yellow leaves

[blondlebanese]

for a few days now two of my plant's (one indica and one sativa) leaves are turning yellow. they have nice buds the sativa has lots of trichs the indica not so much. ten weeks total growing. four weeks flowering. are the yellow leaves a sign that they've matured? two out of thirteen plants have yellow leaves. also three of the indicas now have purple leaves developing on the tops. can anyone clue me in on whats happening?

 

[Hushpuppy]

It is most likely a temperature or nutrient issue but we need to see a pic of the plants to be able to tell anything.

 

[blondlebanese]

i will post pictures soon but, for now i can tell you that the temperature stays at 70 - 75 degrees. and, i feed nutes almost every time that i water. but, i only use 1/3 of the manufacurers recomended amount. i water the plants every four days, i use flora nova bloom, floralisous plus, and sometimes flora blend. i did recently add bat guano to the soil. i now have a third plant turning yellow. i was hopping it was age turning them yellow. although they aren't supposed to be ready for another two to three weeks. so far the leaves haven't dropped. and only the large leaves are yellow.

 

[Hushpuppy]

Which leaves are turning yellow? If it is a few of the lowest leaves that are turning here and there, that is not too unusual. The oldest leaves will yellow off as they get used up and aged. That is a natural course for the plant to drop the oldest leaves that are shaded and not able to produce for the plant anymore.
However, if it is the leaves that are at the top of the plant and there appears to be a pattern forming rather than just random leaves yellowing then you have an issue beginning, possibly an imbalance of the pH or a buildup off nutrient salts. I like to flush my synthetic nutrient fed plants once around the 3rd week of flower to clean out any buildup that often occurs with synthetic nutrients. That prevents toxic buildup from occurring late in the flowering when nutrient availability is so important. After flushing them good, I go right back to my same feeding regimen so that the plants don't get hungry.

 

[blondlebanese]

now nine of my plants have yellow leaves. they extend from the bottom to the top. only fan leaves and about 40 percent of the fan leaves are yellowed. i have fed nutes to my plants at every other watering( every four days). i flushed them once after i fed them to hot of a meal. that was six weeks into the grow. since then i feed only half the recommended amount of nutes when i feed. i use flora nova grow for vegging. then flora nova bloom, flouralisoues plus and flora blend. does marijuana turn yellow as other leaves do in the fall? if so that would be a relief. i've made it thru this first grow without incident. i hope the yellow leaves are a normal part of a marijuana plants life. just one more step. harvest and cureing. is there anything i need to know about cureing? i plan to hang it upside down and let it dry. then keep it in mason jars. ps i have three sativa that look like they were snowed on so many trichs. and still three weeks to go. i cut clones from them that have already rooted. hopeing to monster crop next grow. wish i could take better picts.

 

[MR1]

I used Flora Nova ferts for many years, I always followed directions on bottle and it got me close to where I needed to be strength wise. You should be up to full strength pretty much by now, watching the plant and adjusting as necessary. Yellow leaves are normal to a certain extent, 4 weeks is a little early imo. I always alternated with ferts and just ph'ed water.

 

[Hushpuppy]

You have to remember that any time you flush the medium for what ever reason, you wash out everything (if you do the flush properly) and the plants are left with nothing except what you feed them. I don't know the feeding regimen with the Flora Nova but the way I like to do things, I would feed my plant a lessening amount of Grow nutes during the first 3 weeks of flower and drop it out entirely after the 3rd week, and do a flush at the end of the 3rd week to clean the medium.

Then I go back with full strength bloom nutes. But if the full strength causes burning, I will cut it to half strength and give food with every watering so that the plant has the opportunity to have constant nutes but has the chance to use them up before getting more. I personally prefer to feed my plants less nutes continually rather than giving them a lot at one time then going a period with no nutes. To me the plants are able to utilize the lesser nutes better and the roots don't go looking for nutes in between the feedings.

I just looked back and you said you mixed in some bat guano. Did you do that after fflushing? did the yellowing begin before or after the guano? You are using synthetic nutrients in this grow, you shouldn't have added the guano as that is a raw material that should only be used in organic grows. You don't have the microbes needed to process that guano.

If you added it in before the yellowing began then that is most likely the problem. I would be willing to bet that it has thrown off the pH in your medium.

