How to grow dense buds?

[BudZad7]

BIG HARD NUGZZZ!!!

BIG HARD NUGZZZ!!!

Hi All!! Lots of good info on this post........tried this new fert combo that gives BIG BUDZZZ! Try this:::

If you like Organic flavor/taste/buzz/no headache/clean budzzz....

Use Botanicare Regular, or Botanicare Pro series ....

Pure Blend Pro Grow/Bloom, or Pure Blend Pro Bloom/soil
Calmag+
Liquid Karma
Sweet-(Berry,or Citrus,and new Grape)
Suppliments-
CarboLoad Powder
Sensizym
Pot O Gold
Bud Blood powder
Big Bud powder
Overdrive
Final Phase
GH/PH-up (has potassium silicate) leaves reach for the light!!
towards the end of bloom use Gravity/Purple Maxx+molasses

Once a week Maxicrop liquid seaweed+Molasses(Brer Rabbit)gives a
mello flavor.....Or, Blackstrap molasses,and Blast Off (Vit B-1)

Once a month...Sub Culture 1/4 tsp per 1.5 gal RO water,or Voodoo
Juice, which cost an arm and leg for their small bottle...

Also, if you read on their website about Blast Off....It's Liquid Karma
with Organics added, only watered down for daily use,instead of weekly.....check it out....
Here's pic of 1st RomulanXIslandSweetSkunkXShiva, 2nd OG Kush,
and 3rd OG Kush....day 24 in flower, if their this big now, just wait
til finish time...... Enjoy!!!

 

[Iron_Lion]

I think the biggest thing next to environment is genetics. I just grew out 5 different strains at the same time, some came out dense, some airy and everything inbetween. My temps were right on the money and plants looked very healthy throughout grow.

 

[Matanuskan Flo]

your answer lay within the genetics you use. period. environment can only take genetic tendencies & traits so far.....light intensity is the 2nd most obvious answer. high soil heat or even ambient heat consistently. there could be many reasons, but more info on your entire set up is need to make real conjectures.

 

[Yes4Prop215]

i think its mostly lumens...not enough lumens = airy buds. i did a side by side with one light really close and one light 2 feet away and teh ones closest the lights were the most dense.

also some growers i know say you gotta use phosphorous to harden up the nugs...

 

[strictlybongz]

i would have to say pheno is one of the biggest factors i had a run of like 3-4 different phenos from 5 plants from a seed run a friend did and although they were all nice the variation and similarities were undeniable and only one pheno out of the 5 produced exceptionally dense nuggage

 

[dtfsux]

if you do a search on "dense" in the title, alot of info will come up. I did that a while back and found alot of great info.

W/o knowing your setup, everyone is just throwing out random info. The info is right, just not specific. Lighting,strain,temps,CO2, etc play a role in the density.

 

[JWP]

I would like to see some side by side tests done cause i have read many times that soil gives the hardest nugs

 

[bonghitter99]

wow, thanks for all the input! Didn't think anyone would respond,lol. Anyway, here's a rundown of my grow:

- 2 XL homebox grow tents each with 600watt hps lights (9 plants to each tent)
- for ventilation a 800cfm inline fan bifurcated with odorsok filters
- I used promix bx as a grow medium with 20% added perlite using GH nutes (Lucas formula)
- temps where min- 65, max 75 F throughout entire grow
- no CO2 used
- strains grew- Ice from Female seeds Co, feminized Strawberry Smile from Dutch Quality, and feminized Big Bang from GH
- vegged for 40days in solo cups under 400watt MH then into 3 gal containers for flowering
- never pruned or topped during grow
- feed every watering pH’d to 6.5 (0-5-10 first 3 weeks of flowering then 0-8-16 for 4 weeks, flushed last week)
- I must admit I did harvest too early at 8 weeks but medicine was in great demand ( trichs were about 60% clear, 30% cloudy, 10% amber)

Pictures included are taken of the Ice and Strawberry Smile right before chopping time










Ive actually already started up another grow but Im changing a couple of things to see what improments it’ll make ( using moonshine mix instead of promix and GH nutes, and will use 3 gal Smart pots) Strains growing Serious Seeds feminized AK-47, Chronic, and DJ Short’s Grape Kush (regular seeds) maybe I’ll do a grow journal or something….

