Is this a Ph problem or deficiency?

[Cat]

I would be grateful for some advice about some issues I'm having with my first grow, two Northern Lights autos. I grow in coco/perlite under LED.

The first 2 pics are of my oldest N/L. She’s 88days old and is on a reduced nute schedule. I currently feed 5ml calmag & 5ml Floranova bloom @ 650ppm per 1 gallon water.

Her buds are packed with trichomes but the underside of the plant looks very light green and unhealthy. She looks wet in the pic, but she’s bone dry.

The next 3 pics are of her younger sister.

She’s 76 days old and just over 2.5ft tall. I feed 5ml calmag & 6ml Floranova bloom @ 750ppm. I’m also gradually reducing her nutes.

Her underside is also light green and the small leaves have burnt tips… possibly nute burn?

The larger leaves look like rust spots… possibly calmag deficiency?

I do a simple run off test that I found on growweedeasy.com. I test the ppm and Ph going in and what comes out. When I wattered at ph 5.8, the run off was always 5.9 or 6.0.

I tested the run off this week. The Ph going in was 6.2, but it came out on both plants at 5.3 and the run-off ppm was also very high. Is this what’s causing the problem or does it need more calmag? Sorry if that’s a little long-winded. Muchas gracias amigo

 

[namvet25]

Your girl looks great except that mess on the bottom that looks like fungus rot. Remove all that junk asp including any buds,branches leaves,or anything that looks bad.I would then rinse the entire plant with clean water to make sure all the rotted vegetation is cleaned off.After that keep a fan gently blowing on her to dry her out and keep fresh air circulated through her branches.Get rid of any infected vegetation you remove and clean and sanitize all tools you may have used and do not touch other plants until you wash your hands.Let us no in three or for days how she is doing.

 

[Cat]

Your girl looks great except that mess on the bottom that looks like fungus rot. Remove all that junk asp including any buds,branches leaves,or anything that looks bad.I would then rinse the entire plant with clean water to make sure all the rotted vegetation is cleaned off.After that keep a fan gently blowing on her to dry her out and keep fresh air circulated through her branches.Get rid of any infected vegetation you remove and clean and sanitize all tools you may have used and do not touch other plants until you wash your hands.Let us no in three or for days how she is doing.

Thanks so much. I've been defoliating a lot in there over the weeks and was worried about doing even more. I'm just about to get her out to do as you suggest. Cheers

 

[Waira]

:smoking: Hey Cat-- referring to your thread title, pH and defc.'s are very often linked, and by no means exclusive of each other,... defc.'s can happen 3 way's: a simple lack-of certain nutrient(s); out of range pH that makes the nutes become unavailable/unabsorbable; toxicity, too much of something, that again interferes with absorption, or messes with the chemistry,...

>> run-off test method for pH is not very good, for several reasons,.. there is an improved method and calculation for doing it here, and will give more accurate results vs testing straight run-off... doing this may not give accurate pH! https://www.autoflower.org/threads/is-this-a-ph-problem-or-deficiency.54129/
...however, that last reading does indicate overly acidic soil, if not reliably just how far off... and with high ppm, it's probably a salt build-up issue, and I do see some tip burn, from mild overfertilization,... not unusual this late into a grow, from cumulative inputs; I think a flush is in order, at least 3x the pot volume... test the ppm and pH after this and see where they're at. What's your water source, and ppm of it alone? This will dictate what, if any, pH adjusting to do with the flush water...
>> Some yellowing of lower fans is normal, even desired because it shows she tapping into internal resources, clearing out extra stored nutes... too much of them will foul the smoke if they remain in the plant after harvest! ...might be you have some light starved leaves shutting down as well, so like Nammy says, clear out the dead or nearly tapped leaves, to reduce mold risk,... From the deep green color, they might have been fed a bit too much N during veg, and is why even this far into bloom, they're hardly yellowing,... On second plant, I can't see the affected leaves that well to be sure what's going on, so get me

 

[Cat]

:smoking: Hey Cat-- referring to your thread title, pH and defc.'s are very often linked, and by no means exclusive of each other,... defc.'s can happen 3 way's: a simple lack-of certain nutrient(s); out of range pH that makes the nutes become unavailable/unabsorbable; toxicity, too much of something, that again interferes with absorption, or messes with the chemistry,...

