5 weeks into flower.... lower leaves dying off

I wish i could post a pic but i cannot. But this is my first successful grow and its been 6 weeks since i turned her to 12/12, all the lower leaves on the plant are dying off. The leaves up top are fine but everything at the bottom is dying. Is this normal. 6 weeks seems a little soon for the plant to be eating itself. I still have a ton of WHITE hairs with a few orange hairs. I thought the dying of the lower canopy would happen around 8 weeks. I guess it could be the strain but if anyone else has had this happen please calm me down.

Strain: Bagseed
Light: 400w HPS
Medium: Soil (roots organic)
Nutes: FoxFarm Trio with mollasses since the 12/12 change

Hey ipackedthisbowl4two, let me try to help out. I also went through that as well. Turns out, it was my pH. I was in nutrient lockout. Here's what happens:
You feed and water your plant, but never flush it. So after a while, the excess salts and such, build up in your soil, and the pH gets out of range. This range is between 6.3 and 6.9. Anything lower or higher will cause lockout for this particuliar plant. Meaning, it stops feeding. Basicly, you cut her throat lol.
So, you need to be checking her pH on a regular basis, about once a wk or so. If it's out of range, fix it. For lowering the pH, you can use white distilled vinegar, just like you put on your spinach (at least I do lol), and to bring it up, you can use baking soda. More acidic, is lower. More alkaline, is higher. My water is around 7, so I used about 1 TBS of vinegar to 3/4 gallon water, and it came out around 6. So when I watered, I also tested the runoff of the soil, and it was around 6.2 to 6.4. So it worked, and it saved my plant, just a few days ago, and she is thriving her ass of now.
You can buy pH testers online for between 30 to 200 or more bucks. Or you can find some plant pH tester kits, the one with the little strips, at a garden store. If you have a hydro shop nearby, go there. I am currently using an aquarium pH test kit, and it's accurate, although I didn't know that till the other day. But I don't recommend that. I only have it because it's all I could find.
Hope that helps. Test your pH, fix it if need be. I bet you are in lockout.

Eh, also. Were you giving her plenty of N during veg? If not, that will cause your lower leaves to die sooner too. The buds need the leaves, they give them nutrients. Bud says: hey, gimme some nute! Leaf says, fuck you, I ain't got none! Leaf then dies lol.

I did test my my runoff and it was really low..... so i put straight tap water which has a PH of 8 in her for two waterings and i tested the runoff today but its hard to tell with the runoff already being a kinda yellow color but it PH'd at a lil under six. I know they have a product out by FOXFARM that busts up the nute lock so i guess i'll just have to go get it. What should the feeding cycle be? I water with mollasses than wait two days than Nutes with mollases than wait two days and water with mollasses and so on. Any better feeding schedule i could be using? Up for any suggestions.

Pictures?

Now that I think about it i am certain i over nuted her...... i have never flushed her. A HHHUUUUGGGEEEE newbie mistake...

I cannot post pictures..... i know its hard to get accurate advice without em but i have no way to post pics

Thanks a TON allforit ...... excellent discription of what i didnt do ( flush her) .. how often should i flush to avoid this again.

Lockout does fit. Could also be nothing, week six is when lower leaves start turning yellow for some strains.

Well i would say its normal for the time frame but the lower canopy is dying off VERY FAST. Like im talking leaves going from being perfect green to crispy dead in a day or two. I mean would it hurt to flush her anyways just to be safe?

It wont hurt to flush, just make sure you don't starve them after or it will worsen the problem. Common mistake.

Leaves turning yellow and falling off at the bottom is perfectly normal dude, it may have a bit of nitrogen deficiency (this is not the end of the world either). If you have an eight week strain I would just give it plain water now till they finish. Just remember pot naturally turns yellow(purple,blue,red) as it ripens, If your leaves are all green and nice when you harvest chances are your buds gonna taste like shit. Just don't panic and try something drastic this close to the end!! good luck dude

Flush her now

If you need proof, look at the pics in my signature.
Since you have not flushed her, all those excess nutes turned against the plant. All the extra stuff in your water, whether it's calcium, chlorine, etc, they build up in the soil. And it becomes toxic. The excess nutes, become toxic. So, you have to flush.
Here is the way to do it: Check your pH once a week. Or every 3 to 4 waterings. Whichever. If it's low, fix it, if it's high, fix it. Don't be afraid to adjust the pH. I was, and I almost murdered my baby Estella.
Flush her good tonight. If you container is 3 gallons, flush her with 9 gallons of water in the tub. Don't worry about the pH. All you are doing is getting rid of the poisons already in her, that have built up for a month or more. Once flushed, test the runoff. Then pH some flat water accordingly. If the pH is high, use vinegar water. If low, use baking soda water. You can even throw in a 1/4 strenght flowering nute in there if you want. Or better yet, some root conditioner. That's the best. but anyhow, once flushed, water her with pH stuff, check runoff, and if it's good, then let her dry for a few days. She will spring back to life. I bet you have more than just leaves dying. You got buds that are underdeveloped. For sure. So go for it. Check my journal, the last few pages, to see what happened to me.

I think you just saved my ass..... lol My plant doesnt look as bad as yours got but as soon as you said i probably have under developed buds as well it clicked cause the buds started getting swollen and then out of nowhere just stopped and thats when all the leaves started dying. My lights wont turn on till 5am so im going right now to pick up some water from the grocery store. Lessons learned
1: Use distilled water
2: Flush.....(I still dont know how often to flush for my next grow to prvent this again)
3: Dont over nute

I will give a report in a couple days after i flush her out

Quick question....... tommorrow when i do this flush, after i flush the plant can i immediately add 1/4 strength nutes?

yes you can. i would flush her out, really good. water her with proper pH water. After the flush, it's possible and highly likely that your runoff will still be either too high or too low. I know mine was lol. So, when I watered her, (after the flush) I had to pH down the water, I used vinegar. So yes, it's cool. Flush, add nutes to some distilled water, and depending on where your pH is at, either lower or higher the water to try to make the runoff pH from your plant be between 6.3 and 6.9.
The only time you need to flush is if you mess up like I did lol. Although flushing is good for the plant. It happens in nature every time it rains. So it's a good thing. Check your pH weekly, if it gets slightly out of wack it's ok, just water with pH'ed water to make it where it needs to be.
You are most likely not over nuting her. It's just that the pH was never adjusted, so it's off, and your plant got into lockup. Let me know how it turns out!! I'm rooting for ya! Glad I could help.

Or better yet, don't let it get out of wack lol. pH your water each time you water/feed, and that way, it won't get bad. that's what i am doing, it's working.

no pictures = no help its near impossible to give an accurate answer