Help With Cola Size & Flower Development

[024backwards]

Team,

I need your help. First some information about the grow:

1. Indoor, Soil - 2nd grow
2. Tent 2.2'x2.2'x5'
3. Spyderfarm SF1000 LED lamp
4. Grandaddy Purple female......Today is day 1 of week 5 of flower
5. Mainlined her to 8 colas, veg'd for 8 weeks then flipped to 12x12 lighting. She has looked very strong the entire time. About 3 feet tall
6. Fox Farm Nutrients in use. Feeding 1x/week, she seems to love it
7. I Lollipopped her a day before flipping to 12x12 lighting and then pruned her at end of week 3 flower (per nug buckets tutorial)
8. I was extremely careful not to damage the female pre-flowers as I pruned growth tips during veg. I can see them on the mains now so i know they are still there

The issue is the colas are very small and I am not seeing any flower/bud development lower down the mains that would suggest they are going to get "longer". The colas are about 8 inches long, they look great/getting frosty, but seem small in length. All nodes below them are bare. I can see the pre-flowers but no buds coming from them. This happened in my first grow but I intentionally cut these pre-flowers off during prune, not realizing the negative impact to yield. I was cautious of that this time, in an effort to elongate the colas/improve yield, but something has gone awry (unless I just need to be more patient). I wonder if all those growth tips I am pruning away would become buds and I am mis-understanding the tutorial.

I'll upload a picture tomorrow. Thanks for your help/ideas as to what is going on.

 

[Sparkey224]

Pics would be helpful, so no bud development? Are u sure its a female? Especially after week 5 flower? Sorry, not really understanding.

Alot of variables here but one could be the plant being overwatered. Along with pruning all the time doesn't help depending on how much you are pulling off.

 

[024backwards]

I'll send a pict when i crack the tent in the morning. she is a female and flowering, no question, but the colas are small in length, maybe 8 inches or so. Below them are bare branches with female pistils where the nodes (leaves) used to be but are now mostly pruned away. In pictures of plants that seem to be grown "correctly" I see buds most of the way down each main. I am not pruning all the time but I did prune twice, once to lollipop the day before I flipped her to 12x12 light cycle and a second time at end of week 3 flower. The second one was pretty aggressive and is the one I fear was a mistake in some way.

 

[SmokingWings]

... the colas are small in length, maybe 8 inches or so. Below them are bare branches with female pistils where the nodes (leaves) used to be but are now mostly pruned away.

Pleas post the photos as soon as possible showing the area on the bare branches just below the 'colas'.

I was extremely careful not to damage the female pre-flowers as I pruned growth tips during veg.

I have the feeling that you trimmed off too many of the growing tips (called 'growth tips' at the "nug buckets" web site) that would have produced the buds and help develop those long thick stacks of buds that we all want. The new buds are part of what will grow from the tips but they do not from the existing pre-flowers.

 

[024backwards]

below are two photos. You can see colas but look how small!

 

[024backwards]

Smokingwings I fear you are correct. That last pict above at the bottom, you can see where I trimmed off the growth tip and left (too big of) a stub there. I "thought" a bud would pop there but all I have are these beautiful female pistils. So, nug emphasizes trimming those tips so the plant focuses on the mains and i must be overdoing it. Is there a time when you "stop" trimming those growth tips? For example, maybe I stop trimming them after lollipop/switch to 12/12 and let them come in?

 

[SmokingWings]

I see you posted a new msg while I was working with your second photo. The bud stacks that show in the first photo and they should bulk up nicely.

Good photos since they show what we need to see and they are in focus. I grabbed the second one and put arrows (red) pointing to the pre-flowers and then arrows (green) pointing to the growing tips that were cut off. The new flowers would have developed along the new growth at those tips.

As far as I can tell a Marijuana bud is a stack of calyx and stigma/pistils one on top of the other on top of the other with minimal, or none at all, stem growth.

Is there a time when you "stop" trimming those growth tips? For example, maybe I stop trimming them after lollipop/switch to 12/12 and let them come in?

To my way of thinking it is not a time, using any particular week or day, to start or stop trimming. Instead I look at it as 'where' to stop.

I pick the bottom of the canopy. Leaves, growing tips and any easy to get at small buds get cut off from that point down.

Actually, I do leave a few that I use to check to see if the plant will start to produce a few male flowers. If they do that they usually start with the lower bud sites. If I see any of those male flowers I cut or pinch them off and know to check again in a few weeks. Some plants do it and some do not. Those occasional male flowers are nothing to panic over.

 

[024backwards]

To my way of thinking it is not a time, using any particular week or day, to start or stop trimming. Instead I look at it as 'where' to stop

ahhhhh......so I need to leave those growth tips alone to grow, above a certain point on the plant. Bummer these buds look nice, probably cut off half the yield. Great explanation btw thanks!

 

[AdaminCO]

A good rule of thumb is after you’re heavy trim in VEG, wait a week so the plant can recover from the stress. You never what to transition your plant while she’s stressed.

 

[024backwards]

Good call AdaminCO, I made that note in my grow schedule for next time.

 

[nickeluring]

below are two photos. You can see colas but look how small!

You would have had long nice colas if you hadn't cut most of the buds off. Next time I suggest you mainly remove fan leaves when trimming.
But the mainlining is good

 

[024backwards]

Thanks Nickeluring, so close........i should have asked this question 5 weeks ago ;(

 

[nickeluring]

This is how you learn. Next time will be better. The mainlining looks really good.

 

[024backwards]

Thanks everyone, appreciate it. Super helpful.

 

[024backwards]

A look at what might have been….

 

[024backwards]

 

[Jose Tall Grass]

I wouldn’t touch another leaf until I was trimming after harvest