tips curling and how long till flower?

[chickenhead420]

Attached are a few pics. The tips seems to be curly on my oldest girls and from reading, that can be too much N, although I've been pretty light on the nutes, maybe it doesn't need that much, or is it too little?

Also, any idea on how they're coming from flowering? So far they keep adding an inch a day so vertical growth is still there and they about a month today from when they popped from the soil.

Thanks. First grow, 2000w HPS, been using sensi grow nutes fairly light and have cal-mag coming from Amazon tomorrow morning.

 

[Cannaficiando]

The tips seems to be curly on my oldest girls and from reading, that can be too much N...

Howdy chickenhead... ...too much N causes the leaf fingers to curl down like a claw, not twist, but something is out of whack here.

Before we get into pH etc., can you take some whole plant pics in natural light. It's difficult to make a diagnosis with what you posted.

 

[Cannaficiando]

Also, any idea on how they're coming from flowering?

They should go into full flowering when vertical growth slows. Not much longer to go...

 

[chickenhead420]

Here is some more pics.

I did get a new pH meter that I didn't calibrate for lack of DI water to mix the powder with, so I went and got that today and it was off. My water was way lower than the meter was showing. I did the runnoff test, wash through normal water, then wait, then do some DI water and measure that runnoff and got like 5.6-5.7, so could it be N lock due to the low pH of my soil? Should I use a higher pH water to try and get it back into wack? I'm just using tap water, pH of about 7.4 naturally, and then pH downed it to what I thought was 6.5, but was really about 6 with my meter off. Using hardware store soil with a fair amount of peat in it, so that's probably lowering the soil pH. I read Tang's feed schedule, and he just uses 7.4 tap water. Maybe messing with it too much is worse than dealing with it being a bit higher.

First grow, so appreciate all the help.

 

[Waira]

:smoking: I second Canna' on the need for natural light pics! Diagnostics are hard enough, but HID/LED lights mess with color rendering badly, and reading the colors is critical,...Is this an auto or photo'? .... I'd say the tops are looking heat stressed (2000watt HPS?!), which in turn can lead to other troubles, including defc. symptoms not caused by lack-of or pH lockout,... if that wattage is right, it's massive overkill unless it's a very big room! get more distance from the tops,... what's the T and RH in there? I do see the tip yellowing, but that's pretty generic, could be mild nute burn, or part of the stress,... *** Ah! just saw the new post-- Okay, the run-off method is badly prone to measurement error, but it sounds like you did things right (including a clean collection container for the DI run-off?) .... in any case, here's a link to an improved methodology, see if it jives with how you did things--https://www.autoflower.org/threads/...-for-run-off-testing-and-ph-estimation.41733/
...yeah, keeping your pH meter in tune is critical! Also, I highly recommend an in-soil measuring device, like the Accurate 8 soil pH probe-- nothing beats direct measurement! ....do you have a TDS or EC meter? The tap water sounds okay, at 7.4, meaning it likely has some hardness to it-- CaCO3, from which the buffering capacity comes from vis carbonates,... taking those pH reading at face value, you're too acidic, so no more pH'ing the water, and are you pH adjusting the feeds as well? I know what AN says about their feeds, but it has it's limits in what it can do,.. likely, the store soil is acidic too, and/or lacking in a lime source (CaCO3),... So, new pics look good, just the heat stress symptoms-- curled margins, mainly,...

 

[Cannaficiando]

Measuring the pH of the runoff is unreliable. I got an Accurate 8 soil pH tester over Christmas - no calibration involved, just stick it in the soil. At sixty bucks or so, it will pay for itself in no time in terms of higher yields.

What are you using to pH down? I have to look up the admittedly unreliable pH in/out chart that's around here somewhere to get a general idea.

 

[Cannaficiando]

I'll leave it to the expert. He's a little long-winded, but knows a lot more.

