Buds still loose and very leafy: help?

missty80

missty80

Well-Known Member
hi guys, i've been away awhile. still growing mom's bud for her cancer treatment...been very, very busy though.

so i've managed to pull in some ok crops, but the buds are still kind of loose and they're very leafy. they just don't seem to fill out, dense up, thicken up, and become dense, tight nugs =/

quick rundown of the grow:

Red Poison Auto (Seedsman)
5g air pots
coco
315w CMH, 18" above canopy
daytime temp/humidity: about 72-76 and 45%, nighttime: about 62-65 and 45%
2 clip fans for circulation + 205 vent fan
Mega Crop, from about 1g per gallon to start, up to about 3.5g per gallon through chop
1g Bud Explosion per gallon seed to chop
hang dried in darkness, between 60-70f, about 45-50% humidity until stems snapped
3-4 weeks mason jar curing in 45-50% humidity

so, here are the buds right after i trimmed:

20200326_014717.jpg


here's a pic after about 5 days of hanging:

20200329_121528.jpg


here's one of the top buds after curing:

20200329_122555.jpg


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like...do you guys see how leafy the buds are? =/ they're also very light. they aren't dense and compact and hard...i'm wondering are there even ANY buds in there at all, or are these just all leaves?? the buds just don't want to thicken up, fatten up, and get dense. it's like they're all leaves in the colas or something.

they seem very rough and crumbly...they aren't sticky at all, and there's almost no aroma. there's a slight hint of skunk and citrus that was very strong during flower, but now it's like it all faded, and the bud feels dry and crumbly to the touch instead of sticky =(

i think this strain and my last one were derivatives of Northern Lights, which they say has very little odor...but the buds still aren't sticky. they're sticky as hell when i'm trimming (i need to scrape the shears multiple times), but then it's like it all goes away, poof, it's just gone after it's done drying.

i'm spending so much time and effort and $$ on this project...my mom needs her meds...please give me any suggestions so i can somehow grow buds more like this:

dense-nug-minecraft-sm.jpg


@Alafornia
@Barney86
@Mayne

guys please help me out here...this is my third completed grow and i'm following so many guides, but nothing seems to be working =(

thank you...

<3 misty
 
That bud on the bottom looks like it was grown with PGRs... Unnatural

Try running megacrop without the addatives. bud explosion I think should only be used a few weeks in flower but almost non of us are using it.

Follow the direction on the bag of megacrop and try only using that at the proper dose. I'm in coco and have been feeding 6g/gal

Your night temps are low

Also 5gallon is really big for coco. You can grow huge plants in 3gal pots, I'm personally switching to .5gal next from 1gal

20200327_115428.jpg

1gal coco pots megacrop full dose fed 4 times daily

As for drying, it can be the trickiest part. I've never tried it and it goes against everything I know as a grower but check out the My Herbs Now machine. I've been dying to try it out. People are loving it online. I'll probably get it for next round

Also dont forget to cure, boveda humidity bags are a big help to keep buds sticky
 
Several potential answers here.

The first potential answer is genetics as each strain has its own characteristics. Some that I've grown in the same tent are so different with one being dense and other being loose like popcorn.

Your buds "look" good to me but then I'm not there.

Another thing to consider is the drying and curing method you are using.

After that I don't have much but will be interested in the answers others give.

How is Mom, by the way? Hope you are all doing well.
 
@Rich Farmer thanks for that info.

the prob is, i tried increasing the MC and i started getting tip burn x.x so i had to back off and return to the usual amount.

i could use smaller pots, but what i don't get is...grow weed easy says "bigger pots = bigger plants". that's why i got 5g to begin with.

how are you feeding your plants 4 times a day?? O.o i only feed each plant 1 gallon every 2-3 days, when the coco is almost totally dry and the pot is light. don't you get root rot from the soil being wet all the time? don't your plants droop from overwatering?

i'm also concerned about getting fungus gnats. every place i've researched says "feed in coco only when the top inch of soil is dry and the pots are light, otherwise leave them alone."

