I couldn't find any other threads on this problem. I do believe that it's heat stress that causes this. I've successfully grown successive crops of this strain, all cut from the same mother, but this time I inadvertently let my growroom temperature to rise above 85 F on several occasions during the 8 week flowering cycle. I thought that, by now using CO2, I could permit higher temperatures. Well, my entire crop has turned to shit, in that while the colas looked good growing, they are misshaped, have what appears to be immature seed pod development, are completely loose, having grown in what appears to be multiple, small popcorn buds on the colas themselves. Instead of one tightly compacted bud, the cola is really formed by many smaller, loose buds, each about the size of a very small grape. The only thing that changed between crops, that I can tell, is that my daytime temperatures were much higher. I'm growing in a shed in the California Central Valley, and when temps three weeks ago hit 106, my wall AC simply couldn't keep the temps below 80, and with lights on, 85 was the usual peak with the max temp peaking at 91. I was running CO2 the entire time, expecting that this would be OK. Doesn't appear so. I searched like mad for heat stress during flowering, but all other threads indicated leaf curl, or browning/crisping of leaves, but not one showed odd bud formation. That last picture really shows the effect -- the buds seem to grow as a set of three. (That is, until I can figure out why the upload ain't working, there are no pics yet...) Soon, I hope. I am allowing the vegging plant to show preflowers before flowering, so bad bud formation isn't due to trying to flower too early. Would heat stress possibly produce these results?
too high of heat will make buds loose and fluffy, stretched out and very hard to get decent yields with high flowering temps. i had a thread asking about stretching due to high heat temp spikes during flower.. and what i got from that, is that heat will make a plant stretch more than usual during the first 4 weeks of flower or so. i have also ran into the same problems you are saying.. little popcorn buds and loosely compacted. seems to be that heat did cause this to happen to me...since lowering temps to max out at about 75F-78F there is much tighter node growth, less stretching and less branching. before my temps were around 80-85 constant(not running co2) and had retarded yields...waste of time. what do you have the co2 regulated at? ive also heard that with co2 injection you can allow the temps to become higher. i still wouldnt let the plants get above 85... i think that if you werent running co2 they probably would have died at that high of temps. at 85F w/o co2 my plants show signs of heat stress, curled crispy leafs..did urs show any signs of being too hot?