>> run-off test method for pH is not very good, for several reasons,.. there is an improved method and calculation for doing it here, and will give more accurate results vs testing straight run-off... doing this may not give accurate pH! https://www.autoflower.org/threads/is-this-a-ph-problem-or-deficiency.54129/
...however, that last reading does indicate overly acidic soil, if not reliably just how far off... and with high ppm, it's probably a salt build-up issue, and I do see some tip burn, from mild overfertilization,... not unusual this late into a grow, from cumulative inputs; I think a flush is in order, at least 3x the pot volume... test the ppm and pH after this and see where they're at. What's your water source, and ppm of it alone? This will dictate what, if any, pH adjusting to do with the flush water...
>> Some yellowing of lower fans is normal, even desired because it shows she tapping into internal resources, clearing out extra stored nutes... too much of them will foul the smoke if they remain in the plant after harvest! ...might be you have some light starved leaves shutting down as well, so like Nammy says, clear out the dead or nearly tapped leaves, to reduce mold risk,... From the deep green color, they might have been fed a bit too much N during veg, and is why even this far into bloom, they're hardly yellowing,... On second plant, I can't see the affected leaves that well to be sure what's going on, so get me

Hi @Waira many thanks for your advice, much appreciated.

The water source ppm is 310 and Ph 8.0. I rinsed plant with low nutes and the run off ppm came down and the Ph went back up to 6.1-6.2 yesterday and today's watering.

I also did as Namvet advised and trimmed away the inner bottom of the small plant and I’ll do the bigger one today. It was packed with underdeveloped buds that would never see light, but they didn’t appear wet or any rotting.

The leaves do look very dark green and someone said about cutting out N. I don't know how I can do that as they're only fed calmag and bloom nutes. I did feed too much Floranova grow in the early days, so what you say makes sense, but is there anything I can do now?

I’m willing to learn another Ph test method. Did you mean to include a link to Ph testing? That link you posted was for this thread.

 

[Cat]

I did as @namvet25 and @Waira suggested and trimmed away the underside of my 2 N/L autos. It wasn't damp, but the little buds were weak and pathetic looking. I can't trim anymore away from my smallest plant, but don't know if I've trimmed enough from the bigger plant

This is my smallest plant before I started defoliating. She's now 91 days old​

And these two are after defoliation​

I did the same to my bigger plant. This is before defoliation

 

[namvet25]

Great job Cat on the cleanup.That is one giant main cola and should give you a nice yield.

 

[jingo]

Very nice clean up! Loads of good advice here and I'm glad I've read through. I always recommend a double check of the PH meter. Some of what you cleaned up is what I get when my PH fluctuates a bit too much. Spotting that isn't exactly rust colored, may even start light green and slowly necrotize over time.

 

[Waira]

:smoking:Hey Cat-- sorry mate, my bad on that link! ( https://www.autoflower.org/threads/...-testing-and-ph-estimation.41733/#post-928975 )
....okay, water looks plenty hard (high mineral content= CaCO3), so good pH buffering capacity there... This will help with over acidic soil, by pH'ing to about 7.0 a few times,... looks like you're dialing in the pH and ppm already! These results, if they stay consistent, make the flush unnecessary just now... but if it gets off track again, I suggest doing one, with lower ppm water (like RO or distilled blended into the tap, 50/50), and a rinsing/flushing agent, like Clearex, Sledgehammer will help knock loose bound up excess salts and clear them out more effectively than water alone... do this for pre-harvest flush too,.... not necessary, just better!
.... nothing to do about the N, and you don't have anything to worry about, just make sure to give her a solid flush before going into cleanse period prior to harvest (no nuthin' but water for a week-ish)... just to be sure she taps out those inner resources well, which makes for better smoke! As for the Ca defc., if that hasn't progressed much, just stay the course,.. a little won't hurt things this close to harvest...
...great clean-up job Cat- ... it's good news that you found no mold/mildews; they way things were under there, it was an open invitation for them,... any cool, damp dark period may have caused this to just explode onto the scene,... spores are likely already there, as they are everywhere naturally, they just wait for idea conditions to activate and start growing,...

.... you're getting close Cat, time to start looking at those trichs often! The ladiezz look delish too, very nice buds-- dense and gummy with resins! ...you know the deal with this? Clear trich's= immature (always be a little of them on ripe bud, newer bracts); cloudy = ripe, prime time; amber = past ripe,.... most folks like a mix of cloudy/amber, depending on preferences... amber trichs form from the degradation of THC into CBN, which gives, in part, that sleepy couch-lock effect,... so, consider the strain (Indica-/Sativa- dom.) and it's general buzz nature, and your preferences,... NL is Indi-dom., so unless you want K.O. meds, take her with lower amber %,... I like my Indica's about 15%.... you can always stagger the harvest over several days, taking bud at different stages,...
Nice job Cat!

 

[Cat]

Very nice clean up! Loads of good advice here and I'm glad I've read through. I always recommend a double check of the PH meter. Some of what you cleaned up is what I get when my PH fluctuates a bit too much. Spotting that isn't exactly rust colored, may even start light green and slowly necrotize over time.

Thank you Jingo. I've learned so much this week, but I didn't expect growing to take up so much time