Just entered flowering, now the problems come...

Hey all, so some of you may have read my other post. Basically I'm using 5 CFL's in a small closet area to produce as quickly and as cheaply as possible. I planted on April 2nd and I'm moving out of my place on June 30th, so that is the latest possible harvest date.

My plants faced a bit of struggles along the way but as of last Friday my 2 Indicas were looking fantastic with plenty of baby buds (see pics) and my Sativa was beginning to show it was a female (although it's so lanky that I have a problem with it growing into the lights.)

I leave every weekend and when I came back I'm beginning to notice some yellowing on all of the plants, not to mention the leaf tips are all brown and some are drooping at the tip. Some of the leaves at the bottom of the plant are beginning to turn yellow, wilt, and fall off. The ones near the top are mostly all still green.

I have not been using nutes, just Fox Farms Ocean Forest mixed with Vermiculite and a dash of Epsom Salt.

The temperatures are a little warm in my closet and probably average something around 82 degrees once they've warmed up.

1. What could be causing my leaf tips to turn brown and even droop?
2. Could this be the same thing that is causing some yellowing, and if not what could be the cause of this additional symptom?
3. As my soil settles after repeated watering, I notice I have a bit more room in the pots, would topping them off with more Fox Farms Ocean Forest be a cheap way to supplement nutes?
4. My pots all have trays attached to them at the bottom, I had left these trays "closed" so that only 3 of the six holes were exposed, should I remove them completely so that water doesn't sit? (I leave the plants for 3-4 days every weekend so they would not likely have any water sitting in the bottom if I removed the trays.
5. I just replaced my small desk fan blowing at my plants with a large house-fan blowing at the wall (away from the plants,) but the plants seem to be moving around more, is this okay or do you want the fan aimed at the plants/lights for direct cooling?
6. Is it okay to cut a fan leaf in half if one of the "fingers" on the leaf has died or shown spots/wilted? Or is it just better to remove the entire leaf? Or just wait for it to fall off?

might be time to try some bloom nute's at about 600 ppm with 6.8 ph.

Dive:stoned:

Can you explain to me how this would help? I'm a newb I guess I forgot to mention that.

I haven't been checking the PH of my water but it's gotten my plants this far so... just assuming it's good.

At this point you've used up alot of the nutrient that was in your soil,so it's time to add some,and of course if your gonna mix nute's you wanna check your PH.

Dive:stoned:

Cool. Thanks Dive.

What are your thoughts on topping off my pots with more FFoF soil? I have a lot left and I'm moving so I'm looking to use it.

Yea top them off,you'll get a lil more nute out of it and certainly wont hurt anything.You still prolly need to add some nute's tho.

Dive:stoned:

yeah add nutes or ull c alot more yellowing but they will yellow anyway a lil from flowering

What type of nutes do you recommend? I am very pleased with the Fox Farms product I've used so far but would prefer something organic and as forgiving as possible.

I typically water the plants 1 cup of warm tap water daily right at the middle of their light cycle. When I leave on the weekends I usually double that dosage, or just keep pouring until I see water spill out thru the crack between the tray and the pot itself.

the same exact thing is happening to me right now, I just transplanted into a bigger pot to see if that fixes the yellowing but I'm also going to add some flowering nutes to see if that helps.

fox farm nutes are amazing. i don't have anything to compare them to except miracle grow....and that is no comparison.

overwatering could be a problem. you shouldn't need to water everyday. if you do then it's time to transplant. use your thumb and index finger on each hand, pick up the pot and bounce it up and down a few times. do this when they are wet and when they are dry. you should feel the difference. when they are dry, water.

you should water until you get a little runoff out of the bottom. cannabis plants like some dry too. so let them dry out pretty good before watering again. as they continue to grow you will have to water more. if you are noticing you have to water more often, then transplant.

the leaves on the bottom turning yellow and falling off are of no concern. CFLs have little to no canopy penetration. so they get no light. as long as the new growth is green and healthy then no worries.

remove the base of the pots. you don't want standing water. you should be able to visually see the ladies droop when they need water. this looks different than an overwatering droop.

as far as the soil compacting down, you want to keep it to within an inch of the top or hot air can stagnante here and hurt your ladies.

the fan shouldn't mattter as long as it is not damaging the girls.

you can cut the dead parts off your plant. they won't ever be repaired so you mine as well. not to mention dead leaves and stuff are bad as they attract other unwanted nasties.


-shake

Thanks Headshake, a few more questions.

7. If removing the base of the pots exposes some roots that had grown down into the base, is it better to just leave the base on or let these roots get killed?

8. My Sativa plant is growing much taller than my two Indica's. It looks less developed (no real buds yet just a few hairs) and every time I raise the light for this plant it grows up into the bulb the next day. Can I still LST once the plant is into flowering? It's burning it's "crown" so I'm gonna need to do something and raising the lights much higher is not an option.

dont even play that game with the plants. basically your sativa should be bent over and tied if you want indicas to have a shot getting plump & frosty.

no problem jed. now are you talking about little sauces that your pots sit in or are they actually part of the pot?

if they are part of the pot you can cut it off and then transplant the whole thing. the roots will find their way down as this is what they are programmed to do.

i agree with frosty. bend it over and tie it down. you want to have LST done at least 2 weeks BEFORE flowering.


-shake