Hmmmmmm lets put this picture into the light , no pun intended .. Nobody has pointed out that the lights being used are combined , therefore creating more heat than needed and hence the stringy buds .. Just a simple 175 Halide alone in a 3x3 would create enough heat to put one in the red zone .. Time for the Op or there quoted imaginary friend to stop playing with Home Depot type lights
Reputable Breeders and strains ? Might want to reconsider this as well
From my understanding of what the op posted, he said his buds/colas were fine until they were dried, he is basically saying his big
colas shrunk lol this is a genetic thing
although without pictures we cant be totally sure what the issue is
i agree with what you are saying about heat, too much heat near the colas with some more sensitive strains can cause them to start growing leafy
almost like they are re-vegging stretching with more steam growth
other strains can take a fair amount of heat with no issues
not sure what the correct terms are, but there are different types of density so to speak
some plants can make larger floral clusters, or colas, but the buds that make up these colas are spongy because the calyx themselves are not hard, or
do not pack themselves in so tightly this is typical with skunk dominated strains, although some skunk hybrids can make some nice hard buds they still do
not compare to afghan / kush
1 oz of a typical skunk strain can look almost 2x the size of a good dense kush or haze strain
other strains such as haze strains can make very large calyx that are hard but they do not always form into large floral clusters or colas
again other strains can make tiny little calyx but they pack them in so tightly close together that they form very dense buds
i found NL to be like this
so i think the clue to density is to look beyond the colas, to the individual flower structure of a single bud and how it packs in the calyx that it consists of
this plant below is a good example she was pretty big yielded just over 10 oz it made many colas as wide as a 2L soda bottle
although it yielded well, once the bud dried it was what i would call spongy, its pretty much a commercial quality skunk heavy cross
peace