How do i get rock hard buds outdoors?

[greeenman707]

what up y'all. Im sure some will say that its all on genetics. Im growing cherry pie, sour d, blue dragon, fire og, and astrodawg. My cherries are almost done but buds are not to dense. my question is how do i get them dense? im using, age old, big swell, true blooms, and micro mix.
A guy im on talking terms with has his ladies rock hard. He started flowering a couple weeks after i did and his buds are bigger and rock hard. i asked him to see what he uses and he just laughed and didnt say anything. this guy he dont care what strain it is he makes it dense. any insight?

 

[jackel]

Genetics do have a big factor in it. Are you in full sun? Shaded plants will usually grow a bit more airy and fluffy.
I personally don't believe in using chemicals to make the buds denser. You might have to let them go longer.
My sour d' s never got dense. I was told to take them at least 70days. So I stopped growing that strain.
So I'd say more sun, let them go longer, and genetics might be the solution. Possibly cut out all nitrogen. But I isn't think that will help.

 

[swisscheese]

Greenman your buddy with the big hard buds is using pgr's like triacontanol, chloremquat chloride, bap6, or paclobutrazol. Some sort of bloom booster for sure. Big dense buds are achievable without chems if you get your nutrition on point and have full sun all day. Your have some strains that should be throwing full on big knocker buds EC are you feeding at and where's the pics broski?

 

[greenpinky]

Yep good sun and good air movement... those strains should.

 

[mendo420]

Your buddy is not your friend.

Believe it or not.
Genetics.
Get a true Kush like Pre-bubba 98.

Potassium sulfate, high P bat guano's and good organics during flowering.

I Stay away from OG's and Sour D's outdoors.
OG is my one of my favorites!
I will never grow Sour D ever again inside or out! Been screwed 3 times by that bitch.
I almost all together gave up on diesel's because of her.
But had this killer Blueberry diesel and a Purple Diesel male.
I crossed a Blueberry diesel X Purple diesel
I've had good success with my Blueberry cross.


Blueberry diesel X Purple diesel

Kush

 

[chromeo]

good sun and good ferts are the key.

 

[moondawg]

At least 6 hrs of direct sun each day and then strain selection.

Many sativa leaning hybrid plants and the diesels are in that category, arent likely to produce rock hard, bubba kush type buds. Foxtails and spirals just dont have the same characteristics as a dense, heavy 100% indica.

This aspect is greatly enhanced by lattitude issues. A sativa grown at 32north and has 120 days to mature will have much harder buds than that same sativa grown at 45n.

I used to have a blueberry mom and i gave my brother in law a cut who grows it out at 32north and i have a cousin growing the same cut at 42north. The buds from the blueberry grown at 32 finish on sept 25 and are 2x as big and hard as the same buds grown at 42north. The bb cut at 42 finishes on Oct 20, much fluffier, with 4ozs less pot than the same cut grown at 32.

 

[CanniDo Cowboy]

Across the board, indoor or outdoors, genetic characteristics will always play a big part in determining density. And the Indicas will always (most always) have a better density than Sativa strains. My opinion from my experience.

Ive grown Sativas ie; Blue dream, Romulan, Jack H, Skywalker etc. No matter what I feed em or when, and I have changed their diet from season to season, although the plants gets very large - 8ft 10ft even 12 ft, the hard set is never there. Great smoke, beautiful plants but trimming up a pound can eat up half a 8ft plant and also take twice as long to get it done.

OG? I grow it because others like it as well as me but personally, I think its another loser crop. Easy plant to grow and fairly large but the bud size is just never there or the density/weight either. No matter what I feed it. I grow it more as a 'private reserve"...

Indicas? Dang: good sun, healthy soil and some specific organic ingredients as Mendo420 says and they firm up very nice to excellent. I also agree the Kushes, especially the 98 are never a waste of time. Excellent firmness, good weight/yield ratio. Never disappointed. Grandaddy Purple for me, would be the best 'commercial" crop.

