Sativa buds' late secondary growth spurt?

Hi all,

I've been growing successfully for a few years (mostly sativa-dominant strains in Hempy buckets), and I have a question about a phenomenon I've often noticed during late flowering.

Often when my girls get to around 8 to 9 weeks flowering out of a 10 to 12 week expected flowering period, the largest, oldest topmost buds start to develop "offshoots" of brand new bud growth - usually growing on the tops or sticking out of the sides of the existing buds. It looks almost like the plants have started developing new bud sites very late in the game. This new growth has new white hairs & gets covered in crystals ... mostly clear-headed ... pretty quickly.

I don't have any pix of this issue right now so unfortunately I can't show you this graphically.

Has anyone seen this occur before? Would stress of some kind be causing this? Am I actually flowering too long before harvest? Any info. as to what this phenomenon is named, & what causes it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Jumbo

Cow licks/ Fox Tails, they might go by other names. NORMAL! I dought your flowering too long. I had moved the lights too far once & forgot to ajust them back and got some really long & thin fox tails that you could see the stem in em. If you can see stem in the tails & they are airy then maybe your lights are too far, but if not then your fine. Just watch the trichs & harvest when you reach your desired ripeness.
....PEACE...BsB.

What may be happening is just a trick of the eye. Many sativas commonly have new bud growth continuously up until harvest. While the rest of the bud is finishing maturing, the new growth is just starting to mature. At the 8th or 9th week in your case, the older stigmas are obviously turning more orange as the new ones stay white. This makes the latest growth stand out most drastically and may cause what you are describing.

There are many things that can cause an actual growth spurt as well. These are often fairly specific scenarios such as the following. For example, a grower is overfertilizing during flowering. When the plants reach a ceratin size at, say, the 8th or 9th week, they finally are large enough to handle the amounts of fertilizer they've been receiving and go through a growth spurt. There are many other possibilities where the plants similarly begin getting or making use of what helps them grow at week 8-9.

Thank you for the information folks & for taking a stab at this issue.

BagSeedBoy, the lighting consists of (10) 30-watt CFL's per plant, most as close as 2-3" to the canopy & the individual buds are very tight ... so the lights are probably not causing this phenomenon. Good thought though.

Mothers Finest, good call on the nute increase. That may be involved. However, these new growth sites are an actual physical thing. For example: If you had a six foot Christmas tree in the usual shape & then added a few additional smaller trees growing horizontally out of the sides of the original tree ... almost like horns sticking off of a Viking helmet. Sounds odd I know but that's the deal. Hey, it's bud growth, so no worries or complaints, I was just curious.

Jumbo

While I don't know that they go through a growth spurt at the end, our sativas always finish with exactly what you're describing; the main colas having shoots of newly formed bud poking up all over the top of the colas, like white-haired crowns. We use a couple end-of-flowering techniques to help minimize new bud growth in the last 2-3 weeks or so. That helps to keep the amount of immature bud at harvest down.

I will say that plants grow faster as they get bigger, provided they have sufficient light & food. By the end of the second month they definately should be in overdrive.

Jumbo said:

Hi all,

I've been growing successfully for a few years (mostly sativa-dominant strains in Hempy buckets), and I have a question about a phenomenon I've often noticed during late flowering.

Often when my girls get to around 8 to 9 weeks flowering out of a 10 to 12 week expected flowering period, the largest, oldest topmost buds start to develop "offshoots" of brand new bud growth - usually growing on the tops or sticking out of the sides of the existing buds. It looks almost like the plants have started developing new bud sites very late in the game. This new growth has new white hairs & gets covered in crystals ... mostly clear-headed ... pretty quickly.

I don't have any pix of this issue right now so unfortunately I can't show you this graphically.

Has anyone seen this occur before? Would stress of some kind be causing this? Am I actually flowering too long before harvest? Any info. as to what this phenomenon is named, & what causes it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Jumbo

Click to expand...

I was under the impression that plants do go through a second growth spurt towards the end of flowering where the put on a buch of mass and density. Which I though was the reason for products from companies that boosted the P & K late in flowering. I know House and garden has a product called shooting powder that is a high P & K boost towards the end of flowering for added yield. I've heard of a few other companie like humbludt and some other having a similiar product for the same out come.

You are using to much P in your solutions and if you use it to early it will revert it back to the 5th week flowering

stevegmail said:

You are using to much P in your solutions and if you use it to early it will revert it back to the 5th week flowering

Click to expand...

Dude, what?

To much n-(P)-k will give it foxtails and have abnormal shoots late in flower if you use a bud enhancer. To early in flowering you should only use it late in flowering perferably only last two weeks.....maybe have dose in the 3rd to last week

This has buds starting to grow out the sides, one of them reached over 3" and was positively pornographic.

it could be that the breeder selected for that specific trait. if so, extra "top colas" is totally a good thing to be appreciated!

i can't remember the strain, but one breeder selected for a vinelike growth pattern and i noticed in a bagseed grow i did with at least 20 strains, one of them had whirrled phylotaxy which is a fancy book learnin' term for "plants branch in groups of 3 instead of 2". i also noticed that my hazeskunk had a "different" flowering pattern where it would do just a single bud at every short spaced node instead of the usual 2.

as a slow flowering sativa, it doesn't sound impossible that maybe it reverts to a temporary vegetative state and branches out from a node obscured by buds.

as long as you're not getting hermies, extra bud sites, especially at the top cola end should be welcomed. that's an extra 1/4 or whatever for ya.