Please Help!! Flowering issues!

[growgirl]

Hello,
I planted my northern lights auto seeds that I purchased about 80 days ago, (11 weeks). It's been in flower for at least three weeks now, and I'm getting pretty worried. The entire grow has been fairly slow, but right now the buds are not even close to being as big as they should be for being 3 weeks into flower. It has grown significantly vertically in the past three weeks. I had to remove it from the grow box because it was getting too big.

My problems: there's significant leaf yellowing towards the middle of the plant, and the edges of some leaves are browning and curling. The buds are not growing in width as quick as they should be. They're very small for 3 weeks into flower. AND I NOTICED ROOTS GROWING OUT OF THE BOTTOM OF THE POT LAST NIGHT! So there's root bound!

I'm growing in a 3 gallon bucket. Last night I watered and the runoff was at about 6.6. I water with foxfarm nutes. Last night I used to get bloom and a bit of grow big for extra N. My first grow i did before this I kept it on a 24/24 on light schedule and it worked wonderfully. Does this one need to be switched to a different light cycle? Maybe this isn't an auto and I was sold regular seeds?

Do I need to transplant? Is the root bound affecting bud growth? What can I do to speed up bud growth? What is the yellowing from?

Thanks in advance everyone!

 

[Waira]

:smoking: Hi GG'- what soil are you in, BTW?
...looks like you got a auto-stubborn plant, which can happen,...sometimes the auto expression is weak, or on rarer occasions doesn't express at all, forcing you to treat it like a regular photo' plant-- light hour reduction.... upside, she's a large nicely bushy girl!
... no real worry about the roots poking out, that happens sometimes,... a good sign usually! How root-bound she is, is hard to say, I don't think it's an issue here,...
.... the symptoms look like a rare one-- Mn defc., which is poorly documented from what I can tell, with very few pics... that it's hitting mid' to upper parts says it's a poorly/immobile nutrient involved,... that said, Ca may be another possibility... Most important is to get a proper accurate pH reading of the soil; We need to determine if this is a simple lack-of type defc., or a pH lockout issue,...this can help determine which defc., when symptoms aren't clear enough by themselves. As for taking pH readings-- run-off alone tells us nothing reliable! And as a method in general, it's rather prone to measurement errors; here's a link to an improved method and calculation--> ( https://www.autoflower.org/threads/...-for-run-off-testing-and-ph-estimation.41733/) ... the best thing for this is a soil pH probe, like Accurate 8 makes- hsoil:- it's the longer probe model here; nothing beats actual in-soil measurements! My initial suspicion is the soil is too acidic... Also, at this stage, unless there's a clear N defc. going on, the bloom formula has sufficient N in it as is,... The concern is having too much N, meaning making the N-P-K ratio too far off the ideal; too much N will retard blooming, and make for funky tasting buds if not purged of excess stored N by harvest! Nitrate-N is taken up by the plant whether it needs it or not... I'd look into getting a bloom booster product, something with big PK numbers, as a supplemental nute',... As for the possible Mn defc., a good micronutrient supplement is called for; are you using a Ca-Mg supp' now? That's a wise thing to have around as a regular addition, Ca and Mg defc's are the most common ones out there!
... dropping light hours may help too, since this one is showing reluctance; drop it to 16/8,.. you might even try a trick mentioned to be before- a 24hr dark period, then resume the new light schedule,...

 

[growgrrl75]

Hi, I'm a bit of a noob but I read a lot, and also notice with my own buds that they are bigger after their 6 hour 'sleep'. I worked out your 3 American gallons = 11ltr pots,I use the same and i can see a few roots poking out too. With autos, the taproot goes straight downwards apparently no matter what the depth-(within reason!). I have a 3 ft Quick One in the same size pot, she sure drinks a lot but if the pot was bigger she would be bigger, she just about fits in anyway- If she grew much more I would have to top her . You purchased 11 weeks ago, but how old are they since germ? I find autos can surprise you and go a lot longer than expected. I use Canna PK 13/14 and it has made a difference with bud size.
Maybe they need a flush to kickstart them again? Some growers recommend a monthly flush to rid accumulated salts. Maybe someone more experienced can comment on that.
Anyhow, good luck with your grow, hate when it gets stressy!