# 6 weeks into flowering and buds are shrinking leaves are dying



## noobiewithadoobie

First off, I have read about 36 pages into this forum and have had no luck with finding an answer. I am growing in FoxFarm Ocean Forest soil under 400w HPS with ventilation.....Everything was going fine until the last week or so. It seems that all of the buds/leaves were doing great. Sticky as can be, smelly, etc. I had removed a lot of the bigger fan leaves (maybe the issue) and the dead under leaves. Now all of the smaller fan leaves around the top of the buds are drying up, turning yellow, and becoming so dry they just crumble. The buds seem to be shrinking and I am freaking out! I have been using Flora Nova Grow for the veg cycle and Flora Nova Bloom (2 tsp per gallon), Floralicious (1/4 tsp per gallon), and Liquid Kool Bloom (1 tsp per gallon) for Flower cycle. I water/feed daily and always have. I have five plants and use 1 gallon of water/nutes each day to water all five plants. (To be clear, I am not using a gallon for each plant but one gallon to water all 5 plants) There seems to be more water in the drip pans now then before. It may also need to be noted that I have attempted a SCROG grow as well. I have the screen around 20 inches above the top of my pots. I did some training to fill the screen. I am not sure if I trimmed too much of the fan leaves, overwatered, overfertilized, or all of the above. I do not have pictures but the upper leaves on the buds are essentially dying from the tip inwards.The once fat spongey buds are now looking like the have went on a diet and are literally shrinking. What can I do to correct the problem before all of the buds lose their vigor? Everything was great until about a week ago.


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## Trent45

Well, you mighta stressed your plants out by doing chopping off those fan leaves. You should leave your leaves on, they grow your plant, phtotsynthesis is kinda important...heh.

As for the watering.... a daily schedule isn't needed. Outdoor plants go days, sometimes weeks without water. Simply stick your finger in the soil, if i's still moist, don't need to water.

Sounds like you mighta overwatered...so empty your pans. And leave them be for a while.


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## massproducer

I agree with everything except for just leaving them... It sounds like they are burned, so it may be best to give them a very nice flush and then leave them


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## Trent45

massproducer said:
			
		

> I agree with everything except for just leaving them... It sounds like they are burned, so it may be best to give them a very nice flush and then leave them


 
Yeah, this is true. I would leave them before flush though. Empty those pans(I assume there are still a lot of nutes in there) maybe see how it is faring the next day, if it gets worse then I would flush for sure. 

Whatever you'd like really, I'd personally wait a day or so on a flush. If the soil dries up and you see improvmets then leaver be, but if the soil and pans are dry and there is no improvment then I would flush. I just worry that a flush now might kill them or put them under stress they don't need.


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## Hick

massproducer said:
			
		

> I agree with everything except for just leaving them... It sounds like they are burned, so it may be best to give them a very nice flush and then leave them


.."ditto".. and removing those leaves, probably is at least partially to blame. 
Without those leaves, the plant can not utilize the nutrients, does not/can not transpire properly... Probably why you are seeing "more water in the drip pans", now, too. 

  You have virtually inhibited its ability to photosynthsise, grow. Resulting in over nute' and over watering symptoms.


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## andy52

sounds like toooooo much water and nutes.i feed my soil grows once every 7-9 days.i water lightly every other day.i never water until i have run off.my ladies do well also.when i started growing i constantly wanted to be doing something to them and it got me in trouble.i burned a few in flower pretty good.that taught me a lesson.not to over love your plants.i still catch myself wanting to feed them when i know dang well not to.thats another reason i keep a log on each strain i grow.then if and when i grow that particular plant again,i have something to go by.i would flush her now and then let her dry out good before doing anything else to her.jmo


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## papabeach1

should not mess with leaves..  its their foods too..

flush flush flush..   but sometime to the heat issues can swell the buds...

I have notice growing with flours lights  can produce tight  buds.. and no heat issues..    its how you do under your belt.. scrog it is good...   maybe good idea to smoke the sample.. maybe its time to harvest it..  but if you has not flush it.. please do..  for least 1 to 2 week... then that is all u got..
you messed buds' food by cuttin the leaves..   you should wait until harvest time to cutting the fan leaves and rest of the leaves..


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## Hick

papabeach1 said:
			
		

> flush flush flush..   but sometime to the heat issues can swell the buds...
> 
> I have notice growing with flours lights  can produce tight  buds.. and no heat issues..    its how you do under your belt...



Have you brought a plant full term, to harvest under flourescents?..


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## noobiewithadoobie

Thank you all for the relies. In looking at the plants now, the pistils are beginning to all turn reddish brown and I have not fed them nutes for the last two days and have tried to flush with plain water. I am curious if I should go ahead and harvest now due to the color change in the "hairs" or if I should flush for at least a week. I know you should flush a week or so before harvest to avoid harsh smoke. Any ideas on when I should harvest?  sooner rather than later to keep the nicer buds I still have?


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## Wiseguy_Chef

pics would help


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## Icex420

Interesting. Sorry i cannot help. =/


Please answer hicks question as i am growin and planning on a flouro flower!!


