This is an Animal Cookies bag seed grown in Ocean Forest soil (and my first grow ever). Her leaves started really dying off in week 8 (possibly coincidentally?) after I started using the California Lightworks UVB (worked gradually up to 40 minutes every other day from 3' above the canopy). I started seeing leaves that looked and felt burnt. I stopped using the UVB light after 2 1/2 weeks but the leaves continued falling off. In week 9 the buds were very frosty...but 90%+ clear with basically no milky trichomes. Now in week 12 they look the same… but the sugar leaves are black and dry to the point of falling out or crumbling when touched. I feel like something bad could happen as the sugar leaves die “inside” of the buds, even at the current 38% RH with plenty of ventilation. So far only the leaves have been affected, the calyxes are still green.
Grown in a Vivosun tent under a Mars-Hydro SP3000 @ 20" above the canopy. Plenty of fans. Low Humidity through flower (average 40% ambient). Nutrients have been Earth Dust Boost with the addition of some Gaia Green 2-8-4 (for a phosphorus deficiency). I did also use Bushdoctor Cal-Mag, Recharge, Mammoth P, and Black Strap Molasses. My 2nd plant (almost a month behind) is looking very ready and I think I should harvest them at the same time but I don’t know what I don’t know. Thanks in advance for any incite yall can give about how bad this is. I’m most confused about the lack of ripening in the trichomes. I’ve read that this strain (clone only…) typically finishes in 9-10 weeks.
P.S. The plant has started smelling like hay in the last few weeks but anything with trichomes (including the black/brown leaves) smell like straight citrus when you smell it up close.
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I harvested 2 weeks ago and everything appears to be going well. I do wish I had harvested earlier and ignored the trichomes on the surface because the buds are much more mature on the inside. Thanks again yall!
Man I'd just harvest at that point. I wish there was more research on UVB, but there's not much.
You betcha.
I got one of those M/H SP3000 right as it came out. Great fixture.
If you have a smartphone, there are a lot of free to cheaper apps that measure PPFD and DLI. Might help give you numbers to work with to apply to what your plant is telling you.
Cannot suggest enough to monitor pH levels of your soil as you grow. bi-weekly checks so you don't have to see something with the plant first.
When you do these things and still have extensive grow times with plants not finishing, (i.e. clear triches), it's time to look closer at genetics or nutrient system modifications to maintain more of a schedule, if that's what your after.
At least, that's what I found.
Happy growing Growmie!
I have checked the PH/EC periodically before watering by slowly overloading one small patch of soil with water @ 6.5 and catching the first runoff. My results have consistently been around 6.6-6.9 range through flower. It was much lower early in veg when just watering fresh Ocean Forest soil with recharge (6.0 to 6.3). As a first timer trying to run full speed I did try making compost tea so it could be the nutrient lockout as you suggested (Thank you!) or maybe the plant was already at it's threshold of light (that SP3000 is potent). There was never any bleaching though and I never ignored drooping leaves. I'm sure I made many mistakes
Only thing I can imagine is pH got wonky and nutes got locked out? To cause the still clear trichomes? Or some Bruce Busby level effect from the UV light? But it sounds like you knew what you were doing with it, so, I'm not sure-