@Alafornia Mom is doing just fine, thanks for asking :) but she still needs her meds. she tells me she isn't fussy, as long as it gets her stoned it's fine, but...i have this need to do things well and not half-ass them. i just feel like i could be doing better.

thanks for the answers guys.

<3 misty
 
Marzbadrock said:
If your in coco you need to feed/ water daily
Click to expand...

ok, i'll try watering every day for the rest of my current grow (Lowryder Auto). since it's still pretty small (less than 12"), i'll give it 3/4 of a gallon until it's bigger and drinking more.


about feeding 6g of MC per gallon...i got up to about 3.5g and beyond that, i was getting nute burn on the tips.

i'll usually scale it back to about 2.5g of MC because i'm adding 1g of Bud Explosion too. can someone shed light on this for me please? am i not feeding them enough? O.o

<3 misty
 
Coco isnt soil, its soiless and should be treated like hydroponics not soil. For soil 5-7gal is usual but for coco it's not needed. You can almost not get root bound in coco. You'll notice less issues watering daily with nutrients then letting it dry as it causes issues in the root zone.

If you tried increasing MC and noticed issues where you also using Bud explosion at the same time? Easy... stop using bud explosion and use the proper dose of MC. When you figure out MC as a 1 part nutrient then maybe think about adding bud explosion but it's not needed and it's only used a few weeks in flower if at all...

if you wanna water every 2-3 days and grow in big pots then why not just use soil? I'd do some more reading on growing in coco coir.

Here is a decent start and also grow weed easy has a coco specific section.

How to grow in Coco: Feed schedule

Hey everyone. Ive been growing for a long time now and mostly coco. Ive grown literally thousands and thousands of plants so here i will dedicaye a thread to growing in coco. Please ask questions, i will always answer. No question is stupid, if you dont know then you dont know. I will...
www.420magazine.com
 
Your setup sounds amazing!
The commercial growers have been giving everyone a bud complex like mainstream media would have us believe that if you don't look like a model there's something wrong with you...i recently saw an article about the top strains of 1975 and all the bud pics looked like moss!
But, the most important question is how is the high?
I struggle with bud density too but at the end of the day the buzz is still good.
I too have multiple strains going side by side with different results. I had a tangerine dream auto yielding fluffy flowers right next to a northern lights that's super dense, but once dry the northern lights may be fluffy. BUT, i grow for my wife who decarbs it and puts it in capsules, so it doesn't matter to her how it looks and feels.
 
I've grown red Poison Auto 2x

Both need up very airy as well, so I'd say it's not you or your style but the plant

Try something like amnesia Haze auto or something else
 
@Rich Farmer thanks for that info--super helpful! :)

@Southerncough yup, i totally agree. as a woman myself, i struggle with that self-image thing too...no matter how many people say "you're great just how you are", there's always that lingering doubt...i guess i feel the same about my buds. they could always be tighter, more compact, more sticky, have a better scent...even though my mom takes 2-3 bowl hits and is buzzing like crazy.

she's a cancer patient, and since i started growing her bud last autumn, she's feeling much better and she's even back to listening to her Hendrix and Stones records, lol.

you're 100% right...the "bud porn" we see online is probably doctored with PGRs and other additives. some pics might even be photoshopped for max effect. i know the bud we smoked in college was always tight, hard, and compact...probably treated with those same additives.

ps, i know exactly what pics you mean--it was the High Times "dankest bud in the world" from 1976 or so, with stuff like Maui Wowie and Colombian Gold, lol...looked like moss for sure ;) yet when we compare "organic cannabis" pics with "modern cannabis", it looks very different.

i try keeping this in mind, so thanks for the encouragement <3

@Chris Scorpio yep, that's possible for sure. i mainly choose "small" strains because i only have one 315w light, and i grow 2 strains at a time because of $$ and time constraints. next time around i'm going to get seeds that purportedly offer "tight buds", and see how that goes.

i'm also very curious about Bomb seeds, especially Cherry and Banana Bomb...not sure if anyone has experience with that, but i'm very curious.

thanks you guys, i appreciate ya :)

<3 misty
 
Not necessarily true about doctored photos n pgr....these are grown in soil, barely any nutes.
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All about genetics, lighting and skill.
 
