Something weird happening to my babies

[SargeantSpaz]

Hello everyone!

New here on the forum, not new to growing Still learning the lessons from the best teacher in the world - Ms MaryJane
I've done photoperiods and autos before, but I've been doing only PC case grows. This is my first big tent grow and things scaled up faster than I expected lol. can't exactly tell what went wrong.


Problem:
new leaves are discolored, the veins look dark eventually.
Bottom leaves starting to get some color but also looking like they gonna die 2 weeks from now

Medium/grow method:
Soil Biobizz ALL-MIX + Handwatered (maybe a bit too much heh)

Feed: and supplements used:
Started with Biobizz two weeks ago. It goes in at about 6.3-6.5.
two weeks ago, had one week with:

6 days ago started spraying with FishMix (1ml / L)
2 days on / 1 day just water, thinking it's N def.
so that means foliar N-P-K 7.5 / 1.5 / 6

About 2 days ago progressed the water feeding to:
the two in the back:

the two in the front:

I did this because I originally suspected N def and wanted to blast two of them with higher N content, to see if I get any difference from the others)
If u ask me - seems it's not the primary nutes (N-P-K)... there's something much convoluted going on (or super-obvious but I can't see it because of my spreadsheets heheh).
But don't ask me - I'm clearly not seeing things correctly here heheh

water source:
tap water, ph-ed after nutes to 6.3. I get runoff at 6.7.
Didn't EC / PPM, as I never needed to do that BUT I did change country, this is my first grow on this tapwater, will get EC / PPM meter this week.

Strain/age:
Sweet Cheese XL Auto - Sweet Seeds
the pics are from the 23rd day sprouted seed got in the soil. Did up-pot once about 10days ago (from 0.5L to 6L pot)

light used:
first 2 weeks were under some bum Aliexpress lights (35W blue and red, used to have them in my PC cases hehe)
currently: spiderfarmer SF1000 (100W). ramped them up over the course of a week, when transitioned from previous lights (3 days on 60%, 3-4 days on 80%, now running on 100% with some 15in (30cm) distance)

Climate:
Day - 27C, 65% RH
Night - 23C, 50% RH
Have an extractor running 24/7 and just bottom tent vents open (no active intake yet)
Nothing moving air inside the tent, but the extractor seems oversized enough to move things around.

Additional info:
I think it looked like this (discolored) from first week, didn't care that much for it though.
About a week ago I started to figure out something might be wrong as the veins got normal color but the leaf between them still was pale green color.
At first it seemed like N def - not so sure now.


The bottom leaves were also messed up but now they seem to somewhat recover color? That's great BUT I don't like the impending sense of wilting I'm getting from them. They also started being a bit more crisp and shiny to the touch, than the puffy, porous normal feel.

 

[namvet25]

You should be using bio grow during veg stage and also use cal/mag,then change to bloom nutes when she starts to flower.

 

[SargeantSpaz]

I dunno exactly where this lady is, in terms of calendar (vegging, pre-flower, early flower)

their website puts it at 8 weeks from seed to finish... since I up-scaled the grow as opposed to what I'm used to, I can't tell if this is a flowering growspurt or just normal vegetative growth.

thinking about hitting her with this:

PS: do we have a Biobizz plan for short-lived autos? this one is advertised at 8-9 weeks...

PPS: has anyone else tried this strain and can confirm the short life? I see even 12-13 weeks on GrowDiaries, as well as 8wks so I'm a bit confused

 

[SargeantSpaz]

an update if anyone else ends up reading this post history. doing better, I think I just started the nutes too late, even for autos.
Dunno exactly how they engineered SweetCheeseXL, but looks to me like a hungry strain, even if started on AllMix soil.

still can't figure out which nutrient stressed them, but the added Nitrogen from about two weeks ago starts to show on the two ladies in the back (as opposed to the O.P. pics, I swapped them around Nute boosted are in the back now, regular nutes are in the front).

Everything except new growth has a nice, deep green coloration now.



for the ones in the front: the one on the right seems to recover pretty good, as well - even if she didn't get N boosted.

the one on the left tho... she's "runty" a.f. I think I'll pull her out because she's taking up space unnecessarily, is severely discolored even on older leaves and her "clits" are much smaller in size and luster compared to the other 3.
also - they're not everywhere so I'm worried it might be a hermie!
she looked broken from the start (either PH burned as a seedling or just bad genetics) she never was symmetrical and she was growing zig-zag leaves instead of perfectly aligned, left/right.

all and all, I'm close to ending the stretching phase and about to see how much these babies fatten up.
for all I could see on other people's grow diaries, SweetCheese XL likes to fatten up, so here's to that

the net, although not a true SCROG serves more as support, the stretch was quite aggressive and I feel more comfortable spacing out the stems manually so they don't compete for light in one corner of the tent while leaving pockets in another. yes, I have no problem with the stems close to the tent to shoot longer than the stems in the center - there's no risk of lightburn there and they're not throwing shade on anything either way.

