Two words: BUD ROT 😱.
6/4/2024 (M/D/Y) found botrytis in a center minor cola. Noticed the color of the bud was off and then gave it a squeeze. It fell apart in my hands. Plant had been moved outside several weeks ago and the weather this year has just been absolute trash.
Emergency chopped the tops of the major colas. Plant was nearing the end of ripening and I was seeing amber in the leaves, but only a wee bit in the buds. 4 or 5 calyxes would fill a single-person pipe.
Still quite a bit of smaller buds remaining, I will keep an eye on those and harvest as need be.
Unfortunately a young white-widow auto isn't ready to go outside (1 week 5 days old) with the current June insect situation and it's starting the first shoots, so I have no choice except to dry these in an active grow tent.
No A/C either so temperature is 76F and 53% humidity in that tent. Strung up inside a cardboard box on the floor of my grow tent, cut vents in the bottom sides and placed it near an intake vent.
This bud-rot emergency chop hit so fast that I was completely unprepared.
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As to the bud-rot issue, I think I would've been better off not tying the plant over. Bent into an S-shape it's difficult to judge what's going on with foliage crowding and the mold was found square in the center of the plant. In the future I should either let the plant grow as it will or be more deliberate with the LST in trimming and spidering out the plant instead of a lazy bend-the-main-cola over.
So bud rot, I've grabbed the greatest mass of buds but there's probably a fair bit left I might be able to reclaim. I've greatly thinned out the plant and will continue to thin out the fan leaves even more.
I assume from here onward I basically need to to keep a watchful eye, put a fan on outside when raining (plants are safely sheltered under roof when raining, but still outside) and harvest bit by bit as it seems ripe while carefully inspecting for mold?