 

[reckon]

wow the answers are ALL OVER THE PLACE,........most of them qualify as personal OPINION.

genetics, available nutrients, and most important: LIGHT

a 150 HPS will produce airy buds, unless your growing purple erkle (famous for rock hard buds),...the exact same plant under a 1000W light will produce MUCH more dense buds.

in my experience (that is microscoping every bud I come across) about 50% of what you find in the clubs is harvested WAY too early, and not cured properly,...so the above about early harvesting is correct, the plant will PACK ON WEIGHT that last two weeks of ripening, so don't yank em too soon.

other than that it's really genetics,...some strains just need 400,000 lumens to produce a dense nugget, and some plants will do the exact same thing under a 250HPS putting out roughly 50,000 lumens.

the above poster that said "it's ALL things in combination" is the MOST correct of any of the answers,...you can't "grow screamin' dank" using just ONE THING, it's everything at it's optimum, and KEPT THAT WAY, throughout the ever changing grow.

there is no "fat nug" magic button.

 

[bonghitter99]

One thing I did notice on this last grow was that my germination rates sucked, bigtime! I took some time off and the seeds i started with were a year old. The seeds were also not stored refrigerated which i think had something to do with it. When the seeds finally sproated they never took off, the seedlings looked weak etc... Actually thought of starting over, but once i switched em over to 12/12 they started doing better. Overall though worst yield ive ever had growing. 12 plants yielded 8 zippers which i usually get 1.5 to 2 off each plant. oh well, i keep telling myself that we must be thankful for each and every harvest.

 

[GrnMtnGrwr]

- I must admit I did harvest too early at 8 weeks but medicine was in great demand ( trichs were about 60% clear, 30% cloudy, 10% amber)

That's probably one of the biggest parts... early buds are not dense.

 

[Nortin]

Co2 helps a bunch with growin them pincone buds. Its expensive though....I made a homemade co2 generator out of a 2 liter bottle some sugar yeast and airline...its ghetto but better than nothin, I worked at a medical garden for a bit. I ran a crop with c02 and one without....the one with the co2 was much denser than the ones without.

 

[darksith]

wow, thanks for all the input! Didn't think anyone would respond,lol. Anyway, here's a rundown of my grow:

- 2 XL homebox grow tents each with 600watt hps lights (9 plants to each tent)

- vegged for 40days in solo cups under 400watt MH then into 3 gal containers for flowering
- never pruned or topped during grow
- feed every watering pH’d to 6.5 (0-5-10 first 3 weeks of flowering then 0-8-16 for 4 weeks, flushed last week)
- I must admit I did harvest too early at 8 weeks but medicine was in great demand ( trichs were about 60% clear, 30% cloudy, 10% amber)

Pictures included are taken of the Ice and Strawberry Smile right before chopping time
Ive actually already started up another grow but Im changing a couple of things to see what improments it’ll make ( using moonshine mix instead of promix and GH nutes, and will use 3 gal Smart pots) Strains growing Serious Seeds feminized AK-47, Chronic, and DJ Short’s Grape Kush (regular seeds) maybe I’ll do a grow journal or something….

You didn't prune anything? That could be part of the problem, too much energy went into lower non producing bud sites, but even then you usually get some decent nugs.
How far away are your plants from your lights, and how old are your lamps? Most likely its a combo of a bunch of stuff.
Promix is a great medium, there is no reason to switch unless its simply a preferance or price issue. Everyone around BC uses promix with no problems at all. Don't know the strains you were using, so I don't know if 8 weeks was too early, seems like they should have hardened up for the most part from the state of your trichs. Anyway maybe it was simply not enough nutes in combo with not enough pruning? Either way good luck on your next 1.

