Help! Pistils are turning red/brown early week 4

thelowedown · Oct 8, 2019

Hello all! New grower here and i have a couple plants in my room that i have noticed the pistils are turning red. I am growing in a coco/perlite mix, mother earth to be exact, and am using organic nutes. I have been reading a lot of these threads that are saying that it could have gotten pollinated but i have looked over and over and cannot find a male or hermi anywhere in the room. It is a tight space and i am brushing up against the plants anytime i walk by them. Could that be why they are turning red? Other than the couple that ive seen turning red, all the other ones seem to be doing perfectly fine to my knowledge.

JerryGarcia · Oct 8, 2019

When you hold your hand flat just over the flower, do you feel heat from the lights?

thelowedown · Oct 8, 2019

JerryGarcia said:
When you hold your hand flat just over the flower, do you feel heat from the lights?

No, i am running CMH 315w. Little to no heat in the room.

Aqua Man · Oct 8, 2019

thelowedown said:
Hello all! New grower here and i have a couple plants in my room that i have noticed the pistils are turning red. I am growing in a coco/perlite mix, mother earth to be exact, and am using organic nutes. I have been reading a lot of these threads that are saying that it could have gotten pollinated but i have looked over and over and cannot find a male or hermi anywhere in the room. It is a tight space and i am brushing up against the plants anytime i walk by them. Could that be why they are turning red? Other than the couple that ive seen turning red, all the other ones seem to be doing perfectly fine to my knowledge.

I have never run into this myself but I don't grow a large variety of strains. I have heard some strains can do this 2-3 times during flowering but maybe someone who has experienced it can confirm?

Aqua Man · Oct 8, 2019

thelowedown said:
Hello all! New grower here and i have a couple plants in my room that i have noticed the pistils are turning red. I am growing in a coco/perlite mix, mother earth to be exact, and am using organic nutes. I have been reading a lot of these threads that are saying that it could have gotten pollinated but i have looked over and over and cannot find a male or hermi anywhere in the room. It is a tight space and i am brushing up against the plants anytime i walk by them. Could that be why they are turning red? Other than the couple that ive seen turning red, all the other ones seem to be doing perfectly fine to my knowledge.

They look a tad over fed to me

thelowedown · Oct 8, 2019

Aqua Man said:
They look a tad over fed to me

I flushed them the day i took these pictures. I am watering every 4-5 days. Even when i go to water the pots still look a bit wet. I have heard that coco doesnt really dry out, the plants eat all the nutes and leave the water behind. Is this true?

Aqua Man · Oct 8, 2019

thelowedown said:
I flushed them the day i took these pictures. I am watering every 4-5 days. Even when i go to water the pots still look a bit wet. I have heard that coco doesnt really dry out, the plants eat all the nutes and leave the water behind. Is this true?

I don't grow in coco. But some nutrients are passively taken up and other are not. Your humidity will have a large impact on the amount of water taken up. Letting coco dry out is a no no. Of course what you mix it with makes a difference. If you have coco related questions I know @Enforcer grows in coco and could probably help you out in that area.

Dirtbag · Oct 8, 2019

Overfed. Happens to my kushes way more than I'm happy with, but newer hybrids seem less affected than more pure strains . What is the runoff ec from the coco and what are you feeding? If the VPD is right, the ppm for a lot of the kushes and some other varieties need to have the ppm dialed way back in week 2 or 3 of flower. Like 400-600ppm max for the rest of flower and closely watch runoff. I had this exact same thing happen to my Bubba and violator kush this round, But my Platinum cookies hybrid was unaffected. Just found out yesterday from a very well respected professional grower what happened.

What you will notice is the rest of the bud hairs will start turning brown too, the bud growth sort of slows down and they wont look to be growing much over the next few weeks, and theyll get mega frosty.

What you should do immediately imho is recirculate an isotonic solution through the coco and watch ppm, when the ppm stops rising, dump it, then flush the coco once more with Calmag, then a balanced base nute solution around 300ppm.

Truth be told, this happening twice in a row to my bubba kush is why I'm switching to rockwool next round. Tired of guessing what the cec is doing.

thelowedown · Oct 8, 2019

Dirtbag said:
Overfed. Happens to my kushes way more than I'm happy with, but newer hybrids seem less affected than more pure strains . What is the runoff ec from the coco and what are you feeding? If the VPD is right, the ppm for a lot of the kushes and some other varieties need to have the ppm dialed way back in week 2 or 3 of flower. Like 400-600ppm max for the rest of flower and closely watch runoff. I had this exact same thing happen to my Bubba and violator kush this round, But my Platinum cookies hybrid was unaffected. Just found out yesterday from a very well respected professional grower what happened.

What you will notice is the rest of the bud hairs will start turning brown too, the bud growth sort of slows down and they wont look to be growing much over the next few weeks, and theyll get mega frosty.

What you should do immediately imho is recirculate an isotonic solution through the coco and watch ppm, when the ppm stops rising, dump it, then flush the coco once more with Calmag, then a balanced base nute solution around 300ppm.

