If any of you have been following my Lemon Cream Kush grow, I have not fed her in weeks. Literally for about a month now, she has been getting nothing but water. The farther in flower she gets, the more claws on her leaves. It started slow and has been progressing. Not on the sugar leaves yet. As far as I can tell, only the older fan leaves.
This is a Chitrali landrace crossed with a Skunk 1 to stabilize. I know this is not the most popular strain, hence not much info. I will say this pheno is very sensitive to nutrients, but I have starved her after learning that early on. Again, no Nutrients. Any input has been organic. Twice I have fed Dr. Earthās top dressing. Once for veg, the other is for flowering. For those who donāt know, itās a crumbled up hot mess of organic matter. I love it!! Fed Dr. Earth liquid Nitro Big after it was big enough (in the beginning) at half strength, and received burnt tips. No more nutes!
Temps are around 78 degrees. Humidity is around upper 60% It is a hot and humid summerā¦ Normally too hot and too humid ātacoāsā the leaves. This looks like N toxicity, but no N has been fed for at least a month. Probably more. Please remember this is well into 1/2 way through flowering. This has slowly been building. At first, I ignored the few bottom branches, but as flowering has progressed, it is very evident. But, it started with a few bottom fans, and has marched itās way up.
I have found mixed reviews on other sites. Some say itās genetic (in flowering), others say its the obvious-- Nitrogenā¦ I have NOT fed this girl N except the very beginning and it was Alaskan Fish Emulsion.
Itās in a cloth pot. I appreciate your comment. I let her dry out completely before watering. I forgot that part. Iāve been leaning that way but donāt get why it would be doing that. Maybe Iām missing something??
I would say flush but you added top dressings, so the more you water the more fertilizer is released into the soil.
Let her dry out, then really flush it, if its in a 5 gal use like 10-15 gallons of water to completely wash any built up nutes and saturate the pot completely.
Besides the drooping which is generally from overwatering it looks fine.
Okay. First, and by far most important, they look pretty happy overall. lol. Itās a good thing to over react a little, it shows you have a good eye for your plants.
If an organic media gets too dry you might see a little N toxicity damn near overnight. Too wet and you see leaves curling under, too, like CS said. It might be too much N in the mix, or it might be a finicky plant, itās almost not even worth chasing the problem. (Does look like high N and maybe high K, but that damn Dunning-Kruger chartā¦)
Thereās no going backwards in an organic system tho, no changing the res, no flushing. Only some nutrients can be leached from the soil, and some will stay the same, and youāll probably throw your ratios out of wack.
If you have record of what you put in, when, you can adjust your next run. For this run, just keep an eye on it and try to tell if you can see a pattern that might explain it.
It looks like nitrogen toxicity to me, though overall the plants look healthy, so your base soil may have too much nitrogen in it for the plants at this point during flowering. Nitrogen toxicity can be overcome in an organic grow if your soil is too āhotā - filter and pH your water and flush with ten times the amount water to soil you are using (5 gallon pot, flush with 50 gallons of water) to flush out some of the nutrient content of your soil and hopefully solve the problem. I am sure this is all old news to you but I thought I would add my two cents. Good luck!
I agree with Tiny Tuttle and Worcestershire farms.
Looks more like over watering, I have seen plants much darker than that, and be happy, so it may be just the strain not being able to handle it.
If your pot is drying out properly, then I would look at how compact your soil is. It may be to compact to allow air back into the root zone system, causing the same effect as over watering.
I would not flush if itās in flower, it doesnāt look too bad, you will lose all available micro nutrients not just N, and she looks early in flower so she will be using a lot of N in her stretch anyway now, which may solve the problem, it usually does for me.
Also when she goes into full flower mode, sheās not going to have any P and K left, which will take time to get back into the system to be available, being organic and she will stall out.
If they are in smart pots I would pull the sides down on the pot and see how compact your root zone is, if that is the problem, then on your next grow, mix more inert stuff like peat moss and perlite into the mix for better aeration and less nutrient rich soil. Use the removed soil from the mix like a top dressing of EWC when a boost is required.
