New Grower Barney's Zkittlez OG Auto ~day 68 - she's struggling!

[BongRipLarry]

Problem: She's so yellow! And she just got so tall! She really stretched at the end of veg, and grew to where she is now. She was always trending more towards lime green from mid-veg, but has really yellowed in the past week to what you see here. There's really nothing to be done about the height at this point as my light is as high as it will go, but my main concern are the nutrient issues I seem to have.

Medium/grow method: She's in Organic Roots soil. I started them in rooters, moved to a 1 gal pot, then transplanted to grower's pots.

Feed: and supplements used: Kind of a long story. No nutes at all until she'd been moved to grower's pots, as she seemed to be doing fine. Late in veg, I had to leave town on semi-short notice, so I setup blumats to auto water while I was away. When I returned, plants looked great so I left blumats in place. I started to feed General Hydroponics trio about 1x per week by hand. After a couple weeks, she started to move from lime green to yellow, and I thought I was overfeeding so I flushed with water and then went only water for about 10 days. Yellowing got worse, so I then changed my mind to "I've underfed!" So, as of Saturday (3 days ago), I'm feeding General Hydroponics at 1/4 strength recommended on the bottle + CalMag at 5ml/gallon H20 through the blumats.

water source: Tap water, pHed to 6.0-6.5

Strain/age: Barney's Zkittlez OG, about 69 days from sprout

light used: I'm growing in a 4x2 tent under a Sonofarm 2000 that's at about 80% to prevent (more) burn. Edit to add: I'm doing 24:0 light schedule. Not my first choice, but temps in the basement are typically 58-60 and I need the constant heat to keep the tent at/above 65.

Climate: 4x2 tent, temp is typically 64-67 and humidity is usually 65-70%. I have a 6" AC Infinity fan that's set to kick on when the humidity hits 70%, and it runs pretty consistently. There's also a small 6" fan to provide air circulation.

Additional info: I think I got it all above - she just got really stretchy late in veg and shot up towards the light. I have to balance my solutions with another auto I have in the tent (Barney's Critical Kush auto) that has her own issues (will post later!). Thanks in advance for any help you can offer!!!

 

[Sheriffatman]

Hey there bud, welcome, I’m on my first grow , also growing zkittlez og, in the same size tent, fairly similar set up. And I’m at 6 weeks and 1 day today, she is a bit behind where yours is but that’s probably nurture not nature, but it’s nice to finally see other pics of the same strain. Sorry to hear your having issues with her, being a complete newb I really wouldn’t be comfortable giving you advice, mine turned quite limey about 3 weeks in so I raised the feed and a tot of cal/mag, she soon perked up. I would say your humidity seems a little high for flowering, wouldn’t hurt to lower that a bit if you can. Mine floats around the 40/50% mostly 40. Anyway bud there’s plenty on here who can help you out, it’s the best community out there, friendly and very knowledgeable, hope you stick around and drop by sometimes I wanna see how you get along. All the best.
The Sheriff
Took this pic about an hour ago

 

[tronN00dles]

She's hungry!

When you say General Hydroponics 1/4 strength... which feeding chart exactly? GH had two old feeding charts for "drain-to-waste" and "recirculating" programs. Their most recent charts are for 'light', 'medium', and 'aggressive' feeding. The 'light' is equivalent to what was once their 'drain-to-waste' program, and the 'aggressive' is equivalent to what was once their 'recirculating' program.

If you're like me and were quartering the "drain-to-waste" regimen, you're underfeeding them. Best to go by ppm. In flowering, aim for 500-550 ppm. If your water is relatively soft, full strength light/drain-to-waste GH nutrients will fall perfectly into this ppm range for flowering. Again, this is assuming you have relatively soft water (~50ppm in my case).

Edit:

I just noticed you say you're following the chart on the bottle itself. This is the aggressive feed. I'd recommend feeding 1/2 strength of what's on the bottle, not 1/4 strength. This should be closer to the 'light' feeding regimen. Again, you still need to verify the ppm with a pen.

Also, stick to the chart online in terms of the CalMag. 1/4 strength base nutrients + 5ml/gal CalMag is wayyyy too much Calmag, at least in terms of the balance of the nutrients. Follow the feedcharts on General Hydronponics website, and keep the scaling across nutrients consistent. You're underfeeding the base nutrients and overfeeding calcium.

 

[BongRipLarry]

@tronN00dles - thanks a MILLION for your detailed reply. To be honest, I had kind of given up.

Sorry for the delayed response, but I read your reply last weekend and followed your advice. I moved everything to 1/2 strength from the aggressive feed schedule including CalMag to stop giving them unbalanced nutes.

She was in pretty bad shape and still looks rough, but there are 8-10 tall colas that are stacking up some buds now. I've been defoliating a bit daily, mostly to remove sick/dead leaves, and I'm hoping that the feeding suggestions you made will help. I'll try to follow up with some photos this weekend, even though she looks really sad.

It's my first grow and I've screwed quite a few things up, but I've learned a great deal. One thing I've learned? You can screw up pretty bad and cannabis will fight through and start making buds. I just have to try to make it easier on my girls next time!

