Buds are crispy on plants.

Hey RIU, Came to notice not to long ago that the buds on the top of our plants are starting to get real fat and really crispy, is this just a sign that the plant has reached its fullest potential?

- Edit to title: Their not crispy just dry.

Thanks W N L

dankusmaximus said:

lol more water

Click to expand...

.... Its DWC.... And you water soil plants on how dry the soil is, so if it were even soil that wouldn't be the case because you would easily be able to tell if the plant was deprived of water as well as it would be limp / wilted like.

Once the plant has atleast 50% change in the color of the pistil hairs from white to an orangish-red as well as looking very closely at the trichromes. This can be done with a jeweler loupe or I use a small pocket magnifier I got at radioshack for 12$ it goes from like 60x to 100x.
Your looking at the small resin heads on the buds and smaller leaves. You can think of resin production much like a volcano when it is flowing freely it will be clear and as it slows down it will become milky and finally as it cools or in our case stops production then it turns an amber color. During the flowering cycle the plant can slow down and increase production of resin so milky color alone is not enough to determine ripeness. It can be difficult when to judge when to start flushing to reach an optimal flush time before the trichromes turn to far amber. You can basicly start flushing at the first signs of amber heads and harvest at a 50/50 milky/amber ratio. This will produce a head high as well as a body high, go more clear and milky and it will be more heady, go more amber and it will become more of a body high with couch lock. Ofcourse, this all has to due with the maturaty of the THC and other chemicals the plant produces and how your body breaks them down.

Hope this answers some of your questions and if your looking for some more info on reading trichromes then I can point you to some more detailed threads.

Yeah i know all this, its not the first time growing, i was just asking if them being dry is a sign of almost complete plant, the THC ratio is about 40 / 60 waiting about another week till crop.

Lights too close maybe?

hmm the lights a little lower than usual. Actually this is a good point, put some veg into flower and lowered the light. that could be the cause. Thanks bro.

Are your lights to close to your plants? Maybe the humidity is very low and its drying out your plant but I doubt that's the problem since its the top of the plant that's crispy.

I hope you haven't got rot on the branch. Sometimes it can be hard to see if the bud rot starts in the middle of the cola, the first you notice is that the top of the cola looks like it has been dried and cured...just check for that first. If the top of the cola is still a bit spongey you should be okay. good luck.