Very Slow Bud Development wk 7 Dutch Passion Powerplant - PLEASE HELP!

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bigbudz4200

Member
I've been growing 5 dutch passion power plants, I'm nearing the end of week 7 flower, and the buds just don't seem to be forming very well at all. I grew the same plants the previous batch, and they came out with nice, plump, frosty buds. By week 7 the buds were fully formed and the next two weeks were just ripening and expanding. The way they look now at 7 weeks, i'd expect them to look at 4-5 weeks. I have them in the following setup:

2 x 450W 11spectra LED lights
1 x 600w HPS
2.4 x 2m x 2m grow tent
Soil with alpaca crap
Cyco A+B, Potash, Swell, Liquid Kool bloom, molasses












TEMPS: We are having some very hot days here at the moment. On a normal day, the temps are sitting at around 30deg C. On a hot day, temps can get as high as 33-35deg C in the tent, and at night when I'm running the lights the temps sit between 30-33deg C (on a hot night).
At the end of the stretch period, they got a little bit bleached and heat stressed as they got too close to the lights, but I've moved them back to a comfortable height. Now the plants don't seem to be showing any signs of heat stress.

FEEDING: All feeding is ph'd at 6.2. I was overfeeding slightly and the tips of leaves were showing signs of nute burn, so I've flushed them and have backed off a bit.

DEFOLIATION: I read about defoliation and removed a great deal of the upper fan leaves at the end of the stretch period, and at around 40 days. I'm a newb at this, and I'm wondering if I've overdone it and it's affecting the bud growth?

AIRFLOW: I also considered airflow, I have a oscillating fan in the tent, an inline exhaust fan and a passive air intake. A couple days ago I added a centri fan on the air intake to pump a lot more fresh air into the room but so far I haven't noticed any significant changes.

The buds just look all stemmy, with little balls of hair but very little bud formation. There is about as much thc formation as you would expect on buds that size. Also, I came into the tent today, and it looks like the tops are trying to stretch even more. I've checked and double checked all my timers, I've checked to see if the lights are turning on during the day but this hasn't happened.

This was a 9-9 1/2 week strain last round, so I'm worried I'm going to get some poor bud if something doesn't change quickly.

The things I've done differently since the last grow:

Lighting: LED lights; I have some lights from eshine systems, 11 spektra which are supposed to be pretty good. The plants were loving them in veg, I'm wondering if not so much during flower? However I do have the 600w digital HPS in there which should be creating some bud formation

Defoliation: I defoliation most of the fan leaves, I think I may have overdone it....opinions?

Temps: were about the same

Airflow: slightly less than last grow - this has been resolved

Nutes: pretty much same, I've added liquid kool bloom (low doses)

I hope thats enough info to get some help. I would appreciate any assistance I can get. Thanks in advance!
 
Slipon

Slipon

Well-Known Member
they look like they are a bit behind, like week 5-6 maybe just let em go a bit longer ?

make sure to check the thricomes tho, don't want to be responsibly of ruin your harvest, but even tho your pics is`t that clear I don't see any brown hairs, they usually is all over at week 7
 
canna_420

canna_420

Well-Known Member
Temps, 20-26oC is perfect, over 28 can be a big slow down.

Triming Foliage is also another thing you shouldnt do, Energy in them leaves is their for a reason
 
giantsfan24

giantsfan24

Well-Known Member
If you started these from seed then i'd say they look right on track. Defoliating will set them back a little but I don't think you've got anything to worry about. Here's mine at 5 weeks of flower from CLONES and the have been defoliated of large fan leaves...

View attachment 2485200

Is it possible there is a light leak??


Don't panic..just love em :-)

Namaste
 
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bigbudz4200

Member
urgod said:
hahaha, maybe you got a sativa pheno. my tangerine dream took 14 weeks to finish.
Click to expand...
I've been keeping an eye on the hairs, and they were acting pretty weird. After 5 weeks flower, some of the heads had hairs that were turning brown. But then after a few days, there seemed to be a lot of new growth of white hairs on the buds, and 95% of hairs are white now.

