i just dryed my first crop and there were a few mistakes i made, but when i pulled them they looked full (obviously),but when i dried them alot of the smaller stuff was super wispy and airy, i was wondering what happened? i dried it at around 68-74F in a ventilated room, 45% humidity, when i was growing it it got hot approx 80F for 2 days in week 6 but the room stayed cool at around 70-72F the whole run other than the 2 days. i also didn't feed it very well due to a huge noob mistake using a tds factor of .7 when i shouldve been using .5 with the ppm chart i was following, so can some of you clear it up and help me out so i can make sure i avoid these mistakes and not get the airy buds this time? thanks
slightly airy buds
- Thread starter smokefx
- Start date
S
s00thsayer
airy buds can be caused by....heat stress in flowering, harvesting too early, flowering under metal halide lights (or cfl), or strain characteristics -- one of these probably caused it
S
s00thsayer
...improper feeding or inadequate light during flowering can also contribute to airy buds
echo_chamber
Active member
Lighting and many years of practice dialing in strains made the difference for me. I suggest a 1000Watt HPS minimum.
would 2 days of heat stress cause it? because i didnt have any heat issues other than those 2 days it got to 78ish, maybe combination of that + inadequate feeding ? i went the full 8 weeks on gdp they looked decent but ive seen much more solid denser nugs
oh btw, i was using 1000w hps, sorry i didnt cover that in the post
oh btw, i was using 1000w hps, sorry i didnt cover that in the post
Donald Trump
Member
whats size grow area brotha? how tall were plants, and how far away from plants was your light?
J
johndoe123
Don't count out the fact that lower interior buds don't get as much light as the tops or outer branches even with defoliation. I get super tight buds even when the temps rise. Also with a 4x4 room try lowering your hood another 6 inches I try to keep mine around 18 inches. So up the nutes a bit and lower that light that's one of the advantages of an air cooled hood you can get it closer to the canopy. If your plants were heat stressed you would know it from the look on your fan leaves.
Donald Trump
Member
^ what he said.. also 36-48 inches max plant height should be good for that setup
other than that you seem to be on the right track and you recognize the things you need to change. Take care.
other than that you seem to be on the right track and you recognize the things you need to change. Take care.
S
sm0k4
Did you harvest too early? If you don't let the calyxes swell up they will dry to be loose and airy. Wait until you see some amber trichs, this should let you know the plant is about ready. I pull when 1/4 to 1/2 of them are amber, but thats just preference.
B
BlazingSaddles
There is just no way IMO that 80F temps for 2 days would cause airy buds. To put that in context i ran my last round of girls in ridiculous summer temps of 90F when the lights were on and it never caused airy buds. And this was for 9 weeks lol
Theres definitely another reason why this is happening, one of the reasons s00thsayer said sounds very plausible.
All the best for your next harvest bro
Blaing
Theres definitely another reason why this is happening, one of the reasons s00thsayer said sounds very plausible.
All the best for your next harvest bro
Blaing
Some strains are airy nothing you can do about it. What strain did you grow
lol my cab stays at a steady 82 degrees, these are tropical plants, they can handle 80's fine, even more than that with added co2...of course it's always good practice to keep your grow temps as low as possible within reason, too low will slow growth as well.
i would say that since it's your first grow you harvested too early, i say this not knowing what strain you grew, what kind of light you used, or even how long you budded for. i say this because almost EVERY noob does, lol, i did. took me probably 4 attempts before i finally let it go long enough. there is an EXTREMELY good guide out there on when to harvest that everybody should read, http://www.rollitup.org/harvesting-curing/210501-zeuss-take-harvesting.html
even if you use a scope to check out the trichomes you can come out wrong, as the guide says, some strains begin to amber very early, not necessarily when the buds themselves are at their maximum bouquet and potency...not to mention it's very easy to look at a plant under a red hps glow and see amber that is not there, or just a bit of dust or red pistil reflecting off the heads... i have been doing it a bit this current grow, all new strains, and i can tell you that really wanting to see a plant show signs of ripening has a way of making you see whats not there, after you see enough amber heads though that becomes less of a problem lol
when your plant is ripe the caylxes will all swell up, and the hairs, now mostly all withered and brown, will start to shrink back into the caylxes, as each individual budlet gets much bigger than they have been the entire flowering process, they will bristle with thc and the larger, swolen calyxes as a whole will fill in a lot of the gaps and make the colas much denser. pick it a week or two before it's ready and you end up with fluffy buds, it's the most common culprit, though bad genetics could cause it, but it would have to be really BAD genetics...
