First grow (flowering stage only) with pics

I have the same issue Chromophore. Interestingly enough, only the T5 light girls have the yellowing of leaves. The rooted clones were having the same type issue as well.
I repotted them in....Gasp!...GOOD SOIL! Hahaha...finally stepped up to Happy Frog and bought some FF's "Grow Big" too.
They are looking better today. The point of this is Nitrogen....(at least I think that was the issue) which they got with the new soil and Grow Big. The color is improving from the very light Green already. Do your leaves exhibiting the Yellowing have red main "Veins?" You are way ahead of me in regards to horticulture, and it's just a thought, but maybe it's a Nitrogen issue.
Doesn't seem like they should be dropping leaves due to using up the N already...and the part that clues me into a potential issue there (in my case) is the fact the HPS plants don't have the same problem and the T5 plants are more developed.
Stands to reason the T5 lights have used all the N in the soil, (or something) that the HPS light plants have not expended due to development at this stage.
Beats me...ramblings of a Newbie.

OMB, you are quite right. Once in flowering, the plants work on using the stored energies in the sunleaves, they yellow & fall off. Dont worry guys. Just part of the natural process. Just keep feeding the bloom nutes. If you start re-introducing nitrogen once half way through flowering, you'll taste it in your buds. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Chromophore

Their stems are thin and delicate and I really have to be careful training or supercropping, as they snap easily, and they don't recover from the bend the way these flowering plants do. These flowering girls are Afgooey X Lemon Skunk.

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Nice job Chromo! Your skunky jungle is looking so big, green, and gorgeous. While I have no experience yet with final stages prior to harvest, I surely have read many posts asking the same question - is this yellowing/dropping of leaves normal? And all the responses have been the same that mama catbuds says - it is the plant using the remaining N and it's normal. I hope that is the natural process that is occurring in your ladies.

My question for you: In the quote above, you mention that the flowering plants "recover from the bend" or training easier than these plants do (which I assume are still veg'ing without reading back through the page 1 posts because I'm lazy) - are the plants better off training during early flower? I am learning about pruning/LST/size-controlling right now via reading books and posts. I believe, because I just switched to flowering stage a couple days ago because of fears that I will run out of room in my limited wooden cabinet, that I'm probably getting into the size-control of my plants late. I know I also started pruning my bushier, indica-dominant ladies late too because I was hesitant to start cutting them up. So, I don't mind being late on these things because I am learning and I will learn some consequences on not staying "ahead of the game" if it turns out that way. What has worked out for you for size-control measures thus far in this grow or in your experience with your lab grows?

Just to jump in with my .02, I don't even start LST'ing mine until they go to 12/12. They are a short and bushy Indica strain with close internodes so I need the growth spurt in the beginning of 12/12 to train. At that point my stems are soft and take readily to bending. Within a few hours the bent over tops will turn and head for the "sun" again, it's fast.
There is a window in the first 2 weeks of 12/12 that seems to be just right for this, though I will continue all the way until the end if required for space.
Bear in mind my plants are typically about 10-12"s when they go 12/12. At 1 month they range from 4"s to 8"s..... 2 month's about 8"s to 12"s from dirt. With a sativa strain
I would guess you would need to start in veg so the branches get trained before they get too tall and "stick" like. Either way, your girls look frickin' awesome!

Thanks Catbuds that is reassuring. OMB the dropping leaves don't show any unusual coloring out side if paleness. Often they have hints of light damage and I think they're really old fan leaves that used to be on top weeks and weeks ago. I also thin stuff out from that zone routinely because I do have a few small tops that are trying to get up through the canopy. I watch these close for herms but so far they look normal. But often the leaves that fall are completely dried up and curled. It's weird because I never see one on its way to such a state, they just suddenly appear. I'm leaning on what Catbuds and others on the forum have stated that this is all fairly normal at this stage (4 weeks flower). Some of it could be fallout from my mishap last week when I left the UVB lights on for 24 hrs. But curiously, the leaves and buds closest to the UV bulbs show absolutely no signs of distress. So, I think I'm over-reacting to a normal process.

d00g I am of the belief that training/pruning/shaping in all horticultural contexts is an art more than a science. It takes a lot of practice, patience and careful observation. I expect this is true with Cannabis. Maybe even more so. With my AfgooeyXLemon Skunk plants, the stems were tough even at an early age, and supercropping was hard simply because the fibers were so dense. I actually had to use pliers and a soft cloth at times. I supercropped from the time the produced their first mature leaves. At the time I had no good reason to do this other than I wanted to practice. I have heard everything under the sun about the "right" time to start doing this, and I have waded into several contentious arguments (in other forums) about the dos and don't s of SC during flower ( some say no way because it saps energy from the plant, others say yes way because as OMB points out the first two weeks can have rapid vertical growth). But what I see now is that most of the SC scars are like solid wood and the direction of the stem ultimately didn't change much. That's what I mean by "recovering". This batch in veg (the Purple Wreck X Lemon Skunk) have more delicate stem at the same age, and "take well" to the SC in the sense that the stem direction clearly becomes horizontal-ish and stays that way. But I have broke a few and bent a couple so severely that they can't seem to hold their own weight. This may be a varietal issue, or it may be conditions because I vegged the AF X LS batch under 420W T5 in a warm room (74F-84F), and the PW X LS batch is vegging under 400W MH in a relatively cool room (64F-72F). Most likely it is a combination of factors. In the lab, I top and prune to train my plants. With Cannabis I avoided this because I couldn't deal with the thought of losing what might end up being a huge cola in the end. But topping does seem to be a more direct and controllable way to train.

I'll have to take some pics of the Purple Wreck X Lemon Skunk plants in veg. They are really quite beautiful in appearance. They are short and "bushy", but very open and delicate, almost like a Japanese maple. The leaves are rich lime green shading into blues and purples.

OMB, ive done what you are suggesting and my results were poor, light & leafy buds, they looked fat and thick, but it wasn't. I did it as an experiment and from what I can tell, is it stunned the flower cycle tremendously because the plant had to heal it self then revert back in to a flower stage all at the same time. so as its healing its also producing buds,, which in turn created leafy buds, aka swag

but it could have been the strain who knows, every plant & grow is different

I also have purple wreck! this shit smells killer!

growdemon the plants from that cross are not only pretty the smell just from the vegetation is heavenly. Super citrus with spice. I can't wait to bud those plants.

This is one of the Purple Wreck X Lemon Skunk females currently in veg, at about 6 weeks. She measures 34 inches tall by 37 inches wide. Note the squat but open and airy habit, and the thin branches. I suspect that without supercropping it would have more of a squat "Christmas Tree" appearance.Attachment 297022

Close-up of the growth. Complex, but actually quite open. Attachment 297023 Close-up of some of the supercropped laterals. You can see the bend scars in the mid/lower right area. Note how the branch has now assumed a nearly horizontal habit. I was never able to achieve this with the Afgooey X Lemon Skunk plants ( the ones currently flowering). Attachment 297024

yup!!
I FIM;d one of my purple wrecks and it just Loved the crap out of that