The last batch that I ran, I had 2 indica pheno's and 2 sativa pheno's. The two sativa's took 9 1/2 weeks to finish. I'm not sure which ones these clones are, but assuming they are sativa, they should take not much longer than 9 1/2 weeks like their mother. These ones are definitely developing slower than the mothers.

So the overwhelming advice is to just wait it out and let them go for longer?
 
B

bigbudz4200

Member
giantsfan24 said:
If you started these from seed then i'd say they look right on track. Defoliating will set them back a little but I don't think you've got anything to worry about. Here's mine at 5 weeks of flower from CLONES and the have been defoliated of large fan leaves...

View attachment 2485200

Is it possible there is a light leak??


Don't panic..just love em :-)

Namaste
Click to expand...

These were started from clones. I had a look at your pic and I would be very happy if mine looked like that at week 5. However as you can see in the first pic, at week 7, there is barely any bud formation, just lots of little balls of white hairs. There is plenty of thc on the bud leaves, but there's not much bud!

I've just checked again and the dark period is perfectly dark.....this grow tent seals up very well.

I'm really worried as this is destined to be my next few months supply, and I need a decent amount of quality stuff!
 
patlpp

patlpp

New Member
For the life of me I can't understand why one would remove the only thing that supplies energy to the plant. I can understand maybe a little on the base but, I think your grow could be made an example of the result of excessive de-foliage. No disrespect there, we all learn. If you are experiencing new bud growth now, figure 3 weeks minimum to harvest. Maybe they will bulk up more for you by then. They look great though with plenty green, so you know your shit. My vote is the Fan leaves. (since you indicated you know how these plants should look and perform).
 
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bigbudz4200

Member
yeah I had a sorta had a gut feeling that I had gone too far with the defoliation. I'm pretty sure that's the problem. I'll definitely do things differently next grow.

Thanks for all your help peoples :-o
 
giantsfan24

giantsfan24

Well-Known Member
bigbudz4200 said:
yeah I had a sorta had a gut feeling that I had gone too far with the defoliation. I'm pretty sure that's the problem. I'll definitely do things differently next grow.

Thanks for all your help peoples :-o
Click to expand...
Please also keep in mind that it might not be that. I have completely stripped mine twice and at 5 weeks mine are further along than yours from what you've said. My sense is that this is probably genetic but that's just a guess.

Namaste
 
canna_420

canna_420

Well-Known Member
TEMPS.

At week 5 hairs are going brown, Hardly any Buds.... (Unless some pollen as got out from stress, brown hairs could be making seed hence energy going to work elsewhere. However when I make seeds I still get an average yield)

What else do I need to mention????

For your next grow aim 20-27oC
 
S

smacksjack

Member
Quick point of reference - and this is not to disqualify anything prior that was said.

For one, I defoliate, but only lightly until about week 3 or 4 of flower then I stop simply because I need to control vertical growth because I don't have a lot of room AND I want dense fat plants not tall ones. That's preference.

Temperature could also be a factor here. Also, check for light leaks...also could be a factor. When I go into flower, I try to stay on the natural cycle of the moon...a bit less confusing for the plants (are slightly affected by moon phases as well).

Finally - and this is the only thing that hasn't been mentioned - lights. It's been noted that grow times, both from clones and from seed, are longer when using LED and HOT5 or CFLs. In general, add a couple of weeks on your grow if you are using those light sources, simply due to intensity and the reach the lights have into the canopy. Add some side lighting, and give them another week or two and they will bulk right up. This is why I use LST well into my flowering stage to keep my canopy low, thinned out using light pruning, let them go to full maturity before flowering, and try to keep my stretch down as much as possible - otherwise you'll get an extra week or two of stretch...and that's what that looks like to me!

Also, stop feeding them Nitrogen at this point and boost your P&K levels.

Other than the previous two points, everything else has been mentioned. Those plants look healthy tho - just give them some extra time and everything in moderation.

Peace and love

[Edit: I just saw that you are using the LED's as well - what K spectrum are the lights?? you should shoot for a 1000 w per plant (right??? anyone??? not 100% on that number) - I have two plants right now in a 5 foot box with 4 T5 High Outputs and 4 CFL's all at 2,700K for flowering...so perhaps your LED's are best kept for the veg stage and are now adding a lot of 6,500K spectra, causing them to veg/stretch into their flowering]
 
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