Help Needed Please

[Grow a belle]

Hi all, I am desperate for some advice as I'm feeling a bit out of my depth and need to know if I need to act fast or leave well alone! Some background... I'm on my 3rd grow and each has been better than the last. I have 5 kids in 40 litre pots under two 600hp bulbs. They are in week 9 of flowering.. Should be harvested (I think) but I'm struggling with a couple of things... Firstly the flushing... They've had 8 litres of water twice in the past week but now aren't drying out at all.. Do I wait and water again? Or will they be flushed enough?

They have also grown an extra burst of flowers on the tops of each cola, these have now started growing new leaves on top... I haven't seen this, is it a good sign or one that means I've left them too long?

My stems are like trunks and have a bark like substance on them, is this ok?

The leaves on some are also now getting yellow/pale spots (not natural yellow dying off) they almost look leathery...
I'm really struggling alone and as nobody knows that I am growing I have nobody to get advice from... Any help is greatly received

 

[Papageno]

Each time you water you want to water until 10-15% run off happens and make sure that run off goes away and not back into the pot. Then you must wait for it to dry out completely before watering again. So for you first question no don't water it until it is dry. Depending on the grow style you should flush for a while. If in soil you may want to do it as much as 2 weeks so if you think you are close start flushing. Flushing doesn't mean just use water you can and should add some molasses product. that will help the plant use up the left over nutes even though the leaves are starting to fail and not do much photosynthesis. But other than molasses nothing else and again run it so you get run off to help actually flush out extras in the soil.

Some people say running it dry near the end ups the resin so in fact you may want to start flushing early and dry it out the last week. I don't do that. I like to use the long night period because the plant is most potent right before the lights come on. So I make sure it is well watered and go into a long dark period before harvest and that helps to slow down the dry and curing, having a well watered plant.

The extra burst of flowers may be concerning. If you did nothing specific to cause that (like adding Chitosan) then it may be starting to go hermi. So keep a close eye out for nanners and keep flushing and hopefully even if it hermies late you are going to harvest it soon and it is all good.

Stems looking like wood is the norm.


Leathery leaves...that is a new one...I am sure if you posted a pic I wouldn't think that but I don't know if I have heard leaves described like that. in any case you could have had a pH problem near then end...possibly do to rot rot from over watering and that is causing deficiencies (that would be like a supper extreme worst case..well not as bad as an insect infestation....). Likely it is really just end of life drying up and self scavenging which can look gnarly.

Maybe you can post some pics of the flowers shooting up and the leathery leaves?

 

[Serpent]

good read Villiageleldiot thanks :good job: Im in dark sleep now I'm harvesting saturday the plants will sleep for three days to stress them out and hoping to pop more THC whats your intake about this step some people say it works and other don't care

 

[Grow a belle]

Thank you, I'm a bit rubbish with technology and don't know how to upload the photos, do I send them to the public gallery?

 

[Serpent]

Thank you, I'm a bit rubbish with technology and don't know how to upload the photos, do I send them to the public gallery?

All good I'm the same lol look up top left see GALLERY click upload pic and its click click done

 

[MagicJim]

Thank you, I'm a bit rubbish with technology and don't know how to upload the photos, do I send them to the public gallery?

Photo Gallery Guide - How to Resize, Upload & Post Photos

 

[Grow a belle]

I've added a couple of pictures but getting ready to launch the ipad! Will post some more after I've had a breather for the help

 

[Papageno]

So the facts simple. Light degrades THC and heat degrades THC (that is just science). So it is best to harvest right after a sleep. It is best to not turn on the big grow light. Just have normal low intensity light during the harvest process. I am a firm believer in washing the buds. If you don't know about it there is a great thread on this in the harvesting forum area on here. It is like 45 pages long but you just need to read the first page until you get through the post by the guy who started this.

So I will have normal low light from outside the tent and get my wash buckets set and start cutting of branches and cleaning and wash about 2-3 branches at a time per hand and hang them to dry on the SCROG they came off. Then I will use towels and other methods to keep the tent at the right humidity for the slow dry but keep the fan highish to prevent mold and get good airflow.

Then you cure.

Sometimes I am drying and growing at the same time so I will put a dry box by the inlet vent to the tent so the smells get drawn into the tent.


The question you are asking about really is the dark period and I think there is something to that as long as the plant is properly set up to continue building resin. Like anything you can screw it up and think it doesn't work. Some people have flushed so much the plant is near dead already so it may not work as well but you should deferentially harvest at the end of some night period because of the very first thing I noted. Harvesting after the lights have been on a few hours is just shooting yourself in the foot. Obviously there is some upper limit to how long to go and I don't think I have read about anyone testing that in a scientific way. Many people claim 36 hours or 48 hours. I would be interested and maybe I will do that my next clone grow, Pull one at 12, one at 24, one at 36 and one at 48 and see if there is much difference. But right now I have not done any study on this. I just know you want to harvest before light hits it. I have even had Friends who harvest in the dark with a headband green light.

You want to dry in a cool dark place with good airflow, you want to cure in a cool dark place (some say the fridge or even the freezer is best).

That's about what I know. (Actually there are a few more things like adding flavors but not important..you can read about that in the curing areas. They have some decent threads on it. I don't do it and don't recommend it but many people love it. I don't sell my stuff so I don't care to make it designer. I don't even "properly" trim because you get rid of some of the best parts to make it look good and I like the best stuff and don't care what it looks like. Especially the stuff I concentrate.)