Fox tailing and very apparent aroma change

[Rama777]

Day 50

So my tops have been foxtailing for almost a couple of weeks. Why? I sure as hell don’t know. It seems that most people point towards heat stress or light stress.

First off, no pictures of this strain at harvest show foxtailing. Something must be amiss with my grow for it to be happening.

My leaf surface temperatures very rarely go above 80 at the hottest part of the canopy. Temps are basically in check EXCEPT for the fact that my intake air is in the low 60’s at night maybe even upper 50’s on some occasion. I don’t know how big a problem that is or isn’t.

Light stress, I had my HPS too close like damn near a month ago. It caused the leaves to turn a lighter green. Ever since then it’s been at 25” inches and the vast majority of tops see a larger distance than that. I’ve looked at various tests and have used my lux meter with various HPS to Par conversions and would be rather surprised if anything is getting even 800 par. I have foxtailing where I’m almost dead certain the par is well under 700 or even 600.

My upper canopy 6” oscillating fan has been pointed on the plants the whole time at maybe setting 7-8. Tonight I was thinking maybe that’s too much so I tilted it higher. Could that be the major cause?

Many leaf tips are pointing upwards, which may be part of the story but I’m not sure why they are. Typically light stress or heat stress yeah? Again I just really don’t think those are viable factors in my case. Maybe that’s partially or mostly due to the fan that’s been blowing on them?

One plant maybe got a tad too much nitrogen but one that is foxtailing just as hard has had some Nitrigen deficiency so I don’t think that’s the culprit.

Not the absolute end of the world the foxtailing.

What’s creeping me out more is that for the last few days, when I open the tent, I don’t get that beautiful blast of aromas. The smell has just gotten eerily quiet, very quiet. Freaks me out y’all!!

Any thoughts about that? Thanks for any comments and suggestions, they help me sleep at night!

 

[Rama777]

I just had a theory on the loss of aroma. Perhaps around the same time this started happening, I jacked up the exhaust to 8 and the intake to 9 due to humidity that is often in the mid 50's. Maybe I'm just sucking out the smell through the carbon filter faster than the aromas can linger within the tent for me to smell? Hella negative pressure.

I don't suppose the intense airflow would be possibly pushing the foxtails as well?

 

[HealthyEarthSol]

Turn off everything for 30 minutes and test your theory

 

[Bdubs]

Foxtailing happens from high temps. Accelerated growth rates late in flower. Drop temps after week 6 to stop new growth from busting out and foxtailing.

 

[Bdubs]

The last grow I did with foxtailing was when I was cooking at 80s temps. 2 plants in one bucket. The smell disappeared late in flower along with foxtailing. After dropping temps into the 70s the last week, aroma came back a bit but it was time to harvest. Loose airy buds that dried too fast and cured flaky and harsh. Careful of the dry and cure with loose buds.

 

[GNick55]

that’s light stress, taco, leaf edge curl, praying, yellowing, purpling due to stress and incorrect feeding, heavy smell than no smell (terps evaporating),..

 

[Rama777]

Thanks for the responses! I have thought it was light stress all along, just always confused by what seems like ample distance. Again the light is 24” from the nearest top. I can bump the ballast down from 600 to 450 watts. I’ll give that a shot.

The strain should be purple naturally. The temps get down to 69-72 during lights off. I’m assuming that’s low enough for a strain to purple, though I’m definitely open to the idea that I’m feeding incorrectly.

I’ll test the smell theory out further by turning everything off for 30 minutes. I lowered the exhaust and intake from 8/9 to 5/4 before I went to sleep. Just opened the tent before the lights went out and the smell was amplified a good bit. The heavy airflow may have been a major driver of that after all! I was probably exchanging the air once every 15 seconds or so..

I still have about two weeks left I think so maybe dropping the wattage will save me from overly airy buds..?

 

[Rama777]

Okay so I’m gonna dim my HPS down to 450 watts now. Probably should have done this a while ago but I really thought 24” would be plenty.

I downloaded the Photone app and bought the HPS option. I’ll see what it reads and go from there.

I also have a lux meter. Does anyone have a suggestion for what should be max par and/or lumens for some pretty light stressed plants? 750, maybe 800 par? My lux meter is probably more accurate than the Photone app but I know people think in ppfd/pat these days..

 

[climbit]

How could something like this affect the overall yield and end result. Your plants look picture perfect in that photo you posted. Help me understand.

 

[Rama777]

How could something like this affect the overall yield and end result. Your plants look picture perfect in that photo you posted. Help me understand.

Well, what concerns me is that they are foxtailing but that doesn’t seem to be a natural trait for the strain. So they must be stressed out, and most signs point towards light stress. I’ll see what the Photone app says at 100% when the lights come on, before messing with potentially dimming it.

 

[Rama777]

So it turns out the lack of aromas were indeed a result of the massive extraction.

Photone claims the plants were getting blasted with too much light. I really for sure should have caught this 12 days ago when the initial foxtailing symptoms started. I was in denial because from all my newbie research, which has been tons upon tons, I don’t know if I ever saw anyone recommend more distance from the light that I was giving them, ever. Shouldn’t have bought the best HPS bulb on the market I suppose!!

Lessons to apply to future grows..

 

[Rama777]

that’s light stress, taco, leaf edge curl, praying, yellowing, purpling due to stress and incorrect feeding, heavy smell than no smell (terps evaporating),..

I have learned some lessons about feeding from this my first grow. There will be more lessons to learn from future grows I’m sure. You mentioned purpling from improper feedings? Is there anything specific you could tell me about improper feedings that cause unnatural purpling? Is it possible that the dark purple was MOSTLY due to light stress?

You can see on this top that the purpling is mostly high up, then greener down below. So that makes me wonder how much of the discoloration is from the lights. Kind of hard to see it under HPS light but definitely there is much more purpling towards the top. But, I do also have a lot of very dark purple tipped calyxes in various places throughout the plant, so yeah, just wondering what about my feeding may have caused that. Thanks man!