getting tighter buds?

[magic]

hello all - looking for a quit bit of advice from you more experienced growers of the goodness. I'm finishing up round 2 and remembering that round 1 was a more "light and airy" bud than I was hoping for, and I'm not sure what I did wrong, or what I could do differently this time to tighten up the nugs.

After chopping down round 1 I hung them upside down for 7-14 days (depending on when the stems were dry and would break) in a dark room that had a fan blowing. From the drying rack the nugs went to glass mason jar containers, also not exposed to much light. During the first week in the jars I opened them twice a day to release moisture. During the 2nd week in the jars I opeend them once a day. I let them cure in the jars for over a month before I started to hit up the stash and was happy with the taste and potency... but like I said, could have been a LOT tighter.

thank you in advance for any info.

 

[Brick Top]

What is your grow lighting?

 

[Mocha Rocha]

Light has a lot to do with it. If you have noticed the buds nearest the top of the plant closest to the light are the biggest and denses. The bud below in which do not recieve as much light will be loose. Usually the stronger the light the better.

 

[FCSoldier]

are you growing sativa or indica? Indoor or outdoor?

 

[magic]

cali orange indoors under (6) 4' T5HO... height restrictions in the grow room pose too high of a risk of using HPS (I could never get them far enough from the tops even with LST)

 

[Brick Top]

cali orange indoors under (6) 4' T5HO... height restrictions in the grow room pose too high of a risk of using HPS (I could never get them far enough from the tops even with LST)

That explains your fluffy buds. It is not due to how pot is dried or cured. You cannot take a fluffy bud and make it dense by drying or curing it in some way or another and you cannot take a dense bud and make it fluffy by drying and curing it some way or another.

Those things are determined largely by light and some due to genetics.

If you want hard dense buds find a way to dramatically increase your lighting. While I detest CFL’s you may want to add a number of them spreading them around and the higher the wattage the better.

 

[jsgrwn]

see t5 multi bulb setups give off a lot of heat for the amount of light they produce. with mediocre lights and a possible temp problem, fluffy buds are likely.

 

[malbulja]

While I detest CFL’s you may want to add a number of them spreading them around and the higher the wattage the better.

Why do you detest CFLs? If you use them right, they produce amazing results. No need for an HPS if you're growing a small crop in a small space. Use the right tool for the job; and HPS is not always the right tool for the job.

 

[magic]

love all the responses... thank you everyone.

 

[diesal71]

My friend and I bothe grow Diesel and AK 47 his bud are always huge and fluffy and mine are always super tight and dense as hell. The only difference of our rooms is temp. My room is around 75 deg. When I first started I used 2 T5s and he had HPS and I still had very dense bud.

 

[chefjdogg]

from one 20 yr smoker to another. Down in here cali we see dense buds we walk away! We like the fluffy SUPER crystally buds where you can pinch down to the stems. Seems that if you want some dense buds just CO2 like half the growers out here do. All the buds get so dense you cant even smoke em properly. But yeah lighting has a huge part in it, as well as the strain lineage. I know people who vacuum seal their cured nugs to make them dense. makes me wanna shoot myself. good luck and keep growing!

 

[magic]

... good luck and keep growing!

I'm a lifer now for producing my own. Thanks for all the advice

 

[jsgrwn]

from one 20 yr smoker to another. Down in here cali we see dense buds we walk away! We like the fluffy SUPER crystally buds where you can pinch down to the stems. Seems that if you want some dense buds just CO2 like half the growers out here do. All the buds get so dense you cant even smoke em properly. But yeah lighting has a huge part in it, as well as the strain lineage. I know people who vacuum seal their cured nugs to make them dense. makes me wanna shoot myself. good luck and keep growing!

i dont know what this "we" stuff is all about. i am in cali and so is almost everyone i know...and the consensus is-dense buds are better, they produce a lot more smoke per plant and when properly broken up, smoke great. also, this is the way they are supposed to be. it is a rare occasion when an outdoor plant produces fluffy buds. i dont know one grower (for themselves or otherwise) that likes fluffy bud. jus my 2 cents. late

 

[by1969]

My friend and I bothe grow Diesel and AK 47 his bud are always huge and fluffy and mine are always super tight and dense as hell. The only difference of our rooms is temp. My room is around 75 deg. When I first started I used 2 T5s and he had HPS and I still had very dense bud.

what temp was your buddy's room?

 

[diesal71]

his room was around 85 - 90

 

[aladdin2685]

my first grow was with a 600 hps that i borrowed from a friend. my second grow was only with cfl's (that is all i had). with cfl's every single nug was hard as hell. maybe it was because i had those cfl's 1.5 inches away from plant. with the 600 hps i just topped all 6 of my plants and thay all became 3 footers, but like said earler the colas and all nugs on top recieving that intense light are the most dense. lower buds could be really airy. my third grow i went ahead and went with the digital 250 hps and lst all 3 of my special kush plants and my light is 4 inches away from all my plants. top and bottom. this way i should pull about the same as when i used the 600 hps.

 

[notoriousb]

i dont know what this "we" stuff is all about. i am in cali and so is almost everyone i know...and the consensus is-dense buds are better, they produce a lot more smoke per plant and when properly broken up, smoke great. also, this is the way they are supposed to be. it is a rare occasion when an outdoor plant produces fluffy buds. i dont know one grower (for themselves or otherwise) that likes fluffy bud. jus my 2 cents. late

I say fuck the fluffy, you can keep all that to yourself.
I'm in Cal myself and have never been impressed with fluffy nug compared to rocky, solid nugs.

Also, I've read that molasses helps dense up your nugs quite noticably so I'm trying that on mine this season

 

[Boneman]

I took some fluffy bud and put into a baggie and under my mattress. After sleeping on it for a few days, it got all compacted and mashed together. I dont advise doing that though

Definately intense lighting and a product called "gravity" from Humboldt County's Own. That'll give you some tight buds for sure.

 

[BigBudBalls]

bight lights & cool temps = tighter buds

 

[Greyskull]

Why do you detest CFLs? If you use them right, they produce amazing results.

you are way way way stretching the bounds or reality there.... cfls will produce accepteble results for the self producing small timer - NO ONE WILL WANT TO BUY THAT SHIT THOUGH AND EVEN IF THEY DID THERE WOULDN'T BE ENOUGH OF IT TO SELL

Light intensity, proper feeding & environment, and growing ability will improve your density, but only if the plant your are growing is capable of becomeing dense. You can take a girl out of the trailer park but you cannot take the trailer park out of the girl.....