Don't know where I picked this up from, but food for thought anyways. Foxtails can happen "naturally", or also as a response to stress.
For example, if you PK boost a bit too late, and are light feeding at the same time, the girls can foxtail on you. I've seen this a few times myself. Even without a strong PK boost, if you go longer than it's natural harvest time, they may (or not) foxtail. IT's like a second or third round of desperate "near end of life" bud production
Foxtail traditionally is not welcome as it makes the bud look weird, of course, depending on how much of foxtailing is happening. But for most, foxtails is also a great sign that the girls can handle another 2 or 3 weeks of growth and fattening, and that equate to higher yield. Smoke wise, in my opinios, there is not much, if any, difference.
Of course, if you're running a dispensary, you may not want to sell foxtails as it does look weird, but for home growers this is a non-issue, as far s I know, and I've seen quite a but of foxtailing as I tent to push my girls to the limit.
It is important though, to distinguish "bad" foxtailing and "good" foxtailing The bad foxtails is the one that happens naturally where the plant is flimsy and looks weird, and the cola is basically the foxtail itself.
The good foxtails is when you have a nice big dense nugg, and then little spirally tails start forming na growing outwards the bud… That is the good foxtails in my book.
It's like the plant decided "ok I agree to go longer and fatten up a bite more, let's do this!"
Instread of "Ohhh.. I don't give a crap, I'm just gonna foxtail myself out of existence and get it over with"
