Autoflower mixed bag of problems

[sirsmokesalot]

This is my first post/ thread here, after lurking for the past few months.

Growing in 4'x8' room using 2x Mars ECO98 in 5L soil buckets. I'm in Ontario, so this is a 100% legal personal use grow, started Oct 18th . We are now at day 45ish from sprout on all 4 plants.

Seeds come from Quebec Cannabis Seeds (more on that later)
2x Jack herer Autoflower
2x "mixed autos" Unknown strains
Using advanced pH-perfect grow-micro-bloom at 2-1-2ml/L and I add 1ml/L of sensi cal mag.
Tap water is pH 8.5 (24hr min wait time for dechlorination), AN pH perfect brings it down to just below 7.

I am having various problems with all 4, but I am most concerned with one of the mixed "Sheila", who has pretty lame flowering going on, and wont stop stretching. You see her in the two photos with half-ass flowers and lots and lots of branching.

The other mixed, "Gertrude" is flowering beautifully. Just started frosting up, and has buds that smell pungent almost sour and citrus. Shes got some nasty looking leaves, and I was thinking

The two jacks, "Nova" and "Ingrid" are very similar, and I don't think they are really autos. Big and bushy, but no flowers. Flipped to 12/12 for a week and preflowers are there now.

I ordered a tent, and plan to move Nova and Ingrid into their own apartment, so they can go to sleep early and get those 12hours of beauty sleep to get some flowers going.
Gert and Sheila are going to finish up in the room.

Thought I had P deficiency on a few (Gert the worst), so I did a flush and pH of soil was/ is crazy! pH in at 8.5, runoff at 6.5, soil at 4.5?! Flushed for a while, but never got above pH 7 runoff. Last res. was pH upped to 7.5 after nutes.

Anybody whats going on with Sheila?

Thanks in advance

 

[sirsmokesalot]

For those wondering, breeder now seems a little suspect to me, and here are the sites:

Mix pack seeds- https://quebeccannabisseeds.com/autoflower/autoflower-cannabis-seeds-mix-pack
Jack Herer- https://quebeccannabisseeds.com/autoflower/jack-herer-cannabis-seeds-autoflower

Next go around I will likely try something from Dinafem.

 

[AutoWonders]

Next go around I will likely try something from Dinafem.

That is a great breeder. I've grown a ton of Dinafem plants.

 

[Waira]

.... that water is a problem at that pH, which hints at it being very hard (mineral loaded, CaCO3)... AN can't handle buffering that much! And that's only in solution, not once in the pot,.. too many other influencing factors going on in there,... What are you growing in? I'd get a TDS/EC reading of that water,...
Don't flush unless there's a dire need (worst thing to do with a defc. IF that's the case), and using that water may not be the best thing either, strongly consider using a different less hard source,... that said, the run-off readings are totally wack, make no sense that the pots are that acidic with water that hard,.. is that pH meter recently calibrated, and store in the right type of solution? Did it ever dry out? it may be out of calibration, giving bad readings,...
Feeds have been mild, and shouldn't be making the in-pot pH that acidic,... again, contrary stuff here,...
Sheila may be a Sativa dom. cross, and so may stretch a great deal, and take longer,...
Gert looks like some P defc, not bad though,.. if the pH readings are even half right, in=pot pH is too acidic still, and that locks out P,...
the other two non-auto's = I'd bark at the place you got them from about that,.... not uncommon, may be packing error, or bad breeding, no telling at this end,....
... get that water info for us, and ph meter info too, next step hinges on this info....

 

[sirsmokesalot]

Waira,

Thanks for the reply.

I am growing in a soil mix comprised of 3pt peat moss, 1pt pearlite, 1 part vermiculite, 3 parts bagged compost, in 5l buckets.

I have a ph meter, checked the cal solutions and seems OK. never dried out and always gives readings that make sense. Don't have a tds meter, but the city claims "about 30 mg/L (ppm) of total hardness which is considered very soft."

Pre AN pH around 8.5, post AN res pH goes to 6.5 every time. Before I started nutes I was lower the water to 7, didn't take much ph down to hit that.


Agree on P def. Originally thought it was a calmag defc, and using led, so I started adding in the sensi cal mag every feed, but when runoff came so high, I started looking elsewhere, and found lockout could be my issue.

Note that I did not add any dolomite lime to the mix... could the peat moss lower the soil pH that much? Bought promix HP for my next go round (expecting to harvest Gert early January) and contemplating top dressing my 4 girls with lime.

