SortOfNovice

I'd bet that's cuz it's starting to flower. I got 3 different strains in the ground lookin happy as ever but their lower leaves have been dying, even though they all appear to be getting plenty to eat. Been flowering maybe 2 weeks now.

RE: Pollen Question - My male is Malawi and just now starting to produce pollen. Any chance I'll be able to pollinate with my Indicas or will they be too mature by the time the sativa pollen matures? The plant is about 100 yds away behind a barricade of brush and trees, I'm hoping the wind doesn't carry any that way. The wind never blows that direction.

That stalk is as round as my 6 ft Malawi's. The branches are nice and thick. My Northern Lights stalks are just about like that and they are about 3 - 4 footers. Real pretty plant. Nice to see someone else just letting it grow instead of some form of training.

You train too much. In those nine weeks if you had left the plant alone, it would be at least 4 times as big and with that just as many more shoots.

I've only ever seen one male and that is a pure Sativa I'm growing. That long straight pre-flower doesn't resemble either. I did have a couple females that I originally thought was male. They had something similar to that long skinny pre-flower but it was curved and on lower branches. The were pure indicas. The first pre-flower pic you showed, the look more like female calyxes. Keep an eye on those to see if the pistils come out of their tips.

Watch for the Calyxes to swell. You want most of the callyxes to swell to the point that they mostly swallow the pistils. I've been dissappointed a couple times because I cut when the pistils change color. After they change color the calyxes will swell causing the buds to fatten, after that they start to develop massive amounts of trichomes on the sides of the calyxes. These are the trichomes you desire the most, not the ones on leaves and branches. If you chop earlier than this the bud might be alright, but it will be way better if you let the buds develop lots of trichomes all over fat buds.

Might have been the fox farms soil, but mine needed a big CalMag boost at about 5-6 weeks. It really hurt bad cuz I misdiagnosed as P deficiency and didn't resolve til most the foliage was dead. She has held on though and the buds are fattening up. I already know they are super compact.