Bottom buds losing trichomes/potency/smell, whats wrong guys?!

J

jaycerik

New Member
Hello my first time posting here but I've been growing cannabis for 7 years plus. I've had many issues here and there in the past just like everyone has but for the most part I resolved them or they resolved themselves. However, this new problem is slowly getting worse and its actually effecting all my strains and at this point. The problem is toward the 2nd half of bloom where the lower half of my buds are turning a brown tint due to the absence of trichomes and browner pistol hairs. I am currently growing a bunch of random seeds along with candyglue, og, and some of my prize-winning clones.

Here are the deets:

Growing indoor under cfls while cloning/vegg and outdoor for blooming (i usually do this gradually but since I have a lot of trees for shade in some parts of my yard I just move them to more/less shade as needed)

5-7 gallon pots with either Fox Farm ocean forest or miracle grow potting soil from home depot (i know alot of ppl are against miracle grow but the hydro store somes are out of ffof so this my 2nd choice and it works just the same)

Using hydroponic research VEG/BLOOM DIRTY nutrients at 1/2 strength with 1/2 strength of hydroponic research SHINE pk boost. I feed about 5x a week and plain water 2x a week. So feed, feed, feed, water, ect.....
(I don't really PH the water since the nutrients have a buffer to lower around 6.5 - 7 PH by itself and i've been doing this for years with this LA city water with no problems)

I also add BLUE PLANET kelp from amazon.com for $30 twice a week

I keep bugs at bay with greencleaner, pm with greencleaner and mildew cure from amazon.com and bt for caterpillars ( even tho i manually pop the tiny white eggs by hand everyday)

As soon as the 4th week comes the bottom buds turn kinda brown and seem weak and its affecting about 80% of my plants now! Its like almost no trichomes on the bottom portion of the buds. Smh

I attached pictures for reference

Any advice or comments are welcomed


**UPDATED CLOSE PICS**
I highly doubt this is bud rot fellas, but I'm open to anything

**I've also squeezed the buds a bit, they still fresh and smell like straight grass, no terpene smell at all and no musty moldy smell**

Gonna try to find a reliable ph soil tester kit cause the ones I get from home depot never work!

I think @Kalebaiden may be on to something cause i almost never add ph down to my water and these powder nutes may be throwing a micro nutrient off


**UPDATED SOIL TEST KIT AND RESULTS**
After the soil kit I purchased from home depot, it seems that my guess was right on the ph (between 6.5 - 7 [ which is kinda high but shouldn't manifest any problems so I'll lower it a bit anyways ]) but upon further inspection I can see that potassium seems lower than it should be. Phosphorous seems to be in the middle and nitrogen seems low. Maybe a potash lockout?

20200831_100631.jpg
 

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Kalebaiden

Kalebaiden

Well-Known Member
I see several concerns. The medium doesn't matter. The plants grew.

The feeding schedule is heavy. Plants like a solid drying period.

The pH is high and it seems like you're blocking a micro nutrient.

Which one? No idea, but there's charts and people that will know off hand.

I think a solid flushing with pH'd water (3-5 times the volume of the container) could remove the block. After the last flush goes through, give a light feeding with low N and a heavier focus on P and K and Cal/Mg. This should fix the plant so it can restart the flowering process in a healthy manner.

With your nutes, you should be able to figure out what to throw in a mix.
 
Star Dog

Star Dog

Well-Known Member
My 1st thought looking at the photo was bud rott I'm sorry to say.
If you give a little squeeze between your fingers you'll feel it soft and maybe dry crumbly if it is?
 
Coalcat

Coalcat

Well-Known Member
I was gonna say it must from some of the stuff you are spraying on them is affecting them. They look dead and fried.The lower buds are getting more exposure as the plant grows. How often are you applying? And I would apply as little as humanly possible when it’s in flower. It does look like bud rot that died and dried out...maybe too much moisture from spraying?
 
P

P10p

Well-Known Member
You're using way too much product on your plants by the sounds of it. They look fried to shit/chemically burnt. That or some kind of major note imbalance.
 
Maggs707

Maggs707

Well-Known Member
Jon Galt said:
You got the eye now.
Click to expand...
I hit them hard with Pyrethrin Bombs (Held the can and blasted them) and Doctor Doom Spider Mite Knockout. TOTAL ANNIHILATION. I haven't been able to find one living Russet since. And to my complete surprise, the lower buds that looked like they were dead and sapped dry have totally recovered. I couldn't believe it!!! So to anyone that's reading this; Don't give up on your girls! You don't need to strip all of your lower buds off. Kill the mites and the buds will recover. I was in week 5 of Bloom and I thought I was going to take a total loss. Looking at my girls now in week 8, you cannot tell that I had a problem. Color and Trichomes came back into the "dead" buds. And to think I almost chopped everything and trashed the whole run. Thanks for all of your input guys, you saved my ass. And yes, there's dog hair all over my buds, which is probably how I got the russets. Put clean clothes on before you head into your grow room. Always! Bonehead move on my part.
 

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