Definitely looks like overwatering even though you say you let the pots get light. What is you growing medium? I suspect maybe you dont have good drainage and your soil is holding moisture
My two quont kush are doing the same thing im useing foxfarm ocean forest soil in 5 gallon fabric pots i thought it was nut dif but i stopped feeding and it still dident change i let the drie out and there doing much better. Mine have been in bud for 2 1/2 weeks now to i have other plants but the two kush are the only ones that this is happening to hope this helps goid luck
I think they look pretty much perfect and wouldnāt sweat that in the slightest. It might just be a genetic trait to curl like that. Note the āprayingā up top, the plants are pretty damn happy.
If it isnāt genetic my guess would also be overwatering. It can be tough to find that sweet spot between watering too much and coming down one day to find them all saggy.
What size pots, and how much do you water how often?
I was going to say that at first, but he said he had let them dry out to kill off the gnats, so who knows. I agree with @beacher though, they look pretty healthy overall, and though itās good to be tuned in to the plants, sometimes overthinking things can cause issues and its better to just LITFA
Yeah thatās why I said it may be the soil being to compact if it is drying out.
There are different types of organic growing, bottle fed and living soil, bottle is micronutrients and flushable, or living soil and macronutrients, which as Worcestershire said, is not really flushable, I am not sure what type Lunash is doing.
Flushing with a lot of water when you have a gnat problem, will possibly make that problem a lot worse, it may even be that the droopy leaves is fungus gnat larvae chomping up the roots, causing it to wilt a bit.
Fungus gnat problems are usually caused by over watering, I know from experience myself it could even be a bit of root rot which you can also check for by pulling the sides of the pot down for a look see.
Multiple problems are hard to diagnose in other peoples grows and sometimes you need to dig a bit deeper, pun intended lol, before doing anything and possibly making it worse. You could be right though there is usually more than one way to solve a problem
A mixture of one part 3% hydrogen peroxide with four parts water will help keep the gnats at bay (after first allowing the soil to dry out a bit). those gnats are the worst
I donāt know if being an organic grow I would use peroxide as it kills also the beneficial microbes and bacteria that helps the plant getting the nutes ā¦
Hydrogen Peroxide is one of the purest non-toxic natural chemicals, and it is actually found in rain naturally. It is a very similar chemical composition to water, with the exception of an additional oxygen atom, and the extra oxygen gives hydrogen peroxide its beneficial properties. As long as it is diluted it will cause no harm to your plants, and will kill off the gnats, but it will kill the beneficial microbes, but those can be reintroduced through teas the next day/watering
Thank you all so much for the helpful replies! Sorry I didnāt get back yesterday, it was pretty chaotic.
She is growing in a five-gallon cloth pot. Definitely not over watered because I have had the gnat parties in the past. I do think I have a plan of attack, thanks again to all your awesome posts.
1.) @monkeyman your LITFA will be step one. I have loved plants to death in the past, and try to under-do things rather than growing that route.
2.) @Shadey I am taking your advice in the future and adding perlite to my soil. I normally use Dr. Earth soil mixes but sadly, I canāt get them in my area anymore. I have switched to a local organic soil brand and should have added the perlite in on planting. Lesson learnedā¦
I was really on the fence about adding the top amendment but I figured I better get it in now because it is really just powdered organic material and needs to be broken down by the microbes. I will not be adding anything else now, besides Recharge, which is not a fertilizer, just microbes, and mycho spores.
It was frustrating me so bad because the plant does look healthy, other than the curling. Itās been well over a month since I added anything nutrient-wise into the soil. Also, there isnāt any burning in the newer growth or even in the clawing leavesā¦ One theory I have is that I have been slowly removing the leaves under the screen, as normal. Maybe with less leaves there is much less N being taken up and therefore excess in the soil? Either way, LITFA seems to be the best course of action right now.
Thank you all again so very much! I am so happy to be back on OG!!
Maybe Iām missing something??
it could even be a bit of root rot which you can also check for by pulling the sides of the pot down for a look see.
, microbes world is unknown for me so thanks for erclaring that ā¦ 