I did apply some supercropping (if that's what you call squishing the stem to bend the top of it) to the main stems of the two in the back and - as you can see - the side stems were quick to catch up!

Starting to get some humidity worries so - another bonus if I ditch the ugly b*tch on the front left - I can pop a dehumidifier in that space.

 

[SargeantSpaz]

Status update, let this be a lesson to those that read through this.

I've lived in many countries and in those countries - in many cities. I've never used an EC meter because I never saw signs I'd be needing one.
in my current city, this is my first grow. at first I thought the clumsiness was just me coming from Photoperiod and either over-nuting or not yet understanding the autos very well.

Well, since I still wasn't happy with the way they're recovering, I decided to go out and buy an EC meter.

well folks, turns out my tap water comes in at a staggering EC = 1 (997uS/cm, actual reading from the meter).


This was, for me, a scary experience obviously because I was probably locking up something in the root zone (more about that later) but more importantly: let's forget the plants for a minute, WHAT THE HECK AM I DRINKING EACH DAY?!?!

Obviously, I'm now waiting for my RO filters to arrive fortunately I can easily install them under my sink.

So, I went to a friendly growshop owner I'm acquainted with here and asked him if I'm nuts or smth and he stared me straight in the eyes and told me:
"kid, ain't nobody in this city that grows without RO water" - well... duh!

he also added that the community here tested the water at different times and
"each time it comes different, so you can't even know what you dropped in the soil the last few weeks anyway" - awesome news!

So, started to apply some healing to the girls with bottled water.
I have some still water with 24mg / L calcium and 29mg / L magnesium. since I'm growing under spiderfarmer LEDs with BiobizzAllMix soil, the first watering applied (today):
I skipped the Biobizz CalMag (probably soil is already heavy on these in one way or another) and let the plant sort it out herself.

Based on what I start seeing the next few waterings, I'll add CalMag if she really needs it.
Right now I'm concerned I'm actually blocking a basic ingredient being absorbed by being either to Cal heavy, Mag heavy or not having the correct ratio of these two.

 

[SargeantSpaz]

RO water doing wonders


Out of the 4 - the "runty" one was just a late bloomer.
I now regret I elevated her (and her sister on the right). She stretched 10 days later than the rest. since she was already tied to the scrog, she ramps up nicely to reach for the light hahaha


anyways, we're currently at EC 3.2-3.6 with Biobizz nutes (since they're organic, don't let the numbers scare you don't even think about the runoff currently sitting at EC 12 :smoking: )


you can see:
- some tip burn from the nutes (one more nuked-up feed and I'll back off)

- some leaf curling in the "praying position" from the light intensity (can't help much about that, that's all the tent I have more pruning on the next set)

- some spots from the CalMag overload mentioned at the start of this thread (they have a beautiful golden shine under light, it's superb.)
Fortunately ever since starting to bloom, it hasn't progressed. not concerned about this until harvest, buds fatten up each day nicely


All of them are doing super-fine (thanks for the support everyone ), buds swelling constantly.
Started their trichome production and are sweating a nice sweet cheesy smell.

The aroma is so different to the skunky b*tches I used to grow in the past. Although strong, I think it's a bit more stealthy than other strains.

The hairs are slowly starting to darken.
got a few more days on full-power nutes and then they start getting increasingly diluted solutions for about a week.

Will probably harvest in two stages - top, cooked buds first then leave the mid / low sections for another week or so.

 

[SargeantSpaz]

Getting close to harvest. bout 10 days to go. They will get water only from now on, every two days.

Some quick photos, I'll grab better ones come harvest day

 

[Bob's Auto's]

Getting close to harvest. bout 10 days to go. They will get water only from now on, every two days.

Some quick photos, I'll grab better ones come harvest day
View attachment 1392375
View attachment 1392376

Why deprave your plants from nutrition just before the finish line? That's just bro-science mate

 

[SargeantSpaz]

Why deprave your plants from nutrition just before the finish line? That's just bro-science mate

what ratio of NPK do you keep till the end?
would 4-10-7 work fine?

Here I am on my calendar, can easily keep it up until harvest

 

[Bob's Auto's]

what ratio of NPK do you keep till the end?
would 4-10-7 work fine?

Here I am on my calendar, can easily keep it up until harvest
View attachment 1392417

I would follow the chart from your nutrient line. But forget about flushing and stopping the feed.
There's a real nice thread where everything is explained by one of the old garde here. It is quite a read with it's 28 pages, but if you have questions just ask there and Pop will set you straight