Foxtailing: What Is It and How to Handle It

Foxtail in cannabis is a situation that the cannabis buds begin to grow abnormal spires. You surely heard about foxtailing, whether you are a beginner or an experienced grower. Cannabis Foxtailing is a kind of aesthetic abnormality we often see in cannabis plants. The buds of the cannabis flowers itself are developed into a bunch of unfertilized leaves. 

If a male seed pollinates the plant, every calyx may house a seed. If the plant is left unfertilized, the calyces may swell up and can finally develop buds that we commonly know. When you try to look into a normal bud, the leaves can grow very close to each other around the plant and can develop in to round nuggets. While when it grows foxtail, the leaves can develop unevenly on top of each calyx that creates bumpy structure flowers.

What is the Main Reason Why Cannabis Foxtailing Occur?

Foxtail in cannabis may be caused by extreme stress or sometimes from its genetics. For growers that tend to grow outdoors, the fox tailing that occurs in such setup may commonly due to the plant’s genetics. Other cannabis strains are just simply susceptible to having foxtails. 

On the other hand, those cannabis growers that plant cannabis indoors, foxtails are caused by the stress from light during the flowering stage. With this situation, the cannabis plant may begin to develop foxtails. It starts in the area of the flowers that too close to the light source in a longer period. 

It is commonly happening in conditions that used plasma or HPS for lighting. Cannabis plants that have this type of fox tailing may have burnt end tips or the buds itself because of the heat that comes from the growing light.

Does Cannabis Foxtails Bad for the Overall Growing of Plants?

Scientifically, cannabis fox tailing can make your bud looks unusual, but it does not negatively influence your buds. But, fox tailing usually a pleasing question that other cannabis growers can even love the look of cannabis that foxtails. There are also cannabis growers that declare having slight fox tailing can help the plant increase number of yields that are positive for growers.

Good Foxtailing

Foxtail in the cannabis plant is in a negative development in some different situations. If it is because of the plant’s genetic, then it is not considered bad fox tailing. With these circumstances, it is just a natural way, and it is not showing that the growers do not make an error. 

When foxtailing is caused by genetic, it also shows a unique structure, and it does not minimize the quality as well as the potency of the yields. Even the appearance of the plant may look distorted. It still belongs to a unique species in all respects.

Bad Foxtailing

The bad foxtailing may happen if the process is not natural to the strain. It can be caused by different factors such as light and heat stress. When the growers used a powerful light and placed too close on the plants then it can expose the plant to an excessive level of stress making the plant grows in a different structure. 

Extreme heat and light received by the plants can be caused by developing unusual foxtailing that develops large and compact growth. It may sound like pleasing to hear, and foxtailing may seem to produce larger yields, but the problem is it may be lost potency and will go on with it except you have something to do to manage the condition.

The heat and light stress may continue to harm the plants in the structure of burning off the leaves. Avoiding this kind of situation, make sure to observe the flowers, especially to the closest top of the plants, and make some accommodations to the light source gap consistently.

How to Handle Cannabis Foxtailing?

The first thing to do is observe what causes the fox tailing to handle the situation. If you observed that it is caused by the plant’s genetics, then you have nothing to do with it. on the other hand, if you discover that your growing routines are the main cause of damage and stress of your plants, you need to adjust and change some ways you used to practice such as the following:

1. Control the Heat and Light Stress 

The first thing you need to check is your growing room temperature. You can use a thermometer to help you check the temperature of the room. Preferably, the growing room must be in temperature for about 23 degrees Celsius when the growing lights are on. Otherwise, when the light is off, the room temperature must turn down for at least 5 degrees Celsius.

2. Used LED Lights 

The temperature may control using the right ventilation and air conditioning for a growing room. It is advisable to use LED lights as it provides less heat and cannot handle much the temperature in your growing area. When it comes to lighting, avoid getting too excited for your plant to grow that you can even place the light source closer in your plants. 

Doing this will become more stress in your cannabis plants and can subject and increase the possibility of having foxtails. If you used for a usual but high power discharge lights, target for the distance for about 24 inches in between the light and top of your cannabis plants. Otherwise, if you used LED lights for your plants, then target a distance for about 15 inches away from the light. 

3. Flush the Plant

For Sativa foxtailing, it can help if you flushed the plant appropriately during every 3 to 4 weeks to stops the nitrogen and fertilizer to build up possibly. Also, feed your plant using PK nutrients before you begin to get back on its usual routine.

Conclusion

The range of the light source plays a very important role in avoiding cannabis foxtailing, most especially for the cannabis plant that is mostly Sativa variety. This is because the Sativa makes headway closest to the equator so too much red light while the plant is on the flowering stage of the overall cycle. It can produce stress and possibly develop undesirable foxtailing in cannabis.