Buds already dried before harvest?!

[NotMeYou]

Weird, but the largest plant of the 9 going all of a sudden on Day 50 (call it a 63 day strain) all of a sudden got really dry at the top.

All of the leaves basically dried out and the buds are super crystally, but dry enough that they will crumble if I squeeze them.

The lower buds seem okay.

Yes, they are the closest to the light...right at the glass actually, but the thing is that there are 3 other plants that tall growing against the glass too (all the same clones) and they are fine for the most part...some dry leaves, but that's normal at this stage.

Hydro setup 400 watt hps Co2 ......

Any ideas? It's like it can't get water that high for some reason.

p.s. The buds are awesome....and it was really cool to just load them right after they came off the plant with zero curing, but I'm sure my yield got pummelled.

Thanks everyone!!!

 

[MediScrogs]

I heard it was good to not water the plant the final couple days before harvest to squeeze out trichs. Don't know why yours started drying early.

 

[EvilTwin]

NMY,
Live buds don't dry out by themselves...at least under normal circumstances. Your plant is dying off from the top OR that bud received too much heat from being close to the light. I'll bet it's the latter.

Dry leaves or buds isn't related to water...more often relates to nutrient burn or ph burn (or abnormality).

Do you think you may have had the light too close?
ET

 

[NotMeYou]

They are close to the light, but so are half the other ones (smaller ones overall if that matters) and none of them have the issue.

This one plant blew up big for some reason with buds everywhere. It is the only one that has pre-dried buds.

I'd guess too close to the light except the others ones seem fine and it doesn't seem that hot at the top to the back of my hand.

Maybe there is a PH issue. I check it pretty much daily and it keeps nudging up just above 6.0 though I try to keep it at 5.8.

Buds seem way weak compared to how they normally are, so maybe too close to the light and they aren't putting out enough THC. Or this was a freakishly big plant comparatively, but freakishly crappy in terms of quality (again, normally this strain is insane in terms of its smoke power, so it all seems strange to me).

thanks for the advice and feel free to keep throwing in ideas and thoughts. I'm going to go check them again now to see if anything has changed today...like are more drying out.....

My Co2 did go down for 2 days, so there would be more risk of heat issues, but none of the other ones seem to be having issues.

 

[EvilTwin]

NMY,
The difference between burning a top and not burning can be a matter of a few inches. So if only the really tall one was effected...well that fits the picture.

The idea of weak buds is explained by the light being too close. Light causes a breakdown in THC and excessive light would decrease potency. So that tips the scales...

Your ph sounds ok. If you decide that it was light burn, what I'd do is to trim off any dried dead bud and raise the light a bit so it doesn't happen again.
Cheers,
ET

 

[robbiedublu]

They're too close to the light. Thats what killed your top buds on some of your plants.

 

[jyme]

yes i do belive they are to close to the light and add some fans if you dont have any those buds were baked

 

[freeride high]

whats your RH?

 

[Hold Your Fire]

Check the stem below the bud for mold. Had this happen to me, the stem stopped feeding the bud above (where the mold was on the stem), top bud dried out, while the rest of the plant continued to grow.

 

[NotMeYou]

One day cure? wtf?

One day cure? wtf?

No mold on stems, but that is good to know!

I figure it must the be the light, but just weird that none of the other ones just as close to the light are having issues.

I think the Co2 running out for 2 days before being hooked up again and then that was a bad tank, so I had to take it back which probably was another 2 days in the same weeks w/o Co2 probably crippled that particular plants ability (for whatever reason) to handle being so close to the light.

The light is blocked by a glass as it is growing in a bloombox, so raising light isn't really an option.

I did let them get a little tall this time as I was trying to increase yield by pushing the size envelope within the constraints of the bloombox.

Only the very top of the bud last night seemed weak in terms of strength. The rest now all seems to work great. The smell is great. With no cure time. I kind of wish I could figure out how this happened so I could reproduce it. Drying them "on the vine" so to speak would be the best.

All of the leaves just crumbled off except right tight into the bud like it was perfectly trimmed and after they just stayed in a jar overnight, they are perfectly smokeable and just moist enough now to be perfect. It's freakin weird actually.

The PH was 6.05 today and the PPM were at 1700 which is a bit high so I dropped in a gallon (10 gallon resevoir with about a gallon light using fnova and kool bloom liquid) of PH water with low PH to take it down to 5.94 and left it there.

I left more sets of buds on multiple plants all touching the glass just barely.

I also had pinched one of these big branches that I took down way back when it first hit the top too early and it had bounced back fine, but maybe it couldn't get enough juice to feed the buds...it really did heal fine though, so don't think that's it and other non-bent ones also were dried.

That's all of the variables I can think of.

No idea what my RH is. Figure the Bloombox people have that dialed in.

It is seriously perfectly smokeable today and yummy. One day cure after 2 day burn session in growbox seems good to me.

I'm keeping half to go through normal cure process and see what changes.

Maybe this will all turn to hay smell in a day or something.

 

[NotMeYou]

One other thing.

I always flushed before because of the horror stories and since this came off the plant under weird circumstances there obviously was no flush.

I don't notice a taste difference or anything?

I guess what I'm asking is that I think getting rid of the chemicals is the main reason, but what is the bad taste that I'm supposed to be tasting? (Maybe I just always got non-flushed weed for so long, I'm immune to the taste...lol!)

 

[banscheee]

Like HYF said, I as well keep thinking its a mold issue. Plants dont just dry up and die within a day for no reason. Have you checked the inside of the bud, i know you dont want to rip a nice big bud apart, but you dont want to risk spreading a mold issue either. Open up the bud and look for a white or gray wispy mass. Are the leaves just below where it dried easy to pull out? If so id say...You got MOLD. ugh. nasty.

 

[Hold Your Fire]

Like HYF said, I as well keep thinking its a mold issue. Plants dont just dry up and die within a day for no reason. Have you checked the inside of the bud, i know you dont want to rip a nice big bud apart, but you dont want to risk spreading a mold issue either. Open up the bud and look for a white or gray wispy mass. Are the leaves just below where it dried easy to pull out? If so id say...You got MOLD. ugh. nasty.

This is where I noticed the mold. In a cluster of buds just below the main cola. Had I not spread those buds away from the main stem, I wouldn't have noticed.

 

[keeper]

Had this problem with some AK47 with buds thicker and long as my forearm. Bud rot + being to close to the light were my problems. Were your sugar leaves turning yellow and decaying into the buds ?

 

[Yes4Prop215]

this happened with my last crop, for some reason the runt of the bunch the leaves all turned yellow and the buds were really dry. nug was terrible quality, i still have no idea why that one did it because the ones sitting around her did fine.

 

[lysol]

Have had this happen on dying plants (overwatering, overferting, etc..) Harvest as early as possible after detecting it because potentcy will always plummet until you are left with nothing but plant (and all the THC has been ruined)

Although you could reveg the flowers themselves will not recover whatsoever

 

[iLuv2BlAzE]

It cant be the light because i have the same issue on 2 plants that came from outside so impossible they got burned i think the plant is just reaching the end of there lives. Ill post better pics later when the lights go off. Oops but i chopped that bud 2 smoke seems dry very very very sticky and smells of gas with no cure lol taste normal no green taste either there at 74 days 13 day flush so far strain unknown thats the mystery

Since we both have that same issue we can rule oit the light cuz mine came from outside only half day of light so impossible it burned... I think its just plant maturity as shes dying off reaching her full life cycle cuz i got many more plants and none have that so imma go with plant maturity reaching her life cycle. Anybody care to chim in on this