Can Molasses cause a late stretch (6-7 weeks)?

[otherwhitemeat]

Guys,

I am about 6-7 weeks into 12/12 with some unkown bagseed clones in soil. I SCROG and trained religiously for the first 2-3 weeks. I use FFOF soil and PBP nutes. I used Veg nutes until about 2 weeks in and then switched over to Flower nutes at about 8 mL per L of H20.

Everything was seemingly going to plan, but 2 weeks ago I started adding Molasses and now my buds have added about another inch or two of spindly, stretchy growth. There's no light leaks and the budsites in most places look great and dense, just a few tops seemed to want to go for the gold. They are starting to fill in with pistils again but just curious what may have happened I am running a 250W HPS and although temps have been a bit high around these parts, this run is not drastically different than my other 3, except that I may have been a bit heavy handed on the Molasses (1/2 tsp per L). For this variety of weed, I've never experienced this stretch this late with my nutes, lighting, or other factors. Could Molasses be the cause?

 

[Pseudo]

sounds like heat stretch

 

[Microwido]

I doubt its the molasses. I used more and more until I was using 4 tsp per gallon at the end and I didn't notice any stretching.

I have never heard of heat stretch either.

Maybe someone can enlighten us.

 

[spyvsspy]

I've never heard of heat stretching either, but I'm PRETTY sure the stretching wasn't caused by the molasses. I've used up to 2 tbsp/gal in mid to late flower before and never experienced any stretching. The only thing I can think of is maybe the introduction of molasses gave it a quick carb/ sugar boost.......... but I don't know why that would cause spindly growth........
I'm growing with FFOF and using PBP nutes right now as well, using molasses all the way through, at 1 tsp/gallon right now, 6 weeks in to flower with 3 different strains and havent been experiencing any stretch.
Well anyways, good luck- spy

 

[otherwhitemeat]

Guys, thanks for stopping in to have a look. Maybe 'heat stretch' wasn't really the right term. I've heard that high temps can cause 'airy' or 'spindly' buds. But this really looks like they are going back into Veg. Not all colas, just about 4 out of 20 or so.

Here are some pics, maybe I should post this in the infirmary instead?

The only other thing I can think of is that these clones came from re-vegged mothers. This is my fourth run of these clones, but perhaps I mutated the mothers with the reveg? In the last few runs, I think I harvested too soon so in this run I've decided to give them two weeks more than the last time. I checked nightime temps and light leaks again, nothing. the room is about 70ish at night and is inside of a closed cab in a dark room!

Here's a seemingly normal cola in my SCROG:


Here you can see on stretchy bud and one kinda normal:



And here's a closeup of the late stretch queen:



What do y'all think?

 

[quadracer]

did the lighting cycle get interrupted at all? Are the timers still working? Are they still set to 12/12?

 

[otherwhitemeat]

Quadracer, I've been checking on lighting for the past several days since I started noticing this. Nothing seems out of the ordinary. Timers/lights all still operating on 12/12! The thing that freaks me out is: why some colas and not others? Like I said only about 4 colas are doing this, others seem to be doing great!

 

[MicroKrunk]

If they are stretching it sure wouldn't have been the molasses that caused it.

 

[l33t]

Make sure the lights arent very close to the colas , make sure your room is quite cool ( less than 26c ) and make sure darkness = complete darkness . Lower the light cycle to 10 hours . And lower the nitrogen ( you are giving too much N ) .

Even your normal plants look like they are 30 days maximum into flowering , so you are obviously doing something wrong.

 

[Pseudo]

yup thats heat stretch fo sho

 

[ithruxix]

I doubt it is heat stretch haha.

Anyway, listen to l33t he knows exactly what he is talking about. I was about to offer the exact same advice he did, but I was beat to the punch.

Your plants are re-vegging. Classic 1 fingered leaf, loss of of bud etc.

Complete darkness, no light leaks. Lower your time ON, to 10 hours, which will help insure flowering.

Good luck.

 

[liquidsblue]

most one blade clones will stretch a lot till back to health. try to get a healthy mother going for future cloning.

 

[Worm Eat Worm]

Hello,

I dont have as much experience as a lot of the growers here, but i have noticed that the healthier your mom plant is the nicer buds you grow out in the long run.

Like the others said they still do like like reveg plants but another thing that might cause more stretch is flowering is the fact that you're using organic nutrients with FFOA soil and you were using Veg formula for the first two weeks... Molases is mostly to help promote Nutrient breakdown for your plants so they can use the nutes easier causing less stress and making them take off a little faster.

I personaly dont use hardly any veg nutes my soil. It's good enough to take them a few weeks into veg. You might want to hit them with a light dose or two of N first couple weeks of flowering but being careful not to give to much so that its stored in your soil. Its a little tricky using organics because the Ferts release slower then if you were using chem nutes.

 

[spyvsspy]

I agree with l33t, too much nitrogen is contributing. The super dark leaves are a sure sign of too much N. I would suggest posting this in the Infirmary, there are some serious experts at fixing problems who creep around in there, saved me many times.
Good luck, spy

 

[otherwhitemeat]

Guys thank you all for coming by and having a look. Just to clarify: the mothers for these clones were already taken to full flower, then revegged for several months. I took clones from those and then grew them out. This is my second run from clones from these mothers and have never had this problem. If there was too much N why would it happen now (5-6 weeks in)? Why would it start stretching again this late? I've never carried over veg nutes for two full weeks, this was first. Last few runs, I had premature leaf yellowing (like 3-4 weeks in) so maybe I was a bit overzealous. The internodal zones on the stretch are starting to fill in with pistils and the bottom parts of the colas are bulking up just like we like to see 'em. I am just weirded out by the fact that some colas are affected and some are not on the same plant. If this were a systemic issue why would only some be affected?