So yea, have the basics down with your soil (veg and flower), choose a sunny spot if youre outdoors and learn to rely more on your accumulated knowledge as it comes, not on hype of snake oils that really do little more than instill false hope or dont do squat. There is no magic gro-potion out there, never was, never will be...IMO CC

On a SIDENOTE, personally speaking, I'm always a bit leery and seldom impressed with "rock hard" buds. I prefer a "natural" look, firm or fluffy. To me, "rock hard" can also mean: Serious chemicals added. Before I bong it up, I'll turn off the lights to see if it glows in the dark from bein chemed to the point of resemblin green charcoal. Know what I mean? lol

 

[greeenman707]

Cowboy: glow in the dark buds, thats funny.
Mendo: like i said were just on talking terms, we trust each other as far as we can throw one another. He grows an og that is bomb. Not sure what the makeup is but also rock hard.
Moon: we live in the same town. i think hes chemmy to where i go more towards the "organic" style.
As far as soil goes i used Mr. Fillthepot's generator of soil recipe. they get about 8 hours of sun right now. as far as ppms go im feeding at 900. is that to low? they are in 65 gallon smarties. my cherries are about week and a half from harvest so im flushing with molasses. fire og are about 5 feet tall, 5 feet wide. blue dragons are 9 feet tall and about 10 feet wide. should i feed at a higher ppms?

 

[greeenman707]

thank all of you for your knowledge

 

[medmaker420]

genetics first, boosters second

a great alternative to the bud booster chems is some tasty blackstrap molasses, that helps with the swelling, weight and scent/flavors very well. I love growing with it and when I grow without it there is a definite decline in quality and swelling unless I use a yield booster or ripening nute like gravity or ripen.

If you can get it done all organic then have at it but you need to dial her in well for it to have that solid bag appeal. Outdoors just have many more factors including dirt, dust, bugs, rain, snow, animals and a million other what ifs that can cause your outdoor to look beatup a bit lol.

Start with genetics then go for your organic boosters that do not attract any pests or animals that might consider it a snack.

 

[CanniDo Cowboy]

genetics first, boosters second

a great alternative to the bud booster chems is some tasty blackstrap molasses, that helps with the swelling, weight and scent/flavors very well. I love growing with it and when I grow without it there is a definite decline in quality and swelling unless I use a yield booster or ripening nute like gravity or ripen.

If you can get it done all organic then have at it but you need to dial her in well for it to have that solid bag appeal. Outdoors just have many more factors including dirt, dust, bugs, rain, snow, animals and a million other what ifs that can cause your outdoor to look beatup a bit lol.

Start with genetics then go for your organic boosters that do not attract any pests or animals that might consider it a snack.

Med: Curious, what products/ingredients/supplements do you consider "organic boosters'? Always lookin to add to my "war chest"...lol cc

 

[Yesca73]

greenman707can u show some pics of that BlueDragon ?
My old school buddy use to grow this back in the day .
said it was from Humboldt or something.
He lost the cut and has always regretted it .
It is Post to be an outdoor strain but he always grow it indoors. It would purp up late in flower , nice smoke.

 

[idiit]

here's an out of the box perspective:

rock hard buds outdoors in humid conditions are prone to bud rot. so, take your buds after you've trimmed them before drying and compress lightly with your hands. edited to add: when almost dry place in a plastic baggie and lightly squeeze again. take out as clumpy and finish drying. as these buds cure they will compress more naturally during the curing process and the result is rock hard buds. a lightly compressed clump in a bag looks good, or you can easily separate out the rock hard buds from the clump.hopefully i got the idea across. take it from here per your own ingenuity.

say what?!

to me one reason for hard buds is commercial appeal. if commercial appeal is what you are after this technique does work. you get the resistance to rot from the slightly fluffy od bud structure and the customer gets their rock hard buds they treasure so much.

to me bud structure is strictly for commercial reasons; weight, commercial appeal. i am amused at how commercial customers fondle nice buds ( nice bud structure) like prime breasts! . exactly like handling a nice rack!