 

[Walt Jabsco]

excessive heat is usually the culprit in making airy buds. id say next most common reason is light intensity and then genetics. usually a combination of all three but most of the time its the high temps at canopy level.

 

[xmobotx]

- 2 XL homebox grow tents each with 600watt hps lights (9 plants to each tent)
- for ventilation a 800cfm inline fan bifurcated with odorsok filters
- I used promix bx as a grow medium with 20% added perlite using GH nutes (Lucas formula)
- temps where min- 65, max 75 F throughout entire grow
- no CO2 used
- strains grew- Ice from Female seeds Co, feminized Strawberry Smile from Dutch Quality, and feminized Big Bang from GH
- vegged for 40days in solo cups under 400watt MH then into 3 gal containers for flowering
- never pruned or topped during grow
- feed every watering pH’d to 6.5 (0-5-10 first 3 weeks of flowering then 0-8-16 for 4 weeks, flushed last week)
- I must admit I did harvest too early at 8 weeks but medicine was in great demand ( trichs were about 60% clear, 30% cloudy, 10% amber)

how far from the lights? probably not it since you're in a grow tent designed for this?

i can't comment on your nutes because I won't use the bottled nutes - other than your NPK ratios-
-i typically go for about a 8-5-5 type thing in veg (but I do organic so this is pretty fuzzy)
*the plant uses nitrogen for flower too though
8 seems like a pretty high percentage for anything (read the plant though)
*maybe go for 2-8-6 then 4-10-8

Now, the other thing to think about is maybe you're plants arent getting enough stress

- never pruned or topped during grow

try doing some form of stress training (LST or higher stress methods) just enough to kind of distress the plant so it feels like it needs to reproduce -NOT during flower though (although many say LST in flower is fine)

experiment w/ letting them get to nice and dry before watering during flower set

(those high levels of K may have given you some problems too)

in late flower (as the last couple of weeks) don't feed - did you flush? (i dont feel you need to "flush" [no need for 4x water to mix]but just straight water last couple of weeks)

 

[darrmann]

Those buds are probably packed together for shipping, try cramming more into a jar or a bag that will squish the buds like most stuff on the street is. . . In my opinion the buds aren't' dense they are crushed together most of the time. Other than that PetFlora has it, could be any number of stress being applied to the plant. What is your grow medium? What kind of lights and how many? How is your environment(temp, humidity, air movement, air exchange, co2 ect) Its very difficult to give you input with no information about your grow. It could be as simple as you harvesting too early too, but growing for a while I hope thats not the problem.

I think your way wrong its all about the nutes you use,your light setup and keeping a nice controlled enviroment. I always get heavy compact tight buds and i dont squish them lmao

 

[a6grow]

i remember reading a very interesting thread on here about keeping lights on and lights off temps as close as possible which will equate to nicer, denser nugs...let me try to find it...

 

[funkervogt]

i remember reading a very interesting thread on here about keeping lights on and lights off temps as close as possible which will equate to nicer, denser nugs...let me try to find it...

I'd like to see this - my flower night and day temps vary greatly (75 F night 85 F day). I've read that plants require a lot more P-K if flowering in higher temperatures, which might also contribute to smaller buds.

 

[BORNaSMOKER]

I'd like to see this - my flower night and day temps vary greatly (75 F night 85 F day). I've read that plants require a lot more P-K if flowering in higher temperatures, which might also contribute to smaller buds.

keeping night and day temps close does reduce the distance between nodes, this can mean less stretchy plants and denser buds. This is proven with many journals relating to the subject. Also, if your getting airy buds, it could well be the temp, I have had this problem wehn my buds get too close to the light or the room temp gets over 28 consistently. The plants seem to do this to improve their own transpiration in hotter conditions.

 

[BORNaSMOKER]

I think your way wrong its all about the nutes you use,your light setup and keeping a nice controlled enviroment. I always get heavy compact tight buds and i dont squish them lmao

lmao