 

[chickenhead420]

:smoking: I second Canna' on the need for natural light pics! Diagnostics are hard enough, but HID/LED lights mess with color rendering badly, and reading the colors is critical,...Is this an auto or photo'? .... I'd say the tops are looking heat stressed (2000watt HPS?!), which in turn can lead to other troubles, including defc. symptoms not caused by lack-of or pH lockout,... if that wattage is right, it's massive overkill unless it's a very big room! get more distance from the tops,... what's the T and RH in there? I do see the tip yellowing, but that's pretty generic, could be mild nute burn, or part of the stress,... *** Ah! just saw the new post-- Okay, the run-off method is badly prone to measurement error, but it sounds like you did things right (including a clean collection container for the DI run-off?) .... in any case, here's a link to an improved methodology, see if it jives with how you did things--https://www.autoflower.org/threads/...-for-run-off-testing-and-ph-estimation.41733/
...yeah, keeping your pH meter in tune is critical! Also, I highly recommend an in-soil measuring device, like the Accurate 8 soil pH probe-- nothing beats direct measurement! ....do you have a TDS or EC meter? The tap water sounds okay, at 7.4, meaning it likely has some hardness to it-- CaCO3, from which the buffering capacity comes from vis carbonates,... taking those pH reading at face value, you're too acidic, so no more pH'ing the water, and are you pH adjusting the feeds as well? I know what AN says about their feeds, but it has it's limits in what it can do,.. likely, the store soil is acidic too, and/or lacking in a lime source (CaCO3),... So, new pics look good, just the heat stress symptoms-- curled margins, mainly,...

The lights were 19" from the highest leaf. I raised it to 24" from the top of the highest plant, which is the one photo'd.

My total setup, 2x1000w HPS lights, air cooled with outside the tent air. I have an extraction fan inside the tent, 6", through a carbon filter, vented outside as well as the light air, both vented out my chimney stack. It's a 4x8x7 foot tent. Temp at the top of the tent is about 78, RH 45. With my sensor hanging off the bucket, its 77 and 31RH. IR thermometer says top of the leaves are about 75. I did the improved method for the runoff and from my DI rinse, got 5.7, so seems my soil is buffering a lot.

Maybe I will try the tapwater, treated for chloramine, but no pH adjustments. tap TDS is about 150ppm, it's not too bad of water. I used to do the aquarium thing and raised a bunch of dwarf shrimp that everyone swore needed a low pH water and I messed with it a lot and when I said screw it, used tap water and a buffering gravel, I got good breeding. Sometimes not messing around is better. lol.

I do have a portable AC that I will hook up soon when I get some more ducting and wye connectors, if I need it.

Anymore info, just ask.

 

[Waira]

... sounds good on the lights, mate! What can happen is a transpiration stress, with any combo of low RH, higher T's, and strong breezes,... the plant shuts up the stomata, bringing the whole root-to-tops transportation highway to a near halt,... maybe the low RH is the culprit here,... As for the soil, it actually not buffering enough if it's acidifying the water that much-- likely the soil's fault,... even so called premium soil, especially FoxFarms, have been spewing out undercooked, badly acidic soil these days! Water is perfect! Try adding some carbonate derived Ca-Mg supplement to your water, and give it a good flush, like 2x the pot volume, then measure again,... that should help bring up the pH some,... soil should be mid to low 6's,... be sure to add a mild dose of nutes to the last pour, so you aren't stripping away too much nutrients,... do the flushing fast too, within 20 min. to avoid the smothering effect... I set my pots on a small pile of newspaper and paper towels when all done, to help pull out the extra water faster via capillary action!
.... check in later bud, I'm fighting a cold, so am signing off for now,...

 

[chickenhead420]

I did get my CA-MG today, so going to start using that. And yes, I meant the soil is making it more acidic. I'll just try leaving my tap water at 7.4 for now and let the soil do it's thing with it. lol. I'll do some flushing tomorrow. I just filled my 2x10gal res's that I use for water mixing and it's very cold. lol. Let it warm to room temp before I use it. Also getting a humidifier in the next couple days, so that should help a bit with the RH.

Thanks for the help and feel better.

Other info, they are New York City Auto. About a month old today, 23" tall is the tallest. Some are very sativa dominant and tall like the photo one. the other are very indicate dominate and look like a small bush with HUGE leaves and only 6" or so, so far. They are 2 weeks behind the first.

I inherited this whole setup, from light to tent to seeds. A good friend was going to start all this on a grow, then kid, divorce, etc happened fast and he gave it all to me, in hopes I could give it a good home. So I'm trying and learning as I go. Had some germ issues, so I didn't get 10 started at once, it was like 3, then 3, then 1, then 3 more and then only had a few seeds left so got 4 more buckets and have 14 going, all various stages.

The indicas look better, but being 18" taller, they are 18" further away from the lights than the sativa's.