Hey all, long-time lurker here, first time poster.
First time growing, and been doing fairly well so far. Had some issues with spider mites, scale, leafhoppers, especially during pre-flower to flowering. Managed to get them dealt with fairly well with Dr. Zymes and Grower’s Ally Spider Mite + Crop Defender 3.
I’m about 2-3 weeks into flowering now with this outdoor plant, and I’ve been seeing more and more leaves starting to wilt/die like this. I had some potassium deficiency issues earlier in the grow which I resolved with some more K-heavy fertilizer, but I’m not sure what the issues here are. I don’t know what the soil is, since I inherited this plant from a friend who moved away, and they don’t know what soil was used either.
I’m currently using Miracle-Gro Bloom Booster (15-30-15) and Alaska MorBloom (0-10-10) at a ratio of 1.5tsp MG BB + 2tsp AMB / 2 gallons of water. This gets me an NPK of roughly 1-3-2, which I’ve read here is ideal for flowering. Previously had a higher N fertilizer mix during vegetative, but switched about 3 weeks ago. The water near me is fairly high in dissolved solids (300-400ppm) and relatively alkaline (~8pH). I’m (lightly?) fertilizing with every watering, and the pH of the mixture should be around 6.3 pH, but I’m not 100% confident on my pH strips.
There really weren’t any leaves dying off like this during later vegetative and pre-flowering, but now there seems to be some sort of issue going on. Does this look like nutrient lockout, a deficiency, or is the plant being burnt? The issues seem isolated to leaves that get less sunlight or older leaves, but I want to be proactive and get ahead of these issues before they get bad.
Thanks again for any help, everyone here’s been a great help to me so far.
Here’s some pics of how I got the plant from about 2 months ago - it was severely dehydrated and (in my opinion) has made a great come back so far. I know people here don’t like miracle-gro fertilizers and especially soil, but I had those on hand for house plants + my ornamental garden, so I’ve been using them so far to decent results.
Something that concerns me with this, and I don’t think my photos reflected this well, is that there’s a couple leaves dying off at the top of the plant (yellowing, then browning from tips inward). These are all fairly new growth, which leads me to believe it’s some sort of nutrient issue.
Best way to tell whats going on in your pots to run slurry test or compare ph and disolved solids of what you put into pots against the runoff. You would need accurate ph tester and tds/ppm/ec tester to do either. If you have these, check and see.
Good advice - I’ll test it tonight. Any specific PPM range I should be aiming for around week 3 of outdoor flowering? I’m in an extremely sunny area if that makes a difference.
