Weak Buds

Hey there,
This is my first grow ever using about 350 watts of 3000k Cfls for 1 plant that is about 22 inches tall. She is currently 5 weeks in flowering and growing fine. I won't go into more detail about nutes ph and what not because it is irrelevant to my question. To get down to it, i am wondering about the lower small soft colas that haven't risen to the top and are not getting sufficient amount of light. I have posted pics of a few strong colas and i have 4 at the bottom. I know that it is half way into flowering and a bit late, but should i remove the weak buds since all that weight could have been added to the top and continues to reduce my end yields of more potent dense buds? Might be a noob question but i'm here for some good advice and to be educated, Thanks!
P.S I know i posted this more than once but it seems thats the only way to get a variety of answers, thanks!

If this were my grow I would leave them there at this point. Clipping them would only shock the plant and could cause hermie (not likely but why chance it?) Overall she looks great...the stems are very red and purplish usually indicating Magnesium issues get some cal-mag or dissolve 1 tbsp. of Epsom salt per gallon of water...should clear right up.

Good Luck and Great Growz

Lower stems don't produce big buds that's why it's good to chop off the lower stems during veg.....they're called sucker stems....they suck all the energy out of the top buds...it's to late to pull them off now

Callisto405 said:

Lower stems don't produce big buds that's why it's good to chop off the lower stems during veg.....they're called sucker stems....they suck all the energy out of the top buds...it's to late to pull them off now

Click to expand...

To get any value from clipping lower branches it should be done prior to or very early in flowering. At 5 weeks in, the benefit will be minimal or non-existent. So, I agree fully.

Those bottom buds look fine. Theyll be nice by week 8 of flower. Week 6.5-7.5 things dense up nicely. Those will be good buds if youre patient. And it looks like youve already taken off too many fan leaves. Did they fall off or did you foolishly cut them off?

Alienwidow said:

Those bottom buds look fine. Theyll be nice by week 8 of flower. Week 6.5-7.5 things dense up nicely. Those will be good buds if youre patient. And it looks like youve already taken off too many fan leaves. Did they fall off or did you foolishly cut them off?

Click to expand...

I only removed them if they were over 90% yellow

Newgrowjournal said:

I only removed them if they were over 90% yellow

Click to expand...

Ah ok, most guys will wait until theyre starting to wither to take them off. I believe they make plant food in there that the plant harvests as the leaf dies.

You can get som fluorescent t5"s and set them up so they throw light into the bottom of the canopy,you could also tie your top branches down to allow more light in.
If you don't get light to them they will stay small,great for butter though

I removed some 4-5 weeks into flower and it actually made a big spru in growth I just removed about 6-8 inch's of anything at the bottom, but most buds won't fatten up or dense up until week 7-9 depending on the strain

ryan1918 said:

I removed some 4-5 weeks into flower and it actually made a big spru in growth I just removed about 6-8 inch's of anything at the bottom, but most buds won't fatten up or dense up until week 7-9 depending on the strain

Click to expand...

Did u give them Mt dew..

At 5 wks in, I wouldnt chop anything. It will be counter productive as your plant will expend its energy to heal the cut you just made which in turn will rob your top colas of their energy needed to swell up. At this point, just let the popcorn buds on the bottom fill in and add some bottom lighting as mentioned already. Now you know next time to lollipop your plants in mid-late veg so it concentrates all of its energy to the tops during flower.

HydroRed said:

At 5 wks in, I wouldn't chop anything. It will be counter productive as your plant will expend its energy to heal the cut you just made which in turn will rob your top colas of their energy needed to swell up. At this point, just let the popcorn buds on the bottom fill in and add some bottom lighting as mentioned already. Now you know next time to lollipop your plants in mid-late veg so it concentrates all of its energy to the tops during flower.

Click to expand...

I cut 3-4 weaker stems/smaller colas from the bottom the day after i posted this thread and the buds are producing so much more new white hairs while the older bud is getting super dense and turning red its pretty awesome haha. I find there's a lot of bs info on the web. Such a Transplanting will stunt growth for a bit, or cutting/bending will stunt growth but its all false or when vegging they need a perfect environment. I transplanted this girl 3-4 times and every time i did she would put on 2-4 inches all around in the next 24 hours pretty crazy growth for something that was suppose to initially stop it completely.

Newgrowjournal said:

I cut 3-4 weaker stems/smaller colas from the bottom the day after i posted this thread and the buds are producing so much more new white hairs while the older bud is getting super dense and turning red its pretty awesome haha. I find there's a lot of bs info on the web. Such a Transplanting will stunt growth for a bit, or cutting/bending will stunt growth but its all false or when vegging they need a perfect environment. I transplanted this girl 3-4 times and every time i did she would put on 2-4 inches all around in the next 24 hours pretty crazy growth for something that was suppose to initially stop it completely.

Click to expand...

Nice! How much growth did it have when you didn't do that?