I’ve been driving myself crazy trying to understand if this was normal fade or something else. I have 6 of these autos and they all seem to be fading on their own time. I would imagine this guy here still has about three weeks left. I’m afraid there won’t be any leaves left by then. Should I be concerned?
I don’t have time to dig into it, but this doesn’t look entirely like senescence to me. Perhaps a combination of nutrient issues and senescence.
Edit: you always want to remove dead leaves immediately. There are desiccated yellow leaves visible in the picture.
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What’s your pH looking like? I’ve seen the fade into purple because of low N levels before and if you notice top leaves show many symptoms while bottom leaves are light in a few areas. So curious about pH what your feeding etc. But pH, N, and Ca are my initial considerations. Autos can be very finicky and very from strain to strain pheno to pheno.
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I should have posted more info. I did it in a rush. Run off ppm as of last week was 2-2.5K and ph was 6.2. Here’s the long story:
I grow organically and use dry slow release nutes. I was doing a watering experiment allowing the pots to fully dry before watering. This is a no no for organic growing, but I wanted to test a theory out. Well, some leaves seemed to be damaged on the top half of the plants, but no consistency between those closest to the top and those on the lower half. Even some bottom bottom leaves were damaged. I interpreted (I think incorrectly) this as having killed all the microbs by drying out the pots, so I responded with top dressing with more nutes, an ecw and molassas tea, and another watering with light molasses. I believe the low humidity and low moisture in the plants caused some light damage on the leaves, then I probably got some nute burn because I don’t believe that all the microbs were killed at that point and they didn’t need all of those nutes, and on top of that I think I do have some legit fading going on.
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Sounds like you’re working through your own understanding. Def wanna keep the medium moist so you don’t lose your activity cuz it stalls the microbes out. Mmm I’d also fall back on molasses. Too much can easily assist with lockout. @Covertgrower may have some insight. I’d consider doing some plain pHd watering consistently at this point to feel her. Lotta turning wheels and they prob like 
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That’s been my plan of action which is just watering. So sad because this girl and on other have like twice the amount of frost as the others. Hopefully I didn’t stunt them too much. Should I remove the dead leaves?
My main question was about if there were “enough” leaves. Sounds like a silly question but there are so much that are dead. I know to expect that once leaves are damaged, there’s nothing to be done and they’ll just get worse.
Yes. If they crumble to the touch, always.
Like I said, I’m too busy today, but I’m certain you’ll get the help you need as others are weighing in.
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No worries I appreciate your time so much!!
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Sorry for the oversight. So here’s the thing. Use what you have lol. Best part about this is you didn’t strip her naked. I think she’s totally got leaves to pull you through. Granted you may eat them all up by harvest but who cares. Anything green will work for you. Anything other will try just not as well. I just wouldn’t do anything crazy like flush her but you should be ok. Take it all the way till it gets close to your buds. If she’s having issues with Ca which I imagine she is you may wanna dial the light back a lil to slow the cannibalization. Just some thoughts.
What is Ca? You did mention nitrogen. Well, I should have planned for that better. I really am running them pretty hard. I have two sp3000’s giving a pretty good 30k lux spread around the canopy. I probably need to plan for that next time with an exhale bag. This is my first run ever, so I just didn’t think that I would need it.
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Calcium. Calcium is vital to our grows and light and is tied largely to phosphorus and ability to withstand light intensity. In this instance I compare it to tanning. Go out on a 90 degree day for an hr for the first time all year you’d prob burn. But if you’ve been doing it a while you’re prob ok. So…if she wants calcium or has a bit if a lockout, light will bring out this stress and do it extremely fast. Reduce light reduce the rate. Lesser of two evils imo with what u got. Not to mention they don’t wanna all that light in late flower typically.
Very interesting! I’ve contemplated this evil quite a lot and figured I’d risk it by leaving the lights fully on. I’ll obvioulsy need to reconsider this. In regards to Calcium, I will defer to your experience. I’ve wondered about CalMag and ended up going to the nute supplier which is the green sunshine company to ask about their expectation in regards to calmag needs. Ultimately, I’ve amended with epson salt prior to this issue to make up for any possibilities there. Also, between the re-ammending of nutes + ecw tea, I would imagine it would have plenty. However, my lack of experience tells me I could be entirely wrong. Just next time, I’m trying to imagine what I could do better. All of this started with the ddrying out of the pots. I can’t thank you enough for your responses.
I leave drying leaves on for one reason. The plant is eating for extra nutrients because there isn’t enough.
Now once they are brittle…time to pull them. 
@richrich What is the distance of the light from the top of the plant? Some of it reminds me of light burn.
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That’s exactly what I mean.
Unless there’s a pest issue. Then, I don’t want any safe harbors for the pest to thrive in. I’m more aggressive where pests are concerned.
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Yeah, I’ve spent the past couple of weeks trying to figure this one out. The leaf damage seems to be mainly at the top half of the plant. However, the leaves of the top colas seem to be some of the last leaves to be affected. The light is 2ft from the top cola and about 2.5 from the rest of the canopy. However, there seems to be no relation to distance and which leaves are damaged. During this process, it seems to be very much either nute or fading related. I say that because it seems as if sections of the plant were turning colors not like leaves that were closer to the light were the ones that were affected. Now this is just my interpretation of the events, I fully defer to you guys in assessing the situation.
I am at a loss. I don’t have issues like this. My last plant zi only fed once. She kinda looked like what you are dealing with.
pH?
PPM going in and coming out?
Temps?
How much water?
Nutrients?
We need a lot more information in accessing what maybe going on here.
pH? In: 6.3ish Out: 6.3ish
PPM going in and coming out? In: 40’s Out: 2500
Temps? 80-85
How much water? About 3L every 3-4 days.
Nutrients? Earth Dust (dry organic slow release) outside of that, I’ve amended with earth worm castings and epson salt.
I’ll copy my message from above that gives you the long story. My grow was 100% perfect until I dried out the pots. Below is what I expect to be the “why”. My main question here was about just the leaves and what I needed to do to be able to finish out flower.
I grow organically and use dry slow release nutes. I was doing a watering experiment allowing the pots to fully dry before watering. This is a no no for organic growing, but I wanted to test a theory out. Well, some leaves seemed to be damaged on the top half of the plants, but no consistency between those closest to the top and those on the lower half. Even some bottom bottom leaves were damaged. I interpreted (I think incorrectly) this as having killed all the microbs by drying out the pots, so I responded with top dressing with more nutes, an ecw and molassas tea, and another watering with light molasses. I believe the low humidity and low moisture in the plants caused some light damage on the leaves, then I probably got some nute burn because I don’t believe that all the microbs were killed at that point and they didn’t need all of those nutes, and on top of that I think I do have some legit fading going on.
The PPM is way to high. The pH is on point.
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I suspect letting them dry out caused the damage to the leaves. I’ve done this accidentally, and some of my leaves have done the same. During flowering is when they consume the most nutrients and water.
As far as finishing goes, she will finish, but missing a few leaves. The PPM I don’t worry about with organic growing, they often have very high numbers going in, and never watered to run off.
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