red stems and drooping on the final straight

**hopefulgrowno1** · 10-27-2009, 04:16 AM

Hello people,

This is my first post and i don't profess to know a whole lot about the grow process (first grow too), so any help would really be appreciated. as you can see from the pictures, my plant's losing her mojo. she's been flowering for about 3/4 weeks now, but the buds aren't really developing too well. i've read a lot of posts saying that this can speed up a lot, later on in the process, so i've been trying not to worry about this too much as everything else has been pretty healthy looking until recently.

about 1 1/2 weeks ago she started developing a red rash looking speccled effect over many of her leaf stems. this was accompanied with the leaves curling under themselves from the sides and the pistils turning red, then brown, despite being way off harvest time. these problems only seem to be happening at the top of the plant.

i read on another post that its a good idea to flush every now and then during flowering, so i did this about 5 days ago. i'm growing in quite a large pot and the soil is still really wet now which i think might be beginning to starve the plant of other nutrients now. the soil has a pretty good amount of vermiculite mixed in and theres load of holes and stones at the bottom of the pot, but its just not draining too well.

i'm wondering whether or not these symptoms could be a phosphorous def maybe? tried upping the potassium to no effect and gave her 1 dose of miracle grow about 5 days ago just to make sure she had a general top up of nutes.

sos. also, i don't suppose there's a good way to help your soil dry out quicker. got her next to a rad for now.

she's a nirvana seeds early special by the way. grew her outside for 4 months, then flower inside under enviralite.

thanks for any help you have guys.

**Little Tommy** · 10-27-2009, 04:22 AM

That plant looks pretty healthy. I don't know if I would change too many things right now. The vermiculite can really hold on to the moisture and a little goes a long way. Let her dry out well before next round of nutes. I don't know of any way to hurry drying along other than a good oscillating fan.

**DaveCoulier** · 10-27-2009, 04:31 AM

You need perlite not vermiculite to increase drainage, and stones/rocks at the bottom actually impede drainage. Its a myth that wont die.

Check out this for more info:

http://www.puyallup.wsu.edu/~Linda%2...20drainage.pdf

**Maxzimus** · 10-27-2009, 04:32 AM

Well these things look care!
There is overwatering !! for sure and yes you need to give nicely phosphorous at flowering stage !

It's normal the plant turns colors in stage of flowering, if the air is cool it will turn purple, red, dark blue, even slightly black, or orange.... so dont worry about the colours!! and some buds are dark some are white and crystal, some are red or orange kind... so flower at least 8-9 weeks and give phosphorous and watch the watering.... in flowering stage the watering is very important so dont water too much or too often!!

water once really well and then let it dry out VERY WELL!!! before you water again...

and YES PLANT LOOKS FINE!

**hopefulgrowno1** · 10-27-2009, 09:45 AM

cheers for the thoughts people. much appreciated. there's been a marked change in the feel of the leaves over the past 2 weeks though. they feel a lot more leathery rather than fresh and a re curling round underneath. maybe it doesn't come across so good in the picture. also, quite a lot of the stems with the fan leaves on seem like they're struggling to "keep it up" if you know what i mean. they're heading south. what stage should i be getting buds forming at? i guess i expected them to grow steadily through flowering. its been about a month, but there ain't gonna be nuttin to smoke at this rate.

**Maxzimus** · 10-29-2009, 10:12 AM

what stage should i be getting buds forming at? i guess i expected them to grow steadily through flowering. its been about a month, but there ain't gonna be nuttin to smoke at this rate.[/QUOTE]

well it depends what strain yu got ?
if it's more like sativa then the buds get longer to mature, if it's indica it should get bud format at 4-5weeks and then they just get fatter... and fatter... indica flowering is between 7-10weeks, i rather do atleast 8-9weeks all indicas.

With sativa i do atleast 9-13weeks, some sativas need to flower 16weeks, some guys flower 20 weeks.. if its 80-100% sativa..

but in 5-7weeks yu should see bud format, and many times yu see bud format in 4-5weeks with indica.

precious time, quality need's time!

keep it going and yu see when it's ready, good luck to yu dude !