Foxtailing? Pretty sure, but what should I do?

[Nothingshocking]

So this is my ILGM Zkittlez auto. She is 10 weeks old, and has been flowering for 6 weeks.

I check her every day, and today I saw that the tip of the cola appears to be bleached, and the plant matter at the top of the cola has changed from hairs and glands to something different. I’ve heard of foxtailing on this site, and checked some pics and I’m pretty sure that’s what I have.

I’m sure I’ve done this to the plant unintentionally by keeping the light too close. I raised it a bit ago, but as you can see the main cola keeps reaching up, but there are so many buds on the lower branches I didn’t want to move the light too far from them. For my next round of plants I am LSTing one, and multiple topping the other to see which works better and to keep the buds at a fairly uniform level from the lights, but I still need to get through my first grow with the first 2 plants growing in a fairly natural pattern.

Here is the entire plant today

This is the cola

Here is the tip which appears to be foxtailing

So I don’t know what to do. Some of the buds look like they are getting close

And other buds look like they are a long way off - I have 2 of these similarly structured and behind most of the other shoots. These are coming from the very bottom, and are structured like colas, with a few buds growing off them below the main cola.

advice is appreciated

[Caligurl]

I don’t see ‘typical’ foxtailing but are you saying that those white pistils are still coming in over darkened ones? Here’s a pic of a plant from my first grow that shows ‘typical’ foxtailing - you can see she starts to lose the conical shape. I don’t know a thing about autos so I’m not sure if being 6 weeks into flowering, what she should look like or be ready… but there is nothing you can do about foxtailing except turn down your lights if you can. You should be looking at trichomes on older buds (at least 1/3rd the way down the plant and none with white pistils.

Check the plants often to make sure she doesn’t start developing nanners, the plant in my pic started doing so also because of light stress (I think).

[Nicky]

You have some,its minor.
Dail done your lights and make sure your temperature is under control.

[CMichGrower]

Keep in mind you can harvest in stages. Take the main cola and leave rest to finish.

[Nothingshocking]

@Caligurl I think it’s just starting. The plant material at the top of the cola does not look normal like the rest of the buds. I was concerned maybe it was hermaphroditing, but I think it looks more like foxtailing.

@Nicky Thanks, I think it may be the heat more-so than the light, but it may be both. I’ve noticed my grow room is much warmer, maybe 10 degrees since I replaced my Spiderfarmer knockoffs with the kingbrite. I had a fan before but removed it when I rearranged my room. I’ll put it back on today and see if I can move the lights a little further from the cola - it’s about a foot now.

@CMichGrower This is exactly what I would like to do - harvest in stages. I think a couple of the lower shoots will turn out really nice if I leave them longer, but I’m not sure how to accomplish this with a flush. This is my first grow in a very long time. I was planning to start a 2-3 week flush at the end of week 7 of flowering. From what I understand the cola will be harsh if I take it before a flush. And if I start a flush now and start harvesting in 2 weeks, won’t the lower buds be malnourished due to removing nutrients? I get it though, I need to make the best of what isn’t an ideal situation, just not sure how.

I took a small bud off the plant yesterday to sample today. When I touch it, my fingers smell nice. But when I smell the bud, it smells like the crappy weed I grew 20 years ago hopefully a few more weeks, and proper drying and curing are the answer. I’m going to be pretty disappointed if I end up with 2-4 oz of crappy weed from this plant. If I can get 1 oz of dispensary quality bud from this plant, I’d be fine with whatever the rest ends up being. I was considering just letting the tip of the cola continue to ruin, if it means the rest of the plant will do well.

Here’s yesterday’s sample bud, I’m supposed to go to my girlfriend’s house after turkey with my family to test it out tonight.

I bought a digital microscope from china off ebay to check and post pics of the tricombs, but the software they sent doesn’t read, and I can’t figure out how to make it work.

[CMichGrower]

@Nothingshocking

From what I understand the cola will be harsh if I take it before a flush.

There are several threads on this topic, including links to a study that has been made, and the evidence isn’t conclusive that flushing does anything. I would take the main cola off and worry about flushing the majority of the plant before harvest.

[fast-grow]

Worst foxtailing I had was on Northern Lights autos, Only did it after I flushed with Florakleen. Made it somewhat hard to read trichomes but didn’t affect the harvest or quality. With some it is genetic and just happens.

[PharmerBob]

I’ve got some bubblegum that went wild and got some light damage

[Nicky]

26c try to keep it there. 28c to warm.

Otherwise it’s just genetics and alot of light.
I get a bit of foxtialing almost every grow lol

[fast-grow]

Genetic foxtailing.

[Nothingshocking]

@Nicky @fast-grow @PharmerBob @CMichGrower @Caligurl

Thanks for the info guys, this is most likely not genetic but light/heat damage causing the abnormality. But it’s nice to see all the pics, I know I have bought bud that looked like that in the past, now I know what it is.

The bud I took yesterday was very sparce and airy. I quick dried it in the oven at 150 degrees so we could do our planned thanksgiving sampling. It did get me pretty stoned, but I smoked about 2 x what I would have usually smoked, and it burned quick, and the high was short. So not a complete disaster, but not what I was hoping for. Hopefully the last 3 weeks the buds will become more dense, otherwise this harvest is destined to be ground up for shake because the buds are nothing to be proud of.