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## lisa

As far as my knowledge permits me to say I think not for any single reason this has happened but it was due to excess water and nutes and removing big leaves.


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## Hick

noobiewithadoobie said:
			
		

> Thank you all for the relies. In looking at the plants now, the pistils are beginning to all turn reddish brown and I have not fed them nutes for the last two days and have tried to flush with plain water. I am curious if I should go ahead and harvest now due to the color change in the "hairs" or if I should flush for at least a week. I know you should flush a week or so before harvest to avoid harsh smoke. Any ideas on when I should harvest?  sooner rather than later to keep the nicer buds I still have?



Harvest when the trichomes say they are ripe. -->http://www.marijuanapassion.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=18
At this point, "I" would advise to "leave 'em alone".. no nute, no water, no nothing. If you have properly flushed the medium with 3X the volume of the pots, with fresh, ph correct water, it will require a few days for them to recover.


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## noobiewithadoobie

Thank you everyone for helping me with this. I have decided to upload some pics for further review by those of you who are more knowledgeable about what I can/should do to save my first grow attempt. Here are some pics. I have stopped watering and have let the drip pans dry up and will look for any advice you may have to save my girls. It may be worthwhile to mention that there are (according to the person who provided me with the clones) two different strains. I think there may even be a third but we will just say that 4 of the 5 are white russian and the 5th is alaskan thunderfuck. Please let me know if there is any hope for rescuing these as I was about two weeks from harvest after tending to these daily for the last three months or so when all of this happened! Thanks a million to those who will and have replied.


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## omnigr33n

noobiewithadoobie said:
			
		

> I know you should flush a week or so before harvest to avoid harsh smoke.



This is not necessarily true.


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## omnigr33n

LoL those buds look so similar to my first grow on one of my plants.  It was a    heat/root bound issue for me.  I had to take the plant and place it outdoors.  It survived when I did this and I was able to get good bud off of it.  

I think my plant was literally eating itself alive ,so to speak, in order to survive the flowering.  My leaves would slowly go yellow and then just start to dry up.  But as I said earlier, for me it was a heat/ root bound issue. Good luck.


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## pcduck

I would flush,then just give them straight water, to see if they recover.

looks like burn to me and to much kool bloom. jmo


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## andy52

you might also have a nute lock also.a flush seems to be in order either way.it surely will not hurt


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## noobiewithadoobie

If I flush and that is the cure, will I see new growth followiung and if so, how long should I wait to harvest? I am only 2 weeks from my original harvest date.


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## lyfr

pcduck said:
			
		

> to much kool bloom. jmo


potent stuff there


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## tesla

noobiewithadoobie: I would like to hear what happen? Did ya harvest,flush, or??/


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## andy52

since you are that close to harvest i would not do anything except give water as needed.nothing else.plain ph'd water.maybe some black strap in it.


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## lisa

noobiewithadoobie said:
			
		

> If I flush and that is the cure, will I see new growth followiung and if so, how long should I wait to harvest? I am only 2 weeks from my original harvest date.



Good question. I 2 am eager to know the answer.


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## Wiseguy_Chef

Hick said:
			
		

> Harvest when the trichomes say they are ripe. -->http://www.marijuanapassion.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=18
> At this point, "I" would advise to "leave 'em alone".. no nute, no water, no nothing. If you have properly flushed the medium with 3X the volume of the pots, with fresh, ph correct water, it will require a few days for them to recover.


 

thats the answer to your qustion lisa

Harvest when the trichomes say they are ripe!!! 20% amber for lighter smoke, 60% amber for some strong lay u out kinda of smoke.


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## Ettesun

I have some that look just like that, except my leaves didn't dry up... but the buds are weird...  I have a thread in the problems forum also under 'weird razz' or something like that...
Last night I flushed, not once but twice... once with almost pure water and the next with ClearEx.  I'm going out to check...  but I went through this with the last batch... I thought it was the mother plant, but several strains are doing the same thing... It's awful, huh???  A couple of the guys think my problem is the mite spray... TakeDown...  and it may have gotten into the soil also.  
Look forward to seeing how yours do.  Mine are almost chopable..lol... new word.  I'll be chopping next week, so I'm hoping they will fill out.
Good luck. 
eace: ette


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## vermont_farmer

No, if you are only two weeks from harvest, the plants won't have any new vegetative growth. 

I would say that you should decide when it is time to cut your losses at this point. For example, if the browning die-off encroaches well into the resin coated leaves and buds. YOu might want to harvest sooner. 

Removing the fan leaves was, in my mind, the main cause of this die back. As one post noted, you have essentially removd the plants food factory, including its resin production, when the fan leaves were plucked.

So sorry about that.

VF



			
				noobiewithadoobie said:
			
		

> If I flush and that is the cure, will I see new growth followiung and if so, how long should I wait to harvest? I am only 2 weeks from my original harvest date.


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## IRISH

did you have a scope to view your trichs'??? the problem here is over-nuted plants to the very extreme. ( 1 gallon to 5 plants , mixed with flora nova bloom , kool bloom , and floralicious 'daily' ). this seems to be over-watering also to me. here a chart for flora nova.
http://www.4hydro.com/nutrients/manuals/floraNova.pdf...bb...


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