Bizarre growth on white widow x super skunk

[LordVane]

I have the beautiful white widow x super skunk that goes through some very interesting phases of bud development. At about week 6 the buds have their distinctive characteristic shape and many of the hairs are already brown and trichomes are amber. During week 7 nothing really happens, except you can tell everything is getting denser because the branches start bending over and out comes the wire. Then during week 8 there is an explosion of secondary growth that causes the bud to grow much thicker and wider, and change its overall shape. All these new white hairs sprout out every where, in sporadic (but very pretty) tufts and clumps, and of course many new trichomes on these regions too. By the end of week 8 the growth stops, but the hairs remain white.

If I push them to week 9 a period of tertiary growth occurs, not as explosive as the second, but just as impressive and the same strange outgrowths; perigonal bracts layering on top of one anther until they protrude an inch or more out of the bud. By this time the branches are just about snapping and I have wire all over the place holding every head upright. I’ve never gone past week 9 because of mould issues (the strain is super dense and very resinous and botrytis loves it) but the mass just keeps increasing if I let it.

I’ve never had any type of strain behave in quite the same way. It’s like the plant cannot mature. So at week 9 the outside of the bud is completely covered in these ‘perigonal bract tufts’ of white hairs and new trichomes. So I did an experiment. After harvest and curing I trimmed off some of the tufts from the larger buds and smoked them separately. The high was far stronger than anything I’ve tried before and almost hallucinogenic. It’s really incredible, because it’s of the same plant!

 

[psilobuds]

go figure. keep that 2ndary growth, trim it all off the dried nugz, u should keep 4 urself and mates 4 sure. ur lucky 2 have such a strain. that new growth has trikes full of thc that hasn’t converted to cbn yet. the white hairs are indicative of that. those trikes that are on the older parts of the bud have had time to oxidise, hence the amber colour and u’ve already lost a large amount of thc to cbn.

 

[Fearless]

Sounds like your strain might have haze genetics in it.

 

[Gandalfalfa]

When I chop my girls at the end of week 8 they still have plenty of white hairs too, but I can’t wait because I have the next lot in grow, and they are already at the perfect size to turn. Even an extra two days growth in grow can mean the difference between overcrowding the room.

 

[trunx]

i read on various sources that you want about 50% of the hairs on your heads to still be white when you chop

 

[Supercharge]

Two pistils, or hairs, belong to an individual female flower. They turn brown when they can no longer support a pollen tube, should a male pollen grain fall on one, so become effectively redundant. There are various signals that tell the plant to then make more flowers while the original perigonal bracts grow in size and density, the same way fruits swell on other plants. The reason for this is in the wild the plant wants to increase its chances of being fertilized so spreads out flower development over time rather than doing it all at once. Many flowering plants adopt the same strategy and it makes sense from a survival point of view. Fortunately weed generally has a ‘peak’ during flowering, where more pistils are active than any other time, and this is usually about week 6 - 7. Just after this is the best time for harvest and is generally accepted as being the balance between THC yield and weight yield.

 

[Grow Up]

I once tried some outdoor weed that was supposedly dried ‘Afghan’ style, and allowed to dry on the plant, and the plant was not harvested until it was literally dead, so left out well after the season had finished and harvested at week 20 or something like that. So not only had the trichomes all gone brown, but the weed was totally brown as well. The guy who gave it to me talked it up like it was something special. It didn’t get me high, just made made me feel lethargic. Should not do that to weed.

 

[Prince Blanc]

I once tried some outdoor weed that was supposedly dried ‘Afghan’ style, and allowed to dry on the plant, and the plant was not harvested until it was literally dead, so left out well after the season had finished and harvested at week 20 or something like that. So not only had the trichomes all gone brown, but the weed was totally brown as well. The guy who gave it to me talked it up like it was something special. It didn’t get me high, just made made me feel lethargic. Should not do that to weed.

‘Afghan’ style?.. more like ‘stoned guy who forgot he had a plant in the woods’ style.

 

[Grow Up]

Haha yeah pretty much. I can't recommend this "method" lol

 

[Prince Blanc]

...unless you don't like the person. Then recommend it?

 

[Grow Up]

Bit of a dick move.....but yes haha.

 

[Prince Blanc]

Seriously though, if that's how it's done in Afganistan, no wonder the're all pissed off and fighting. I'd be pissed off too if my weed didn't get me high.

 

[Grow Up]

Lol...touche.

 

[Prince Blanc]

Just thinking outside the square..heh.

 

[marz]

I have a friends that leaves some under branches on the plant after harvest and turns the plant back to 18hrs. He does this twice before starting from new stock. his reasons are its a way to keep plant numbers down and fixed, but he says after 3 harvests the plants genetics get screwed up and the yield diminishes

 

[Kraken]

I have a friends that leaves some under branches on the plant after harvest and turns the plant back to 18hrs. He does this twice before starting from new stock. his reasons are its a way to keep plant numbers down and fixed, but he says after 3 harvests the plants genetics get screwed up and the yield diminishes

This is not a good practice to get into. Did he say what the yield was for 1st 2nd and 3rd harvests?

 

[marz]

2nd harvest is about 2/3 of the 1st and the 3rd harvest is about 1/3 of the 1st

 

[marz]

yields diminish but it works for him.

 

[yellowhead]

I have a friends that leaves some under branches on the plant after harvest and turns the plant back to 18hrs. He does this twice before starting from new stock. his reasons are its a way to keep plant numbers down and fixed, but he says after 3 harvests the plants genetics get screwed up and the yield diminishes

I agree. No grower should do this, and those results are the reason why. Really it has nothing to do with the genetics “getting screwed up”. The diminished yield is because the plant is weaker; the plant is weaker because it has diseased roots after being left in hydro for so long and there is likely all sorts of nutrient imbalances; also a decrease in the number of potential flowering sites between harvests; and disruptions to endogenous hormone levels in auxiliary meristems - apical meristem(s) already taken at first harvest. Crazy to do that.

 

[bongobongo]

Hazes do this, also certain strains I've ran throw long foxtails if it's hot. But there's always a sweet spot right after that first explosion of new growth. "That spot where Thc and weight yield diminishes"