Flimsy Branches???

So this is my first attempt at a soil grow and I just wanted to get opinions from the experts on whether or not I am dealing with an issue. The plants are doing really well from what I can see, but the flimsy branches have me a little worried. I guess I just expect them to be a little more perkier. Again I have no experience with this and there are to many different opinions online. That being said I figured it would be best to come and just post some pics here and get some feed back. Plant info and pics below.

Soil: 5 gal per pot of FFOF mixed 50/50 with perlite and 5 tbs of dolomite lime

5 gal pots

PH runoff: Always between 6 and 6.3

PPM: Between 1200 and 1500 on last test

Feed: Both plants have only been fed tap water ( 120 ppm ) and 1/2 tsp molasses every other water. Currently I only have to water them every 5 days.

Age: They will be 1 month on 6/15/15

Strain: Plant on the left is MK and the plant on the right is unknown

To reiterate, I am just concerned with the branches being kind of bowed and bent over instead of standing straight up. You can see this mainly on the left plant. Its definitely noticeable after each watering, but I only water every 5 days so I cant see how I would be over watering. I also check each day to make sure its not bone dry, so I cant see how I would be under watering either. Any opinions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks ahead of time!!!

The ppm seems high to me. I'm not the best grower, but I just had a similar problem if you check the forum for "buds twisting sideways" where the last two inches at the top were flimsy, I would make sure a fan is blowing gently across them the leaves have small holes on the bottom, as the air passes it works like a vaccum and picks water up into the plant. Better air flow is a good start, then I would give them some water with a balanced ph and nothing else, I did both and my problem was solved within 30 min just an idea since it looks like Moines answering

Thanks Auto!! I thought the PPM was a little high myself, so I have definitely been looking for nute burn sites, but so far I have not been able to find any. These have actually had fans blowing on them from the time they sprouted you just cant see them in the pictures. Temps in there are always around 75 degrees with roughly 50% RH. I was just researching a little more and starting to wonder if even 5 days between watering is not long enough. Reason I say that is although the soil is starting to dry out around this time, I would not say its completely dry. Not sure if this would have anything to do with it also? Thanks again for the response!!

I would say if that soil isnt feeling dry when you lift the pot its not sry enough.
Ive been running mk for a couple runs and mine seem to have really flimsy stems too up until about week 3/4 of 12/12. After that they start to stiffen up. Ive thought about adding silica but it doesnt happen on my other strains so I havent yet.

Everything sound right to me other then the ppm, a bit high, 700 to 800 is a better range for veg. You might add a few more holes to the bottom of your pots (if they look like they could use them). I wouldn't water again until there completely dry. Around day 5-6 if your worried you can always give them a light foliar watering.

Add some silica for enhanced stem and branch strength

You got a fan blowing directly on the plants? You need a constant air movement on the plants. The limbs moving will thicken them up.

Fan on them, will help tons. After 20 yes growing, have a room with ceiling fan. Have it set on winter runs 24/7 in flower room. Adjust speed to high in light and low on night. Have fan blowing on girls 30 min on and 30 to hour off. Good Luck :~}

I will say this and have seen others here observe the same thing. The buds that are closer to the fan are better. I mean I've had some hard wind blowing on them.

PPM does seem aggressive but obviously your plant is responding well to it! So don't stop or move down. As far as your watering approach I wouldn't look at the top of the soil as this isn't good indicator, but rather the lift test to determine how much water is in the soil. Most people go to a water 1 day then 2 days off...so 5 seems extreme! Also remember the signs of overwatering and under watering look very similar!

Thank you all for the responses!! I have not been on in awhile, so it was awesome to log in and see all this helpful feedback, much appreciated. I did end up flushing the medium cause there were some sights of nute burn. I flushed until the run off was around 350 ppm. That was 5 days ago today, so I will be watering the MK most likely tomorrow. I will test the run off after that watering to better gauge if I need to start adding nutes.

Other then that I have been doing some LST and a little cropping and the MK has been responding phenomenally. I was however extremely sad to find out the other plant was a male

Oh well, can't dwell on that and at least my MK is a beautiful female so I will be cloning her and hopefully getting some decent weight off her when she moves over to flower soon. Planning to move her at 2 months.

I'll try to get some pics up tonight for you guys to give me some feedback on.

Thanks again!!

Well she seems to be doing pretty good now. Got home today and checked on her and after cropping the hell out of her last night, I figured she would still be a little gimped over, but that certainly was not the case as you can see lol. Every branch I cropped was popped up high as can be lol. The soil is definitely ready for a water, but I am going to wait one more day just to give her a little extra oxygen. I think before I was just slightly over watering even though I was waiting 5 days, I dont think it was quite enough. Anyways just wanted to give an update and show how shes doing. Also wanted to show a little more of the setup so you know I have had fans on her from the beginning

I posted a close up of one of the fan leaves to show what I believe to be nute burn. Someone correct me if you think its something else, but Since the flush she has been responding very well and I have not seen any more of these spots on the new growth. PH was hanging around 6.7 if I remember correctly, but I could be wrong on that and I dont have my notes in front of me atm. Lets just say I know for sure it was between 6.5 and 7.0 lol.

Thanks again everyone for the replies and information. I am certain once I move her into flower, which will be the middle of next month, I will need more advice on something i'm sure lol.

Looking good. The spots could be burn, but it looks more like its related to the roots. This is up to you, but what I would do is the next time she is dryed out and ready for her next watering. Before watering very carefully take her out of the pot to inspect the roots. Look for root rot ( look up what root rot looks like, and what heathy roots look like) also take note if she is looking root bound. I think the spots are showing up because she needs more space. If you do this slowly and carefully it shouldn't stress her at all.

Gutcheck said:

Thanks Auto!! I thought the PPM was a little high myself, so I have definitely been looking for nute burn sites, but so far I have not been able to find any. These have actually had fans blowing on them from the time they sprouted you just cant see them in the pictures. Temps in there are always around 75 degrees with roughly 50% RH. I was just researching a little more and starting to wonder if even 5 days between watering is not long enough. Reason I say that is although the soil is starting to dry out around this time, I would not say its completely dry. Not sure if this would have anything to do with it also? Thanks again for the response!!

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Yes you are probably right. Overwatering causes limp plants due to lack of oxygen, a lot of times they will curl from stem to tip like claws, I would wait until the first inch of your medium is dry it will prevent getting a lot or problems the least if which is fungus gnats, the worst root rot. Due to my region I don't deal with excess humidity so I can only speak so much on the issue but I have overwatered before as well.

Another thing, they are yellowing at the centers of the newer growth, if they are not flowering this shouldn't happen, in my own experience, ph is an issue 5.8- 6.0 if you are soilless medium, 5.9-6.2 in anything else never 7, never 7 it may be only up taking certain nutrients, the things look pretty good though as far as no burning or any real bad deficiency, I'm sure if you balance your ph to 5.9 and monitor runoff you will not have any problems, when that is combined with spacing out your watering you will have it, your soil may very well have all the nutes you need but if the ph is as alkali as 7 your plant will have trouble with them, just a last note, when you adjust the ph ease just slightly off the mutes use a slightly diluted version because if you have nutes in the soil which from your ppm you certainly do, when you adjust the ph your plant will start accessing what's there and it could result in burn. Best wishes for the girls they look good other than that so good job!

The yellowing is from the center if you are giving her nutes it is almost certainly your ph. Not allowing your girl to get the most from her meal. Adjust that ph and your problem with the spotting should disappear, Nute burn will almost always start at tips and edges.