 

[tronN00dles]

You’re going to want to get your humidity down now too. 70’

@tronN00dles - thanks a MILLION for your detailed reply. To be honest, I had kind of given up.

Sorry for the delayed response, but I read your reply last weekend and followed your advice. I moved everything to 1/2 strength from the aggressive feed schedule including CalMag to stop giving them unbalanced nutes.

She was in pretty bad shape and still looks rough, but there are 8-10 tall colas that are stacking up some buds now. I've been defoliating a bit daily, mostly to remove sick/dead leaves, and I'm hoping that the feeding suggestions you made will help. I'll try to follow up with some photos this weekend, even though she looks really sad.

It's my first grow and I've screwed quite a few things up, but I've learned a great deal. One thing I've learned? You can screw up pretty bad and cannabis will fight through and start making buds. I just have to try to make it easier on my girls next time!

No problem!

Having just re-read your post, your humidity levels would be a problem as well. Look up some VPD charts, such as vpdchart.com. At 65 degrees F, you're going to want to get the humidity down below 50% if possible. At the very least, into the 40-60% range.

And if you haven't already, I can't stress quality pH and TDS/EC pens. I can speak from experience that cheap pH meters can't be trusted (although cheap ppm pens aren't so bad - certainly better than nothing). Without these, you really can't say for sure what's in your tap water and nutrient solutions.

Another thing too, don't expect your plant to return to its "green" state at this point. You're deep in flower now -- it's going to start yellowing anyway. The key thing now is for the buds to pack on as much weight and fragrance as possible. And as you said, it's all a learning experience. You'll do better next time!

-tronN00dles

 

[BongRipLarry]

I've got a good Apera pH meter, but I need a TDS or EC pen. I'm ordering one from Amazon today.

Regarding humidity, I'm at a loss about what to do. The ambient temp in the basement where I have my tent is 59-61F, and the humidity is typically >20%. The light in the tent pushes the temp up where I want it, but my Rh is very high - just from foliage and wet soil. I have an AC Infinity 6" set up to kick on if Rh gets over 70%, but if I set it trigger at a lower Rh my temp starts dipping too low as it pulls cool air into the tent from the surroundings.

I do have another plant in the tent that's doing better overall and is pretty close to chop. I'm thinking that my Rh will come down when I pull that pot from the tent - but have no idea how to keep Rh lower with two pots in there.

 

[tronN00dles]

I've got a good Apera pH meter, but I need a TDS or EC pen. I'm ordering one from Amazon today.

Regarding humidity, I'm at a loss about what to do. The ambient temp in the basement where I have my tent is 59-61F, and the humidity is typically >20%. The light in the tent pushes the temp up where I want it, but my Rh is very high - just from foliage and wet soil. I have an AC Infinity 6" set up to kick on if Rh gets over 70%, but if I set it trigger at a lower Rh my temp starts dipping too low as it pulls cool air into the tent from the surroundings.

I do have another plant in the tent that's doing better overall and is pretty close to chop. I'm thinking that my Rh will come down when I pull that pot from the tent - but have no idea how to keep Rh lower with two pots in there.

A small space heater in your tent would be a great way to get temps up and humidity down. I have a little 250w Honeywell that I currently position outside of my tent pointing toward the passive intake.
In my previous house that was much colder, I’d actually have the heater inside the tent.

In addition to the heater, I sometimes use a mini de-humidifier. I essentially rotate some combination of warm/cold humidifiers during veg, and heaters/dehumidifiers during flower. Sometimes I’ll have to put my heater on a timer to alter its duty cycle, e.g. 30 mins off, 30 mins on, to avoid things getting too hot. But space heaters will absolutely “burn off” humidity. It’s just a matter of finding the right place for it to go and the right duty cycle.

 

[Sheriffatman]

@tronN00dles - thanks a MILLION for your detailed reply. To be honest, I had kind of given up.

Sorry for the delayed response, but I read your reply last weekend and followed your advice. I moved everything to 1/2 strength from the aggressive feed schedule including CalMag to stop giving them unbalanced nutes.

She was in pretty bad shape and still looks rough, but there are 8-10 tall colas that are stacking up some buds now. I've been defoliating a bit daily, mostly to remove sick/dead leaves, and I'm hoping that the feeding suggestions you made will help. I'll try to follow up with some photos this weekend, even though she looks really sad.

It's my first grow and I've screwed quite a few things up, but I've learned a great deal. One thing I've learned? You can screw up pretty bad and cannabis will fight through and start making buds. I just have to try to make it easier on my girls next time!

Hey bud I was checking in , seeing how your grow is going as we’re both growing barneys zkittlez for our first grow. It’s been a bit of a ride for me, and also for you by the sounds of things. I’ve made all the newbie errors with my plant , she even had a sister but didn’t take. Don’t be put off when things don’t go to well, we are new to this . Just learn from those little mistakes we make and take it all to your next grow. Worst case scenario , we kill a plant. Tragic yes lol but it’s not like it was the last bean on the planet so clean the tent down and start over. That’s my way of thinking anyway.
Good to see your girl is on the mend bud, keep going.keep learning. Enjoy the ride.
The Sheriff