Truth be told, this happening twice in a row to my bubba kush is why I'm switching to rockwool next round. Tired of guessing what the cec is doing.

so they are turning red because i fed them too much? im running three different strains and only 2 of the plants (of the same strain) turned red so far. i am using the CX horticulture line. I am not keeping track of the ppms or runoff ec, as i know i should be doing.

Aqua Man · Oct 8, 2019

thelowedown said:
so they are turning red because i fed them too much? im running three different strains and only 2 of the plants (of the same strain) turned red so far. i am using the CX horticulture line. I am not keeping track of the ppms or runoff ec, as i know i should be doing.

I would trust that info. Not all the feedings are exactly the same nor the same exposure to light, air flow etc. Same plants can differ in the same room depending on placement, strain needs/differences. I have heard of it just being a strain thing but my gut tells me @Dirtbag is right here.

thelowedown · Oct 8, 2019

Aqua Man said:
I would trust that info. Not all the feedings are exactly the same nor the same exposure to light, air flow etc. Same plants can differ in the same room depending on placement, strain needs/differences. I have heard of it just being a strain thing but my gut tells me @Dirtbag is right here.

Do you have experience with watering with an isotonic solution? I am using a hose and a pump, not an automatic feeder.

Aqua Man · Oct 8, 2019

thelowedown said:
Do you have experience with watering with an isotonic solution? I am using a hose and a pump, not an automatic feeder.

Not a coco grower... @Dirtbag has experience with this situation first hand. I would ask him if he would mind giving you a step by step.

I would guess you need to find away to catch the runoff and refeed it until as @Dirtbag said the ppm stops rising

Also do some read on CEC cation exchange capacity. It's nutritious for issues in coco. It will help you better understand your issue

Enforcer · Oct 8, 2019

thelowedown said:
It is a tight space and i am brushing up against the plants anytime i walk by them. Could that be why they are turning red? Other than the couple that ive seen turning red, all the other ones seem to be doing perfectly fine to my knowledge.

Yes, that is exactly why. Excessive physical handling of the flower will cause the pistols to get damaged and turn brown prematurely. Using sprays in flower (if you are) will also have similar effects. Nothing to worry too much about. Just try not to handle them if you can help it.

Enforcer · Oct 8, 2019

Aqua Man said:
I would guess you need to find away to catch the runoff and refeed it until as @Dirtbag said the ppm stops rising

I would advise against recirculating systems with coco. It has a tendency to take a pathogen root problem from one plant and spread it to every plant on the system.

Dirtbag · Oct 8, 2019

Enforcer said:
I would advise against recirculating systems with coco. It has a tendency to take a pathogen root problem from one plant and spread it to every plant on the system.

That's a fair point. In that case a 2 hr soak in something like florakleen, clearex etc, then flush a fair bit of low ppm calmag solution through it until ppm runof is the same as what's going in, then 300 ppm feed of base.
Recirculating is just easier to see when you've got all the salts cause the ppm stops rising. I've done it a few times with coco grows in the past but never had any root issues spread, but I can see your point.

I dont think his issue is from simply brushing up on his plants though, if its affecting one strain but not the other, odds are that strain is a fussy feeder and sensitive to overfeeding. And the plants look a little overfed also.

thelowedown · Oct 8, 2019

Dirtbag said:
That's a fair point. In that case a 2 hr soak in something like florakleen, clearex etc, then flush a fair bit of low ppm calmag solution through it until ppm runof is the same as what's going in, then 300 ppm feed of base.
Recirculating is just easier to see when you've got all the salts cause the ppm stops rising. I've done it a few times with coco grows in the past but never had any root issues spread, but I can see your point.

I dont think his issue is from simply brushing up on his plants though, if its affecting one strain but not the other, odds are that strain is a fussy feeder and sensitive to overfeeding. And the plants look a little overfed also.

What PPM is recommended to go into a coco media? Also is there a way to correct the PPM without effecting the Ph?

thelowedown · Oct 8, 2019

Enforcer said:
Yes, that is exactly why. Excessive physical handling of the flower will cause the pistols to get damaged and turn brown prematurely. Using sprays in flower (if you are) will also have similar effects. Nothing to worry too much about. Just try not to handle them if you can help it.

Thats what i figured, seeing as none of the others are turning red. But no i refuse to spray in flower unless absolutely needed.

Dirtbag · Oct 8, 2019

thelowedown said:
What PPM is recommended to go into a coco media? Also is there a way to correct the PPM without effecting the Ph?

That's dependant on strain and VPD. But for a fussy feeder I'd keep it below 500 or so. Adjust ph with ph up or silica if necessary.

And who knows if it's only on a couple buds that you're always touching that could be it. But if you see more buds on the same strain darkening without handling them a lot, I think it's an overfeeding issue. All the more likely since you arent measuring ppms at all.

thelowedown · Oct 8, 2019

I appreciate all the help and feedback everyone! Happy Growing!

Edinburgh · Oct 8, 2019

Dont chop according to your pistols, chop by how your trichome looks, you may not have a lot of frost but look at your trichome its there if its clear wait.

Help! Pistils are turning red/brown early week 4

Help! Pistils are turning red/brown early week 4

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