Thanks again!

 

[STILLSMOKIN]

Wow thats a lot of peat! Peat moss has always screwed up my buddies grows. I would guess peat moss is trapping unused nutes and bringing acidic conditions. I know some on here that use it but i wont. If you know you ph meter is right then i would do a flush with tap ph to 6.0 so to not shock her anymore.

Proper flush method imo take 1/2 pot size of water saturate soil. Walk away come back 30 mins later and flush 4 times the pot size in 6.0 ph tap with 1/2 cal mag no nutes.

Let medium get dry and then check it all again.

@Waira not trying to butt in but i have seen so many issue with peatmoss its unreal so figured i would chime in.

 

[sirsmokesalot]

Hmm... I was following this https://www.royalqueenseeds.com/blog-the-best-soil-for-growing-autoflowering-cannabis-n904

But went half on the Vermiculite because under led I didn't want the water retention. Should have left it out entirely because i think holds a ton of water.

Thanks for the flushing technique. I was using straight tap at 8.5 so I'll dial that back next time. Don't think I'll flush again until the last week

 

[Waira]

Wow thats a lot of peat! Peat moss has always screwed up my buddies grows. I would guess peat moss is trapping unused nutes and bringing acidic conditions. I know some on here that use it but i wont. If you know you ph meter is right then i would do a flush with tap ph to 6.0 so to not shock her anymore.

Proper flush method imo take 1/2 pot size of water saturate soil. Walk away come back 30 mins later and flush 4 times the pot size in 6.0 ph tap with 1/2 cal mag no nutes.

Let medium get dry and then check it all again.

@Waira not trying to butt in but i have seen so many issue with peatmoss its unreal so figured i would chime in.

No worries mate! Consider Promix and Sunshine Mix, these are nearly all peat soilless mediums,... I think the custom mix made here is part of the problem,...

Waira,

Thanks for the reply.

I am growing in a soil mix comprised of 3pt peat moss, 1pt pearlite, 1 part vermiculite, 3 parts bagged compost, in 5l buckets.

I have a ph meter, checked the cal solutions and seems OK. never dried out and always gives readings that make sense. Don't have a tds meter, but the city claims "about 30 mg/L (ppm) of total hardness which is considered very soft."

Pre AN pH around 8.5, post AN res pH goes to 6.5 every time. Before I started nutes I was lower the water to 7, didn't take much ph down to hit that.


Agree on P def. Originally thought it was a calmag defc, and using led, so I started adding in the sensi cal mag every feed, but when runoff came so high, I started looking elsewhere, and found lockout could be my issue.

Note that I did not add any dolomite lime to the mix... could the peat moss lower the soil pH that much? Bought promix HP for my next go round (expecting to harvest Gert early January) and contemplating top dressing my 4 girls with lime.

Thanks again!

... as mentioned above, this blend may be part of the problem,.. it an very incomplete soil, not quite a true soil, not quite a soilless mix,.. I mean some other key components are missing, (look at a good soil bag label and you'll see what I mean).... they all play a big part in how the soil forms it's ion exchange properties, nutrient balance , buffering,....
??-- run-off came out high in what, pH? You said you had no TDSD/EC meter, so I assume this is a pH reading? What was it? ... low pH will lock out P,....

 

[sirsmokesalot]

When I did the flush (40L ish) the final runoff came out around pH 6. In at 8.5 out at 6.... that's soil at 3.5. Very acidic.

I added 1/4 cup dolomite lime to each pot, but it's pretty late in the game.

New issue on Gertrude as of yestersay: spots on the leaves. I'll add photos tonight but just received my rent and a 400w hps so going to be a busy night.

Promix HP, is that okay as is, or do I need to amend it with something? It's all peat and perlite PhD with lime if I'm not mistaken.

 

[sirsmokesalot]

Ok tent is set up. I put Gert and Shiela under 400W HPS wing reflector. Stuffed the jack sisters into a 4x2x5'high tent w/ 2x Mars Eco 98's. Hope it doesnt get too hot in there... exhausting out of the tent, left a cover open at the bottom, so air is drawn out of the top and from the other room where the HPS is. Also hoping that the little light leakage during the 6 hrs when HPS is on and LEDs are off doesnt give me hermies.

Gert definitely has spots now... P or K excess?

At this point i'm just holding onto hope that nothing is too serious with the flowering girls and ride the last month out nice and easy.