A little advice maybe?

[FannyFarmer]

Hey all, got myself in a bit of a quandry. Gots me a little garden, outdoor. I've been reading myself blurry here and I still haven't found a satisfactory answer...
Here goes,
1. my babies looked great right up until they started to flower, then the big fan leaves start to yellow and die off. This happened last year too. Made adjustments suggested, and STILL they do the same thing.

2. This year there's a twist, plants act like they are wanting bone meal, dark purple leaves, small buds BUT... not throughout the the whole plant, just on a few branches. Other branches of the same plant look fine, it's like there's two different plants it one. It's got me scratching my head.

Any suggestions? I realize that its the end of the season, but I'll at least know for next year.

yes...post this in the growing the good herb forum...not here

[v3d4]

maybe a nice mod or admin would moove it for us?

hi fanny,

1. my babies looked great right up until they started to flower, then the big fan leaves start to yellow and die off. This happened last year too. Made adjustments suggested, and STILL they do the same thing.

i dont kno what everyone else will say but that happens to mine too, but for every old leaf that dies theres more new leaves forming, arent yours getting new leaves?

2. This year there's a twist, plants act like they are wanting bone meal, dark purple leaves, small buds BUT... not throughout the the whole plant, just on a few branches. Other branches of the same plant look fine...

alright thats a new one on me. whats the origin of these plants? are they bagseed or-store bought?

[koshiva]

Are the plants in pots, or in the ground? If in pots, it could be just that they are root bound. If in the ground, it may be that the ph of the soil is too high.

And the purple leaves, can be genetic, or because of cold weather.

Free the herb

[FannyFarmer]

Well, they're outside,not in pots, the weather here had been great, not too cold this year, not too hot. They're bag seed, ( I know, i know, genetics and all but I thought I'd try my hand at the freebies before I went to the good stuff). Like I said, they all looked great right up until they started to flower. Good color, all grew like weeds, excuse the pun, and then they started to get wierd on me. If the yellowing fan leaves is normal, then okay, but it's this purpleness that's really gotten me confused. If I should chalk it up to crap seed, okay, I will, just wanted to know if maybe there was something else going on.
Thanks for all the info so far.

[kiWikkid]

The yellowing could be a lack of nitrogen, of course you dont want to feed it nitrogen because that will slow down flowering, thus, this fan leaf yellowing occurs in most maturing plants to varying degrees and is something most of us have to live with. It could also be a magnesium deficiency, watering with epsom salts can help with this, and wont hurt your plant if that wasn't the problem. It could aso be high salinity in the soil, which can "lock in nutrients", and is one advantage of growing in pots because you can "flush the soil" with water when this occurs.

According to Ed Rosenthal purple leaves can be caused by a potassium build up, which can happen when you feed multiple fertilizers. If you're only feeding bone meal which doesn't have much potassium its probably not that though. Also many nutrient problems occur when the pH is out. As you can see, even though it is a weed, things can still go wrong, and a diagnosis can just be a matter of research, more research and then trial and error. Good luck and fingers crossed.

[thcbuz]

cal-mag plus
sounds like a mag. def..try a high iron fertilizer or cal-mag plus. it'll stop the yellowing up from the bottom. it sound like they've got a basic across the board deficiency, except maybe for nitrogen. are you using the same fertilizers and nutrients to feed as you were last year?
hope it helps,
"Buz

[FannyFarmer]

Hey all,
You guys are all great. Thanks for all the advice. I guess next season (or maybe this winter, who knows) I'll just start from scratch; good seed, stay in pots, and all that good stuff. I figure this way, It'll be my third shot next year, third time's the charm right? Either way, last year with all the probs I had I still got almost a pound out of it and the boyf had a blast trying it all out. ( I'm wierd, I love to grow but I can't smoke it ) I'm hoping this year to get almost as much. The plants are big, but I don't have as many, and well, we'll see... Thanks again...

[kiWikkid]

To get a pound you must be doing something right. Potting was just a suggestion, not gospel. Just try a few in pots next time, as you might still prefer/have more success, growing in the ground. Why dont you smoke? Have you tried a vaporiser? Funny cause if I was to give up (actually I mostly vaporise these days), I'd probably still continue to grow as I enjoy it so much too.

[FannyFarmer]

***To get a pound you must be doing something right.

I love to garden, it is a hobby and I just thought I would try my hand at this. Oh, and a pound came off of 17 plants, four that were about 3- 4 feet high, and 13 that were clones off of one of the original 4. I had 14 cuttings, and 13 took. Clones were put into the ground late July (this was last year, I didn't bother cloning this year as I have 14 females). Clones were about 2 feet at harvest.

*** Why dont you smoke? Have you tried a vaporiser? Funny cause if I was to give up (actually I mostly vaporise these days), I'd probably still continue to grow as I enjoy it so much too.

Ah, I love the way it smells... but whenever I try to smoke I get so freaked out. My boyf says it's because I try to smoke too much at once. I think it's my natural paranoid tendency. (go figure, paranoid as hell yet I have 14 plants, half over 6 foot growing in NJ outside. Yeah, i'm a little nervous counting the days until harvest just to get those suckers DOWN)