Colas too heavy and stems snapping at join to main stem HELP SOS!

Guys,

Got an issue that i am having problems with. I am 5 and a half weeks into flower and my main colas must be getting heavy as i looked tonight and one of them has almost peeled itself off the main stem, it resembled a
" V " if you can picture it. It was just hanging on and not much more but it must have happened a day or two ago as the open injury sites seemed to have dried over. I have tied string around it and pulled it back but not sure if it will bind together and repair as like i said the open areas look to have dried and "scarred" over.

I have tied some of the colas up and put a few strings round the bottom and centre of the plant to stop the branches spreading out as much.

What can be done to stop this happening? It is a Lemon Skunk and quite leggy. But the stems aren't that thick unfortunately. Also nearly all the middle to lower leaves have yellowed off and starting to fall off the plant but its 2-3 weeks away from harvest if this normal? I have only grown one plant before and that went fairly smooth no issues!

Get some bamboo stakes and tie them to the stakes for support... But really just about anything will work. I've seen people run strings from the ceiling to support them as well.

Same happend to mine i just tied garden wire around it just below the bud and tied the other end of the wire to the main light cable kept it nice and heathy for the last two week

I will have to get down the DIY depot tomorrow first thing and purchase a bamboo cane then like you guys say. I'm sitting really pissed off now and i'll be thinking about it all night and why i never secured them all better. Anyway, live and learn i guess.

I was drying it out for 5 days then gave it a good water yesterday, do you think its possible by drying her out for 5 days made her stems just a little brittle and less supple and this coupled with a heavy bug growth on the end has just been too much?

What a nice problem to have!!!

If your split the stalk throw some tape on it

This is a common problem with plants that I have mainlined. Be sure not to over-veg your plants as well or you will end up with branches that are long and lanky and big fat colas on the tops ready to topple them over and pull your stem apart. Ive always tied mine back together with soft wire tie as you already have and I use trellis netting to hold the colas up and keep them from falling over. This also helps in creating an even canopy

Use masking tape right now at all the joints go go go. Don't wrap it around a single stem wrap it around two stems, the main stalk and the off shoot so that the loop of tape holds the shoot up. This will stop the splitting and now you need support. If it is dirt you can use those metal plant supports you can hack saw a line in the middle then bend it back/forth slightly but quickly to snap it off. When it is in half duct tape it to your planter around the bottom in two areas so you don't have to poke your root system. Bailing wire is beautiful for looping around a stem to hold it as long as it can't slide down onto a bud. Otherwise I use nylon string I split it off from a solid piece to 3 pieces of smaller nylon string and melt it to cut it so it doesn't fray.

I go through this every time I grow a strain for the first time because I like to learn a plants growth characteristics before I decide how to train it.

How bout some pics I wanna see these beasts

Ok lights are back on at 8pm...so going to go out today and buy all these essential support items haha and get in about her tonight and sort her out. Will post up a pic of the buds. I think you will be disappointed....i think its more the stems are thin and the buds big compared to the stem Thanks for all the advice guys really appreciate it.

FruitSpirit said:

Ok lights are back on at 8pm...so going to go out today and buy all these essential support items haha and get in about her tonight and sort her out. Will post up a pic of the buds. I think you will be disappointed....i think its more the stems are thin and the buds big compared to the stem Thanks for all the advice guys really appreciate it.

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Will be waiting

FruitSpirit said:

Ok lights are back on at 8pm...so going to go out today and buy all these essential support items haha and get in about her tonight and sort her out. Will post up a pic of the buds. I think you will be disappointed....i think its more the stems are thin and the buds big compared to the stem Thanks for all the advice guys really appreciate it.

Click to expand...

We all deal with this when dealing with a new strain. You throw 4 plants around the outskirts of your main grow and they get stretchy as hell, weak stemmed. Then the other plants finish so now those 4 little plants are directly under the HPS so the buds swell big, you walk in and all your bud is doing the ostrich. All you see is necks coming up from the grow floor.
(If the main stem splits get the outter skin all lined up real good where it was and masking tape it back together, mj is amazing.)

Ok guys i think you are going to be underwhelmed with this pic, but it is bigger than it appears in this picture, it is bent over and growing horizontally almost. I have 2 x 300w lights running so i have turned the plant and lowered one light down on one side of the plant to get the low sites to come up better and beef up because right now one side of the plant is dominant and one side is getting less light.

This may show it a bit better, but I'm trying not to stress the stems anymore. It is a long dense cola, it is pretty sticky and heavy even though it doesn't look much. I have done the masking tape trick it worked a treat i think its going to seal up. Its incredible how smart these plants are.

Looks good man! Good luck! You're almost there

Yay for masking tape, love that shit! Also, I use canes and soft coated wire from the pound shop (UK) to train and support mine. I think I read somewhere that you can use rooting gel to moisten the joint before taping it up, don't quote me on it but check it out. Did you use silica during your grow? I'm wondering whether it would have helped strengthen the stems and prevented the problem, or if you DID use it, has it made them brittle and contributed to the problem? But that's just my pondering on it. I think you'll be ok, good luck with it mate

I have cloning root gel there that i bought when i thought about cloning my first mother i had. I never got round to it..anyway i have the gel and i thought about that today but then i thought a gel with rooting hormones wouldn't work on a mature stem. BUT that was just me thinking that way, the whole moistening thing sounds pretty good and if in a day or two it is not bonding together i will try it. She will be ready in 2-3 weeks tops. Then its harvest time. The buds can pack on a fair amount in that time so I'm hoping i don't get any more issues. I doubt it though theres a whole roll of masking tape on her

Cannacat said:

Yay for masking tape, love that shit! Also, I use canes and soft coated wire from the pound shop (UK) to train and support mine. I think I read somewhere that you can use rooting gel to moisten the joint before taping it up, don't quote me on it but check it out. Did you use silica during your grow? I'm wondering whether it would have helped strengthen the stems and prevented the problem, or if you DID use it, has it made them brittle and contributed to the problem? But that's just my pondering on it. I think you'll be ok, good luck with it mate

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I forgot to talk about silica there in my last reply mat sorry. So, silica. I have heard of this but not sure what or how it works? Is it a soluble soil mix or a liquid etc?

I think by drying it out for 5 days and making her thirsty may have made her joints a little brittle and less supple and possibly contributed to the snapping under weight. I am not going to let her get too thirsty in future. Every 3 days as usual. First time i deviate from the 3 day water schedule and i get a bust cola!

A quick google shows it is potassium silicate....i still don't know how it is dosed or given to the plant though and if i buy some and administer it will it make a difference at this stage. I think i will research it though as my next few plants will be Jackie Herers so i think they may be lanky too. I think i will cut a week off veg time on the next outing, and go into flower when the pistils appear

I've used bamboo bbq skewers and long fuzzy pipecleaners to make "tomato cages" around em before, right now I have a white widow that's trying to fall over, I just put one 12mm wood Dow rod into the pot at an angle, tied a thick string, wrapped the plant like a loose bouquet, then tied back to the Dow rod again, you can do the same thing with tape, just keep the sticky side of the tape outward from the plant and stick the tape to itself then add another strip of tape sticky to sticky on the first (keeps you from sticking to the outer layer) looks healthy and that's the important part