Not so Thick Nugs

[smokeyMcPOT]

Hello all and thanks for stoppin by. I was wondering....I recently cut 3 plants of mine that were done....or so I thought. I have a 30x Microscope to check the trichomes and flushed for a week and all the other normal harvesting steps. Trimmed and they're hanging now. So here's my Question.......

When the 3 ploants were in the flowering room they were nice and thick to the slight squeeze. Now after hanging for 3 days now, they feel light and fluffy. Why would this be? Is it because of all the water loss while drying? And just feels alot thicker when growing because of the water being supplied to them? I'm not in anyway disappointed for I'll learn from the experience, but would like to thicken them up some more....who wouldnt right.

MY SETUP
Florescents for Vegging
Clones in soil veg for 3 weeks
around 1 foot tall when flowered
600 watt digital HPS
6" Eco 440cfm Cooling and another exhausting
NO CO2....Could this be it? I'll be adding this in the next few months
FOX FARM NUTES
Grow Big, Big Bloom, Tiger Bloom, Beastie Bloom, Open Sesame, ChaChing

Soil
1/2 PROMIX
1/4 Fine Perlite
1/4 Big Chunk Perlite
1 CUP D.Lime (per Cu. Ft.)
1 Cup Peace Of Mind Rock Phosphate (per Cu.Ft.)
1 Cup Peace of Mind Fruit and Flower (per Cu.Ft.)

Watering/feeding
Water with rain water tested at 14 PPM and 6.4 PH
Once a week I feed them.
Fed HALF strength Nutes for first 2 feedings then bumped up to full strength.
MAX PPM FED WAS 1350. Flushed for a week.

Any thoughts? Maybe they just hadnt had time to thicken the whole way, I cut them because the Trichomes were around 60% amber. Thanks for stoppin....

 

[BabyHughie]

Hello all and thanks for stoppin by. I was wondering....I recently cut 3 plants of mine that were done....or so I thought. I have a 30x Microscope to check the trichomes and flushed for a week and all the other normal harvesting steps. Trimmed and they're hanging now. So here's my Question.......

When the 3 ploants were in the flowering room they were nice and thick to the slight squeeze. Now after hanging for 3 days now, they feel light and fluffy. Why would this be? Is it because of all the water loss while drying? And just feels alot thicker when growing because of the water being supplied to them? I'm not in anyway disappointed for I'll learn from the experience, but would like to thicken them up some more....who wouldnt right.

MY SETUP
Florescents for Vegging
Clones in soil veg for 3 weeks
around 1 foot tall when flowered
600 watt digital HPS
6" Eco 440cfm Cooling and another exhausting
NO CO2....Could this be it? I'll be adding this in the next few months
FOX FARM NUTES
Grow Big, Big Bloom, Tiger Bloom, Beastie Bloom, Open Sesame, ChaChing

Soil
1/2 PROMIX
1/4 Fine Perlite
1/4 Big Chunk Perlite
1 CUP D.Lime (per Cu. Ft.)
1 Cup Peace Of Mind Rock Phosphate (per Cu.Ft.)
1 Cup Peace of Mind Fruit and Flower (per Cu.Ft.)

Watering/feeding
Water with rain water tested at 14 PPM and 6.4 PH
Once a week I feed them.
Fed HALF strength Nutes for first 2 feedings then bumped up to full strength.
MAX PPM FED WAS 1350. Flushed for a week.

Any thoughts? Maybe they just hadnt had time to thicken the whole way, I cut them because the Trichomes were around 60% amber. Thanks for stoppin....

Its crazy how much they shrink up huh? At 60% amber you definately let them go long enough. There are alot of things that can lead to 'not so thick' of nugs. Heat and genetics are the two that come to mind right off the top. Not enough light also, but you have a 600HPS so Im going to rule that one out.

 

[smokeyMcPOT]

Sorry I forgot to post the temps. Daytime ave. is 81 with 40% humidity. Night time temps are 73ish and I'm not sure of the ave. humidity....50% maybe. Also the light is 18 inches from the canopy....cooled plenty with the 440cfm blowing through it. I was thinking genetics or lack of CO2. Like I said...learn and go from there. No loss to me! Thanks for the thoughts babyhughie

 

[sproutco]

Seems like a lot of nutrients. Example: You mixed rock phosphate into the soil and then applied "bloom boosters" high in phosphorus.

 

[smokeyMcPOT]

yes but the rock phospate was added when I transplanted into 1 gallon pots....could that be part of the problem...1 gallon pots? I clone in nursery trays, the lil dirt slot ones. Then 2 weeks I transplant into 16oz cups. then into the 1 gallons to flower. So most of the phospate and fruit n flower are washed out of the soil once the BLOOM ferts begin...also I only go half strength on the phospate and fruit n flower too. Thanks for the info

 

[mmartine]

You need bigger pots mon.........For a one foot plant 1 gallon is way too small.. next time go with atleast 3 gallons for flowering.....youll se the diference

 

[organic1]

General rule of thumb, 1 gallon of pot for every 1 ft. of plant height.... Pots sound a little small, but may not be the problem.....One thing you forgot to mention, what is the strain? The fluffier buds may be indicative of the strain you are growing.....

