Rock-Hard and Fluffy buds

Bigbud

Well-Known Member
Can anyone explain to me what causes bud to turn out light-airy and fluffy?

Ive had 4 plants growing in my closet 2 of which turned out compact and hard and the other 2 allthough getting the same feed/water and light turned out fluffy.

How can I stop this from happening next time ? and get every plant/bud to be compact

I still have the 2 of them growing in the hope they may harden up but I cant see that happening and what with the trics turning ambar they dont have long left to go

So what was the cause of this ?
 

hearmenow

Well-Known Member
Sounds like it could be genetics, in your case, if the plants were raised under same conditions. Are these all the same strain? From what I know, the primary cause of airy buds is inadequate lighting. If your lights are too weak, you'll get those buds. What lights are you growing under, CFLs or HID?
 

Bigbud

Well-Known Member
400w hid for veg and flower, set no more at anytime then 12-18" from the top of the plants.

4 out of the 5 I grew where the same strain...


I wouldnt have thought it would be the light that caused this to happen ?
 

hearmenow

Well-Known Member
Yeah, that one got me too. Is the bulb new? Although a weak bulb should have resulted in all if not most of the buds being fluffy. So you had 4 plants (from your first post) and 2 came out fluffy. Was it all the buds on the plant or just the lower branches? Could be that your plant was bushy and would not allow the light to penetrate to the lower branches. What about your grow area? Are you lining with any reflective material like mylar? Could be that only 2 of the plants are getting the right amount of light and even though it may look like the other 2 are getting the same amount, they may not be. Of course, I'm sure you rotate the plants under the lights, so scratch that idea.

If all things were the same, I'd say it's genetics. Now if you told me all 4 were from clones, then I'd be totally stumped.
 

babygro

Well-Known Member
4 out of the 5 I grew where the same strain...

I wouldnt have thought it would be the light that caused this to happen ?
I agree with everything hearmenow said.

And to add, even different phenos of the same strain can form buds in different ways, I have the same problem myself at the moment with my Satori's - two are forming quite compact 'Indica' type buds whereas one is very Sativa like in the way it's forming it's buds - quite airy.

To demonstrate, I've attached two pics - one of the airy one and one of the compact one. Just to upset the apple cart somewhat, the one with the compact buds is the tall slim 'sativa' like one and the one with the airy buds is the more Indica type one!

I think the problem you have is very much one of 'phenotype'.
 

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hearmenow

Well-Known Member
Great pics, baby. The inconsistency is enough to drive a guy (or gal) crazy.

Btw baby, your inbox is full. Tried replying to you yesterday to say thanks.
 

stickyhits

Well-Known Member
yeah different phenos can almost seem like a different strain sometimes cause on my grow some are showing different colors, density, smells, indica-sativa ratio,density pretty much everything
 

Bigbud

Well-Known Member
hearmenow... i did start with 5 but took one out to increse the light the other 4 got each plant got topped bar one and the whole plant is airy not just the top or bottom.

as for mylar well see pic, and they all came frome seed.
 

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Bigbud

Well-Known Member
so babygro your saying that it could just be how the plant choose to grow

ok i can deal with that, i just thought it may be dwn to lacking of some type of food ?
 

hearmenow

Well-Known Member
It's genetics. Only thing that makes sense. Another advantage of growing from clones - you know what to expect (assuming you grew the mom and are familiar with the plant).
 

Bigbud

Well-Known Member
It's genetics. Only thing that makes sense. Another advantage of growing from clones - you know what to expect (assuming you grew the mom and are familiar with the plant).

I want to get to the point where i have a few good mothers and just take clones ...like you say least you know what you are getting each time.
 

babygro

Well-Known Member
I want to get to the point where i have a few good mothers and just take clones ...like you say least you know what you are getting each time.
Will be interesting to see how those 'hard' and 'airy' buds smoke, bet theres a significant difference between them.
 

Bigbud

Well-Known Member
Will be interesting to see how those 'hard' and 'airy' buds smoke, bet theres a significant difference between them.
[SIZE=+0]Bring on the testing :blsmoke: [/SIZE]


I have one allready cut and drying {the hard bud} as we speak was going to add this to my Journal but am waiting till i cut the rest first before i update it

at about 4oz wet im hopeing to to take 1-2 dry. but will get a proper stem snapping weight when the time comes


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babygro

Well-Known Member
at about 4oz wet im hopeing to to take 1-2 dry. but will get a proper stem snapping weight when the time comes
Sorry to burst your bubble, but if you're at 4 ozs wet, you'll lose about 60-70% of that in the drying process and about another 5-10% in the curing.

You're looking at about an oz or a little more dry I'm afraid
 

hearmenow

Well-Known Member
Baby, not sure about that. I think it depends on the type of buds he is drying. Let me explain. In my last grow, my buds were not nice, dense and thick like we all want. They were somewhere between airy and hard, if that makes sense. Remember I did a combo natural sunlight and CLF grow. When I weighed my "wet" buds, I think I came up with about 6 oz total between the 2 plants. After about 1 week drying and 4-5 weeks curing, I weighed again and I netted a little less than 4 oz. I'm thinking since the buds were not thick and dense, maybe they didn't carry as much H2O. Just my theory. Btw, those same airy buds gave us a wicked smoke. We still have 2 nice big buds curing that we are saving for a "special" smoke.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but if you're at 4 ozs wet, you'll lose about 60-70% of that in the drying process and about another 5-10% in the curing.

You're looking at about an oz or a little more dry I'm afraid
 

babygro

Well-Known Member
Baby, not sure about that. I think it depends on the type of buds he is drying. Let me explain. In my last grow, my buds were not nice, dense and thick like we all want. They were somewhere between airy and hard, if that makes sense. Remember I did a combo natural sunlight and CLF grow. When I weighed my "wet" buds, I think I came up with about 6 oz total between the 2 plants. After about 1 week drying and 4-5 weeks curing, I weighed again and I netted a little less than 4 oz. I'm thinking since the buds were not thick and dense, maybe they didn't carry as much H2O. Just my theory. Btw, those same airy buds gave us a wicked smoke. We still have 2 nice big buds curing that we are saving for a "special" smoke.
Well I can't comment on what happened in your instance, but all plant parts regardless of whether they're compact or airy are composed of 80-90% water. In the drying and curing process they will lose at least 75% of that water volume.

All I can surmise is that your buds wern't dried or cured for long enough.

I do find it hard to understand how you managed to get 4 ozs dry from 6 ozs wet, that's a water loss of only about 35%.
 

hearmenow

Well-Known Member
I know. I was expecting to net somewhere around 2oz. I took and posted pics of the weighing before and after curing. (See my journal). And I'm pretty sure they dried thoroughly. Go figure.....
 

Sir Psycho Sexy

Well-Known Member
I agree that it was probably genetics. The only other thing i can think of is that the plants with dense buds happened to be getting more co2 b/c of the way ventilation was set up.

what kind of seeds were they?
 

Lucius Vorenus

Well-Known Member
Its genetics. I just ran God Bud and Pre 98 bubba side by side and the God Bud was fairly airy and the Bubba was like rocks. It's definitely genetics.

That being said, if you use CFLs and don't have much light penetration this is also very common ive found.
 
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