 

[blondlebanese]

hushpuppy you mentioned that i am useing synthetic nutes. i am growing in soil. i thought the nutes i'm useing were organic. are they the right kind for a soil grow. when i bought them i was clueless and relied on what the sales clerk said. i did add guano before the leaves turned yellow. everything seems to be growing along fine. ph is good. i think i worry to much. my g s c look like thay belong on a cristmas card, so many white trichoms.

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

Yes, they are just fine for soil, but they are not organic. General Hydroponics makes a line of organic nutes, if you do decide that you want to grow organic. There are a bunch of parts to them, but it really doesn't take that long to mix them up. I do like the not having to check pH all the time with organic. Here is a link to the GO Box: [ame]http://www.amazon.com/General-Hydroponics-Box-Starter-Kit/dp/B004PS4B08/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420557099&sr=8-1&keywords=go+boxo[/ame]. I am not sure that bat guano is going to be beneficial with a non-organic grow. While it will not hurt anything, either, you might want to save the bat guano for an organic grow as it is probably kind of wasted with a synthetic grow.

 

[Hushpuppy]

can you post a pic of the leaves or one of the leaves that just came off the plant? The bat guano may have caused a pH issue within the soil and/or is binding up with something that the leaves need to stay green. While it isn't unusual for plants to yellow off towards the end off a grow, it shouldn't happen too ffast or too soon.

 

[blondlebanese]

so bat guano really has no place in my grow because I am using synthetic nutes. am I understanding that correctly? how about the bone meal I added to the soil? is it because the microbs aren't there to brake down the guano? aren't there microbs in the black gold I use? won't the roots feed on guano in the soil? do the synthetic nutes take preference over the solid nutes I mix into the soil because synthetics are liquid and easier for the roots to absorb?

 

[Hushpuppy]

You are correct on that. The same goes for the bone meal. The roots will not feed on any of the raw materials in the soil. Unlike animals, plants do not "feed" on anything. They absorb those things that they are able to absorb, and that is water and "chelated" materials. The whole key to that is the microbes in the soil, and whether or not they can survive the chemical nutes that you were adding. There is much debate as to how much and what kinds of synthetic nutrients will kill off the microbes that are needed in the soil for organic ffunction.

Chelation is the process that microbes use to break down raw materials (decompose) and make available to the plants. In nature, if an area of ground where plants grow was to lose all of the microbes, the plants would die off and the ground would become "dead" and devoid of plant life within a relatively short period of time. Its like termites. Termites eat wood. They chew it up and swallow it. But they would starve to death while eating a belly full of wood IF they didn't have the microbes in their digestive systems to break it down to a point that their systems can absorb the nutrients that are locked in the fibers of the wood.

Now as there is a certain amount of microbes in the organic soil that you started with, iff you added the amendments early enough, the microbes may have been able to begin breaking some of it down, but if they didn't get a chance to build up a nice colony before the synthetics hit them, they may be all dead at this point. The synthetic nute don't necessarily take preference over the solid stuff but the plants will absorb whatever is available/absorbable that comes into contact with the roots. But if the synthetic nutes harm the microbes and/or create an environment where the microbes cant survive then the microbes will die off and the only thing available to the plants will be the synthetic nutes. But your issue at this point may be that the raw materials is chemically binding up the synthetic nutes and that can be causing a lockout or throwing the pH off far enough to prevent the plants from absorbing certain nutes.

The reason for that issue is that in the absence of microbes, plants can only absorb different nutrient elements when the pH is right ffor that element. That is why we stress a pH range for hydro between 5.5 and 6.0 as that is the best area for all of the needed nutrients to be able to be absorbed. With organics, the pH(6.5-6.8) is more about keeping the environment safe and ffunctional for the microbes to live and work.

This is just a suggestion but I have found really great results by using Hygrozyme with my stuff. Hygrozyme is the enzymes that are produced by the beneficial microbes for breaking down raw materials. you could add that to your solution that you ffeed or you could add it when you just water at about 5-8ml per gallon of water and that will help to break down some of the raw materials, and make them available to the plants.

 

[blondlebanese]

with about 80-90 percentof the fan leaves and sugar leaves yellow will trichom development stop?

 

[Hushpuppy]

If the sugar leaves are yellowing as well, that's not good. They will quit developing and die if that continues.