheap Shultz African violet liquid plant food rated at 8-14-9 which appears to have more than enough nitrogen in it, yet almost all my bud leaves are yellow or brown and crispy.

Could it be the cheap soil or the ferts? Maybe I'm overfeeding it? Have any of you gotten shitty genetics before and ended up with ugly weed regardless of how well you took care of it?

I'm just really disappointed with my results after 16 weeks of budding. This stuff looks like total dirt weed. I wonder if my low wattage CFL lights (125 watts) aren't agreeing with my sativa genetics. I've read sativas tend to like more intense light.... ???

 

[Zamboni Driver]

sounds like n deficiency
16 wk flwr is a long time

try posting in the cannabis infirmary
youll get more responses
peace

 

[JJScorpio]

Are the temps quite hot in your room? Another thing to look at is the ferts you are using. That is a strong fert. Also, do you have any perlite in the soil? It could be the roots are saturated and not getting oxygen.....

 

[Guest]

16 weeks? Could be the plant's just past done & trying to die. Have you ever tried looking at the trichs during the flowering process? Might want to check that to see where your at. Also, browning yellowing leaves can be a sign of too many ferts.
Buy some 'good' seed from GN and give it another go.

Bh

 

[Awol/CoA]

Does your plant look anything like one of these???

Magnesium (Mg) deficiency;


Potassium (K) deficiency;



PeAcE...
Awol.

 

[Blunt_69]

uh, dude you need more light. We need pics!!

 

[packn2puff]

I'm stuck on the 16 weeks as well..I mean 112+ days in flower...How do the trichs look?..
She better be way sativa dom..sounds like she's way done..and has stopped delivering any energy to the leaf system..and like it was said, now dying..
As far as the results...I'm on the "That's not enough light" boat as well...The plant is a light processing machine...and has energy demands to produce big buds...input directly effects output...
Without seeing um I would think the buds are thin and wispy and very small on the lower branches.. My

 

[0p0rat0r]

Zamboni Driver,

It almost looks like an N deficiency but unless it's locked out from over ferting I can't see how it could be when using a fert with 8-14-9.

JJScorpio,

I haven't checked the temps in a while but they're in the basement which is quite cool. I think the temps are between the mid 60' and mid 80's. However I have no drainage whatsoever. I've never used drainage in the past and I've gotten some good results using this method. On the other hand when the lights are off and the plants being in the basement with the cooler temps I've noticed I don't have to water as often as I'm used to, the water doesn't evaporate as fast, takes maybe 3 to 4 days before the container feels light again. Maybe lack of oxygen and saturation is my problem... hmmm. I think there is perlite in the soil too but I can't quite remember. I just remember being really unimpressed by the quality of the soil when I bought it. Next grow I think I'll add drainage and good soil and see if that helps.

Have you had any experience with saturated roots / lack of oxygen?

BipedalHominid,

I do have a pocket microscope I've been watching the trichs for some time now. This plant is actually a clone of another I harvested prematurely at 12 weeks so it's definitely not dying due to over ripeness. The trichs are clear and some cloudy. There are alot of white pistols developing as well, so the plants still growing. I've read on OG some pure sativa strains can take over 20+ weeks to bud.

Overferting could be a problem though. I've been giving it the recommended dose on the bottle. I'll have to make some adjustments and see.

Awol/CoA,

No it doesn't really look like that. Thanks for the shot though. I'm pretty sure my fert has magnesium in it too.

Blunt69,

I agree I probably need more light for this strain. My indica dominant strain looks to be thriving under the same conditions. I still have some yellowing and browning but not anywhere near the amount on the sativa. Also the buds on the indica are about 3 to 4 times bigger

I'm out of time. Gotta get ready for work. Thanks everyone.

 

[Guest]

Op

After reading your responses to everyone's questions I would say that what you have is a combination of over fert and improper drainage. That would be my best guess.

Bh

 

[JJScorpio]

I just reread some of this post and missed something. Is their a chance the plant has matured and is dying? It would make sense. The lack of light would allow for the small buds, and the color of the plants look like they are dying. Check what the trichs look like....

 

[packn2puff]

Or like this..just imagine smaller buds...and more yellow...If I let her go, soon all the fan leaves would be gone (ready for chop)


Are the buds doing anything like this...



Or this, these plants were root-bound, not enough light and had too many branches...



Just keep in mind...you aren't gonna find too many bagseed pure sativa's in this day and age..unless it is a dirt sativa..my

 

[0p0rat0r]

BipedalHominid,

Yeah there's a chance I'm overferting. Although I didn't notice any signs of burning when the plant still had fan leaves. They just kept turning yellow and falling off. The ones I didn't pick off turned brownish yellowish and are still attached to the plant but crunchy and dead.

I'm most probably not getting enough drainage with the lack of holes in my containers and the damp basement lengthening the time it takes for the water to evaporate or be taken up by the plants.

On top of that I'm most definitely rootbound for several weeks now.

