Early in flower issue

[Morningstar_Gardens]

Problem: yellowing and dying of lower leaves. Some tips have burn.
-Medium/grow method: soil grow. 1/2 happy frog 1/2 Ocean forest
-Feed and supplements used: using advanced nutrients three part grow micro bloom along with big bud, bud candy, botnicare calmag. Feed by hand at half strength. Schedule of fwwf.
-Water source: purified water with starting ppm of 32. I pH to 6.5. I will say my pH pen is garbage and I plan to buy a blue labs pen very soon. I'm using a vivosun and using the old school vile tester for secondary verification. Water ppm when feeding is around 500-550

-Strain and age Has Reaper HellBender 5 almost 6 weeks old.

-Climate: night temp 73-74 day temp 78-82. RH night 55 day 58-60. 3x3 tent with 6 inch inline exhaust. Two inlet ducts for airflow. Two pole fans inside moving air.
- Light used: Spider Farmer 4000 hung 19 inches from canopy. Running at 90 percent.
-Additional info: Started a slight show last week and really took off over the last few days. My last watering was yesterday and I just gave them clean water no food. And went a little heavier on the run off. I'm running two fast bud Stardawgs with no issues in the same schedule.

--Pictures

 

[Morningstar_Gardens]

Feel like it's progressed today and is getting worse.

 

[NickDanger3rdEye]

A lot of folks have the same issue. Looks perfect in veg then a week or two into flower problems start showing up. Me included. Same issue on 5 different grows using different soils. PH'ing the water, not over/under watering. Using teas and some top dressing. Same issue each time. Somebody more knowledgable should chime in soon.

 

[Morningstar_Gardens]

I'm almost certain it's a nutrient burn. But not really sure what to do from here to get her back on track.

 

[Morningstar_Gardens]

Plant is looking less green overall after it's second just plain tap water feeding. I just ordered a bluelabs ph pen as I think the cheap pen and test solution in the vile thing has been highly inaccurate for me. If this is a lock out what's the best solution to fixing that. My new pen should be arriving tomorrow. @Mañ'O'Green any suggestions on this? Any help would be huge in trying to save this girl from disaster any further.

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

Plant is looking less green overall after it's second just plain tap water feeding. I just ordered a bluelabs ph pen as I think the cheap pen and test solution in the vile thing has been highly inaccurate for me. If this is a lock out what's the best solution to fixing that. My new pen should be arriving tomorrow. @Mañ'O'Green any suggestions on this? Any help would be huge in trying to save this girl from disaster any further.

She does not look that bad! Can you elaborate on your feed schedule and nutrients. Stay away from Cal-mag! because FFOF and FFHF have plenty.

 

[Morningstar_Gardens]

She does not look that bad! Can you elaborate on your feed schedule and nutrients. Stay away from Cal-mag! because FFOF and FFHF have plenty.

Thanks for the reply. You seem to be the guru of sick plants around here so I appreciate your time. I'm running the advanced nutrient line grow micro and bloom. I'm also running bud candy and big bud all of these at half strength every third watering. I'm mixing up a gallon and splitting it between the two hellbender plants I have running. One in a three gallon one in a five. I typically water to just about run off occurs. I know what a big deal pH can play so I'm guessing that might be the culprit. The picture I think looks better than it does in person. I'll take some more after work. I've noticed some leaves are starting to look like they are browning from the inside out

 

[Proph]

The plants are feeding off of the leaves more than they are feeding through the soil and bottled nutes. 1 gallon of water between 2 plants is not a lot. That's pretty much the daily minimum you want to be using with those 2 pot sizes. I would cut out all of the extra stuff and start feeding the base nutes at 3/4th strength. If this issue continues, there won't be enough healthy leaves to get the plants to harvest. I doubt it's a ph issue as there aren't any rust spots on the leaves that I can see. Your plants look exactly like what classic under fed plants will look like.

 

[Morningstar_Gardens]

The plants are feeding off of the leaves more than they are feeding through the soil and bottled nutes. 1 gallon of water between 2 plants is not a lot. That's pretty much the daily minimum you want to be using with those 2 pot sizes. I would cut out all of the extra stuff and start feeding the base nutes at 3/4th strength. If this issue continues, there won't be enough healthy leaves to get the plants to harvest. I doubt it's a ph issue as there aren't any rust spots on the leaves that I can see. Your plants look exactly like what classic under fed plants will look like.

Thank you for the feed back it's greatly appreciated. I was feeding that much bc I wasn't sure about run off amounts. The gallon between the two was giving me some pot run off and I've read so many contradictory things about having runoff when Im watering. When I water them tomorrow morning what do you recommend amount wise per pot?

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

The plants are feeding off of the leaves more than they are feeding through the soil and bottled nutes. 1 gallon of water between 2 plants is not a lot. That's pretty much the daily minimum you want to be using with those 2 pot sizes. I would cut out all of the extra stuff and start feeding the base nutes at 3/4th strength. If this issue continues, there won't be enough healthy leaves to get the plants to harvest. I doubt it's a ph issue as there aren't any rust spots on the leaves that I can see. Your plants look exactly like what classic under fed plants will look like.

I tell people all the time "If you want to grow in soil do it in True Living Soil. Skip the salts." Preaching done!

Did you add perlite or other expanded rock? If so when you water it may be channeling like a river right out the bottom of the pot without really wetting the soil. I say that because 1/2 gallon is not much in a 5 gallon pot to get run-off. Maybe you only filled it to 3 gallons of soil?

To answer your question about watering I have a method that works intuitive after a while. What you need to learn about watering will come with practice. Here are the basic rules: Never let the soil dry out. Soil and or coco can become hydrophobic if allowed to dry. This means it repels water. This in turn will create dry pockets in the soil and the roots and microbes there will die. If your soil - coco have accidentally dried out use a surfactant to help re-wet it. I like yucca powder. Don't let soil remain soggy by watering too much too often. Root rot, damping off, molds, fungus gnats and other problems start in soggy soil. When you do water water the entire pot. How to learn when to water starts before you plant the seed. Fill your container with fresh soil/coco and weigh it (heft it) this is the lightest weight and consider it a dry pot. Now slowly water until the soil/coco will no longer absorb the water and run-off begins; weigh the pot (heft it) this is the maximum water, the wettest the pot can get. The difference between wettest and driest is the maximum water weight, for ease of explanation lets just say the water weighs 20 pounds. When the pot loses 10 pounds (half of the water weight) it is time to water again. There is an art to watering.

Fertigation is watering with nutrients along for the ride. Pre-charged soils have an exhaustion point? The farmer needs to know what that looks like before the need is great. I tell you truthfully - that is hard to do even for me. So in the precharged soil we only know the plant is hungry but not for what so feed the entire balanced spectrum and hope for the best