i would say that since it's your first grow you harvested too early, i say this not knowing what strain you grew, what kind of light you used, or even how long you budded for. i say this because almost EVERY noob does, lol, i did. took me probably 4 attempts before i finally let it go long enough. there is an EXTREMELY good guide out there on when to harvest that everybody should read, http://www.rollitup.org/harvesting-curing/210501-zeuss-take-harvesting.html
even if you use a scope to check out the trichomes you can come out wrong, as the guide says, some strains begin to amber very early, not necessarily when the buds themselves are at their maximum bouquet and potency...not to mention it's very easy to look at a plant under a red hps glow and see amber that is not there, or just a bit of dust or red pistil reflecting off the heads... i have been doing it a bit this current grow, all new strains, and i can tell you that really wanting to see a plant show signs of ripening has a way of making you see whats not there, after you see enough amber heads though that becomes less of a problem lol
when your plant is ripe the caylxes will all swell up, and the hairs, now mostly all withered and brown, will start to shrink back into the caylxes, as each individual budlet gets much bigger than they have been the entire flowering process, they will bristle with thc and the larger, swolen calyxes as a whole will fill in a lot of the gaps and make the colas much denser. pick it a week or two before it's ready and you end up with fluffy buds, it's the most common culprit, though bad genetics could cause it, but it would have to be really BAD genetics...
S
s00thsayer
Smokefx...like others here, I'm guessing you harvested too early. I have only seen a couple strains (pure indicas) that are truly ripe at 56 days. I usually flower for 63 to 70 days on hybrid strains. 1k hps is definitely enough light and the temp fluctuations you mentioned shouldn't cause it. Good luck
Yes im growing ak47, chemdog, and og kush, all at day 60, and all look like they need a minimum of 2 more weeks, despite ak47 being described as an 8 to 9 week strain, even the indica phenos will need 70 days minimum, though im probably going to harvest everything on day 77, as the window of ripeness is quite long, 2 to 4 weeks, ill end up with some perfectly ripe, and some a bit overdone, it will make for some extremely potent, narcotic like indica ak buds.
If you have ever smoked bud from the same plant, some early and some a week or two later, when ripe you will probably never harvest early again! Early picked weed has less flavor and the high is inferior, short lasting and all in the head, 2 weeks later and its stinky and plump, and the high will be much more full bodied and intense!
If you have ever smoked bud from the same plant, some early and some a week or two later, when ripe you will probably never harvest early again! Early picked weed has less flavor and the high is inferior, short lasting and all in the head, 2 weeks later and its stinky and plump, and the high will be much more full bodied and intense!
thanks for all the input, sorry i didnt post more information, i was doing gdp and i pulled on 56 days, im just going to try to not make the mistakes i did this time and hopefully i should be fine, if i get 1 lb a 1000w light that would be average yield or better than average?
i would assume most people are going quite long on gdp for connoisseur quality...56 days is pretty early for most strains in soil. i don't know anything about the strain specifically though, not something available where i live or i would jump on it, Ive heard it's one of the best lol
i should edit that the ak's i mentioned in a post above that i thought would go 2 more weeks are ambering up fast, and the buds are really starting to plump up and get frosty, i think by a lot of peoples standards they would be just about done but i think i'm gonna leave them in about one more week, about 1/3 of the calyxes have yet to get to full size and have their pistils completely wither, and i want the sugar levels on the more mature buds to match the rest, but i don't think any of them will go past 70 days, trichomes will probably be in the 50% amber range and i actually had one ready at day 56...kinda a freak pheno, short, SUPER frosty fluffy sativa buds...decent yielder but nothing compared to the one i'm keeping! everything else is still cloudy trichs and white hairs so i think i'll be going about 77 days with the chemdog and kush
i should edit that the ak's i mentioned in a post above that i thought would go 2 more weeks are ambering up fast, and the buds are really starting to plump up and get frosty, i think by a lot of peoples standards they would be just about done but i think i'm gonna leave them in about one more week, about 1/3 of the calyxes have yet to get to full size and have their pistils completely wither, and i want the sugar levels on the more mature buds to match the rest, but i don't think any of them will go past 70 days, trichomes will probably be in the 50% amber range and i actually had one ready at day 56...kinda a freak pheno, short, SUPER frosty fluffy sativa buds...decent yielder but nothing compared to the one i'm keeping! everything else is still cloudy trichs and white hairs so i think i'll be going about 77 days with the chemdog and kush
