New Grower Sour Diesel delayed flowering

[Andrew8534]

Hello guys!
First post here.

Currently I'm growing Sour Diesel auto by FastBuds.
The plant is 40 days old, and just now I can see some signs of flowering. I've some experience in growing few auto before, but I'm far from expert haha I've upgraded my setup and thankfully found a place from where to buy reputable seeds in my area. As far the grow goes everything is more of less fine. For the first time I'm regulating the ph of the water (tap water ph - 7.5 idk how my previous plants survived ) and definitely can see big improvement. Unfortunately I didn't take into account that, if the water has a proper ph the excess nitrogen (doses judged by my previous grows) could lead to toxicity in early age. Since week 2 I've started adding nutes 18-18-18 + micro. Backed up on nutes, since I saw the N toxicity. After week 3 I've started adding a bit of Ca and Epsom salts. Now I'm careful how much nutes I add.
In week 4 defoliated 1/4 of the plant green matter, no stress at all. Still pretty bushy. The plant drinks about 2 liters of water for 3 days, she's really thirsty haha
Do you think the plant looks healthy? And do you think I've to defoliate a bit more and is it going to be problem? Another problem is that if the plant stretches more than 4-5 inches it will be to close to lamp. Do you think I'm going to be safe?

Thank you for you inputs!

 

[DDubs]

She's a beast man, nice work. You're around half way there and she will likely grow a few more inches before she's done. It will be tight for sure. I sometimes do defol but you have to be selective because she won't really be growing anymore light catching fan leaves and you will need them in the end. I picked up some defol ideas from someone here at AFN. He suggested starting with tucking if you can, you can then look at removing some of the damaged leaves. As far as green growth, you could start with removing some of the inward pointing fan leaves. The goal is to get light and air through the plant but not strip it.

 

[Andrew8534]

Thanks for the suggestions DDubs! :smiley1:
I've tucked most of the leaves instead of removing them. Now there's more room for the smaller bud sites.

One more thing about which I'm concerned is, that only after about 12 hours of light the plant is wilting.
I've calculated the DLI and lower bud sites receive around ~25, top parts ~40, and the top-middle ~55.
I'm running on 20/4. If it's necessary I can increased the lamp about 1.5 inches, this is the max space I have.

Do you think this can cause some negative effects?
And is it possible that this delays the flowering so much?

The plant is about half inch taller than yesterday, but pistil are not much at all. And almost starting week 7

Thank you!

 

[DDubs]

They do tend to droop sometimes just before light out. Do they perk back up during the day?

 

[Andrew8534]

Hello DDubs!

My lady is 57 days young now haha

Sorry for the late response, but I've decided that it's better to test few things for me, instead of mindlessly asking questions how to improve my environment and without sufficient context.

What I've done:

• I bought new Milwaukee pH600
• I bought Milwaukee CD611
• Switched to spring instead of tap water

So after testing the water with the new PH meter vs my old one (despite that the old one was calibrated, two times) I realized that the old one gave me 0.4 points less that the new one... Which means that my soil was too acidic. When I was aiming for 6.2, it was 5.8, and when was aiming for 5.9 for 5.5 So obviously, my mistake. Plus now I keep my PH pen in storage solution, after proper clean with distilled water.
And the biggest bummer my tap water has value of 800 ppm... Imagine adding nutes to that water... With these readings my tap water is barely drinkable...

Now I'm using very cheap 3 gal bottle of spring water with ph of 7.5 and less than 100 ppm. After adding the nutes I'm aiming for 500~700 ppm and ph of 6.2~6.5.

I grew 5 plants until now, and just now I've realized that all that time my problem was the water. And this is the reason why my plants suffered. Before now I barely calibrated my water (only with vinegar and using ph strips) and didn't measure the ppm, but it is vital for the strength of the plant.

Now I feed my plant with about 3 liters of water, until slight run off and do nute rotation:

Every odd watering with base nutes in miligrams: N - 160, P - 510, K - 510, Mg - 40, S - 280 (+ trace minerals)
+ 1ml of Epsom salts: Mg - 50, S - 100
Every even watering with: 1ml of DutchPro EXPLODE, 1ml MULTI TOTAL + 1 - 1.5ml of Biobizz CALMAG

I can still see some deficiency, but I am not very sure is it Calcium or Potassium/Phosphorus?

Thank you very much!

 

[Andrew8534]

Hi guys! :smiley1:

Today I made a test with the ppm of the run off. Actually never thought of the ppm of the run off, and why so? I did not have any EC meter haha. Anyway, the ppm value was 1800... omg Soo, I flushed the plant with soft less than 100 ppm water with natural ph of 7.5, because the ph of the run off was 5.9 at the beginning of the test. I pour it with about 15 liters of water for 11 liter pot (usually I water the plant at that stage with about 3 liters of water) in the end the run off was 7.1 with ppm of 200. The last watering after that was with ph of 6.3 and ppm of 400. I hope I didn't make the soil too alkaline, but I think it will be better that way.

Every other watering I will water the plant with 3 liters of water with ph between 6 - 6.3 and pph about 500-700 and will always measure the run off. It's really good technique to distinguish if the soil has a build ups or not. Fair enough my plant really experienced defficiency but it was due to build up, but not deficiency.

What do you think guys, is it going to be so bad, that now the overal ph of the soil is about 7 ph and 200 ppm, if I am going to water it in about 3-4 days with a proper ph-ed water?

 

[Andrew8534]

Hello again!

If it is possible, could someone please help me to distinguish what kind of deficiency is this?
As I am very bad at diagnosing by the leaves . haha

TOP OF THE PLANT:



BOTTOM OF THE PLANT:



THANK YOU!

 

[DDubs]

Hello again!

If it is possible, could someone please help me to distinguish what kind of deficiency is this?
As I am very bad at diagnosing by the leaves
BOTTOM OF THE PLANT:

View attachment 1429756 View attachment 1429757 View attachment 1429761 View attachment 1429758 View attachment 1429759

THANK YOU!

To me, the bottom photos make it look a bit like a Calcium deficiency. Since you are flowering it could also be a Phosphorus deficiency.

 

[Andrew8534]

Hello guys!

Guided by the phrase that - 'for every plant chopped too late a thousand plants have been chopped too early', so I've decided to wait.

Here are the results:


The lady at day 96:

Trichomes:

Day 81 vs Day 96:

My original plan was to harvest the plant on 24th, but I am concerned about leaving it for too long, as I am seeking more of a sativa high.

What do you think?

Your input is much appreciated!

 

[Bill.de.Cat]

Racier high, chop a lil early....couch lock, chop late......if you can get a good view of the trichs, let that be your guide.......granted a lot will depend on the strain as well....