Buds drying out while still on the plant?

I've had this problem a few times, and I'm just trying to get to the bottom of what's going on here. First: grow details

Plants: Northern lights, 9lb hammer, and a few NL crosses I'm working on.

Soil: Black gold & perlite
Nutrients: Biobizz grow, biobizz bloom, cal-mag, and baking soda to ph (~6.5)
Room: 400w Vero COB light, temps from 65-80, plenty of air flow and directional fans
General issues: powdery mildew on a few plants, but very little signs at all on the northern lights. Most PM is on the 9LB Hammer. I spray Dr Zyme's about once a week when the lights go out to handle PM, which does *something* but not as much as I'd like. There have also been fungus gnats, but none for the last several weeks. Those got handled by green lacewing larvae and yellow fly traps.



Onto the story:

Every few grows I have buds on a plant go "dry" on me, where they lose their mass and look like they've already been hung and drying already, but the plant is still alive and buds even on the same branch are thriving. It seems like it starts from the bottom and works its way up, and doesn't happen until the last few weeks in flower when I'm flushing.



Here's a pic of my northern lights at day 62F, probably 1 more week on this plant. (Sorry about size)





As you can see, the bud at the top of this branch looks alive and full, minus some deficiencies from flushing. As you go down and to the left, the buds that have the thin brown pistils are dry to the touch, and the bud leaves attached to them are also crispy. Almost dry enough to smoke! This happens on lots of plants, but not always all of them. I just harvested 6 Sour Urkel plants today from the same room and only two of them had this issue.



Now, it totally could be a nutrient deficiency, but I'm suspicious that it might be my spraying techniques though? I admit I'm not always the most observant in the garden, but I didn't notice this until the day after one of my sprays this time around, and I got to thinking: did I kill the buds by spraying them and not rinsing the plants off? The tops all look fine though. Or could this be a result of PM attacking the plant? Or could this be something entirely different? Did I starve my plant too much and it's killing itself?



I'm not freaking out about it but I am totally perplexed. Anybody seen this before?

In my rather limited experience, this has been caused by root issues for me.

Soil? Hydro? Tell us a bit more about your setup and a typical flowering run.

Maybe the spray too concentrated?

Just looks burnt.

doesn't happen until the last few weeks in flower when I'm flushing.

Click to expand...

Too much water. Your roots are rotting. Exactly how are you flushing?

Root disease

BombBudPuffa said:

Too much water. Your roots are rotting. Exactly how are you flushing?

Click to expand...

1 gallon pots get about a half-gallon of water, probably every 4 or 5 days. Could be root disease. When the lights come on tomorrow I'll take a look.

UPDATE


I checked out the roots, and I couldn't necessarily tell what was up. I do suspect that overwatering may have been a factor though, like BombBud suggested. Perhaps there's root rot in the bottom where I don't really have access to.


If that's the case, what would you guys do at this point?

Don't water again until your leaves look droopy.

Fair enough. Is that all? I guess I'll just have to keep an eye on overwatering next cycle.

Add a little H2O2 to your water next watering as well.


Over-watering cannot exist where there are adequate oxygen levels in the rhizosphere.

Thanks for the help everyone! I'm about 2 weeks from harvest on these plants so I'm just flushing as it is now. I'll make sure I add more perlite to my soil mixes for drainage and aeration.