I checked and rechecked the light, there are no leaks. I took one hour off the daylight time....just in case. And redirected my exhaust so that my daytime temps are holding at 80 degrees or so during the day and have been leaving the cab doors open to increase airflow. I also moved the lights about 10 in from the top of the canopy, but they're still stretching.

In my experience with revegging, when the start doing this they go from one bladed leaves to two, branch out and stop growing calyxes. I am still getting flower development and the buds want to 'fill in' but the top of one cola is now branching out and seems to have a mind of it's own.

 

[herb weedmen]

that is heat stretch..seen it many times before ..when theres a lot of heat it puts them into stretching ...and you are running deep green leaves there ,cut back on your veggings nutes and stay more with the hi potassium nutes..your soil holding time release nutes this can also be a cause for your deep green growth and stretching...also has the plant been shaded by others or is there lite leeking in..could be reaching for lite or could just be a freak of nature ..

good luck

herb weedmen

 

[otherwhitemeat]

Herb, thanks for waking this thread up. Just to provide an update. My daytime temps are holding at around 83-85 F., night is around 70-75 F. No light leaks in the room or the cab, I've checked literally dozens of times. I held back on the Flower butes for about a week, almost all leaves went yellow and I could tell the plants were suffering so I started back at 50% strength on the nutes. I shortened the day length to 10 hours and I don't think it's had much of an effect. I suspect this is just genetics. I don't think I am going to clone this pheo any more.

The buds that are stretching out are starting to form terminal buds on some branches (you know when the cola grows over with hairs and vegetative grows seemingly stops?) But he main colas are seemingly just vegging away. In my SCROG there are about 20-25 colas, and this is happening to about 1/3 of them, mostly the tallest ones--they are about 10 inches away from the 250 hps. Some others have stretched a bit, then settled down and started making nice trichs. About 5-10 of them are still doing this stretch. I know they're Sativas, but this stretch seems very late. I am at around week 9 and though I have a few weeks to go, these colas will likely just have to get topped and turned into BHO and I am goiing to try all new genetics. Bummer....

 

[herb weedmen]

are these from a mom or a clone of a clone or from seed?..if you continue to clone from clones you will find all kinds of strange things after awhile and they will loose potency after a bit to..i have some out door stuff thats stretching like this and they are shooting 3 blade leaves ,some with 4 blades..may turn to a herm on me but they are hairy and leafy at the sametime..kinda a strange looking plant.real stringy looking too..i just took a few pics this morning but i havnt downloaded them yet but i'll show ya when i get them up... what is the humitity in your grow like..heat seems ok ...prolly just a freak ..you'll get them in these strains now and again..genetics are twisted and crossed with all kinds of shit ..some good some bad..it like the strain you grow outdoors ..same beans from the same plant grown under exact conditions ..one grows normal and the other grows a thousand more bud site then its sister right next to it.. oh wait you said it was effecting more then one plant ..then there must be a cause for it..not sure how close you dare get with the lite..maybe a little closer ..i no they tend to stretch when you switch to hps from mh and the heat climb a little to but your temps seem good..you must be winding down here soon arent you..you said 9 weeks ..not sure how long it takes using 250 w lites ...can do a hole grow in 10 to 14 weeks right ...if its getting close then just ride it out bro..get some new beans and start new....


good luck ..be intrested in hearing how they finish..i'll be back..


later..


herb weedmen

 

[otherwhitemeat]

I wonder if the root system could have anything to do with it? Some of These are all clones from a Mom, third run of clones from same mom...First time this stretchy thing ever happened. Humidity is at about 40-50% in my cab.

The colas are pretty much still throwing out leaf sets, a few have started terminal budding but a few are just going and going even as the buds are all frosted up and most trichs have gone to cloudy with a about 5% amber.

I am just shy of 11 weeks now, and one of the plant's pistils pretty much changed all to red (still stretching a bit though) and all of the trichs are white or amber on this one (about 50/50). I cut this one down and trimmed it. When I emptied the root mass from the pot it looked odd....It's a 3 gal square pot and I use some broken up clay pot pieces to cover the drain holes to about an inch deep and keep the soil from draining out when I water. This plant's lower root mass (about the bottom half of the pot) was heavily rootbound and the roots had started to grow around the clay and out through the drain holes. Not sure if the clay played a part in this but perhaps because the roots decided to go roving, the plant started stretching? Maybe the clay pieces is a bad idea, or perhaps I am overwatering/overfeeding...But this is my third run from the same batch of clones (all from same mother) and I never had this experience before. Used the same nute schedule, medium, technique, lights...kinda stumped. I may try the next run without clay and see what I get.

 

[herb weedmen]

yeah those pots will hold stuff in the poors of the potery...could be something from that..

mine i think are herming atleast one is showing both sexs..mine also are full of 3 blade leaves..these are outdoor plants that i have that are doing this..

sounds like a little rootbound that your dealing with too..maybe a bigger pot is needed your next go round..11 weeks i would just finish up this ride and start a new ..i wouldnt mess with them to much and if your seeing amber then you may want to harvest those buds first and just keep growing the rest out till it plays its self out to the end..cant imagin it going much longer with the trichs showing amber...you dont want it going to far or you start to loose potentsie...

so howd she taste...and the buzz was ?????????


herb weedmen