First Time Grower Mistakes, White Widow Auto, Indoor, Soil, 400W HPS+400WMH

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21

One thing I would suggest, is watering until you get a decent amount of runoff. Slightly concerned that when you’re watering it’s not enough, and to compensate you’re watering too frequently. Unless that’s a soilless type of media, then you’re probably not watering frequently enough. But I would water to decent amount of runoff either way.

I have zero knowledge of the flower power nutes, so hopefully someone can help you out there. I would say the dying of leaves is normal at end of grow, but you shouldn’t be that far along yet.

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Gotta agree with @dbrn32. Check runoff, at end of cycle the fan leaves turn yellow & die.

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@Sixpackdad Thank you for posting the Support Ticket!

Autoflowers generally flower after about 4 weeks and then need 8 weeks or more for Flowering. You still have 4 + weeks to go.

Actually not a soil and needs 5.8 pH water unless their bad indicates otherwise?

Roots organic Pottingg Soil Ingredients: Coco fiber, peat moss, perlite, pumice, premium worm castings, bat guano, kelp, fish bone meal, soybean meal, feather meal, greensand, leonardite and alfalfa meal.

What is your water pH in? 6 or 6.5 that is a huge difference in the world of pH.

You are giving 1 tsp of Bloom every feeding?

The reason they are yellowing off like they are is most likely the mismatch between the NOT Soil and the water you are using.

Mix nutrients and pH to 5.8 and they will straighten right out. The damage however is done and that will not heal. It may even get a little worse, but it shouldn’t spread to many more leaves.

At day 30 of flowering you are a little early for Boost.

Flower Power tsp measureSoil
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Hope this helps. Any questions please ask!

The Nute Chart you follow the last week of veg nutes until the first sign of pistils then go with week one of the Flower part of the schedule.

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@bob31 re: the pH - I have tried to get to 6.5 pH, however, if the nutes +/or the pH down shot below that to as low as 6.0, I didn’t bother to use pH up to get back to 6.5. If I did get below 6.0, I would just use a little pH up to get back towards 6.5.

Having said all that, it’s not something I have been very exact about. The roots organics website recommends the pH in a range of 5.5 to 6.5. Next water cycle, I will bring it down to 5.8 and try to be more exact.

Man, four weeks to go! The RB When to Harvest guide said autos were done in 10 weeks from sprout, so I thought I was a little closer to the finish line. I will reset my expectations and ratchet up my patience.

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@Sixpackdad

On the pH You need to be exact. Cannabis does not like fluctuating pH when it is potted.

If you dip into your pot and get out a couple of tsp of you soil and add 2 tsp of ph 6.0 water and stir it up good leave it set 15 minutes. Give in another stir or two and test the pH and let me know what reading you get. My guess is it will be somewhere between 5.6 and 6.0

Do that test and let me know what you get.

This is right from the ILGM Seedshop website

Growing White Widow

It’s important to remember that this is an autoflower strain, rather than a “normal” strain of marijuana. The term “autoflowering” refers to the fact that this particular strain of marijuana is not photosensitive. While other, “normal” strains of marijuana start transitioning into their flowering phase with changes in the amount of sunlight and the amount of uninterrupted darkness, autoflowering strains instead follow their own “internal clock.” They simply reach the flowering phase at a certain point, regardless of what the sun is doing.

This can be highly beneficial for many growers, especially outdoor growers that are interested in harvesting twice during a single grow season. Because they don’t need to wait for the hours of sunlight to drop below a certain threshold, they can harvest their first set of plants in the middle of summer, when the sun is at its peak.

The White Widow Autoflowering strain of marijuana can be grown in just about any setup, but an indoor one with more control is often recommended. It does well against diseases, and it thrives in heat and sunny conditions, but it can also do quite well in cooler climates.

White Widow consistently makes the list of best strains for beginners to try growing. This is due in large part to how easy these plants are to grow, but the fact that the high is an overall popular feeling also does not hurt. The plant can withstand a variety of different environments, as well as environmental changes. The hardiness of the plant also helps lead to consistently high yields, making it ideal for beginners (as well as for just about anyone).

If you are growing White Widow Autoflower, you can expect approximately 4 ounces of bud per 3 square feet of plants. The flowering time lasts between 8 and 9 weeks. You can expect the plants to reach heights of between 20 and 24 inches.

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@bob31 @dbrn32

For my worst looking plant (yellow guy) I added 2t soil to 2t of 6.0pH water. I got 5.86pH. I have not done this for the other three plants yet, but will.

To be clear on the amount of nutrients being added, I add 1/4t of bloom to 1liter of water and pH balance to 6.5 (sometimes lower as described earlier). Each plant is getting 2-3 liters per week of it, in two different waterings. In between they may get 1-2liters of 6.5pH water. They are not getting a full teaspoon per plant per week.

Yellow guy looks really bad today, its spreading to the top leaves. It’s the worst of the bunch but one plant (curley) isn’t far behind.

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If the soil all comes from the same bag of Roots organic Potting soil you need to pH your water and nutrients to 5.8

The old damage will not heal.