for genetic answers i've done quite a bit of personal research into good mates to pair with my whispy extreme sats and here is one available strain that look good to me;

mandala's satori is a highland nepalese with a great sativa type high with awesome bud structure for sat effects. a lot of accomplished breeders of landrace genetics use nepalese for this reason. the bat pheno is the one to look for. short internodal length during veg as well as indica type leafs give this pheno up as easy to spot. nepalese is genetically resistant to bud rot.

on the indica side there are lots of options. genetic predisposition against mold issues is advised. the breeders usually list their strains resistance to blight on their strain descriptions.

 

[chromeo]

lol

 

[sso]

ive never gotten rockhard buds from anything but the right strain.


basically ive seen the "right strains" get rockhard buds, under CFLs.

while other strains are fluffy under 600w hps.



tiny impacts on strain hardness or fluffyness, (a bit really, nothing you´d go wow, i need me some of that.)

light (most)

heat

ferts. (least.)



is this for selling purposes?

fluffy strains can be yummy.

 

[CanniDo Cowboy]

here's an out of the box perspective:

rock hard buds outdoors in humid conditions are prone to bud rot. so, take your buds after you've trimmed them before drying and compress lightly with your hands. edited to add: when almost dry place in a plastic baggie and lightly squeeze again. take out as clumpy and finish drying. as these buds cure they will compress more naturally during the curing process and the result is rock hard buds. a lightly compressed clump in a bag looks good, or you can easily separate out the rock hard buds from the clump.hopefully i got the idea across. take it from here per your own ingenuity.

say what?!

A bit off topic but relative. Compress and squeeze? Bro, are you sure you wanna do that? Weve all seen the trichome accumulation/growth under a scope. It gives the bud that "frosty" appearance. The more trichs, the frostier the look and a very good, if not THE indication as to the THC content. These tiny crystal looking mushrooms, when allowed to dry in their natural state, contain the essence, the energy if you will, of the strain itself. Left in their natural state, the dried trichomes also aid tremendously in holding the entire bud together.

To squeeze or to compress or otherwise disturb the integrity of these forests of THC while drying is essentially laying waste to everything the plant, together with us, the growers have built up. We the growers being the benefactors. You are now literally crushing and or smearing the THC over the bud, not only erasing all indication of THC content, but also letting loose from the trichome's once protected capsule, the bud's 'energy" to now be literally begin a rapid decomposition process. What exactly does that mean? The once pristine bud, minus its trichome integrity, will now begin turning into...shake. Personally, I'd rather have a frosty fluffy bud than a mashed down "clump"... cc

 

[Blue Socks]

This is how you get rock hard buds

 

[idiit]

A bit off topic but relative. Compress and squeeze? Bro, are you sure you wanna do that?

^exactly. no. i don't want to do this to my smoke . where i live the customers want:

1.bright green. you ask what kind of weed and "bright green" is their reply. i'm not making this one up. they aren't asking for kush, or potency or certain high effects. they are wanting bright green sensi.

2.frosty, or some other dank visuals. larger buds with dense bud structure are very important.

3. potency.

4. price

a lot of customers are not cannabis savvy. they want bright green frosty well structured nugs. no sophisticated cannabis user would probably consider bud structure as "all that", yet is very important to non savvy customers. hard frosty nugs per my view are primarily for the non sophisticated users. for them "squeezing" bud to give them their hard bud formation is a viable option.

the soapbar hash threads conveyed to me the mentality of the mass-market commercial users. we need to understand that probably close to 99% of all bud smoked was grown by somebody else (commercial), hence the importance of commercial perspectives, even though most of us are far more sophisticated in our personal smoke choices.

outdoor bud has a tendency to loosen up compared to the exact same clone grown indoors. tight nugs have a strong tendency to budrot outdoors. the squeeze method is for commercial users and allows outdoor growers to present tight nugs to the commercial market.

 

[dread]

use horsemanure as a topping every week
or dried cowshit