Pistils turning brown and "shriveling" up-Only about 3 weeks into flowering?

Hello RIU

I have been noticing some of the pistils on one of my girl's lower bud sites starting to turn brown and "shrivel up". This is the only place on the plant that it seems to be happening. Is this normal for only three weeks into flowering?

Some Specs:
-First Grow
-Using 2700K CFL's
-12/12 lighting schedule
-Soil
-Vegged for about 3 weeks

-I recently used FoxFarms "Big Bloom" nutes at half strength on their 2nd to last watering. Before that, no nutrients were being used.

Here are the pictures:


Second picture from the left is a full body shot of the plant. I have her tied down because if I have to raise the lights anymore, the rest of the plants wont be receiving enough light due to the distance.

Any help will be appreciated!

are you sure the hairs are turning brown and not an orange or amber? Orange and amber here and there isnt bad. If the are browning, being a lower budsite its gonna get the same nutes just not the same light to use them up with. leaf tips look fine. do you know what your ph is like; have you tested run off?

thats fine they will turn color and spit new ones out thought the grow............you need way more light tho

yeah how many lights do you have?

i have a 150 watt hps and 3 26 watt CFls.........................3 cfls per plant in flower will give you really good results just keep them with in 4 inches of the plant.......how many lights you got how close?

its normal. over the next 5 to 8 weeks those buds are going to swell up and all those white hairs are going to turn brown and shrivel up and here soon if you havent noticed already you will start seeing crystals (trichomes) form around the buds

Guys I am very aware what my yield is going to be like: small

This was only a test run until I can get a 400W HPS/MH setup, which will be in August. I still want to give these plants a good run though, no reason not to.

(Btw. The pictures look dim as my camera cannot handle the intensity of the light that my CFLs throw off, so it looks much dimmer in the picture)


Now that I think about it, the pistils look more amber than brown, I just thought it might be too early in the flowering cycle for this to start happening.

Thank yous for the help though!

Yo beverage I GUARANTEE you that is the heat from the lights shriveling their hairs. that is not normal. It is definitely too early for them to be doing that.

it happens...

Robert Paulson said:

Yo beverage I GUARANTEE you that is the heat from the lights shriveling their hairs. that is not normal. It is definitely too early for them to be doing that.

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Your joking right? cause my lights above my plants always shrivel my white hairs on bud sites on the bottom....

DrtyBngWtr said:

Your joking right? cause my lights above my plants always shrivel my white hairs on bud sites on the bottom....

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The hairs on his plant should not be shriveling like that at all this early in flower. They should be shoooting in all directions and looking nice and white. The hairs are very sensitive to heat and they are the first indicator that the light is too hot. Put a fan blowing on the light and the problem should be solved.

I'm not sure what you are trying to get at talking about your hairs shriveling at the bottom from light.

Robert Paulson said:

Yo beverage I GUARANTEE you that is the heat from the lights shriveling their hairs. that is not normal. It is definitely too early for them to be doing that.

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My room as of now is 87-89 degrees(F), and 89 degrees(F) under the lights. We have been going through a heatwave for the past couple days (90 degrees+), so my temperatures are higher than normal. Plus its only happening on one branch that is no where near enough light to burn it, and the bud sites and that are closer to the lights have big white pistils and are doing fine.
I have a fan pointed at it 24 hrs a day.


Are you sure it could still be heat damage?

he has cfls....there supposed to be as close as possible......my box is around those same temps......they are a little high but so what just water them more....its been 97-100 degrees were im at and last time i checked marijuana is a dominantly hot weather plant.................

hars turn color when they get pollinated as well that may be the problem may not i think your ok tho

Beveridge.H said:

My room as of now is 87-89 degrees(F), and 89 degrees(F) under the lights. We have been going through a heatwave for the past couple days (90 degrees+), so my temperatures are higher than normal. Plus its only happening on one branch that is no where near enough light to burn it, and the bud sites and that are closer to the lights have big white pistils and are doing fine.
I have a fan pointed at it 24 hrs a day.


Are you sure it could still be heat damage?

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bottom budsites are the smallest and first to mature thats why ppl take sample from the bottom if they choose to do so,they are also the first to receive nutes

So what do you guys think I should do?

I'm really hopping its not pollination, I don't see any male parts on my other plants though.

have you been touching them...the hairs?

lowrider2000 said:

have you been touching them...the hairs?

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No I have not.

I didn't read the whole thread. Lower light energy and vegging for three weeks is gonna get you some nice but smaller nuggies.
It's progressing normally But I wish you had pruned it to give you mb four larger buds rather than a lot of small ones. But it's all good and it's all smokable.

dannyboy602 said:

I didn't read the whole thread. Lower light energy and vegging for three weeks is gonna get you some nice but smaller nuggies.
It's progressing normally But I wish you had pruned it to give you mb four larger buds rather than a lot of small ones. But it's all good and it's all smokable.

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Thanks for the reply dannyboy, It looked like it was something that supposed to be happening(Pistils changing color), but I just wanted to hear what you guys thought in case my gut feeling was wrong.