N sorry I wasnt trying to get a attaboy with my pics, just showing that its possible to produce high high quality without a bunch of stuff or photoshopped.
I get ya about the self image thing, it's a mentality most of us have that will go away with time as we learn to love who we are or make the changes we want to make. Using the same thought process in our grows can be beneficial. I been growing nonstop 12 to 15 years. Every single grow I'm tweaking something, whether it's my feed, medium, lights....every harvest I'm almost sick to my stomach because I feel this could be better, that went wrong but every patient I talk to tells me " dude! This is the best bud around"
No matter what we here we are never good enough for ourselves. Try to accept it n use it as a tool.
Your not to far into your grow experience yet and you are producing very nice buds that are helping someone you love!
 
Marzbadrock said:
N sorry I wasnt trying to get a attaboy with my pics, just showing that its possible to produce high high quality without a bunch of stuff or photoshopped.
I get ya about the self image thing, it's a mentality most of us have that will go away with time as we learn to love who we are or make the changes we want to make. Using the same thought process in our grows can be beneficial. I been growing nonstop 12 to 15 years. Every single grow I'm tweaking something, whether it's my feed, medium, lights....every harvest I'm almost sick to my stomach because I feel this could be better, that went wrong but every patient I talk to tells me " dude! This is the best bud around"
No matter what we here we are never good enough for ourselves. Try to accept it n use it as a tool.
Your not to far into your grow experience yet and you are producing very nice buds that are helping someone you love!
Click to expand...

thanks, i appreciate the encouragement.

at this point i'm feeling like with my modest grow setup (one 315w light in a 3x5 tent), this is pretty much as good as it's gonna get. i use MC and do my best to keep the ph between 6.0-6.3, so probably without upgrading and adding more equipment this is about as good as it's gonna get.

there's also the strain thing, like you said. some strains are fluffier...some are tighter...some sparkle with crystals and are sticky, and others not so much.

i'd really like to grow compact, fuzzy buds that sparkle, but unless i'm doing something very wrong, i'm guessing a lot has to do with strains. i also grow autos, so i'm limited by the timeframe too...they're only gonna get so big and so good within 90 days.

thanks for the info.

if you have any suggestions about how i can get my bud to grow more like yours, i'd really love to hear them. there's always more to learn, and i'd like to do the best i can.

<3 misty
 
Unfortunately I'm really not experienced with autos, I've only grown a few freebies outdoors. Theres a few growers that are absolutely killing it with autos, cant think off the top of my head who. Check out plant of the month contests, theres always some stunning autos each month. Maybe try some strains that are proven here on 420.
Also I'm a soil grower, not to familiar with coco.
 
Stoned ape said:
I think yours buds look nice missty. But I got admit I love a bit of bud porn. Gives us something to aspire to and just looks awesome. But I need to keep in mind that's cannabis cup level stuff.
Click to expand...

thanks...i know they won't win any competitions, but...i try to do the best i can.

sometimes i wonder if i'm leaving the buds on the stem too long, and they're starting to dry out or the light is scorching or drying them before i even chop.

people say to give the buds that extra week or two because the buds dense up a lot during that time...but by then, my leaves start looking dry and crispy and the buds seem to lose a lot of their stickiness and aroma.

another prob is, even after 3-4 weeks in the jar, the buds tend to be kind of brittle. they drop a lot of bits and pieces off them when i touch them. i don't get it...i hang dry them for 4-5 days in a 65 degree room, fan on low, about 50% humidity, i open the jars for 5-10 mins each day for 2 weeks, i keep the hygrometers in there so i know the jars are about 50-60% humidity inside...and the buds still turn out dry and brittle.

sigh :confused:

right now i'm growing a little Tonic Ryder plant. i was thinking about cutting it when about 80% of the hairs are orange, just to see what happens. usually i wait until all the hairs are orange and the leaves start yellowing...but again, that's when the buds seem to lose their aroma and stickiness. i feel like i might be leaving the buds on the plant too long.

meh, idk. i feel like i'm missing something essential, but at this point i just don't know.

anyway. thanks for listening.

<3 misty
 
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