JJScorpio,

Well it does look almost like the plant is dying but then if that was true I wouldn't think I'd still be getting quite a few white pistols popping up and some minor new growth. I really think the plant is still maturing but I'm doing something wrong to turn the buds and leaves yellow.

The trichomes look like a mixture of clear and cloudy, there's alot of clear trichs left still so that's another sign it shouldn't be over mature yet.

packn2puff

Nice pictures. I love threads with pictures.... Anyway compared to the first picture my plant has much less dense bud growth. The buds are mostly really tiny and loosely packed together but there are a ton of branches. It's going to be a bitch to trim.

My plant looked pretty healthy up until later in flowering. I've read it's natural for fan leaves to turn yellow and die as you go later into flowering but I don't remember seeing too many pictures of yellow buds.

Outside of the colour I'm mainly disappointed with how tiny the majority of the buds are. I suppose alot of that has to do with genetics and light intensity. Combine those two things with rootbound and lack of drainage and I suppose my results can be explained.

My buds are small like in the second picture but probably between 50% to 70% of the pistols have turned brown along with quite a few yellow buds. Some of the buds are fair sized and look pretty nice though. The density is really lacking. It's a really wispy looking plant, with too much space between long, stringy, but small buds.

That third picture most closely resembles how my plant looked at about 8 to 11 weeks into flowering. With the exception that my leaves were lighter in colour and there were and still are much less trichomes on the bud leaves.

I'm probably going to give her the chop this weekend and be done with it. I've since gotten lucky with another bagseed with much faster finishing genetics, buds that are 3 to 4 times more dense and fat and much much more trichomes. So I'm guessing it's indica dominant. I've been growing nothing but sativa bagseed since I started a couple years ago so I'm really excited about this indica looking strain I've got now. I'm gonna get rid of the crappy sativa genetics I got and reveg and clone the indica.

Oh yeah and by the way I know the wattage (125 CFL) is on the low side but consider that I'm growing in a scrog style so most of the buds have been as close to the light as possible too. I've also got an extremely compact grow area that is about 12" x 12" x 18". That's 125 watts per square foot so when you look at it that way the amount of light isn't so small for the space I'm using.

Thanks to everyone for your thoughts.

 

[0p0rat0r]

JJScorpio,

That's the amount of electricity used. I'm using 3 x 45 watters in each stealth speaker box. I know what you're getting at, but I do know the difference between the incandescent ratings on the CFL packages and the true wattage.

 

[TheEmperor]

What size containers did you said you´re using?
Well, for your description I would bet that it is rootbound! Your feeding with N but the plants´s root are unable to suck it! That is common with sativa dom plants because they have to live much longer than its cousins indicas (your´going in 16 weeks flowering right?).
Sativas also need intense light because they grow much taller thus the need of extra light for the lower buds.

 

[0p0rat0r]

TheEmperor,

I think my containers are around 3 gallons. I'm pretty sure it is rootbound too and yes it's been about 16 weeks, I think 17 now. Why would being root bound prevent the plant from taking in nutrients? I know being rootbound isn't good but I can't remember why. Anyone care to chime in here?

I know about sativas needing more intense light and that is probably why my buds are so small, plus maybe my genetics just produce smaller buds to begin with.

 

[Guest]

I don't know about root bound but I saw the pic you had on the very first post of page 1 and those don't even look like buds at all! Also how did you fit 3 gal pots in a speaker box? It just doesn't add up! Good luck with it all my friend!

 

[sparobis]

my 2cents,
flush the plants for 3 days using ph'd balanced water.....let dryout thouroghly
water them with ph'd water again and let them have 48hrs darkness then chop
mho...there way past there peak,way overferted,roots are waterlogged.
peace
sparo

 

[0p0rat0r]

Sniffs,

Yeah I know, they do look really odd. The buds are really small, sparse and strangely coloured. I'm not using standard pots. I'm using a plastic garbage bin from Walmart that's been cut to use up my space more effeciently. Maybe the containers are closer to 2 gallons than to 3, but definitely over 2.

sparobis,

What makes you think they're way past peak? There's still alot of white pistols on the top of the buds that you don't see in that picture. Also looking under a microscope reveals many clear trichomes along with some cloudy, but very little to any amber. For those reasons I was thinking this could actually go even longer but I won't bother.

I'm going to give it a dark period like you suggest but I'm not sure if I can be bothered flushing it. I've switched to an organic fertilizer for the past few waterings anyway and I'm thinking I'd rather not extend the drying time any more by adding water.

Thanks for all the comments. I've got a different strain growing under the exact same conditions. I'll post a photo of the two side by side when I get the chance. The other strain looks alot better but still not as healthy as it could be.

For the next round I plan on replacing my growing containers and adding proper drainage, using higher quality soil and fertilizing a little less often. I'm also going to get rid of those shitty bag seed sativa genetics I got in favor of some properly bred genetics.

 

[dre86]

Thanks for all the comments. I've got a different strain growing under the exact same conditions. I'll post a photo of the two side by side when I get the chance. The other strain looks alot better but still not as healthy as it could be.

pics?