Well, we are into the slow period of flower, so I have reduced a couple weeks into a couple posts…
July 8
Lets start with a fresh young bud shot…!
July 11
Here is Northern Lights #1 starting to stack
You can see we are getting some development
July 14
The family shot
July 20
Trichome closeups
ZOOOOMMM…
The Art shot
Trichomes are well developed seeing as we are supposed to have 3 more weeks
before harvest
Plant #1 looks like a great yielder! 
Love the size of the nugs too.
Looking really nice mate, keep up the great work
Cheers Johnny
how are they coming along gpaw?
The lesson from this grow..
Trust but Always Verify - Complacency is deadly
So… Sometimes you begin to accept variables as constants. Sooner or later Murphy shows up & kicks you in your butt.
The setup:
A nice easy grow of autos in soil. Easy peasy, get them pointed in the right direction and hit the snooze button, right?
The problem:
Phosphorus lockout, setting in at late flower.
The cause:
The pH of my tap water has changed significantly – after several years of rock steady readings…
Well, that and Gpaw has gotten slack and hasn’t been checking all that much… like twice this grow - it was the same as it has been for the last 3+ years… Rock steady, never moves. Well, never moved – until it did.
I haven’t grown this time of year so maybe it is an annual event or perhaps there was some repairs or upgrades in the area…
Background:
The Peel/Mississauga water system has two purification plants feeding a common distribution network that distributes potable water to 1.5 million people. It’s not small… The measured pH has always been 7.8 to 8. I am using drops to measure so that officially adds (ish) to all my readings.
The play at the plate:
July 12
I’m noticing some minor but consistent tip browning, sometimes affecting the inner sweep of the serrations.
I’m thinking maybe it looks like nitrogen deficiency starting but that doesn’t make sense as we are 4 weeks into flower.
July 14
The main fans are getting hit… brown dead patches are spreading and small purple blotches that look like they are under the chlorophyll.
Further research strongly suggests a Phosphorus deficiency and after investigation I found my tap water was now in the low 7’s!! Which tells me I’ve been pHing my water well out of the Goldilocks range.
So, I had some Gaia Green Power Bloom (2-8-4), it’s a slower uptake but you work with what you got. I top dressed in a teaspoon to each plant (5 gallon pots) and watered with 7.5 pH (going the other way – in hindsight it would have been better to go with 6.5).
July 22
Phosphorus deficiency is spreading to all of the leaves. Watering with 6.7pH.
Oddly, the clover looks good.
July 24
It is not getting worse… So maybe I’m getting it under control… maybe…
Boy it sure looks like they have been whacked with the ugly stick!
Quality Procedure Update:
Always check the incoming and outgoing pH every day.
The results
The plants seem to be heading for an early harvest. NL 1 is going strong on bud stacking but slowing. NL 2 is just a few days away, she will be first to chop. NL 3 is in the middle, after NL 2 but before NL 1.
…Remember the difference between experience and wisdom
Experience is learning from your mistakes
Wisdom is learning from other folks mistakes…
Cheers
G
thanks for sharing the life lesson - at least it looks like you will still have a decent harvest that most would be proud of, but you will never make that mistake again… now on to the next mistake lol - it happens to us all and we all learn from each other here
Why don’t you PH the water to 6 
you have plenty of alkaline buffers to bring the ph up when the water gets in the soil. You will cover the whole range of nutrients as the pH rises in the soil. If you start at 6.5 it doesn’t give much oppurtunity for the plant to absorb nutrients with viability at the lower ph end. This could be part of your problem.
A problem I have is too much N in my soil atm, I am noticing the problems in others grows as well, when you have an over abundance of one N, P or K, it blocks other components from being absorbed. Craigson put up a graph in another thread, I will post it when I get on the PC it’s very helpful in understanding how everything affects each part of the food chain.
My daughter said yesterday that our water was tasting different, I will check it today as well, you don’t expect municipal water to change its PH out of the tap, as it’s usually all computerized and monitored by sensors here.
edit heres the graph. My high N is causing a potassium problem atm.
Magnesium and Phosphate are absorbed between PH 6-7 starting at PH 6.5 I dont think the plant is getting time to absorb enough P, might be worth dropping it a bit and see what happens, can’t make it any worse buddy.
Hi @monkeyman, most folks first inclination would be to sweep it under the rug but I learned long ago to throw it out there as an object lesson for the team.
I’ll do a photo shoot to document them today as we are getting close to chop, the buds are still growing - slowing to a crawl.
Hi @Shadey I know what you mean about the nitrogen, it throws other macros off. I had the same issue on a previous grow.
I was adjusting the pH down to low 6’s. This is the chart I have been using.
(credit to Nebula Haze)
There is a different one for hydroponics (Goldilocks range there is shifted to 5.5 to 6.5).
I know these charts are ‘basic info’ and now is a good time for me to dig into that a little deeper. 
I spent some time looking at Mulder’s chart trying to work out the antagonisms. There is a lot of potential interplay there…
Cheers
G
Yeah there certainly are lol. I think basically to much of anything messes with everything eventually looking at all those red arrows directions.
This pic looks more like a K problem than a P to me, the way its just the tips and edges having the necrosis. Some of the leaves look like have the high N hook/claw, you may be suffering the same problem I am it looks very similar only mine is worse 
Here’s mine.
Starting to develop.
Getting a lot worse.
We are almost to the chop so last round of photos 
Here’s that same leaf, a few days later leaf exhibiting the purple blotches from the top. The blotches were masked by the green chlorophyll earlier
NL #2 showing top sugar leaf tip damage, but fresh pistils still popping out.
NL #1 showing stacking bud and heat stress. Tacos anyone?
Clover is doing great
NL #3 lower leaf damage.
Good bud development despite the heat and pH problems
Here is the group shot
NL #3 - check the lean on the node 3 bud.
Some good chunky buds there Gpaw, shouldn’t take too long to trim up, they are not very leafy compared to some strains.
So what are you growing next in there?
After the abuse they received I was pleasantly surprised they chunked up as well as they did.
So what’s next? … Funny you should ask… I’ve been working with @Swe-can on a little surprise… 
Due to scheduling that will kick off beginning of September.
Cheers
G
OOOHHHH secret squirrel eh lol. I will be watching with baited breath
LOL had to look that reference up!! 
Cheers
G
Did you not have the Secret Squirrel cartoon in Canada when you were a kid, I think it was early 70s
Now that I have seen it - I do remember - my younger sisters were into it.
Secret Squirrel stuff …yup… that sums it up perfectly! LOL
Cheers
G
A super snowjin
I want a smoke report on this please. Im auto-curious. Guess I just came out of the closet. 
