28 days into flowering, buds seem small - Am I doing something wrong?

[JohnC]

Good morning, all. This is my first post to this forum. I've found the GWE website to be among the best for anyone wanting to learn how to grow and I'm hoping the folks on this forum are just as helpful.

I have a single plant growing in a self-built cabinet that I have concerns about. This is my fifth grow in this cabinet, but the first time in my new location (Central Colorado).

Here are the particulars:

• Strain: BlueBerry Headband (50/50 indica/sativa hybrid, photo-period feminized seed from Emerald Triangle Seeds)
• Soil: 4 gallons Fox Farm Happy Frog amended with 1 gallon of perlite and 3 tablespoons dolomite lime.
• Light: G8LED 240-watt full-spectrum LED, supplemented by 90-watt UFO lamp for flowering
• Nutrients: Fox Farm soil trio (Grow Big, Big Bloom, and Tiger Bloom), also using CalMag supplement.
• Temps / Humidity: Temps have remained a constant 70-72 degrees during the day and mid-60's at night. My humidity has fluctuated between 18% and 25% throughout the entire grow.
• Seed germinated in soil on 12/06/16, flipped to flowering mode on 03/20/17

The seed germinated on Dec 6th and I vegged her until March 19th when I flipped the lights to flowering mode. During her vegetative growth, she has been carefully "manifolded" to eight mains or tops. She has been flowering now for 28 days.

Here is my concern: Are the buds too small for a plant that has been flowering for just shy of a month?

As mentioned, this is my fifth grow and my previous four plants had much more advanced bud growth at 28 days than this one. I know my humidity is quite low but I am somewhat constrained by environment (basement grow in a cabinet).

There have been no major problems during her growth other than a Cal/Mag deficiency that appeared about two weeks ago (lower older leaves yellowing between veins) and I lost just a few leaves. I bumped up the Cal/Mag to 1 teaspoon per gallon with every other watering and that appears to have addressed that problem. Up until a week ago, I continued feeding her veg nutes (1.5 teaspoon of Big Bloom & 1.0 teaspoon of Grow Big) to help her with her stretch. Last week (third week into flowering) I stopped the Grow Big and switched to 1.0 teaspoon of Tiger Bloom. I chose to delay the application of Tiger Bloom once I started flowering because I didn't want to impact the stretch of the first few weeks. Even so, she hasn't stretched a whole lot, maybe 40% (about five inches) since the lights were flipped 28 days ago. She now measures about 20 inches or so above the soil line.

So please folks, can someone tell me if I'm OK or if I have a problem here? Could this just be a late bloomer, and just a strain that is going to take longer to complete flowering? Or do I have an issue that is slowing this plant down?

I appreciate any guidance or suggestions you folks have to offer.

 

[Marley]

The plant looks really healthy overall, maybe just a late bloomer? I do see a bit of clawing going on, maybe your N is a bit to high for flowering. Hopefully someone with more experience will answer.

 

[Beach_Town_Brit]

Hi John, as Marley says your plant looks very healthy. I'd be tempted to give her a haircut, strip the bottom inch or so, remove 50% of the fan leaves in the canopy. Getting more light and air to your buds should encourage them to plump up those flowers.

You seem to be doing everything right, I think there's only so much we can do to influence their individual growth cycles. Much of the time we just have to let them follow their own path

Do you have a fan on the plant?

 

[Canuck147]

Plant looks very healthy - Beach_Town_Brit - and - Marley - both have it right. I would remove a lot of the fan leaves underneath, let the plant direct her energy to the buds.

 

[Green75]

Yes I agree.. Way too many fan leaves...

Nice build on cabinet.. Plant seems to like it as well..

 

[JohnC]

No Title

Good morning fellow growers,

It's been a week since I posted my question and I want to first thank all who provided advice.

It seemed the over-whelming response was to defoliate a little bit. I knew I had to defoliate some but I was concerned about retaining enough healthy fan leaves to last me through flower. My last plant (Berry Bomb) ate a lot of her own leaves from the bottom up during flower and I wanted to be prepared in case that happened again with this plant. Plus I was concerned about possibly stunting her growth if I went too far.

But in any case, I did do some 'light' defoliation last Sunday, removing about 20 or so large fan leaves. I concentrated my efforts on the interior of the plant, top to bottom. My goal was to get as much light penetration into the interior of the plant as possible while holding on to as many fan leaves around the outside circumference of the plant to keep photosynthesis at maximum..

In the past week, she seems to have woken up a little bit. Buds are building along the length of each cola and odor is becoming prominent. The stretch definitely appears to be over so I've lowered my LED lights to 12" above the canopy (minimum distance as recommended by the manufacturer). The photos below were taken this morning, a week after her little bit of defoliation.

I guess at this point she looks to be OK and it's just a matter of letting her do her thing until harvest. However, if anyone has any suggestions for further improvement, please let me know. Thanks!

 

[Green75]

Defoliate.......

 

[JohnC]

Green75 - I'm really hesitant to defoliate any more. I have several old fan leaves on the bottom that are yellowing. I'm guessing this is probably due to genetics rather than any kind of deficiency as she's been getting more than enough nitrogen, calcium, and magnesium. However, I'd like to retain as many fan leaves as possible to last me through flower. I'm guessing I have at least another six weeks until harvest time approaches.

 

[Green75]

Okay...

Taking leaves lets the plant grow bigger buds... Let's air in...puts light on all bud sites...

I've been at this for years man... did you catch the newsletter nebula sent out this morning that covered defoliation...and training...