@Sixpackdad

Have you checked TDS? That will tell you if you are giving not enough or too much nutrients. I haven’t any experience with that growing medium so I’m not sure how long it stays enriched? Measuring the TDS takes the guess work out of the equation!

If you can afford it, I would recommend you consider one of these!

TDS Meter

https://www.amazon.com/TDS-Meter-Electrical-Current-Temperature/dp/B01EUD46ZC/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?tag=greenrel-20

1500 ppm TDS Test Solution

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001TNAA5W/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?tag=greenrel-20

I’d go ahead and remove any totally dead leaves. @Sixpackdad

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@bob31 My TDS meter died last week and I have one on order. I had only been using it to measure the TDS increase of the nutrient solution. You want me to test the runoff, right? I typically would water just enough to not get run off, which @dbrn32 indicated was an issue. I guess I have been oversensitive to the overwatering warnings. I am going to hit all plants with 5.8ph tonight and get runoff. I wont be able to TDS, but I will pH.

My yellowing plants have a lot of red pistils. From what I have read, this is an indication of maturity, but could this be caused by the issues my plants are having too? Two yellowing plants seem more “mature” than the other two. Bigger buds, higher percentage or red pistil, more developed cloudy trichomes.

What was the purpose of the test you had me do? Was 5.86ph of the soil mix good or bad, just trying to understand what that indicated.

I appreciate the time you have put towards my questions

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@Sixpackdad

It verifies that the soil is not actually soil but a soiless growing medium

Soil uses a pH of 6.5 and soiless is around 5.8

The TDS should be tested of what you are giving and what you are getting out in runoff. Then you can adjust your nutrients to the proper levels so you aren’t giving too much or too little.

As soon as you get a new meter check the water going in and runoff and then we can see where your nutrients need to be.

The ILGM Site lists flowering for WWA as 8-9 weeks.

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To be fair, it didn’t look like you were watering to runoff. And I suggested that you do so. It looked like you were watering to a predetermined amount, without consideration to the state of your plant. Apologies if led anyone in the wrong direction.

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@dbrn31 I was not watering to runoff, I was definitely watering a predetermined amount without consideration of the state of my plant. I do not think you led me in any wrong direction. Rather I feel steered in the right direction. There is a lot here that I haven’t been doing right from the beginning and I am hoping that it is not too late to save my plants. You and @bob31 have been a great help to me. I need it.

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@bob31 is going to be a much better resource than I for sure. I just wanted to make sure we were all on the same page.

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Sounds like we are? @dbrn32 @Sixpackdad

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Definitely!

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@bob31

Each of the four plants were flushed with 1 gallon of 5.8 ph water today. The tap water is 200ppm. It’s the first time since they were watered on Monday. None look worse for the wear and all dead dying leaves were removed from all plants. Smells like heaven in there. There was at least a half liter of runoff per plant. The color was like apple juice

Curley, Ph was 5.7 and 4340 ppm

Yellow guy 5.9 ph and 2850 ppm

Thin guy 5.8 ph and 2650 ppm

Best guy, ph of 5.9 and ppm of 1910

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So now we are Day 64 from Sprout and day 36 from flowering. So puts us week 4 of flowering / nutrient schedule

(Just going by the FF Trio TDS levels for week 4 of flowering the TDS recommended by them is
2100-2300)

Your runoff

All but one of those is below the range recommended for nutrients.

Before we go further lets double check this info…

Those are high ppm measurements. @Sixpackdad Are they all the same strain in the same size pots, same soil mix? They should all be in the same TDS range. 4340 is extremely high and the two in the middle are higher than normal.

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@bob31

I bought the TDS meter recommended above. I don’t have the solution yet so it was not calibrated prior to first use. I assumed it would be calibrated initially. I was suspect of the 4340, but checked twice in two different runoffs into solocups. They were approximate to each other…

All plants are identical WWA from ILGM. I got the 10+10 deal in two packets, and they came from the same packet. They were treated nearly identical throughout the lifecycle - same “not” soil, transplanted the same time, topped within a day of each other at 5th set of real leaves, 5 gallon soil plants etc.

Do you want me to reflush and retest?

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well the three with the highest number will keep burning with high TDS numbers like that. I would water the yellow and thin guys with plain pH water to runoff when they are ready and see what they look like then. The Best guy could get a light dose of nutrients but only about 400 more TDS than is in the water already.

The 4340 Curley guy is in need of a flush.

Do you have a flushing agent like Sledgehammer by FF? there are others as well? If not then 3x the size of the pot of pH water. is going to be the order of the day. Checking the last runoff.

@Sixpackdad

How long ago now did you water them? If it hasn;t been like all day you could flush curley tonight.

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@bob31

I watered all four with one gallon each at about 3pm EST.

Curley will be flushed tomorrow morning with ~12 gallons and I will continue to monitor the other two.

Thanks!

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The others should be a lot lower next watering, but if the TDS is high on them I’d run a gallon through at a time till they are at about 1800-1900 ish if that is possible.

Sounds like a plan! You can do the same with Curley. maybe after 3-4 gallons she will be better. I hate to say dump that much water and then it takes everything out of the soil. @Sixpackdad