[CMichGrower]

Don’t get carried away until you properly dry and cure your buds. You might be surprised.

[Nothingshocking]

Yeah, I’m about to pull the trigger on a wedryer so I don’t mess up the final dry. My grow room has gotten a bit out of control, the first 2 plants got way bigger than I expected…

So a dedicated dryer that will reduce the smells and take some of the guesswork and effort out of process seems like a good investment. Today if you buy an XL for $99 you get the smaller one for free.

I’m going to monitor the cola every day, and when the wedryer gets here, I might just take the cola for a test run.

[Nicky]

That’s a good deal… Man, ide say get it before they go out of business and you can’t get one (because I paid near that price for the small one alone!)

[Nothingshocking]

@Nicky Thanks man, I went ahead and bought one, I suppose I could sell the small one to defer some of the cost, but having a back-up might not be a bad idea.

[Nicky]

Keep it you’ll use it… If not now in a year when you expand lol.

[Nothingshocking]

@Caligurl @Nicky @PharmerBob @CMichGrower @fast-grow @neofirebird @Covertgrower @dbrn32

I woke up this morning to a very yellow plant. The leaves have been yellowing over time, but it seems to be accelerating. Is my plant dying? I turned off the lights and took pics with just the flash so you can see without the grow lights misrepresenting the colors. Today is the end of week 11 for these auto’s. I am estimating that flowering began on 10/17, that’s when the stretch seemed to start, so about 6 weeks of flowering.

Should I be panicking about this? Will the buds continue to ripen even with all the dead leaves?

You see this big shoot in the back that looks like a cola? It was green 3 days ago - you can see it in the first post. Here it is this morning.

This is my other mature plant, a Gorilla Glue auto that is the same age as the Zkittlez but 3 weeks behind in flowering. Is this amount of yellowing normal? The yellow is coinciding with the flowering, both plants were green before flowering and have progressively gotten more yellow, but it really seems to have accelerated on the first plant overnight.

I am going to see if I can dig up that digital microscope I got and if I can get it to work to get some close up shots.

Can you let me know if the plant is in extreme distress? It looks like it to me, but I’ve seen pics of people harvesting what looks like nothing but buds left on their plant. If I strip off all the yellow leaves, that’s what my plant will look like, I think.

I was going to start the flush cycle after the end of week 7, but now I think I will start it today. That way, whenever I need to take it I will be as ready as I can be. I’ve seen a 2-3 week flush recommended, and I don’t see this plant making it for 3 more weeks.

I will try to get the microscope close up, please let me know if any other pics would be helpful. I will also test my run-off in a few minutes.

This is 4 days ago:

Today

The plant looks dry, but it isn’t. The soil is moist. My wedryer is supposed to get here on Weds, so I can take the whole plant in 3 days if necessary, but I’m hoping I can let it get a little more mature. I took a small bud and fast dryer it last weds, and was underwhelmed, so hopefully I can let her go a couple more weeks, but if not I’ll be ready on weds.

[Covertgrower]

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• What strain, Seed bank, or bag seed
• Method: Soil w/salt, Organic soil, Hydroponics, Aquaponics, KNF
• Vessels: Pots, Grow beds, Buckets, Troths
• PH of Water, Solution, runoff (if Applicable)
• PPM/TDS or EC of nutrient solution if applicable
• Indoor or Outdoor
• Light system
• Temps; Day, Night
• Humidity; Day, Night
• Ventilation system; Yes, No, Size
• AC, Humidifier, De-humidifier,
• Co2; Yes, No

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[Morpheous]

Try connecting the microscope to your wifi on your cell phone. There should be also an app that goes along with the scope. The app for mine is called Max-see

[Nothingshocking]

• What strain, Seed bank, or bag seed - ilgm Zkittlez auto, ilgm Gorilla Glue auto
• Method: Soil w/salt, Organic soil, Hydroponics, Aquaponics, KNF - Organic soil with chemical fertilizer at half strength
• Vessels: Pots, Grow beds, Buckets, Troths - 5 gallon grow bags
• PH of Water, Solution, runoff (if Applicable) - Zkittlez 3690 ppm, 7390 us/cm - Gorilla Glue 1700 ppm, 3410 us/cm
• PPM/TDS or EC of nutrient solution if applicable - N/A
• Indoor or Outdoor - Indoor
• Light system - 960 watts of Kingbrite LED’s on 2 plants - 2 are 3K plus 660nm, 2 are 3.5K plus 660nm
• Temps; Day, Night - temp is 77 this morning, I added a fan and increased the airflow into my room a couple days ago, and I think the temp dropped 5-10 degrees. I keep my house in the low-mid 60’s so at night that would be the approximate temp
• Humidity; Day, Night - dehumidifier is set at 45, but usually reads in the 30’s
• Ventilation system; Yes, No, Size - 190 cf, ventilation fan
• AC, Humidifier, De-humidifier, - see above
• Co2; Yes, No - tried baking soda vinegar thinking of fermenting alcohol, but currently no

Obviously the PPM in my run-off is too high and hopefully I haven’t killed my Zkittlez. I will flush it today, and again tomorrow. The runoff looks like urine. The Gorilla glue is high, but not kill my plant high. I’ve been feeding them on the same schedule, I guess the Zkittlez stopped using the fertilizer.

Is there any hope of saving the Zkittlez to ripen for a couple of weeks?