Strange growth in top buds. Help?

[gmo]

Day 60 Gelato auto feminized from ILGM. There are 3 plants in aeroponics in this 3x3 tent and this is the only plant showing this growth. About 1/2 of the top colas are showing this bright yellow/green area. They are hard and feel like stems. The only thing I can figure is that the colas topped themselves due to light intensity. They are under 3 Mars Hydro ts1000s and the top colas were within a few inches of the lights until I could figure out a way to raise the lights to the very top of the tent. pH 5.7, RH 45%, res temp 65f, around 900ppm of GH Flora 6 part nutrients according to schedule.

 

[ROSTERMAN]

foxtailing from the heat

 

[gmo]

Bummer! Well I moved the lights as high as they can possibly go in the tent and it bought me another 4-5". I think everything is done stretching now so maybe it'll be a minor inconvenience rather than a catastrophe.
Thanks @ROSTERMAN for the input

 

[ROSTERMAN]

tie some of the taller ones off to the corner poles pulling then away from light maybe.

 

[gmo]

@ROSTERMAN I'll give that a shot tonight. Thanks again for the input and advice.

 

[leafminer]

Look like they are starting to herm.

 

[WeedHopper]

Here is a good read on That.

How To Spot And Handle Cannabis Foxtails - RQS Blog (royalqueenseeds.com)

 

[WeedHopper]

To prevent your buds from foxtailing, you need to know exactly what triggers this odd process. The main factor responsible for foxtailing revolves around stress, both above and below the soil level.

Strange things happen when cannabis plants have to deal with too much stress. They can even start expressing the wrong genitals at the calyces! Although stress causes plants to incidentally foxtail, some strains are grown to intentionally produce these structures. Some cultivators enjoy this trait and purposely buy seeds that increase the odds of experiencing them

 

[Bubba]

And if you don't like them, just snip them off. But keep looking for balls....

Bubba

 

[gmo]

The following is a response I received from another forum. I'm pasting it here for reference in case anyone comes across it in the future and has similar issue. I'm almost certain that this is sound advice after doing further research myself...

The light is not too weak ... the plant does not get enough of it ... because the majority of the leaves and shoots are in the shade.

that is a difference ... if the light were too weak you would see it immediately on small and few leaves ... you cannot see that here.

What you see here is the end product of a competitive behavior for light during the growth phase ... too many untrained plants on the area with a canopy in the upper 1/3 which prevents the lower 2/3 from receiving light.

The shadow leaves can thus contribute to hormone production, but not to energy production. this energy is tried to branch off from the upper 1/3.

the result is small fruits.

in the further course, calyxes will probably stack on top of each other ... similar to a foxtail

commercially, with such a small area and the corresponding number of plants, the lower 1/4 of the plants are removed ... to avoid this process. shade leaves produce too many hormones that interfere with flower formation. the lower shoots in the shade pinch too much energy ... 2 processes that favor popcorn.let's assume it would be possible to produce "too much or too strong" light with the light sources used.

what would the plant's reaction be?

she would not grow any further ... she would seek a distance that was acceptable to herself. we would see plants with very short nodes and many branches. stocky grew.

but we see elongated growth ... faster growth upwards ... little substance negative flower / leaf ratio ... all causes of too much shade.

 

[leafminer]

To prevent your buds from foxtailing, you need to know exactly what triggers this odd process. The main factor responsible for foxtailing revolves around stress, both above and below the soil level.

Strange things happen when cannabis plants have to deal with too much stress. They can even start expressing the wrong genitals at the calyces! Although stress causes plants to incidentally foxtail, some strains are grown to intentionally produce these structures. Some cultivators enjoy this trait and purposely buy seeds that increase the odds of experiencing them

Absolutely. I have a strain here that produces nothing but foxtails. It's not a commercially available seed, it comes from some Mexican weed I picked up in Jalisco. I don't grow it because the yield is poor due to the fact it self-seeds. There are no real 'male' or 'female' plants; they all look the same, they all foxtail, they all self-seed leaving a bit of very nice buzzy smoke, but I would not want it growing within pollen range of any of my strains. In fact I tried a selective breeding effort to make it more fem and less herm. What I got was another strain I called 'Secret Agent' because it looks rather unlike weed. But still, Secret Agent hermied too much. Finally I gave up.