Help: Beautiful Colas Wilting at Tips. Long, hot LA summer.

Watsup folks.. Cool site. Sorry for the FRAT.

Short version:

Hot, dry, intense sun - SoCal weather (90's in the day- damn heatwaves). Blueberry strain probly 2-3 weeks from ideal harvest. Buds look perfect, but the tips (top inch or so) on some are starting to get very dry, and some are full on brown (basically dead.. at the tips). Below the brown/dry tops, everything looks beautiful. Do i move to shaded area, still outside -or- move near window with decent at best light, but temps in the 70's all day??


Long version:

I'm an indoor guy messing with some outdoor this year. Just one plant, good old fashioned soil/sand/vermiculite mix i've used on my indoor grows. i would say i'm probly 8 weeks into flowering (?!?). Southern California, so we've got some strong sun and dry weather these days- probly 80-90s in the day, 70s at night. Tap water, not sure ph. Blueberry strain.

So the nugs have been looking real nice so far. I feel like they may be ripening up a bit quickly, but other than that, looks good. Just within the last week tho, 2 of the upper buds seem like they are showing signs of overheat or too much sun, or both. Only the tips (top 1 inch or so) are turning pretty brown and obviously dry. Its strange because there are buds that are higher and/or receive more sun, but look just fine. But the main thing is, everything below the tips looks beautiful, but probly 2-3 weeks still from ideal harvesting. I am noticing some of the other buds are getting a bit dry on the tops as well, but not brown or as bad as these 2 in particular. And some just look perftect.

Basically i've decided something needs to happen here though cuz i'm worried this may start to happen on the other buds. My two plans of action at this point are A) Keep the plant outside, but in a very shaded area, or B) Move her inside keeping her by a window that gets overall terrible morning/early afternoon light. My last ditch would be an early harvest, but i'm not quite ready to resort to that quite yet.

Anyway, any advice?? My thinking with the 2 options is pretty obvious- Outside she probly gets more (albeit indirect light), but she's still in the dry heat (but at least shaded). Inside, not too much sun, but much cooler. Not sure if the drastic change in environment would be a good thing at this point, so i'm leaning towards option A. But what do ya'll think?? I've dealt with a lot of heat/dryness/excess light issues indoors, but this outdoor thing aint quite such an exact science. I know these weather conditions are not so good for a mature plant like this, but it is what is....

Any input/feedback would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Hi, Do you have any pictures? I grow outside and am inland south cali. I'd keep her outside but would move her where she might get just filtered sun during the hotter afternoon hours. You don't want her soil to dry out as much as you normally would and depending on her size and age and pot size you may need to water daily and you won't want to use nutes with every watering. If you can set a fan by her to circulate the hot air she;ll be happier you don't need anything major blowing a 9" personal fan works great.

thanks for the feedback luna.. Ya, a spot with filtered sun would probly be ideal. Fan couldnt hurt either. I'm going to try a day of full shade tomorrow and see if it helps at all. The fact that this has all happened in a matter of days has me a bit on edge.. and the way its happening to such random buds. I took some pics, but you really cant notice whats going on.. it all just looks like healthy chronic nugs, haha.

Hows your crop coming along with all this heat??

Are they in pots? If so, the suns heat may be cooking the roots.

Could also be overnute.
Around my front porch (high desert, southwest USA) are some privet bushes. When I over-fert them, or mess with their ph too drastically, the growing tips burn pretty bad. Root stress and heat.

Heat stress alone causes major wilting of entire plant, not just the cola tips. (unless too close to a HID lamp)

yes, its in a pot, probly 18" or so. Definitely could be that the roots are getting too hot. Have you heard of any ways to keep the roots cool aside from the obvious (moving it inside, water, etc)??

I dont think its overfertilization though. I am generally on the light side with the nutes, especially during flowering- last time i fertilized was actually probly a month ago.

Could something like this happen due to the roots being severed or something?? I recently put a small stake in the soil to hold one of the branches up. I've done this before on indoor with no problems, but i usually stay very shallow and towards the edge... This time i am within a couple inches of the base of the plant (altho still pretty shallow). But would this be the type of symptoms of something like this??

Thanks for the replies ya'll.

dig a gigantic hole, and then fill it up without packing, and then dig a spot for the rootball, and put in there, will give the plant unlimited rootspace and roots wont cook

not sure i'm 100% clear on what you're saying... Are you suggesting i basically transplant the plant right now?? Like i said i'm 2 weeks out from harvest and i would generally stay away from something major like that at this point... But maybe i'm missing something in ur post.

For all i know tho, this may not be a result of the heat- thats just my best guess. But since its happening on lower buds, middle buds and just generally completely at random i'm trying to figure out what it could be.

I also dont know if i should harvest the buds that this is happening to now, or let it go and wait til the rest of the colas ripen or what........

Ughh, 95% completion to run into this.. I just need to figure how to get thru the next 2 weeks without this problem getting worse.

here's a pic i snapped.. like i said its hard to tell, but look at the bud in the foreground, the top inch or so is pretty brown and the rest is beautiful whiteness. That brown area is basically dead tho, pretty much completely dried up..... maybe this helps..

Its ok to give water a couple times a day when the temp is hot. I'm in Northern Cali and the past three days I've been watering twice a day its been 85-100.. killer hot. I'm in 30 gallons giving 4 gallons of water split up into 2 gallon rotation.

so do ya'll think it would be a bad idea to remove the top parts of these buds?? this is getting pretty lame, if i just barely touch these dryed parts they basically just break off. the dried sections actually look like bud thats ready to harvest (brown stigmas, etc), except its very dry. Anyway I've resorted to moving inside. i guess we'll see....

oh, and underneath one of the tops of the buds that broke off, i found some little green caterpillar/worm thing... could these things be the culprit??

if whatever is going on does not stop soon (with it indoors now and all), what's you guys' experience with early harvests?? Is potency pretty affected? The buds seem to have gotten about as big as they are going to get....... ughhhh.

A board, strategically propped against the pot helps shade the roots. Allow airflow to the base, tho. Keeping it off the ground/concrete helps, too.
Doubtful a catterpillar would result in this kind of damage...looks more like a root thing to me. But I'd remove them, just the same, lol.
Harvest times are subjective, but it does depend on what you are looking for in your smoke. Earlier harvest (cloudy trichomes) generally equates to a lighter effect. (still able to get up to get your own munchies) Longer flower times (till trichomes turn a bit rusty-looking) generally give more of a "holy crap I'm too stoned to move" effect.

Couple more questions...

Can you slip it out of the pot and look at the condition of the roots? Would look for being rootbound, see if there's healthy white growing tips on the roots, and check for more bugs.
Were you spraying the tops with anything? If so...do you know the ph of the spray?

You should never put a plant from outside that has questionable pest/disease indoors...IMO it sounds like nute burn...
Good Luck

so it was fucking CATERPILLARS!!!

I've pulled like 6 of those fuckers.. They get inside the buds and just eat them from the inside.. anything above dies.

This is extremely lame. I would rather it be heat or dryness, or wtvr. There is really nothing i can do except pull them off.. but i somehow have a feeling i will only find more tomorrow.. and what's more, there are probly more lurking that i couldnt find... Apparently this is a somewhat common problem with outdoor (and it sounds like it is common for it to happen just a couple weeks out from harvest).

So if nothing else, learn from me.. Shoulda been spraying caterpillar killer over the last couple months.

Thanks for the advice/help from you guys.. Let me know if anyone has succesfully dealt with this problem before.

Ughh, who woulda thought stupid effing caterpillars?!? these things have essentially destroyed what would have been a perfect harvest..............