 

[2buds]

smokey, I'm finding there's no substitute for quality genetics that fit your environment. I've been through about 12 diff strains in the last 10 months, same environment for all yet some get solid nugs and others stay a bit fluffy. I've added co2 for almost a month now and things are looking better as far as bud density. So could be co2 could be I'm finally finding my routine in the grow but quality genetics will def make a difference. Try out some Female Seeds 4 packs for economical quality genetics and save yourself the male/female headache, its only 4 seeds but they're females so why waste time sorting out the other 6 seeds? Good luck.

 

[smokeyMcPOT]

mmartine - they're a foot tall when finished...not first flowered

organic1 - the 3 I just cut..2 Swiss Miss and 1 Swiss Miss x Cyber Crystal...I got clones from a friend and looked them up...$50 seeds...nothing special really. So genetics are part of the problem I'm sure.

2buds - those plants as said above were given to me. He didnt want them and was gonna throw them out so I too them. Right now I have Sour Cali, which is Sour Diesel x Trainwreck and the Sour Cali I crossed with Super Skunk, Bubbleberry, and AK-47. So I have a nice gene pool to work with. Also I just got 17 more strains the other day. Just germed them and I'll start a thread later.

I plan on doing 3 gallon next time. I have 35 AK-47 clones going for 2 months now in 1 gallons ready for a TP into 3 gallons and flowered. I'll do a grow thread on those as well. Right now they're almost 2 ft tall and I cant flower them until August 22 because of my current grow. So they'll be some big ladies.

Thanks for the info/advise everyone.

 

[organic1]

I'm not familiar with those strains, but get yourself a heavy indica strain, and you should have little problem getting harder nugs, anything with a lot of Afghani should do the trick....Good luck!

 

[BabyHughie]

smokey, I'm finding there's no substitute for quality genetics that fit your environment. I've been through about 12 diff strains in the last 10 months, same environment for all yet some get solid nugs and others stay a bit fluffy. I've added co2 for almost a month now and things are looking better as far as bud density. So could be co2 could be I'm finally finding my routine in the grow but quality genetics will def make a difference. Try out some Female Seeds 4 packs for economical quality genetics and save yourself the male/female headache, its only 4 seeds but they're females so why waste time sorting out the other 6 seeds? Good luck.

Ive been told that co2 can help with bud density but have not seen it first hand. Running co2 for the first time right now.

I still think its largely genetics.

 

[newbie111]

dude i had that problem on my first few grows and found the problem solver was to be called carboload man this shit works by when ur plants runout of carbs after 5 or 6 weeks of flowering it keeps them going.Remember if u want ur buds to look and weigh like the stuff u get from dealers then grow then grow big bud crosses or ak48s. Good luck man.

 

[2buds]

I gotta say with the co2 trickling in every 3rd hour things are looking better. Setting up for co2

wasn't cheap but if everything looks like this







from now on with off the shelf nutes and soil from lowes/homedepot I can't complain.
Peace

 

[Suby]

Everything sounds nominal and the strain sounds OK, maybe you're expecting too much lol.
Carbo boosters are mostly sufar cane or raw molasses which you can get anywhere, CO2 is definately a big plus for yield but can be pricey to setup and optimize with ventilation and delivery.
Rock Phosphate is slow release and with the nutes your providing a waste unless you recycle your soil, much like greesand it take awhile to kick in.

2buds sweet nugs dude!

S

 

[Guest]

Your plants are only 1 ft when harvested? Try vegging a little longer and harvesting larger plants. I also have a 600W HPS and I get nice solid buds at least 1 1/2 feet from the top of the plant. It sounds to me that if you flowered larger plants you'd get the results you're looking for. I've run into an occasional plant that's done what you've talked about also even though it was flowered at a decent size and in a strain that normally doesn't dry up fluffy. I just chalked it up tp some type of grower error. What else could it be when one clone from the same plant dries up nice and compact and the clone next to it is all fluffy?

 

[greenthumb]

how close is your light from the top of your plants?

 

[smokeyMcPOT]

16 inches...

 

[jaykush]

I would lower the temps if possible, to nighttime in the high 60's and day to the 70's tops. that helps a lot for denser nugs. If its your first run with the strain i would give it a few more runs before you get it down to how it likes it. some strains are a bit picky, not sure about the one you got. also the larger soil space does make a bigger plant but even if you vegged for 1 day you still can get just as bomb nugs its all on how you grow it. now some strains need more space i know, others dont. pretty much just get to know the strain before you get rid of it. you could be throwing away a total gem beacuse it got watered too much or it didnt get enough food.

 

[biodanktrich]

sorry you're not getting the tight thick nugs you seek. maybe feeding them once a week is too little? i would definitely say so. feeding less more often is better than one big feeding every once in a while. and what kush said, low temps will get you tighter nugs. and a question for you, how close did you hang the light from your plants? if it's hung too far away you lose prescious lumens - and in turn you get whispy buds. peace.

 

[Guest]

Your plants are only 1 ft when harvested? Try vegging a little longer and harvesting larger plants. I also have a 600W HPS and I get nice solid buds at least 1 1/2 feet from the top of the plant. It sounds to me that if you flowered larger plants you'd get the results you're looking for. I

Couldn't of said it better myself.

Cheers,
SH