Mephisto Fantasmo Express and Tyrone Special in Stonington Blend

[RockCity]

@Bekay hows things comin? Hope all is well.

 

[Bekay]

Today is Day #69 and the ladies on their final(?) watering. I watered them with filtered tap water at 6.4 pH. @RockCity thanks for the kick in the butt to take some pictures and post this update. Call it a Holiday Fog. It's not that I have been too busy with New Year's Resolutions...I make those on Dec. 30th to avoid the rush, fail on Dec. 31st and start the year unencumbered.
I have not taken plants to this stage of leaf yellowing before. This is just my second grow and my first using this soil. The plants look ready to chop IMO but there are only milky trichomes on the Fantasmo Express and only some of the trich's on the Tyrone Specials are milky, maybe half are clear bubbleheads...but there's lots of 'em! I have a 30x loupe but can't get a picture through it.

A couple dozen leaves have yielded to a light tug and been removed, the ones shown are still firmly attached.
Feedings:
Day 52 at 50% of mfr. recommended concentrations for Week 5 of Bloom (heaviest nutes) here's the mix (all per gal):

BUDDHA GROW, 2.5ml
BUDDHA BLOOM, 7.5 ml
BIG SWELL, 5.0 ml
TRINITY, 7.5 ml
MAGICAL, 2.5 ml
HP2, 5.0 ml
RAPIDSTART, 1.5 ml​

Day 56 Repeated
Day 61 Got the MicroBlast as Waira suggested in the Sick Plant Infirmary post. Repeated the above with addition of

MICROBLAST 5.0 ml​

Day 66 Fed at 50% of mfr. recommendations which reduced the TRINITY and BLOOM by a third to 5.0 ml and eliminated the RAPIDSTART. All feedings measured between 6.1 pH - 6.3 pH and 653 ppm - 726 ppm.

Looks like they never recovered from N deficiency as they grew into old age. One FE on left, two TS on right.
natural light=>

Question:
When to cut them down? The lack of amber trichomes makes me want to wait at least a week which will put them at 73 days since sprouting but my last harvest (AK49 and Med Gom 1.0) had green leaves for the most part when harvested on Day 83. I know different strains but that grow went rather textbook from what I read here. Is it okay to just water them and let them drop all their yellowing leaves or could that hurt the potency? I am especially concerned because the sugar leaves are yellowing too.

Thanks for checking this grow out and your advice!

​

 

[Waximus]

Hey, Brother BK :smoking:
In my opinion, those girls are about ready. The Stonington doesn't seem to have a lot of nitrogen, at least not with the stamina to make it to the end. Same thing happens in my grows-Kush strains in particular.. They look like they've taken all the stored N in the leaves. And, I wouldn't necessarily wait for amber triches, as a bunch of auto strains don't amber until well into curing. If you're seeing all cloudy triches, then you can harvest at will

Hope you're well in the Northlands, Brother

 

[Bekay]

Thanks Waxi, that is what I wanted to know.
Peaceful 2016 to you Bro' and the Mrs. too.
Brrrr...time to add a log to the fire.

 

[Waira]

:smoking:I second Waxi' on that! Ambering is a variable thing, best to check with others who've grown these strains and see if they're the stubborn type- LOL! Ambering comes from degraded THC actually, forming CBN, which is known for it's sleepy narcotic effect; neither of those strains is the couch-lock type, given their strong Sativa parentage (FE in particular), so keep that in mind,...FE can go anytime, Tyrones a little longer, if you still have a lot of clear trich's, but that's balanced against how fast the rest of the plant declines...
Did you ever figure out your soil pH? Recall, we were trying to determine if you had a lack-of defc., or some sort of lock-out happening,... That may have been an underlying issue all along,... As for how they aged, it sure looks like N was borderline defc. for a while, meaning there wasn't much stored by the plant, hence the really severe tapping of fans for their N,... not the worst thing that can happen, and past a certain point, when in bloom, "fixing" the yellowing is really just about slowing the pace of tapping; ditto for the micro's, but boosting them helps other nutrients get metabolized and working!... combined with the usual normal shutting down of leaves, it can make for some ragged looking girls by the end! I see some color started forming too, but was muddied by the fading fans, and possibly the earlier PK defc.,... that said, it was mild, and the buds formed up plenty well enough! ... Organics are more tricky, to be sure Bekay,...especially since it's up to the soil 'crobes to convert much of the nute's into absorbable forms; if the soil pH is off (regardless of what you input pH's are!), it messes with the 'crobes and their populations,... if that gets low or unbalanced, the conversion process is compromised, and nute turn-over is retarded,... plant may suffer defc. symptoms (some not outwardly visible) even if technically, there's stuff in there, just not in forms the plant can take up!,... consider a inoculant, or EWC tea--both!- to help keep up that herd,...molasses is a nice treat for them as well, plus the nute's it has in it (Ca, Mg, K, little Fe); also, organics are not that conc., so at 50%, things might have been suffering a limiting factor situation, like with the N; my understanding is that plants can absorb and store a great deal of the N they'll need even before blooming time comes,... without deep reserves, by later stage blooming, it can show up like it did here,... Holler when you harvest!

 

[MediScrogs]

Great info above from @Waira , I think I learn more about growing just from surfing the infirmary section here at AFN. Big thanks due to Waira for all the help and insight he gives everyone here.

The overall result looks like you've got some beautiful buds there, Bekay! Nice run, Nice job!

 

[Bekay]

Did you even figure out your soil pH? Recall, we were trying to determine if you had a lack-of defc., or some sort of lock-out happening

Found the reply in the Infirmary forum:
"One hour later watered with distilled water (pH 7.0, 23 ppm) checked meter calibration and the runoff was 7.0 pH, 459 ppm."
This was where you recommended Accurate 8 soil pH meter (awaiting delivery) and MicroBlast. We also considered possibly using Epsom salts but wanted to see how the plants did with some nutes. No Epsom salt has been used.

I plan on returning to Promix BX in the next grow. At least I will be able to control things better. This has been a great learning experience and I am so very pleased with the Mephisto gear! Vape report in February after havesting and jar curing.

Thanks for your help with this grow, you and Waximus have been true brothers.

 

[Bekay]

@MediScrogs,
Thanks and you are right on. Waximus and Waira have been great resources and I've read a whole lot of their posts and learned more and quicker than I could expect. Like I said in an earlier post "It like taking your daughter to the Doctor." Another favorite poster is Muddy, another is TaNg and the list goes on and on the more I read.
I will take some pictures at harvest and post the wet weight.
Best wishes.

 

[Waira]

:smoking: Thank you both, and you're welcome! Muddy helped me a great deal when he was here (now "retired"), and so I've been paying it forward as I learned more and more from him and JM, and several others,... then I got roped into Modship!...hooks are in now- ....Bekay- right! I missed that, or forgot, in the blur that the Infirmary can become sometimes,... ...7.0, through and through! that's rare as hell my friend,... I'm surprised Fe defc. didn't show up, as it's the only nute that gets dicey, fast, at that pH,... think the micro-supp helped, and the lowered feed pH's likely kept it available long enough to get taken up......You'll love the FE for sure Bekay, I grew a little one in a 40oz cup,... buzz in Sati' all the way, a soaring high, delish' aromatics,... Tyrone I've not had, but hear raves about too! Cheers guys, now line up for some low-handed love!!

 

[Bekay]

Thanks for the rep and for paying-it-forward. I hope I can do the same some day.